The Russian's Response

The Russian wrote me back. His reply is very long but as I posted my letter to him in its entirety, it is only fair that I post his response in its entirety as well.

In summary, he breaks down the learning styles of foreign students in Japan into 3 categories and goes into detail about their different motivations for learning. He addresses a few of the things that I mention in my letter to him toward the end of the reply but there are several places in the letter that I get lost in translation so I'm sure you will too. Keep in mind, English is not his native language.

Overall what this response shows me (as many of you have said would probably be the case) is that he missed my point. My intention was not to silence him but to challenge him to allow others to have their voices as well. I have to work with him in a group this week so I will only pursue this discussion one step further and hopefully be able to continue to express my opinions to him with professionalism and emotional detachment. I understand that I will inevitably interact with difficult personalities in the future, but I do hope to end all interaction with this particular person when this course concludes.

I will share my comments with him (in reference to the highlighted portion below), I welcome you to share your thoughts with me.

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Dear Ebony,
[Misspelling a person's name when responding to them expresses extreme carelessness]

Thank you for your letter!
I highly appreciate your effort to share with me your experience here!

Please do not think that I just deny all arguments presented by you, but please also understand that unfortunately not all in our world is so univalent. And please have a look at the following considerations. I arranged them in a way to adhere to a framework of our class. And of course if you have time and interest, it would be my pleasure to discuss it with you personally:

It is not a secret that foreign students in Japan usually pursue one of the following purposes (of course there could be a combination of them, but still one can be defined as the key driving factor):

Group 1: Obtain relevant knowledge/new skills/useful profession in some subject field where Japan is strong and return to their home country to implement it for mutual benefit. Such students come from different countries from all over the world. Mostly it depends on a person's motivation rather than on the country of origin;

Group 2: Get a degree certificate (diploma) in Japan and afterwards readmit it in their home country as by some reasons it is cheaper or simpler to do it in Japan. Such students are usually coming from Europe or North America. These days it is also relevant for young Chinese students from relatively rich families.

Group 3: Stay in Japan as longer as possible by all means and find any way how not to return to their home country. Such students are usually coming form countries with very tough economic conditions or countries with political disputes like war.

As you may understand each purpose will result in the different learning strategy:

Group 1: These students will try to learn as much as possible. They will attend many courses, trainings etc. Depending on their internal properties (culture, character, etc.) this student will actively try to do their best to learn as much as possible. They could also try making as many contacts as possible for future joint research collaboration or business. And as you may understand, there are many topics which can not be deeply learned without iterative discussion. The most important goals for such students are: in exact sciences like chemistry, physics, maths  - to be able to apply knowledge into practice, and in social sciences like politics, economics etc - to find all true properties of some concepts, ideas etc (as an instructor is also a common person he could have his own preference about some concepts, so sometimes he will not present possible disadvantages without additional inquiries).

Group 2: These students do not really care about how much they will actually learn. They are mostly interested in obtaining of a degree (as having any additional degree for them means belonging to a social class with higher income). So most likely they will attend only core courses and do the minimal possible efforts required to get a degree. Having a lot of leisure time they will devote it to traveling and sightseeing (if they have sufficient budget).

Group 3: As these students are interested in staying here, it is not that much important for them by which means to do it. Possible solutions are: marriage, finding some job like "constant arubaito" - any job which will make a work permit or (which is of course more difficult) trying to get a job in a prestigious Japanese company. Thus for these students the most important thing is to study how to reflect a most average position in this society to most of key questions. In psychology it is called as a conformist (opportunist, temporizer) behavior, so such a person feigns, simulates something which could be even antagonistic to his true beliefs and typical behavior. Such people are trying to copy mores and folkways used in this society etc. But it does not mean that they will keep on doing it forever if they are allowed to stay. It could be just for a short time period of initial adaptation. As there could be different reasons which force people to do so, we are not telling if it is good or not good.

To sum up, if students from Group 2 or Group 3 come to class, all what they are interested about it to:
1. Cover all compulsory requirements;
2. Leave home as soon as possible;

As one of the consequences they are not interested that much in any discussions about the topic.
By the way, students who are displeased with other student's questions or discussion are usually form rich part of China or South Korea, so they are not Japanese. If you have a chance to attend classes with MANY Japanese students (not like 10% at this class) you will notice that they ask a lot of questions and if not, they are required to ask questions. By the way, I also asked several students from Vietnam and rural China about their opinion and they answered me that they also want to ask many questions but they are either shy or are afraid of being condemned by others! So not all is so easy.

Could not we call this social phenomena as "hidden competition" when some people who try prevent others from learning by unallowing asking questions, masquerading this activity by mendacious concerns about "time of other students". Could not it be that in reality they are more concerned about suppression of potentially stronger competitors?

Of course I understand that teaching styles in many countries are different (and it would be very interesting for me to know more about your country). But I suppose that if a teacher gives reading materials which cover every word of his lection and asks to read them before the class, he expects us to talk and to discuss the contents but not just to be quite and listen. And I guess we should discuss it not with each other but with him. Either by a queue or in some other way.

