Cindy's Blog #4

Hi everyone! Welcome back to the blog! It’s Cindy and I’m back with some more research findings for my topic of job hunting in Japan. It’s the last blog post and I’m really sad that we’ve reached this point because it also means that my fun time in Japan has also come to a close.

Last post, I talked about how I wanted to figure out why all Japanese students wear the same black suit when job hunting. After asking an RA, he told me that while there are no official clothing rules for Japanese job hunting, most Japanese people do not want to stand out, so they wear the standard black suit. I think that it’s very interesting when comparing their culture to what I hear here in Canada, because while our business formal attire looks about the same, it is also about how much you can stand out of the crowd. In university, I only ever hear about how you should be doing various different things to make you stand out, and while it is most likely the same in Japan as well, there is much less of an emphasis on conforming and looking the same as everyone else in Canada. When I attend networking events, everyone has their own kind of business formal style. Everyone wears clothing that reflects their own individuality while still being business professional. I think this is also a reflection of the difference between our cultures, because in Japan, everything is very structured with a specific time for everything.

According to a website I read about age discrimination and job hunting in Japan, job hunting becomes extremely difficult after the age of 30. People who are looking for a job after or approaching the age of 30 mainly get their chances through their connections. It is expected that by 30, an individual should have a large channel of professional connections. It also seems that in Japan, companies tend to prefer recruits with no experience over experienced workers. This is because traditionally, Japan has a system of lifetime employment, where a student starts working at a company right out of university and continues stay with that company for life. Ageism is very common in the Japanese job market, with job advertisements often aimed towards a particular age range. This is different from Canada, in that Canadians are not required to disclose their exact age by law, and anyone at any age has an arguably equal chance of getting a job as long as their skills or personality match the ones that the company is looking for. I also have the impression that an individual must be experienced to easily find a job in Canada, which differs from how most Japanese companies are specifically hiring students with no experience. If a company in Japan is looking for a specific set of skills, they will train their workers. In Canada, from my knowledge, the company will open the position and interview people to find someone who has that skill and hire them. While job hunting in general is stressful, I feel that Japan’s system makes looking for a job as a student more encouraging and appealing than it is in Canada.

I’d also like to share on my findings from asking a couple of Japanese students about job hunting. I interviewed a Japanese student in fourth year who told me that she spent 1-2 hours per day preparing for job interviews. Interviews were one-on-one but could also be one interviewer to five students. I also asked about the kinds of questions interviewers ask during interviews, and here are some examples she gave me:

• Why do you want to work for this company?
• Why would you choose this company (over another company)?
• Why do you want to work in this field?
• What do you want to do after entering this company?
• Please discuss about your study habits and other extracurriculars that you put effort into during university/college.
• Please discuss about any other things that you did during university/college.

My last question to her was about the kinds of tests she had to take for job hunting, and she told me that she had an English exam, a math exam, and a Japanese exam. There was also an aptitude test as well as a general knowledge exam with questions based on social news. I also asked a third-year student about what he was doing to prepare for job hunting, and he told me that since job hunting is mainly a fourth-year thing, he’s just been researching about job hunting by getting information from the university as well the job hunting site.

This concludes my last blog post! It ran a little long, but I didn’t provide much information in my last post so this to make up for it. There is still so much more about this topic that I haven’t covered, but I hope that this topic was interesting and that it compels people to investigate this topic on their own. Thanks for reading!

Cindy's Blog #3

Hey everyone, it’s Cindy again. In this post, I am going to be talking about my experience with study abroad in Japan so far as well as my research topic of job hunting.

