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Celeste · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:02 pm Post subject:

When I teach elementary school, this rarely happens, but when it does I take David's approach. I grab the offenders hand, put my face eye to eye with him and say in a serious tone "Da-me" If the student is still grinning after this, I continue holding onto his hand and lead him to the homeroom teacher or in some cases to the vice principal. Once one student at a school has caught hell for doing it, no other student at that school tries it. The kids do it because they think it is going to be funny. If you react with shock or try and laugh it off embarrassedly, then it is funny and they will do it again. If it is severely UNFUNNY they will not.

cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

I agree with Celeste - a very sensible response there. I am not politically correct although my outlook on life and politics is progressive but I have no problem saying that because something is acceptable in one society doesn`t make it acceptable by generally agreed norms.

Where I live and work (back in Japan for a visit) is another Asian country and there is no custom of what is basically a sexually harassing action. Kids can and do sexually harass each other in any country and while their culpability is less than that of an older person or adult of course, the Japanese way of excusing anti-social behaviour that verges on the abnormal is to put on a smiling face and boys will be boys attitude is just another blinkered `We don`t want to know` attitude. Sorry Lyn, not slagging off your Japanese husband, but I have never heard of that action being so common among boys in other countries.

Japan has a lot of behaviour that verges on what western societies would recognise as homosexually-oriented to some extent. The Shinto celebration of maleness and males bonding in naked festivals etc. The separation of men and women - why there are separate hiking groups, separate this, separate that all the time was beyond me when I lived in Japan. There are many instances but I don`t have time to give examples.

That is why I think Japan and Korea have certain kinds of behaviour among children that is not only tolerated but even encouraged, fits into a sexual mode, all the while being denied as such. Even while there are no rights for gay people legally. The supposed `tolerance` in Japan and Korea of such people is not that at all - they are invisible by and large apart from being able to camp it up on comedy shows because that is `safe` and doesn`t show them in any way as normal people. If gays had the visibility in Japan they have in western society there would be gay bashings.

Obsession with putting your fingers in somebody`s anus and somehow it`s hilarious has no real equivalent in most other societies. Again, it`s a strange aspect of the bullying with a sexual angle that again, I think Japan has a lot more of than other societies. As such I don`t think it should be laughed about or tolerated. If Japanese adults such as teachers think it`s okay then there is nothing wrong with your perspective. I found a lot of weirdness in attitudes about what was acceptable for children to do to each other when I was in Japan. The blinkers are firmly on in many ways there.

I saw that a couple of times in a kindergarten I taught in. My response: to be nice but firm. Dame yo - stand over there. When the kid responsible wouldn`t do it, I would take them over there and they would be embarrassed that they had been singled out. If more than one kid was doing it, I would stop the class until they were listening. You don`t have to put up with bullying and clownish acting up with a sexual element to it in your classes in Japan. It`s up to you to set the standard as a teacher.

bshabu · Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Posts: 200 Location: Kumagaya

If you like video games and kancho........check this out

http://www.syberpunk.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?page=boonga

cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

By the way, I don`t live and work in Korea now.

I just mentioned Korea because I know from friends and from time I have spent there that the same male-female division occurs there too, and sexually oriented bullying/horseplay among boys is also seen as normal or as something to put the blinkers on and pretend it`s not happening or is normal as in Japan.

Somebody before asked me about where I live now - not being rude but I don`t want to say as I don`t want to give away my identity! Let`s just say that once you get away from Japan it`s a bit like The Matrix - you see just how peculiarity, anti-vitality, and a pervasive control pass for society and life in Japan. That`s my opinion, not everybody`s.

Not being rude to people in Japan for the long haul but I believe living in Japan long term requires a constant shutting out of unpleasant realities. On the surface of it Japanese society functions well - take the other pill and see it for what it is, and it can be downright disturbing. It will get more that way and it will manifest itself in more hostility to any non Japanese or un Japanese elements.

Big John Stud · Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 513

Kancho is fun! You put both your hands together with both index fingers sticking out. You then sneek up behind someone and ram you index fingers right into the person bottom. Watching the person jump is so funny!
We do it all the time at the school I work at in Japan. Sometimes when a student is bent over, I will sneak up and kancho him or her. Everyone laughs, because it is so funny!
Sometimes students get me too! Just the other day, one student put a 100 yen coin on the ground. When I walked by I bent over to pick the coin up, and another woman student kancho me real good. We all got a good laugh!

Bahcevan · Joined: 14 Jan 2005 Posts: 39

Your replies are great! It has been a lot of fun reading all these
personal accounts. I never would have dreamed...

I will definitely be on guard when I go to Japan! Surprised

spidey · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:12 am Post subject:

Yeah. I had it happen to me once last year. The student is still recovering. Twisted Evil

6810 · Joined: 16 Nov 2003 Posts: 309

Cafebleu,

While I generally agree that the kancho is a physical and even sexual violation (to an extent) I don't think this kind of pseudo-sexual "horseplay is limited or peculiar to the youth caught up in the Japanese matrix (a concept I would love you to elaborate more on... it got me thinking).

Meanwhile, a list of "kancho" like horseplay from my time as an elementary/high school student...

Horsie - a hard slap to usually the inner thigh. Leaves a burning red imprint of the hand.

Noogie - Rubbing one's knuckles on the head of an "inferior".

Crowpeck - a well aimed raised knuckle "punch" to the head/crown of the victim.

Cauliflower Ears - roughly rubbing the opponents ears until the become reddened and misshapen.

Cork/Dead-arm/dead-leg - Raised knuckle punch to the sinewey bits in an arm or leg resulting in a painful deadness of the limb.

Ring Sting - a wrist flicked hand to the buttocks of the opponent. Leaves a lingering "sting".

Bert - As above but delivered to the p.enis (helmet) or balls. Opponent can be clothed.

Salty - Spit in the hand and wipe it across the face of the enemy.

Onion - As above but with under-arm sweat.

Ballsweat - As above but with, well... ahem.

Chocolate - As above, using sweat from - I'll let you figure it out.

Wedgie - we all know what this one is...

Nipple-cripple/Purple-nurple etc...

any I've left off the list, let me know!

Perhaps the only disturbing factor with the kancho is that it is universally practiced.

And perhaps THE thing that is wrong with it is that kids will try it out on the foreign teacher. This is because the foreigner is an outsider and for no other reason. If it happens repeatedly, you deserve it - ya just gotta give the little mongrels what for and it never happens again!

spidey · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:30 am Post subject:

How about the "Wet Willy?"... Mad

...licking your finger and then sticking it in someone's ear. It rates pretty high up there in the "gross me out" category.

S

6810 · Joined: 16 Nov 2003 Posts: 309

aww man... how could I forget!

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

6810, I am glad I didn't grow up in your neighbourhood. Must have been a tough upbringing.

Big John Stud · Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 513

6810 you reminded me of how cruel kids can be!
The kids kancho foreign teachers, because they think it is a joke. They often think of an ALT as a big friend.

You are right! Come down hard the first time it happens and no one will even think of kancho you again.

p.s. I hope everyone knows the above post is a joke.

6810 · Joined: 16 Nov 2003 Posts: 309

Big J you don't even know the half of it - regional beef producing Australia with me as the eldest of a band of brothers!

See, what's disappointing about the kancho is that it's so stale. I mean, surely, aside from the odd ritualistic pre-ample to puncture, couldn't these kids be a bit more creative.

Oh, in the case of elementary school, I stand by telling the kids that kancho doesn't fly with foreigners, that it's dirty, hentai etc (who cares if it's a lie, I don't have the time to hunt down all my potential enemies... better to nip it in the bud!)...