Japan Middle-High school Education System

[caseylim]

HI, I made up this thread to know more about Japanese school.

I would like to ask what is the schooling duration for each day?

[Varia]

The high school I went to started at 8:30, and ended at 3:30. After school ended, we had to clean the school for 15 minutes. Then clubs (sports etc) started around 4 and those would go on for a couple hours. Some kids also did club stuff before school starts, so they'd get to school around 7:30 and be leaving around 6 or later. But not all kids did that. A lot of kids just went from the normal start to finish.
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[Sbabbari]

The high school I went to started at 8:30, and ended at 3:30. After school ended, we had to clean the school for 15 minutes. Then clubs (sports etc) started around 4 and those would go on for a couple hours. Some kids also did club stuff before school starts, so they'd get to school around 7:30 and be leaving around 6 or later. But not all kids did that. A lot of kids just went from the normal start to finish.

Exactly what mine was like, except started at 8 and ended at 3. We would usually get home around 6 from clubs and whatnot. In my school, we stayed in the same classroom while different teachers came in (much different from my school in the US) and had homeroom for like 10-15 minutes at the beginning of the day and for longer towards the end. We also had P.E. every day except one for about an hour or so. We also did the 50's era Home Ec, minus the baking. We just learned how to sew things. Lunch was for like 20 minutes. Maybe 15, i forget...

[DrSax]

Varia and Sbabbari, you two seem to have tried foreign exchange during high school. Do you have any interesting stories you could share, I'd like to hear something about your experiences.

[caseylim]

How's recess during school?

[jadeak]

Do they have special classes for the Learning Disabled in Japan? I work at a Middle School in the US with LD kids and I've been wondering if I can ship some of them off. (Just kidding! )Perhaps Az would like them. They don't know how to kancho yet but I get knocked over daily with a flying tackle type hug. And I'm a small woman so to get a large thirteen year old throwing himself at you takes ya down. But because they're LD kids they can do these things. They could probably get away with kanchos too. God save me if they ever find out about that.

[Sbabbari]

recess? I didn't have any. Unless you counted the 5 minutes in between different teachers. I have to go work now, but i'll post some stories later ;)

[Varia]

Yeah...no recess. I had a 40 minute lunch, though. That was pretty cool.

DrSax: I studied abroad at a Japanese high school this year for 3 months. From the beginning of April until the end of June. I stayed with a host family and became a member of the community...I was on the inside.

Although I was attending school, I didn't really have to do much in classes. All the stuff they were doing was harder than what I had done in high school here. I just kind of chilled in class and tried not to talk to my friends too much haha. I just couldn't do the assignments because they were really hard, and in order to do them, I would have to be in front of books all day with some really bad ass study materials (Japanese vocabulary for different subjects) that I didn't have. That was what set me apart from all of the other students...I just kind of got to hang out all day while they had to do classwork. I feel kind of bad about it. Oh, but, to be honest, the high school I went to was the top high school in that region of Gifu. It was the smartypants school. I actually got to go to two other high schools each for a day. They were...really different than the one I was going to. One was like a private school I guess, and the other was based around agriculture. The agricultural school was where all the non-college bound kids went. They graduate high school and go into the work force. They do really freaking awesome things at that school. The day I went there, they were gathering molded soy beans (I think) so they could make soy sauce or something...I'm not really sure. And then we made cookies. We made dough, we got cutouts, and we made cookies until our little hearts could make cookies no more. They do a ton of things like that. It's awesome. They also grow a lot of flowers and other plants. They also have a shop that they open up every Wednesday and Friday (maybe Monday, too) where they sell all of the things they've made at school. These kids weren't the brightest, but they could sure make some pretty stuff. This was also the school where all the I guess "bad kids" went. I met a lot of girls there that openly talked about sex, asked me if I had a big penis, and probably would have slept with me if I had offered them money. But I didn't. But it might have been interesting. But I didn't. I might have had a better time at that school...but I don't know. I think a lot of the people there would have just used me, and would have tried to grab my penis a lot. I had my share of dickdodge while I was there. But I didn't get kancho'd. They told me about kancho, but I had previously told them about wedgies and noogies, so they weren't so keen on the idea of trying to kancho me when I could do equally horrible things back to them.

