Education system of Japan

Education system in Japan is quite different from India.  From the childhood children are encouraged to do extracurricular activities together with their studies.  

Japanese people give more emphasis on practical knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge.

When I met my faculty mentor first time, he talked to me very nicely and politely, and introduced to me to all the lab mates. It was entirely new environment for me, all my lab mates were Japanese. But they helped me in all the possible way they can. We mostly used Google translator to communicate.

Firstly I thought that all my lab mates are researcher, but later I got to know about Japanese education system, which is totally research based. Each student whether he is doing bachelor or master’s , he or she has to do some research. Research is major part of their study. For example, in Ritsumeikan university, where I am doing my research , doing a masters (2 year course), is a 30 credit course, which breaks down as 16 credits for research and 14 credits for other courses.

I find it great that San- Sai (Teacher in Japanese) are very polite and helpful. In group discussions and lab meeting, you will find everyone equally involved, and you can’t tell who is teacher and who is student. Japanese teacher don’t spoon feed you with the content, but instead motivate you and guide you to get the task done and help the students to achieve the same.

Teachers in Japan give more emphasis to effort rather than work.  In my lab, all the students need to give presentation every week, what they have done in this week, what was the result, if nothing has been done, where the point of failure is?  It is absolutely fine if you have done nothing in the whole week, but there must be a good reason where you failed.

Once one of my lab mate didn’t completed his task, and when asked by San-Sai, he said that he couldn’t get time to finish his task, and the San-Sai said nothing. He instead said, “ Ok, try to finish it in next week.”  He didn’t even asked the reason why the student has not completed the work. This is the level of trust between a student and a teacher in Japan.

Japanese students are very hard working and dedicated towards work. I find it bit strange that even in the absence of San-Sai everyone keeps on doing their work silently without disturbing anyone else. In a lab of 20 people, I feel that I am sitting alone and studying. San- Sai comes to the lab just once or twice in day, else he stays in his cabin, but still everyone keeps on doing their own work .

There are many common places to study in college. Also there are areas where you can do peer study, where there are lots of projectors and white boards are kept, so you can study with your group.  Students actually use these places very nicely while studying with their group without disturbing other groups. Not even a single time I saw group of students just sitting idle there and chatting with friends.

Japanese students are always eager to learn new things, and never feel shy to tell others their weaknesses, and also they work on it to improve. When I get to know that my lab mates wants to learn English, I took permission from my San-Sai to daily teach my lab mates English. It was wonderful experience, as I also got to know many Japanese things. I used some Japanese app to translate Japanese to English and English to Japanese. My lab mates always supported me, and are the best students I can ever teach. They try their best to speak in English. We used to have small presentations in English, where students came with many interesting topics. I am thankful to my lab mates, because of them I am  learning lots of thing in Japan.

In each laboratory you will find cooking utensils, cooking stuffs, coffee machines and many equipments you can use it for your daily use. You can freely make, eat and drink anytime in labs. Even you can have your alcohols in refrigerator.

In Japan, it is absolutely fine if you sleep at your work place, it signifies that you are very hard working. In all most all the labs, there are beds and sofas, so that students can take rest there. My San-Sai once told me that “ I would be more happy if more students will sleep here”. It is bit strange but students stay there in labs whole night, eat there, sleep there. So labs are like second home for them.

I am thankful that I got such a wonderful chance to experience this and share this with you all.