Job Discussion Forums

nomadder · Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2003 12:01 am Post subject: Bullies

I barely heard of this while in Japan but in such a homogeneous culture it had to be prominent. I knew of a student who quit while in JH. I knew there were pressures and those with mixed race kids are all too aware.

I was picked on by a girl who was after my sister who I stood up to in JH. She attacked my pompoms at hockey games, etc. It happens alot. What incidences do you know about? In Canada we all too often hear of the the bad stories where teenagers are even killed.

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

The Trench Coat Mafia?

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

I have heard of serious bullying issues in every place that I have lived. In Canada I was bullied for not fitting in. In Japan there are similar, if more bizzare stories. In China one need not look hard to find those who are different being bullied by those who are considered normal.

It's a fairly well entrenched problem that isn't going to end until kids are taught to accept people even if they are not like themselves.

nomadder · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:10 am Post subject:

Last year there was a JH boy who had moved to the city from the country and seemed like a great guy -into peer counselling, etc. who was bullied by a girl actually. He killed himself a few months before graduation.

unchi pants · Joined: 20 Dec 2003 Posts: 64

My personal party favourite bully story is that of little Noriyuki from Fukuoka ( I've changed his name to avoid any further humiliation ).

Anyway, little Noriyuki was born in Fukuoka but went to America at the age of about 2, due to his father being transferred there by his company. And so, little Noriyuki spent most of his childhood years in the USA. The family returned to Japan when he was about 15.

Of course when he did come back to Japan, he was no longer one of "them". He was an outsider .... kind of like a J-gaijin. And so, he deserved to be bullied, teased and victimized.

One day for school lunch, they were having spaghetti with "meat sauce". Of course, being Japan, everyone got exactly the same lunch ... except little Nori kun!! Nori kun's spaghetti had parmesan cheese on top. He wondered why... But then he thought, he was "very special" ... Afterall, he had lived in America!

Anyway, when he examined his lunch close up, he discovered that the parmesan cheese was actually chalk. The other kids had secretly grated some chalk and put it on his lunch.

How funny is that!!!!??

Anyway, little Nori kun cried himself to sleep every night after that until finally the parents decided to transfer him to an international school.

nomadder · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 3:17 pm Post subject:

The girl put him down and followed him around the mall. I think she was making him steal or getting money from him. Sorry the details are hazy.

And then there are the bully bosses. Had one at first job in Japan(she was Canadian) and not even that powerful but everyone listened to her commands and cringed at her rude comments and criticisms. It was always worse for the newest teacher. What always bugged me was that I should have stood up to her but it was my first time living abroad.

Somehow people have to change the power balance. It's strange to hear about so many girl bullies. Out west a girl was killed by a gang of girls. There have been a few killings of those of another race in Canada. In another case a boy was killed over cigarettes. It's often one group against another in the teen killings much like what's going on in the world now. Terrorists are just overgrown bullies.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I read somewhere (perhaps on another website) about Chinese school girls stripping one of their peers naked and parading her in public!

The suffer threshold of Chinese is ather low, so if you humiliate someone too hard that person might commit suicide. The girl didn't - but many kids actually do, too many, many more than in a Western country.

I suppose, Western kids are more assertive, and being less self-conscious puts you in the corner of the outcasts.

This is the price young people have to pay for the permissive, "antiauthoritarian" approach we have been taking for the last 3 to 4 decades.

And, as an aside:
How does it feel being a teacher in the West where student empowerment has gone ovr the top, and parents delegate all their duties to the school?

Gone are the days when British schools tried to instill civic virtues and build character.
Today it's a lowering of the standards and a permanent lowering of the common denominators of classes.
Teachers no longer wield power. Not that I wish they should have the right to commit corporeal punishments - but at least they should be listened to more readily than is being done!