学校の生活その4：授業 (がっこうのせいかつその4：じゅぎょう - gakkou no seikatsu sono yon: jyugyou) - School Lifestyle 4: Classes

Unfortunately, school is more than just food, school events and club activities; the students do occasionally have to attend 授業. That's not to say it isn't interesting - if you do find yourself in a Japanese 教室 (きょうしつ - kyoushitsu - classroom), you'll probably find it's quite a novel experience. From the structure and the day to day rituals all the way to the final destination, 授業 is quite a different beast to what we're used to at home. Given that a standard classroom has 40 students squeezed into it, this is probably born of necessity!

Let's find ourselves a desk and see firsthand.

The first thing that strikes you as you walk in to a Japanese 教室 is that the desks are separated, arranged neatly in rows and all facing the front of the room. Rather than sitting in groups or longer tables like at home, Japanese students sit individually which is reflected in the classroom activities. Typically, 授業 are more teacher-centred and lecture-style than what we're used to, particularly in reading and writing focused classes.  英語 (えいご - eigo - English) instruction is often different to a typical class; it's broadly divided into "Reading", "Writing" and "Oral Communication (or "OC")" 授業. OC in particular is often split into smaller groups of 20 students and makes more use of discussion, group work and interactive activities. This can be a shock for many students who are used to sitting in silence! For the most part, the aim is to get the students to open up, learn to communicate in unfamiliar situations and develop a positive attitude to 英語 rather than abject terror.

If we can say that the ideal student in Australia is an enthusiastic, active participant who questions and challenges the material, in some ways the opposite could be said of his or her Japanese counterpart. Here, the focus seems to be staying in step with the other students (or at least pretending to) and not making a spectacle of yourself. It's become a cliche, but the phrase "出る杭は打たれる" (でるくいはうたれる - deru kui ha utareru) definitely applies. It means "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" - in other words, conform and keep your head down. Given that, the students here don't volunteer much - I'm told by the teachers that it's the harmony of the group that's important to them, moreso than their individual achievements. In extreme cases, students may even pretend they don't understand or deliberately make mistakes to avoid being seen as showing off or standing out. In years gone by, there was a very good reason not to "stick up" - those who were considered "disobedient" were roundly punished. Corporal punishment is banned now, but some schools still have elements of this strict discipline policy, particularly in their sports clubs. The upside of this is that for the most part, the students are extremely well behaved and a class of 40 can easily last a full day without setting anything on fire; the downside is that interactive activities and groupwork can be like getting blood from a stone!

Some of the discipline might also come from 教室 rituals, such as standing to attention at the beginning and end of each 授業. In each case, the class representative will say "起立" (きりつ - kiritsu - stand up), then "礼" (れい - rei - "bow" or literally "express gratitude"); the students and teacher will then bow to one another. My coworkers aren't sure how far this goes back - one feels it's a fairly recent exercise in the discipline of "starting strong and finishing strong" rather than an old tradition. There also seems to be an emphasis on students taking on responsibility. For example, a student will be chosen each day as a helper to run messages around the school and assist in setting up the classroom; students are also divided into groups within their homerooms to dust, mop and scrub the school and 教室 at the end of each day. A lot of students eat their lunch in their homeroom and these classes compete with one another at school events like the culture festival - perhaps the discipline comes from the pride of working with your class and not wanting to let the others down.

The curriculum is similar to Australia in a lot of ways. 一年生 (いちねんせい - ichinensei - first year students), the equivalent of year ten students, study a set group of subjects while 二年生 (にねんせい - ninensei - second year students) and 三年生 (さんねんせい -sannensei - third year students) have some choice. While it depends on the particular school, a typical 高校生 (こうこうせい - koukousei - high school student) might study a combination of:

• 数学 (すうがく - suugaku - maths)
• 科学 (かがく - kagaku - science) such as 物理 (ぶつりがく - butsurigaku - physics), 化学 (かがく - kagaku - chemistry), 生物 (せいぶつがく - seibutsugaku - biology) and 自然科学 (しぜんかがく - shizenkagaku - natural science)
• 体育 (たいいく - taiiku - PE) and 衛生学 (えいせいがく - eiseigaku - health studies)
• 社会 (しゃかい - shakai - social studies) such as 歴史 (れきし - rekishi - history), 地理 (ちり - chiri - geography), 倫理 (りんり - rinri - ethics), 経済 (けいざい - keizai - economics) and 政治 (せいじ - seiji - politics)
• 美術 (びじゅつ - bijutsu - art)
• 音楽 (おんがく - ongaku - music)
• 情報 (じょうほう - jouhou - information technology)
• 書道 (しょどう - shodou - calligraphy) and
• 家庭 (かてい - katei - home economics), which is a compulsory subject for all students at some schools.

What we would call "English" is called "Literature" in Japan - usually split into "modern" and "classic" Japanese. In both cases they involve a lot of reading - depending on the subject it may be contemporary books and poetry or older texts like those from the 明治 (めいじ - Meiji) era (1868-1912). Apparently, students may even study Chinese writings in their classic literature class - because Chinese and Japanese share the 漢字 (かんじ - kanji) writing system, students can get the gist of their meaning.

In most cases, 授業 have a textbook approved by the Ministry of Education and because the exams are written to this, most teachers follow it quite closely. Those students aiming for 大学 (だいがく - daigaku - university) are generally taught to the University Entrance Exams, which emphasise Japanese literature, 数学 and 英語. The public 大学 like 東京大学 (とうきょうだいがく - toukyou daigaku - Tokyo University) are the most prestigious and require passing a nationwide exam, followed by another exam delivered by the individual 大学. The pressure for these exams is immense, particularly for the 三年生 and the stress spills over out of 授業 long into the night, into 塾 (じゅく - juku - cram school) and throughout the summer holidays. Japan is perhaps infamous for this and the image of a student coming home at midnight to start studying is definitely not made up; what's amazing is that they manage to keep smiling despite the breakneck pace. Japanese students, I salute your hard work and tenacity in 授業 and beyond - trying not to be hammered down is one thing, avoiding being run into the ground is quite another!