Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The difference between Japanese Schools and American Schools

I was asked to present on American Culture for the oldest grades I teach to. This class was an elective course, so the student's abilities are a bit higher than a regular student in English. I thought I'd share my speech with you here, so you can get an idea. I left it as is, so you can see a 15 year old student's English abilities. Also, I do have Japanese followers of this blog, so they can understand it to! Of course, this is also reflective of MY Junior High School experience, which may not be accurate for ALL of America!

Japanese Junior High Schools and American Junior High Schools are a little different.

In Japan, everyday, there are 5 or 6 classes.
In America, everyday there are 8 or 9 classes.

In Japan, class is 45 or 50 minutes.
In America, class is 39 or 40 minutes.

In Japan, students must learn English.
In America, students can choose what language they want to study. Many students want to study Spanish. Secondly, many students study French. Other popular languages are German, Japanese, Chinese and Russian.

In Japan, students eat lunch in their classroom. Everyone must eat Kyushoku.
In America, students eat lunch in a cafeteria. I will tell you about this now. A cafeteria is a very big room. There are many, many tables. During lunch time, all the students go into the cafeteria. Some students bring lunch. Some students buy lunch. Teachers eat in another room. Teachers and students do not eat lunch together.

In Japan, students have cleaning time. Students clean the school.
In America, people have jobs to clean the school. These people get money.

In Japan, students must do club activities.
In America, not many students do club activities after school. Many students do club activities in High School, but not Junior High School.

In Japan, students come to school by bike.
In America, most students come to school by bus. But, some must walk or come by bike.

In Japan, students stay in the same classroom all day.
In America, students change classrooms. They have 3 minutes to go to their next class. Teachers stay in the same classroom all day.

In Japan, students keep their books, notebooks, bag, jacket, clothes in their classroom.
In America, in the school hallway, students have lockers. Students must leave their books, notebooks, jacket, and clothes in their locker. Between classes, students must go to their locker to get their next class's book.

In Japan, students must wear uniforms.
In America, students can wear what they want.

In Japan, students change grades in April.
In America, students change grades in August or September.

In Japan, Junior High School students are from 12 years old until 15 years old.
In America, Junior High School students are from 11 years old until 14 years old. If you lived in America, you would be in High School right now.

In Japan, summer vacation is for 5 weeks.
In America, summer vacation is for almost 3 months.
Winter vacation and Spring vacation are the same in Japan and America.


Anonymous said...

I absolutley love your speech! I have to do a project about a girl living in Japan and I have to talk about her regular everyday life which includes school. Thanks!

Anonymous said...


Anonymous said...

in some american schools there are uniforms.

and i've never had 8-9 classes a day XD... only five classes a day. starting at 9:00 we go until 3:20.

each class is approx 1 hour, switching classrooms we have 5 minutes... and our lunch is: 12:25-1:25

Anonymous said...

yeah thats pretty accurate

in my high school (me=american born and raised) there are 7 classes and school runs from 7:25 to 2:25

thanks for the blog, i'd been wanting to learn about the differences between american and japanese schools; that was very interesting :)

Anonymous said...

Of course it's not the same everywhere in America, but where I'm from, we have seven 45-50 minute classes from about 7:30am to 2:10pm. No one ever bikes to school. They either walk, ride the bus, or have their parents bring them. We have 5-6 minutes between classes. not everyone has a locker, only those who are willing to pay $3 for one. We can bring our bags, books, jackets, and pretty much anything else (as long as it's allowed in school, or course). For the most part we can wear what we want, but there is a dress code. Most of the time though, the students do not obey it and the majority of the teachers don't really care. At some schools uniforms are required, but that's usually just privte schools.

Jace said...

When I was in junoir high, that was pretty accurrate. My school board is kinda weird. One of my Junoir high years was served in the same building as the highschool. Classes were semestered, like college. We had hour or longer classes, and a double in the morning. Also, because our year is semestered, we had only four classes a day, and took our other four classes second semester.

Sara said...

Super excited to be revisiting my blog and seeing complete strangers responding. This is great :)

Anonymous said...

I am a Sophomore in high school (10th grade; sixteen).
In my school, we are on block schedule, similar to Jace's schooling experience, although, I have no clue what "doubling" is.
I personally prefer the four hour and a half classes I have a day. It:
A. Makes the day seem longer
B. Makes the semester seem longer
C. Is easier to concentrate on work, and get more stuff done; instead of having 8-9 classes with homework, I have a lot less.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sierra said...

I am a senior in high school (12th grade/fourth year/17yrs old)

This is pretty close to my school last year. This year though we moved to AB block schedule. A days we have periods 1,3,5, (7 if you have one). B days we have 2,4,6. Mondays we have all classes.
Classes are two hours except on Monday, they're 1 hour.

We must take a language for a year and though we may take any, the only language my school offers is Spanish and French. I took Spanish because almost everyone speaks Spanish here. If I had a choice I would have taken Japanese^^ Sounds cool and I just want to take it. Think I might take it in college but I'm still unsure.

Lunch is from 11:35-12:15 (Tuesday-Friday) 11:25-12:05 (MONDAY) Only about half the kids eat in the cafeteria. At my school, me and my friends stay in a teacher's classroom. Upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) tend to go off campus for lunch. I think only about half of our students go into the cafeteria. A big chunk of students don't eat lunch, or breakfast for that matter.

My school doesn't have lockers. We must break our backs to carry all of our books and backpacks. Our passing period is about 6 minutes.

Our summer break is only about 8 weeks, but we get a two week fall break in September/October and then we get the whole week of Thanksgiving off in addition to our winter and spring break.

Very few kids ride their bike. Most either walk or take the bus. Personally, I drive to scool. There is also a fair amount of kids who are dropped off.

There are not many club activities at my school. The clubs we do have meet at lunch. Sports are about the only thing we have that goes on after school.

I know this is old and my comment is out of order but I had fun comparing ^^

Anonymous said...

This Is So Cool :3 I Don't Have That Many Classes I Only Have 4 Classes And I Go To High School. Classes Are Longer Than In Junior High.