So, to shorten things up, I'll just say it was the coolest time of my life, and I would love to go back there.
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[Sbabbari]

Same sort of thing here, except i went over my summer vacation while they were still in school. During class, i would usually just sleep or talk with my nearby friends. It was terrible, we would just make fun of the weird kids in class (Example: a girl with big glasses that they called "pilot") or just make jokes about the teacher (we had a lot of interesting teachers, especially the english teacher. He was from Osaka and we were in Hokkaido so nobody understood his English or his Japanese. He just had me teach the class every day :D). PE was the most annoying, because they played odd sports (i have never done "shot-put" in high school PE) and no one explained them to me so i was usually lost. After school was fun, although we lived in possibly the most boring tiny little town in hokkaido. We would just go to the bookstore, read manga for like a half hour, then head over to the 7-11 and buy some snacks. After that, we would either go home or go to some guys house to play PS2. Every once in a while we'd go to an empty lot and shoot of fireworks while some kids (koukou ninensei) smoked cigars :rolleyes:
I stayed at these people's house, an old man and an old woman. However, the man was the president of a huge contracting company so he was loaded. All in all, it was a great experience. Since i wasnt anywhere near the city, the girls werent so skanky, although some were pretty cute :D.

[Varia]

If you guys wanna see my pictures, let me know. I don't have any hosting or anything, so i'll send them through AIM or something in a big zip. Or unless you know somewhere I can host a like 300mb+ file. O:
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[Sbabbari]

Imageshack.us :D

[caseylim]

How about japanese high school examionation system? Do they do a-levels,sam,pet?

how hard is their examinations compared to british a-levels? Sorry i don't know about usa, what does usa do for national exams?

[DrSax]

How about japanese high school examionation system? Do they do a-levels,sam,pet?

how hard is their examinations compared to british a-levels? Sorry i don't know about usa, what does usa do for national exams?

In the USA we use the SAT's ACT's and now the SAT II's. Most states don't require SAT II's, but in California more emphases is put on those than the regular SAT's.

If you guys wanna see my pictures, let me know. I don't have any hosting or anything, so i'll send them through AIM or something in a big zip. Or unless you know somewhere I can host a like 300mb+ file. O:

I'm actually a Senior in Highschool and was thinking about doing a summer exchange program after I graduate. I would love to see any pictures that you took during your time there, unfortuneately I don't have AIM.

On a different note, do you guys know of any good exchange programs here in the US? I've found one at www.asse.com but I would like to hear of any others.

[Sbabbari]

Most states don't require SAT II's

On a side-note, it's the various Universities that may or may not require SAT-II's, not the states.

It would be a lot easier to send pictures if you had aim :(
Can you suggest any other way other than hosting and posting every single one seperately?

[Varia]

Yeah, I wanna show you guys my pictures, but I'm not doing this one picture at a time crap. It's either all, or a lot, or none.
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[Logan5]

The JH I teach at has this basic schedule:

Day starts (for students) at 8:30am with short home room.
Then
Tues, Thurs, Friday
1st --- 8:50 - 9:40
2nd --- 9:50 - 10:40
3rd --- 10:50 - 11:40
4th --- 11:50 - 12:40
lunch, break time & soji
5th --- 14:05 - 14:55
6th --- 15:05 - 15:55

Mon & Wed (no 6th period)

So school ends around 4pm most days, but as mentioned, then EVERY kid trots off to some club activity and most don't leave school until around 5:30pm.

We do have "recess" if you want to call it that from about 1:15, when the kids have to start cleaning up their lunch trays, until about 1:45, when "Soji" or school cleaning, starts - and that lasts for 10 minutes.
So they get about 30 mins of break time not counting the short "passing period" during the school day.

My shogakko (elementary schools) do have actual recess in the morning and again after lunch.

And to the poster who mentioned "Special Needs" kids - they have a separate classroom and are taught at my school - no special school. I have three "special" classes at my JH - one for the kids with development disorders or social disorders, one for the kids who are just a bit slow, and one for the kids who are so freaked out by being in school they can't handle being with most of the other kids.

-JCH

[DrSax]

It would be a lot easier to send pictures if you had aim :(
Can you suggest any other way other than hosting and posting every single one seperately?

If AIM is the only way I guess I could just go and set up an account, it wouldn't be that hard. Once I get one I'll Edit this post with the screen name.