In my previous post, I briefly mentioned about how I wouldn’t be able to function without enough sleep, but since arriving in Japan I’ve probably only had one night where I slept a full eight hours. There’s been so much to do, so many places to go, so many events, so many people to meet and talk to, in addition to studying and doing homework for my Japanese class. It’s been fun, but also exhausting and very nerve-wracking at times. I wrote in my introduction that I would like to improve my confidence in this trip, but I’ve accepted now that maybe it’s not as easy to improve in this aspect as I imagined it to be. Compared to being in Canada, I think I have moved in the opposite direction than I would have liked, becoming much more fearful, worried, and less confident in Japan than I already was, specifically when it comes to presentations and speeches. I performed extremely poorly on the presentation I had in the third week of the program and really struggled emotionally with trying to overcome it. It was very hard because my research topic changed four days prior to the final presentation about our research project, and I was extremely unprepared and under researched. I knew next to nothing about job hunting in Japan and was very stressed.

In the end, I still managed to ask a couple of the RAs a little bit about job hunting before the presentation. Daichi told me that job hunting generally starts in fourth year of university, where students start by attending seminars and classes, and eventually they start looking for jobs and sending in applications for job openings. If their applications go through, then they have a chance to attend job interviews. Mana told me that jobs usually have more than one interview and could have up to five interviews for a single company. It’s very costly to travel and usually very far, so it’s quite inconvenient and time-consuming for most job hunters. She also told me that in addition to these interviews, students must take some tests as well.

Another thing I noticed on the train and even just by seeing Mana and Misaki, two of the RAs at the dorm, was that all job hunters seem to wear the exact same black suit to their job interviews and seminars. Hair must be black and long hair must be neatly tied up. Everyone wears a black blazer, a white dress shirt, and either black dress shoes or short black heels. Males wear black dress pants and females usually wear black knee-length skirts. It looks like a very standard uniform, and I’m not sure why they must dress like this, but I will be looking into this along with my original research questions for my next blog post!

Cindy's Blog #2

Hey everyone, it’s Cindy. My topic changed drastically halfway through the course, so I will be giving my research and insights all at once.

After the first week of being in Japan, the only thing I knew about job hunting in Japan was that it is a very organized procedure with lots of seminars and job interviews. In the dormitory, there were three RAs (Resident Assistants) that I knew of who were actively job hunting at the time. One of them was Mana, who expressed her concern to me about how she started her job hunting process later than everyone else because the job hunting process started while she was still away on her year-long exchange program in America. The first weekend I arrived with the four-week program group, I remember we had an orientation and all the staff members of the dormitory were introducing themselves. Mana was away that entire weekend because she had to attend a seminar for job hunting. It made me realize how important job hunting is, and how students have to give up and compromise other responsibilities and priorities for job hunting. I often saw her leave the dorm early in the morning wearing a very typical black suit, going to attend either a seminar or job interviews. She would also come back to the dorm and be busy with preparing for job interviews, often asking other RAs to help her practice for her interviews and give her feedback about her performance. She did all of this on top of her class work as well as her duties as an RA. I also noticed that she would stay up very late every night either preparing for her job interviews or having meetings with the other RAs, so it made me realize that she was doing all this work on top of very little sleep every night. It made me believe that Japanese students have a very large tolerance towards stress, as I do not function well from not sleeping enough. It also caused me to feel concerned about the way this process is, as well as the lifestyle that Japanese students adopt as it seems that many Japanese students are able to go about their daily lives every day on less-than-optimal amounts of sleep every night.

I plan on going about my research by asking Japanese students who are currently job hunting about how much time they spend on average preparing for their interviews, what kinds of questions interviewers ask during interviews, and the kinds of tests or skill and knowledge-based assessments they may need to take. I will also ask university students who are not currently job searching about how they feel about the system and if they are doing anything to prepare for the job searching period. As I have almost no background knowledge about this subject, I hope to learn lots about the Japanese job-hunting system through my research in addition to Canadian job-hunting procedures to provide a comparison.

ミッキー Blog#4

Hey everyone, Mickie here! Time flies! It is already the end of the month! I can’t believe this is going to be the last blog of this research topic, and the end of our amazing Japan trip. It has been such an adventure studying abroad in Japan! I am so grateful I had the opportunity to experience Japanese culture and learn more of the language in the country itself with the rest of my class.

