It is amazing the diversity we have in our schools, you see students of all races and colours. In Japan all students are dressed the same and forced to have the same hair colour. The students may look much the same but they are far from the robots the media has portrayed them as. Friendly students, quite students, the class clown can be found in both Japanese and Canadian schools. What this means is that individuality is not necessarily reflected by looking different.
Classes are mostly in lecture form.
The teacher talk and students take note. There really isn t too much input or questions from students. Japanese society and Japanese schools, reflecting society as do our schools, runs in a group mentality. This is why when I ask a simple English question many students are stunned and ask a friend for confirmation. Individual work isn t used very much in Japanese schools, just like group work in our schools plays only a small part of our school life.