In Japan today, daigakuinsei (graduate students?) are like European univ. students what you described.Originally Posted by Maciamo
And I don't think 100% of European univ. students choose a subject they like, even without clear prospect of employment. Do you know Florent Dabadie? In his book he wrote:"I wanted to major in Korean, but my father strongly opposed it because of the future employment, so I majored in Japanese at パリ東洋学院日本語学科".
Their must be a difference in greater or lesser degrees, but I hesitate to call it "one of the biggest cultural rift".
In these days many middle aged male commit suicide for money, but students? Teenagers easily can find a job for survive. What they hardly find are honorable, meaningful jobs for themselves. In such cases, should we say he died for money?In Japan, some students commit suicide not because they feel more stupid than the rest, but because they are afraid about their future employment. Money is a major daily concern in Japan (not honor, that was a long time ago !).
I half agree with you. "socialing and learning to interact with people" but only with promising kids in famous private or national schools (not with ordinary kids in public schools) is the main reason for "ojuken" parents. Not the university degree itself. You know universities like Meiji, Hosei, Rikkyo, Gakusyuin, Aoyama-gakuin, Musashi, Seikei... etc are ranked not so high and their university degrees mean almost nothing comparing to Todai, Kyoto, Keio, Waseda, Hitotsubashi...etc. To be an elementary or (junior) high school student of them is by far important for parents than to get a university degree from their univ. category.I guess that most Japanese would agree that if one could buy their university degree when they were children, they just wouldn't bother going to school and uni, except for socialing and learning to interact with people. It already kind of happens with the expensive private schools which one enters from kindergarten and lead you directly to university ("elevator system", as they call it). This is just paying for one's degree, as the failure rate is almost inexistant. In contrast, education is free in Europe because everybody should have equal opportunities to learn regargless of their social background.
They believe their kids will grow up to be a intelligent person among intelligent friends, or to be a successful adult with the help of successful friends. So, they want their kids to keep getting touch with his/her friends in school. "they just wouldn't bother going to school and uni" is perfectly off the mark imo.
I feel Japanese education is not so good both about personal development and about practical training. There is much room for improvement.Anyway, Japanese school teaches more about how to live in harmony with the rest of the group and social manners than how to reason logically, analyze ideas or be creative.
In short, European education is idealistic and care about personal development and how to think well. Japanese education is practical (job-oriented), and care about social developement and how to interact harmoniously with people in society.
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