From: ecovingt@SDCC13.UCSD.EDU (Maiko Covington)
Subject: Re: Only ethnicity? (Was racism in Japan)
Reply-To: NIHONGO@mitvma.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 19:36:29 GMT

	Hmmm. A large part of the kikoku sijyou (returnee children)'s problem
is that they haven't been going to Japanese school while they were away (well,
a lot of them haven't). The first problem they have when trying to get back
into Japanese school when they return is that they haven't been studying under
the same curriculum. All public Japanese schools are standardized by the
Monbusyou (ministry of education) and so teach the same thing. They expect
everyone in a certain level to know exactly the same things. Now, say that a
kid has been studying science in an American elementary school. For biology
(well, the part of elementary science that studies living things) this child
might have studied the life of corn. In Japan, they often study about rice.
The kid is learning basically the same things in either country, but the kid
studying in the US is not going to know the details about rice. These details
just might show up on a test to get into the school though, and the kikoku
sijyou couldn't get in. This problem is being remedied a bit now since schools
(especially elementary schools) are realizing the troubles that kikoku sijyou
have and are giving them special tests.
	The next problem they have is more severe. If the child has been living
somewhere where there isn't a Japanese weekend school, or if the child's parents
didn't send the kid to one, the kid is going to be behind in Japanese reading
ability. Some children who have stayed out of Japan for many many years (like,
8 or so?) have even forgotten how to speak a lot of Japanese. Even if they
haven't, it is possible that their vocabularies are arrested at the place it
was in when they left Japan. Even if you speak Japanese at home, if you aren't
either reading lots of stuff or having academic discussions in Japanese, you
aren't going to pick up how to say things like "continental drift". Instead,
these children now know those words in English (or whatever other language)
 only.
	If the children have been going to weekend school, these problems aren't
so bad. They are speaking and reading the language at the weekend school, and
some of the weekend schools even teach the other subjects (like math and history
for example) out of the same textbooks used in Japan, so that the children will'
not fall behind. Still though, it is hard to do one week's worth of studying
in one day each week, and the children have to be doing their American
homework too. Many children who are away from Japan for long periods eventuallyl
quit going to weekend school or don't take it seriously because it is too
much trouble.
	The last and most interesting problem though is that because the
children haven't been living in Japan and going to Japanese school, they do not
have "Japanese common sense" (can't think up a good term). This is just little
attitudes toward life, and also little facts that natives of Japan know simply
because they are living there. Also there is socialization taught in schools,
whether directly or not. If a kid has been going to American school, that kid
is being socialized American. If the same kid was going to Japanese school,
the kid would be socialized Japanese and picking up some of that "Japanese
common sense". So, even if the kid can still speak and read Japanese on grade
level, sometimes you can still tell these kids apart.
	Some schools in Japan now are becoming sensitive to the problems faced
by returnees, and are offering them special catch up classes and such. Still,
for the higher grades (especially high school!) it is often too late because
(1) most Japanese high schools will absolutely NOT accept people into the 2nd
or 3rd grades directly as transfers - you have to start as itinensei, (2) the
entrance exams for high schools make no allowances for returnees mostly, and
(3) often the schools that will even accept returnees are not all that good
level so the kids have trouble later getting into university. For the
required education years (1-9th grade) you can get into a public school
because public schools have no exams (that's how *I* got in), but high schools
are like universities in the US - no matter if it calls itself "public" or not,
still no one is guaranteed to get in.
	Most of the returnees who come back when they are of high school age
decide not to go to Japanese schools. They either go to the international
schools (which are taught in English and mostly have an American curriculum)
or else they dispense with normal schooling altogether and go to cram school
to pass the high school equivalency test. Once they pass this test, they can
take the university examinations like anyone else.
	Going to international school can lead to some problems though.
Simply put, they don't teach Japanese there so the kid is not going to learn
to read! These children are Japanese citizens, so they will most likely end
up living in Japan (after all, they will have to get visas and stuff to go
anywhere else) but they can't read Japanese adequately. I would imagine it
is really hard for them to get jobs then. Also the international schools are
primarily for the children of foreigners living in Japan, so they still are
"socializing American". So, they will still be different.
	I do not know how this problem can be solved. I think that Japanese
schools need to realize that the numbers of kikoku sijyou are increasing and
perhaps set up special programs for them. Many elementary schools are doing this
already. Anyway, this is what I think is the source of some of the problems
that Japanese returning from abroad (the children) have to face.
	Sorry this post is so long!

	Maiko Covington		ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan