BOE Visit
This is a good example of something I would like to highlight as to how it is to live in Japan as a foreigner.
Foreigners more eager for local interaction than Japanese: survey
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 06:00 EDT
TOKYO - Foreign residents in Japan show more appetite for interacting with local Japanese people than the other way around, according to a survey unveiled Monday by the land ministry and other agencies. The survey showed that 56% of foreign respondents living in districts where foreigners accounted for 15% or more of the total population expressed eagerness to communicate with their local communities, while only 10% of Japanese respondents said they want to interact with foreign residents.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport attributed the survey results to the lack of opportunities for Japanese people to meet foreign residents. As steps to increase such opportunities, the ministry stressed the need for cooperation among residents, companies, administrative authorities, and schools in local communities, and establishment of a framework in which local people and foreigners can promote exchanges with each other.
The survey was conducted between December 2006 and January 2007 among 738 foreign households and 1,104 Japanese households in a total of 16 districts in four prefectures - Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Ibaraki.
If you are able to read the article at the Japan Today site, please read some of the comments as well. This is not about how Japanese people hate foreigners, this is about how the buearaucracy views goals. Government authorities want the people collectively to think, believe, act, whatever - a certain way, however they never give people guidelines or options as to how to go about it. It is kind of like the Eddie Izzard bit where he talks about Italians becoming facists... "Right! We're all facists! Chao!" The Japanese government mandates and then leaves people out to dry and complain when they don't get the results they want.
The government here has an ideal, yet they never deign to look at reality and see how reality and the ideal can actually be one and the same or, for that matter, if the ideal is immediately achievable. Hell, let's just say they are fucking clueless most of the time. The BOE (I am sorry to kill you image Ms. Pigeon, it was not in fact the FACE of BOE watching me, though that would be awesome) or Ishikawa Board of Education, came to watch our Monday classes yesterday. They have an ideal of what we should be teaching and how we should be teaching it. They have no idea about the students, the needs of the students, the emotional needs of students (apart from their academic needs) and they have no desire to discuss. They only mandate. They expect a goal to happen. This would not be a problem if, collectively, people were taught the process of goal setting. Which they are not. Essentially, they are telling them to be facists and what eventually happens after the spirit of each student and teacher is broken down from beating their heads agaist the wall is they get back on the vespa of 'I don't give a fuck' and do what they always do instead of finding a better way, changing to a mold that doesn't fit, or just flying don't give a fuck' and ride of screaming "Chao!"
Foreigners more eager for local interaction than Japanese: survey
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 06:00 EDT
TOKYO - Foreign residents in Japan show more appetite for interacting with local Japanese people than the other way around, according to a survey unveiled Monday by the land ministry and other agencies. The survey showed that 56% of foreign respondents living in districts where foreigners accounted for 15% or more of the total population expressed eagerness to communicate with their local communities, while only 10% of Japanese respondents said they want to interact with foreign residents.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport attributed the survey results to the lack of opportunities for Japanese people to meet foreign residents. As steps to increase such opportunities, the ministry stressed the need for cooperation among residents, companies, administrative authorities, and schools in local communities, and establishment of a framework in which local people and foreigners can promote exchanges with each other.
The survey was conducted between December 2006 and January 2007 among 738 foreign households and 1,104 Japanese households in a total of 16 districts in four prefectures - Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Ibaraki.
If you are able to read the article at the Japan Today site, please read some of the comments as well. This is not about how Japanese people hate foreigners, this is about how the buearaucracy views goals. Government authorities want the people collectively to think, believe, act, whatever - a certain way, however they never give people guidelines or options as to how to go about it. It is kind of like the Eddie Izzard bit where he talks about Italians becoming facists... "Right! We're all facists! Chao!" The Japanese government mandates and then leaves people out to dry and complain when they don't get the results they want.
The government here has an ideal, yet they never deign to look at reality and see how reality and the ideal can actually be one and the same or, for that matter, if the ideal is immediately achievable. Hell, let's just say they are fucking clueless most of the time. The BOE (I am sorry to kill you image Ms. Pigeon, it was not in fact the FACE of BOE watching me, though that would be awesome) or Ishikawa Board of Education, came to watch our Monday classes yesterday. They have an ideal of what we should be teaching and how we should be teaching it. They have no idea about the students, the needs of the students, the emotional needs of students (apart from their academic needs) and they have no desire to discuss. They only mandate. They expect a goal to happen. This would not be a problem if, collectively, people were taught the process of goal setting. Which they are not. Essentially, they are telling them to be facists and what eventually happens after the spirit of each student and teacher is broken down from beating their heads agaist the wall is they get back on the vespa of 'I don't give a fuck' and do what they always do instead of finding a better way, changing to a mold that doesn't fit, or just flying don't give a fuck' and ride of screaming "Chao!"