Job Discussion Forums

[Buck Turgidson]

Ah, yes. American hating. Feels good doesn't it?

And if Bush is a moron, what does that make his b*tch Tony Blair?

[kamome]

yawn.

[JimDunlop2]

Whoohoo!!! <chant> I started a flame war! I started a flame war! </chant>

Interesting to note, the way this thread degenerated into a pi$$ing contest between Americans and Europeans....

But thanks anyway to all those that gave some insight into the topic... It has given me some stuff to think about.

Interesting links, Glenski..... I have yet to follow most of them... But I will very soon!

[Lynn]

[JimDunlop2]

[PAULH]

[quote="Lynn"][quote="JimDunlop2"]
1. How many prefectures does Japan have? 48
2. What is the population of Japan? DON'T KNOW about 127 million
3. What is the population of <your city>? (some knew) DON'T KNOW
4. What is the population of Tokyo? DON'T KNOW
5. What are the capital cities of the following countries: U.S.A.; Washington DC
U.K. London
CanadaOttowa
AustraliaCanberra
New Zealand? Aukland no, Wellington
6. How many states does the United States have? 50
7. What is one of the official languages of South Africa? English, Swahili, Afrikans (I think NelsonMandelas native dialect is Xoxa)
8. Who is Nelson Mandella? South African president No, former President.
9. When was the Edo Period? before Meiji?
10. When did the Tokugawa shogunate begin/end? 1192
11. Who is credited with ending the Warring States period? DON'T KNOW
12. Who was William Adams? 3rd US president?
13. Who was Commodore Perry? The Captain of the black ships that first came in Japan and demanded isolation to end
14. When did Japan open its doors to foreigners? After arrival of Perry.
15. When did the French Revolution begin? 1786?
16. When did Napoleon Bonaparte live? 18th century until about 1802.
17. Who was Vladimir Lenin? Russian leader
18. Where do polar bears live? Artic Circle
19. Name one Japanese newspaper that publishes in English? Asahi
20. What was the relationship between the U.S.A. and Japan prior to 1945? what kind of answer were you expecting?

[PAULH]

[quote="Lynn"][quote="JimDunlop2"]
1. How many prefectures does Japan have? 48
2. What is the population of Japan? DON'T KNOW about 127 million
3. What is the population of <your city>? (some knew) DON'T KNOW
4. What is the population of Tokyo? DON'T KNOW
5. What are the capital cities of the following countries: U.S.A.; Washington DC
U.K. London
CanadaOttowa
AustraliaCanberra
New Zealand? Aukland no, Wellington
6. How many states does the United States have? 50
7. What is one of the official languages of South Africa? English, Swahili, Afrikans (I think NelsonMandelas native dialect is Xoxa)
8. Who is Nelson Mandella? South African president No, former President.
9. When was the Edo Period? before Meiji?
10. When did the Tokugawa shogunate begin/end? 1192
11. Who is credited with ending the Warring States period? DON'T KNOW
12. Who was William Adams? 3rd US president?
13. Who was Commodore Perry? The Captain of the black ships that first came in Japan and demanded isolation to end
14. When did Japan open its doors to foreigners? After arrival of Perry.
15. When did the French Revolution begin? 1786?
16. When did Napoleon Bonaparte live? 18th century until about 1802.
17. Who was Vladimir Lenin? Russian leader
18. Where do polar bears live? Artic Circle
19. Name one Japanese newspaper that publishes in English? Asahi
20. What was the relationship between the U.S.A. and Japan prior to 1945? what kind of answer were you expecting?

[PAULH]

Jim

if you are looking for high school curriculums etc you could take a look at the Ministry of education website at http://www.mext.go.jp and click on the English link (has more to do with the high school education revisions than actual class content) though a quick websearch found links to the curriculums of Koyo senior high school and Nanzan Kokusai high school on the web.

Hope this helps

Paul

[shmooj]

here was something that blew me away

One student said to me once when I told her I was from the UK "Oh, you can't drink tap water in the UK can you as it's not safe. Japan is the only country in the world with safe tap water."

Needless to say, I followed this up.

Turns out that she had spent a year as a foreign student in her twenties (early 1970s) and had been warned against the water there before she had left by her university lecturers. She thus spent the entire year in the UK drinking bottled water and has lived with the false impression that Japan is the only country with clean water for decades.

Whose fault was this? It does bear some interesting reflection, if we can we get back to the original point of this thread.