            Stepping back into Japanese education, I will be summarizing my research and findings about cram schools in Japan. Cram schools, also known as Juku, are specialized private schools designed to help students with their regular schoolwork and activities. They operate after regular school hours, on weekends, and even during vacation time. The students who choose to attend can range from kindergarten to high school. Not all Juku focuses on schoolwork as some have a variety of concentrations as well, such as: music, sports, and other extracurricular activities similar to after-school clubs.

            In addition to online research, I have asked students in the dormitory and in school whether they have attended Juku when they were younger or not. Most of them have said they did not attend Juku, to my surprise, while some said they have. I asked both groups if it was their own choice, and how they felt about Juku, and I was surprised to hear a variety of answers to my questions. Some said they took cram school, but only during exams, or when they were little, and their parents signed them up for cram school. Some said they did not take cram school at all, and some said they took Juku up till high school.

            Contrary to what I have read through my research that most Japanese children and youth attend Juku, my personal inquiries to Japanese friends and fellow students have proved otherwise. Most of them did not attend Juku, and those who did attend chose to by their own choice. For the few that said their parents made the decision, they mentioned that at first, they did not like it, but gradually came to like Juku as they made friends and saw the fun side of it all. For those who have taken cram school, regardless of the length, they have also said that Juku did help them in their studies or extracurricular activities and helped them make new friends. This proves that Juku also plays a beneficial social role in Japanese students’ lives. The one true fact that remains is that Juku does have long hours, running on weekends, after regular school hours, and during holidays. Long hours for students attending Juku is normal, but of course, the lengthy period is still despised.

            This is my conclusion on cram schools in Japan. As you can see there are two types of Juku, academic and non-academic. Both benefit the students in different ways despite contrary beliefs. I believe that the school system and other educational institutions are changing for the better of the students and the future.

Travelling alone overseas for the first time to Japan was a whole new experience itself. However, throughout this month I’ve had various new experiences within this country. I have learned so many things first-hand living in Japan in terms of the culture and language, and it gave me different perspectives on life. I’ll never forget the awesome memories I’ve made in Japan. In the future, I want to go back and experience life in other places as well.

Anki’s blog #4

​Hi, this is Anki. How’s it going? This is going to be my last blog post about my research on Japanese entrance exam.  The program is now ended, one month living in Japan with Japanese people really made a big different on myself. This was a completely different experience from travelling to Japan. I tried my best to fit into Japanese society while living in Japan.Japanese people are very well organized, and they behave as the best as possible. I have noticed that there are many homeless people on the streets, but they never try to bother anyone. I think this is something to do with their education from young. From what I have known, they are educated as “don’t trouble other people” since they were young, which is very well represented on Japanese people. 

​Talking about education, here I will be writing a summary about what I have found during the period of this program. My research topic is about Japanese entrance exams. First of all, the entrance exams in Japan is designed for high school students to get into universities. If one student chose to enter the university,he or she is required to take the exam. For an exception, students who get recommendation letters from teachers are able to enter the university without taking the entrance exams, this is more focused on sports talents. Extra exams and interviews may be needed after the national entrance exam. Japanese students study very hard just to pass the exam and achieve the required grades for the universities they desired to go. 

​I also did a comparison between Japanese national test centre exam and Alberta diploma exam. Alberta diploma exams are more similar to final exams for grade twelve courses than entrance exams. I have done a survey to Japanese students and students from Calgary, I explained to them about both exams and asked them which one they prefer. Overwhelmingly everyone preferred Alberta diploma exams over Japanese entrance exams. Japanese students did not like how competitive and stressful the entrance exams are, but they have successfully gone through it! They also explained to me that it was a very hard time for them and they stressed a lot before and after the exams. My conclusion is that, if we had to pick on that works better, Alberta diploma exams are definitely a better way to test on students. It is also unfair to students who get sick on the day the Japanese entrance exam occurs. In Japan, the national test centre occurs once a year, unlike in Alberta, the diploma exam occurs couple times during the year and a doctor note is available for students who get sick during that time. So, if a student missed one diploma exam, he or she can always take it again next semester when the exams are held.

​This is my conclusion on Japanese entrance exam, as I have explained many times before in my blog, the entrance exam is a life-impacting event for Japanese high school students who are willing to go to the university. They have paid a lot of effort on it and the exam is extremely competitive. One month living in Japan opened my perspectives on life, I think programs like this are very helpful with knowing other cultures. This was such a memorable event happened in my life, also a challenge that I have been through. Next time if there is a chance, I would comeback again to Japan and experience the life in other cities as well.

Fernando Blog #4

Hey guys, what’s going on! This is going to be my last blog for this trip. I really had a blast living in Japan for a month with Japanese students and other international students alike. I have learned a lot from how the culture is like in Japan. From how the trains operate, how complex the stations are in here compared to Calgary, to how toilets in Japan are much better in terms of cleanliness compared to our simplistic toilets. I’ve met a lot of people here who truly made me feel welcome in the dorm which eased my anxiety from when I first entered the dorm.  

My research is also complete to the point where I could come up with a good enough conclusion. So, to reiterate what it is I’m researching, my research was about looking at school clubs that are established in Japanese schools and Western Schools. I was looking at the similarities and differences between how they operate, what types of clubs be made, and how the much of a workload there is to operate a club.  

In terms of operations, in Japan, there must always be a teacher to serve as a supervisor for the club. But the extent of that role differs depending on if the club is established as a junior high school club, a high school club, or a university club. The role of the teacher in school clubs is to be there to sign off papers and supervise the club and make sure they stay within appropriate fields and the activities doesn’t go off to the extremes; but for junior high school  and high school, the teacher is expected to have some sort of mentor figure for the club members, to teach the club members about how to do the club activities. For example, for sports clubs, the teacher can be a coach on the side.

In terms of what clubs can be made, in Japan, any student can form any kind of club as long as there’s a teacher willing to sponsor it and enough students willing to form the club with you. Also, there is no limit in how many people can join a club, but there is can be a minimum amount of people required for the club to stay operational. That’s why existing members of a club will go to the extremes to make sure new members join their club. In Canada, you only need fellow students to form a club but that’s only in post-secondary. Before that you need a teacher to be a supervisor for the club.

Now comes the juicy part, the workload. Japanese school clubs can be really time consuming for students. Clubs can get very intensive to the point where it might take up a student’s time in the weekend for club practice. Sports clubs, for example, usually have club practice 5 – 6 days of the week. So a majority the club members’ times is usually taken up by both school activities and club activities. In a way, it keeps them occupied but, in another way it reduces their time with their families to the point where their parents barely see them anymore.

This is what I have gathered in my time here in Japan. I really had fun going everywhere in Tokyo because it’s so different from the quiet city of Calgary and I would love to come back here anytime.

ミッキーBlog #3

              Hey everyone, Mickie here! We have been in Japan for almost a month now! We only have about one more week until we go back home to Calgary. It has been such an awesome and fun time here in Japan: exploring Tokyo and trying new foods, seeing amazing things and scenery I’ve never seen back home before... I don’t want to leave so soon! Oh, how fast time flies! ~ Life in Japan is exciting and eventful. Everyday you find new things to muse about, and there is just so much to explore!

              In addition to the fun and excitement of this trip, I have new findings for my topic about Japanese cram schools since last blog! As I said in the last blog, I have asked some of my Japanese friends and Japanese students how they felt about cram schools, and how it affects them. I have also considered the differences between cram schools in Japan and preparatory classes in North America. Most people I have asked surprisingly answered no to the question, if they took cram school at all. There were also a variety of answers to that question: some said they took cram school only during exams, or when they were little, some said they did not take any cram school at all, and some said they took cram school up till high school. In university, students do not usually go to cram school as it is meant to be suitable for children and up to grade 12, high school graduation.

