We’ve all had that one teacher who just wouldn’t give us a break while in his or her class; some of which are so strict that we can’t even use a laptop to take notes. While in others, we can even get away with texting our friends in class. but how do you suppose that compares to a classroom on the other side of the world?
During my stay in Japan, I admittedly had, at times, more than my fair share of culture shock. But one of the things that stood out the most, simply for the fact that I was there every day, was how different the classrooms themselves were.
Now when you think about classrooms and teachers in Japan, the first thing that may come to mind is that the classrooms are so strict that you can’t do anything, and you probably would be right.
I often found that in my intermediate Japanese class, the teacher was very old school in her teaching methods. For starters, she had a very particular habit of talking to we students as though we were younger than our actual ages. What I mean by this is, while we were all young adults who used Japanese all the time, we were spoken to in a manner that was intentionally dumbed down as though we were children that understood little to no Japanese.
I could turn this into a miniature rant, and I have before. but while it may have been annoying at times, it became apparent that this was just the way that older teachers communicated with their students.
Another thing about the Japanese instructors I had while was I was abroad was their views on tardiness. Whenever we were late by more than 10 minutes, the class would either be asked to stay late so we could explain themselves to the teacher or, get this, we would receive an email or phone call if a student had been absent altogether. Now that’s what I call dedication.
Compared to my Japanese class, my other, non-Japanese classes offered students more freedom and allowed technology, such as an iPad, for the sake of taking notes.
To me, it honestly felt like the atmosphere of the teachers who taught more general classes, like history or cinema, were more relaxed than most I have met. That is, as long as you remained respectful to the teacher and the class itself. It was almost as if the instructors and their English translators cared more about the students understanding their broken English rather than the lessons they had prepared.
Could what I experienced at Seinan Gakuin University’s international program be a special case? Honestly, I believe that what I experienced had more to do with the staff and instructors being more accustomed to different cultures and taking a casual approach to fit our needs as students from across the globe.
