For non-Japanese members, did you go to a Japanese university? For Japanese members, did you go to an overseas university? How was your experience?

[henrymidfields]

I was (and still technically am) a Japanese citizen living in Australia, who took the Australian Year 11-12, and went to an Australian university. My parents were very supportive of my decision to go to university in Australia, and even today, I think it was the right choice for me. In saying this, however, I also am curious about the Japanese university system, as, unlike my parents, who had experience with the Japanese university system, I was out of that system for the entirety of my uni studies.

My impression was that while the entry to my former university turned out to be almost comically easy (*), the HSC/VCE/SACE's TER/entry score (which is probably the Australian equivalent to the Japanese hensachi score) just did not indicate how well will I go through my university degree. In other words, it was (at that time) unimaginably difficult (and time-consuming) to get through, which resulted in nearly half of my year group drop out after their first year. While some of the classes were surprisingly passive, we nevertheless still had to do our own thinking and speaking, and in the more active classes, I remember we all had a lively (as in casual, yet informed) chat/discussion about whatever we were studying in. I wasn't exactly fond of the sheer difficulty and the lack of any free time whatsoever we had to deal with from the very get go, but at least it was a system that made sense in its intent.

My parents, on the other hand, told me that the Japanese system would involve more passive learning, partially due to the culture, and also due to how almost comically easy the actual studies in general are compared to the examination hell that comes before. Though there are exceptions to the latter part of the sentence - sciences-based faculties are considered to be harder ones, and law and medicine would probably be just as hard in a Japanese university as in an Australian one. In saying this, however, I've never been to a university in Japan, so I have no first-hand idea.

So I want to ask you the following questions...

• For those (particularly non-Japanese members of this community) who studied at a Japanese university, how was your learning experience?
• And for those (particularly Japanese members here) who studied at an overseas one, similarly, how was your learning experience?
• And for those who did both, how were they in comparison?

(*) - It was the University of Melbourne, which - in terms of domestic ranking - would be the Australian equivalent to University of Kyoto or Hitotsubashi, or one of the Ivy Leagues that is not Harvard.

[Shoblongoo]

On 6/9/2019 at 5:19 AM, henrymidfields said:

for those who did both, how were they in comparison?

...so my wife grew up and went to primary school + university in Taiwan (which is heavily influenced by and culturally very similar to the Japanese system)

Then she came to America afor her master's degree.

And now she teaches in an American High Schools.

We've talked about the two systems and the differences between them, and she has some rather interesting thoughts on the matter. This is what she's noticed from her experience in both systems:
____________

By almost every conceivable metric, the Asian school system is superior. In graduates more students at lower costs with higher average proficiency in science, math, technology, and language arts.

HOWEVER 

1) The American system operates on more individualistic principles, while the Asian system operates on more collectivist principals. Whereas the Asian system focuses on getting everyone (or as close to everyone as possible) up to acceptable performance levels, the American system focuses on identifying its best and brightest for "advanced placement." And dedicates its best resources to giving them the most comprehensive, cutting-edge education while everyone else just gets showered with lowered expectations and pushed through the system regardless of whether or not they learn anything.

2) Consequently, the Asian system produces a more consistent output of high achievers. With exceptionally high achievers and exceptionally low achievers in the distribution of a standard bell curve:




 

Whereas the American education system produces:




...the exact opposite...a REVERSE bell curve...

A concentration of exceptionally high achievers
A concentration of exceptionally low achievers
And a massive achievement gap between the two

(Therein lies the root of so many of America's social problems)

3) The Asian education system educates and measures success purely by mechanical memorization + recitation of facts and formulas. Every question has an objectively right answer and objectively wrong answers; there are no subjective essay topics. Your teacher is not looking for you to express individual thoughts and opinions. Conformity is a virtue. Questioning purportedly authoritative facts and assumptions is a vice. You learn facts and figures; you don't learn critical thinking.

Like an Asian biology test will have you memorizing vocabulary. Identifying biological systems and processes. Identifying which organs belong to which system. Identifying which system does which job. And using the memorized vocabulary to explain how the systems works.

An Asian biology test will never, ever, ever ask a question like: Scientist A says the experiment supports conclusion #1. Scientist B says the experiment supports conclusion #2. Which scientist do you agree with and why? How could the methodology of the experiment be improved, and what new experiments could be performed to reach a more definitive conclusion?

4) Consequently, the HIGHEST achievers in the American education system--while comparatively few in number compared to the volume of HIGH achievers in the Asian system--are educated to possess a penchant for questioning the status-quo of conventional thinking and pushing the envelope that graduates of the Asian system are not trained to possess.

______

She summarizes her observations as follows: "Asian education produces millions of really good coders and software engineers. But they don't revolutionize the industry; they just write software. American education produces Trump supporters and inner city ghettos. But it also produces Bill Gates and Steve Jobs."

...something to think about...