              I was surprised because based on my research through articles I have read about Japanese cram schools, it says that taking Juku is a big deal to get you through school, and that it is a big factor in contributing to one’s academic success. However, my personal evaluation of this says otherwise. According to my inquiries with Japanese students, only some of them have gone to or taken cram school. Those who have gone though, said that it did help them in their studies, and it also helped them make new friends. Therefore, Juku does play a social role in Japanese students’ lives.

              Despite contrary beliefs about parents making their kids go to Juku, most of my Japanese friends said they chose to attend Juku on their own. It was a choice, for the most part. For the few students that said no, their parents made them attend, they gradually started to like Juku after an initial dislike for cram schools. Juku does still run on weekends and during holidays, and it starts after school around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and runs till 9 or 10 in the late evening. Long hours for students attending Juku is normal, but of course, not everyone is pleased with the duration of it.

              The difference between Japanese cram schools – Juku – and preparatory classes in North America varies. They both serve the same purpose – helping students succeed in school and examinations. Preparatory classes in North America are mainly for examination preparations, whereas Juku has non-academic classes that students can attend as well. The whole parents making the kids go to prep school thing also depends on the student. They can choose whether or not they want to go, and most students do attend since examinations are fairly difficult as well.

              During the last week of this program, I would like to find out additional information about students who attended Juku and those who have not. In addition, I would like to know more on how Japanese students’ study, and the affects of studying between those who have attended Juku versus those who have not.

Anki Blog #3

            Hi everyone, this is Anki. I have been in Japan for three weeks now and there is only one more week left for this program. Now I don’t want to leave Japan because I had so much fun in Japan. Except for attending the classes in the morning, I am so excited to go around Tokyo in the afternoon even though I end up being very tired every day. Life in Japan is full of excitement and every single day is a new day, I get to visit many new places during this program. I have done more research on my topic regarding Japanese entrance exams. I have asked Japanese people in the dormitory which they prefer, the Alberta education system and Japanese centre exam.

            I have explained to Japanese students in the dormitory here at Senshu International House. In Alberta, we have diploma exams which are basically final exams for grade twelve courses. Only 30 levels courses in high school require diploma exams. Also, the diploma exams only worth thirty percent. Comparing to the Japanese entrance exam, the diploma exams are less determining and stressing. Unlike the Japanese entrance exam occurring at a certain place, we only had to go to our own schools to take the diploma exam. After explaining to the Japanese students, I asked which exam system they prefer. All Japanese students I asked prefer Alberta system, because the Japanese entrance exam is way too competitive, and they were all stressed before the exam. After talking with Japanese students, I got some more information regarding the entrance exam. Some people are able to get reference letters from high school teachers, so they do not have to go take the entrance exam and straight go into universities. For some universities, an interview is also necessary before getting accepted into the university. In Alberta, unless it is people trying to apply to graduate schools or jobs, they do not need an interview at all for being accepted into universities.

            However, even though it is easy to get accepted into universities in Alberta, university life is very hard, and graduating is not an easy thing. In Japan, it is harder to get accepted than graduating. I have heard from my sensei saying that people did not spend too much time studying in university but spending time making friends and going to parties.

            Despite all the differences between Japanese entrance exams and Alberta diploma exams, they have some similarities as well. In Alberta, students in the whole province do the exam at the same time, then the exams are taken to Edmonton to be marked by certain teachers, which is very similar to Japanese entrance exams that the exam occurs at the same time nationwide.

            During the last week of this program, I will be asking Japanese students about how they have prepared the exam and how they learned to calculate their grades after the exam.  