Personally, the sempai/kohai system in japan means that kohai will never challenge what their sempai will tell them but simply drink it in. Seeing as how traditional views are usually held by elders, kohai will always be handed traditional views. That's my take on it anyway...

[Wolf]

Ooh, I want to play!


1. How many prefectures does Japan have? 47

2. What is the population of Japan? about 127 million

3. What is the population of <Nanchang (city in China)>? (some knew) Lonely Planet says 4 million. Everyone else says a lot less - I think the LP's figure is for the whole municipal region.

4. What is the population of Tokyo? 12 million residents give or take; a bigger daytime population

5. What are the capital cities of the following countries: U.S.A.; Washington DC
U.K. London
CanadaOttawa
AustraliaCanberra
New Zealand? Wellington

6. How many states does the United States have? 50

7. What is one of the official languages of South Africa? English, Afrikans

8. Who is Nelson Mandella? former South African president

9. When was the Edo Period? 1604 - 1868

10. When did the Tokugawa shogunate begin/end? 1604 - 1868 The Tokugawa shougunate was not the first shougunate. Ieyasu became Shougun in 1604 after defeating the Toyotomis at Sekigahara. Note that the Edo Period is when the Tokugawa Shougunate ruled Japan.

11. Who is credited with ending the Warring States period? Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu Tokugawa (in the Chubu region they credit all three, as that is where they come from.)

12. Who was William Adams? Okay, this one would send me scrambling to check.

13. Who was Commodore Perry? The Captain of the black ships that first came in Japan and demanded -on behalf of the US government- isolation to end

14. When did Japan open its doors to foreigners? At the end of the Edo era / beginning of the Meiji era. Britian's diplomatic corps arrived in 1868-69. One of their diplomats later wrote about about his time there.

15. When did the French Revolution begin? 1789 For the first one.

16. When did Napoleon Bonaparte live? 18th century until 1821

17. Who was Vladimir Lenin? Russian communist leader

18. Where do polar bears live? Northern Canada

19. Name one Japanese newspaper that publishes in English? Asahi

20. What was the relationship between the U.S.A. and Japan prior to 1945? War (1941 - 1945) The questioner was probably expecting the correct answer, no You'd be utterly amazed at how many people have "forgotten" this. I remember when "Pearl Harbour" came to theatres in Japan. None of my students had any clue why December 7, 1941 was important. So I would recommend just doing a wee bit of reading up on why this date was so important (to Americans and therefore to Hollywood) so that the icky part of the movie would at least not come as a shock.


This reminds me of a history board game that was part of my old school's "Used to" lesson. The players/students would go around a board and then they'd land on a time. Then they'd have to make a sentence about that time.

The times included : 1000 years ago
500 years ago
200 years ago
100 years ago
the 1950s
the 1960s
the 1970s
the 1980s
any time from British history
any time from Chinese history

I had students not give answers to any. Okay, so if you forget everything you learned in high school (where the cirruculum does cover this I've checked with several Japanese high school teachers) then you'd forget 1000, 500, 200, 100 and the foreign places. But "our" time? I mean, my students were alive for the 1970s and 1980s and they'd still take 10 minutes to think of a "used to" statement about these decades that they lived through. Their parents were alive for the 50s and 60s - and there are movies, music, anime, etc from these times that you can still see evidence of anywhere in Japan ( ie Godzilla - 1956. Tokyo Olympics/Shinkansen 1964. 1st Mr. Doughnut 1972. They had a big 30th anniversary promotional campaign and that's how I know.) - but it still was a problem.

Well, they memorized facts for a test way back in shcool and then prompty forgot what they learned. Also, I don't think that Japanese society promotes/condones going around and learning independantly. They are conditioned not to question, and very few do.

The truly disturbing aspect of it all is that some of my Japanese students asked me "why to Koreans and Chinese sometimes say bad things about Japan?"

[Capergirl]

Oh come on, people...Ottawa is spelled with an a!

[Wolf]

[Steiner]

[Capergirl]

[Brooks]

the book Shogun is about Will Adams.
No he was not the third president of the USA. That was Thomas Jefferson. John Adams was the second president.

Will Adams I think got shipwrecked in Kyushu, was one of several survivors. He stayed in Japan, became the one and only gaijin samurai, and lived in Izu (Shimoda I think). Izu Hanto is in Shizuoka, not far from Kanagawa ken. He even acted as an ambassador. I think he went to the Philippines representing Japan. He was good at building ships.
He died in 1620

I think it was the shogun Ieyasu who liked him and made him a samurai but his son didn`t like him so Adams was marginalized.