Fernando's Blog #3

Hey guys, it’s Fernando again and i’ve been in Japan for around 3 weeks now. So far Japan has been a blast to be in with everyone enjoying their time here and spending my spring here has been a blast so far. I’ve been going everywhere from Enoshima, Kamakura, and all around Tokyo! My legs get tired everyday from walking everywhere but that doesn’t stop me. I’ve got some more of my research done since the last blog post which i think will shed a little bit more light into what i’ve been researching. I’ve been going around, asking people about their thoughts on club, while also looking on the web for good sources talking about japanese clubs and how is it compared to the ones back at UofC. 
The first thing that I realized is different is how clubs are started. Back in Calgary, it depends on the level of school you’re in. In High School, clubs are ran by teachers and the teachers act as the supervisors and the mentors for their clubs; though there were some clubs that the teacher is just there to supervise. For example, There was a robotics club and an anime club in my high school and the supervisor for robotics had to teach the students how to build the robot and how to program its functions in there to make it work. Meanwhile, the teacher for the anime club is just a supervisor since that club is just about watching anime for an hour or so. In post secondary, or at least in UofC, most of the clubs are under the Student Union and ran only by students. Compared to Japan, clubs always need a teacher to supervise the club but only in high school do they need to be there as a mentor. In university, they can be just there for supervision duties and just that. They don’t have to anything else. 
In terms of how clubs are created, in calgary, you would need to register with the school to make sure that that club is official. You would need to get a couple of your friends who share a similar passion to which you want to form the basis of the club on, and make sure to keep it going so it doesn’t go away for future students who share a same passion. For UofC specifically, get 10-20 of your friends, make sure that the club you want to start up is not already formed by someone else, and if not, go to the student union site and form one there. In Japan, you would need to get a teacher to act as a supervisor and submit the club form to make it official. 
So far, from what I have found with regards to how clubs operate here in Japan compared to Canada is that they have some similarities and some slight differences and so far those differences have only been in how they operate and how they are created. This is what I have so far and i’ll be posting once more later.

ミッキー Blog #2

Hi everyone, Mickie here! Welcome back to our blog on Japanese education! We have been exploring different places around Tokyo together as a class. Diving into the culture and customs in Japan has been pretty overwhelming, but it is an amazing experience and we have only been here for about a week! Everyone has been really helpful and friendly at the Senshu i-house, an on-campus dormitory for international students living with Japanese students. Even though there is a language barrier, everyone is so understanding when conversing. We are all having a great time here.

In this blog post, I will talk more in depth about Japanese cram schools, also known as juku 塾（じゅく）. As mentioned in my last post, they are designed to help students excel in their studies, especially for exams. Students tend to attend juku during exams to aid them in their studying. They are private schools that offer lessons after regular school hours and are opened on the weekends and during holidays. So basically, when you are not attending regular school, you still have cram school.

For academic juku, though some students take regular cram school after regular school hours, students who need it usually take it when exams are coming up. Students can start taking juku as early as kindergarten, and it ranges all the way up to high school. It serves as a common study ground for those who do not have access to that kind of study environment, or have difficulty studying at home. Juku also provides extra help from sensei for students with questions about their homework or examinations. Entrance examinations are hard in Japan so students strive to study as hard as they can to enter their university of their choice. As Anki mentioned in her blog, Japanese entrance examinations determine the future for the students. Whether or not they enter into a good university and succeed depends on this exam into university.

Juku is not always academically focused, there is also non-academic juku which is essentially extra-curricular activities, such as: music lessons, art, sports, and many more. Non-academic juku is mainly catered to children. Japanese parents think it is a good attempt to exercise a meaningful measure of choice in Japanese education as they fear rebellious behaviour and bad habits that their children will pick up if they are not able to find something to occupy their time with. Besides restraining rebelliousness in children, juku also serves as a social environment where one can make new friends! Children will sometimes ask their parents if they can attend juku because their friends attend. So juku is not as bad as it seems to be!

Currently, I am in the progress of finding answers to my questions in relation to cram schools and how Japanese students feel about them, how it affects them, and the differences between cram schools in Japan and preparatory classes in North America. I will update my explorations in the next blog!