>We take breaks every 90 minutes or so and do you ever take notice to what happens during those breaks? >What happens is the people around you, your fellow classmates, who have  questions (personal questions) >go directly to the teachers and ask them.

Of course it is possible to do it in a such manner, but do not you think that if such back room (lobby) discussions are related to the subject of the class, they infringe the rights of other students to get this knowledge?

Of course examples form my home country are subjective, they again are related to intercultural differences, but at least in our country such behavior could be considered to be very unfair to benefit of others. Moreover in case of such "during a break discussions" after the continuation of the call teachers usually will tell something like: "during a break some of students asked me ..... and they got answer ...... Please also point your attention!".

I understand that all of us, people from a lot of countries,  got used to some native teaching style, but I hope that this cultural diversity will help us to improve the teaching style to the most optimal.

If you have something to add, please feel free to do it!

Kind regards,

The Russian

My Open Letter to The Russian

If you follow me on Twitter, then you have probably heard me rant and rant and rant about one of my classmates who I dis-affectionately refer to as "The Russian". I know his name of course but I prefer to leave it out of this blog or Twitter and I'm sure you have guessed, he is from Russia. We are currently taking an International Business class together and both days I have gotten to the point where my blood was boiling because of his inconsiderate nature and egotistical line of questioning that just comes off as down right ignorant when I know that he is quite intelligent. During class today, I wrote a letter by hand that I was 2 seconds from giving him but I refrained and decided to write a more well thought out letter that I am going to send at the same time as I publish this blog. Here is that letter:

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Dear The Russian,

I'm sure as you could tell, I was a little frustrated with you in class this afternoon and I'd like to explain why.

As foreigners in Japan, part of our challenge is fitting a cultural square peg in a round hole. We are different from the Japanese people we attend classes with and live around  but there are ways in which we can be culturally sensitive to make life more comfortable for ourselves and others.

I'm not sure how long you have been in Japan because our conversations always seem to stem around some stereotypical or even outlandish topics about America you've heard from some Russian media source, but however long it has been, you seem to have either missed or chosen to ignore a very important lesson in interpersonal communication within the Japanese culture. There are times when it is very important to be quiet and listen.

Maybe you didn't hear the collective sigh that people in class let out each time you began to speak to interject your opinions or interrupt the teacher and even your fellow classmates when they are asking questions or making explanations. They sigh, we sigh...for you. Those sighs are trying to tell you that maybe you should be quiet and listen. Everyone deserves their moment to ask questions or share their opinions about a topic but your timing could not be worse.

As you know, this is not the first class we have taken together. When I sit in classes with you, it seems that you think you are in a private tutoring session with the teacher and not a lecture with 20-50 other people. We take breaks every 90 minutes or so and do you ever take notice to what happens during those breaks? What happens is the people around you, your fellow classmates, who have  questions (personal questions) go directly to the teachers and ask them.

It is SO rare that I get to take a class that is given in English and I really cherish the English reading assignments and being able to learn in my native language with these professors. Other than taking time to personally visit my professors' office hours, these classes are the only time I feel like I get true instruction. So when you hold up the lessons over and over again by asking these questions that are not productive to the rest of class and very often have nothing to do with the topic at hand...I get very frustrated. And believe me "The Russian", I'm not the only one. I challenge you to make an effort to read what is going on around you.

This culture is very different from mine. The way they instruct here is different from America and I'm sure Russia too, but I have learned to adapt in a way that does not inhibit others from learning and does not elicit collective sighs each time I open my mouth. Whatever your purpose here in Japan, I hope that you are able to fulfill it but please take my advice and learn to be quiet and listen.

I think I'm getting fired...

As of today, I have been back in Japan for 15 months and you know what people say about time flying? Well take it from me, they're wrong. It feels like I have been here all 476 of these days and sometimes it feels like I've been here longer. It could be explained by the emotional rough start I had or possibly even the old adage "a watched pot never boils" (as you can see I have been counting the days). Either way, it definitely doesn't feel like it has been a day shorter than 15 months.

For this year and three months other than my scholarship checks each month, my only other source of income has been payments from the occasional modeling gig. I haven't worked a regular part time job this whole time but as the modeling assignments have been few and far between lately and barely scraping by is getting pretty old I told my self I would keep my eye out for some part time work. Mid-November I saw and advertisement on the local expat email list for an English school that was looking for a native English speaking substitute teacher. I decided subbing would be good because with how often my school schedule changes this seems like it would work well for both of us. I called, got an interview, got hired.

I teach two classes on Wednesday and four on Saturday. It has been a great gig. I have been able to put some extra change in my pocket and it keeps me home on Friday nights (I teach early Saturday mornings) so I don't spend the little change I'm making. My students are all very sweet (except for one little snot that I could do without) and we enjoy our weekly lessons. Because of this job, I even had the money to go to Taiwan during my winter holiday! The bad thing is, I'm pretty sure they are about to fire me.

My class schedule for the intensive courses I am taking this term makes it so that I am not able to work any Saturdays in January, I'll miss a Feb and a few Wednesdays as well. I was up front with them about my changing schedule from the beginning and they said they really wanted me to work for them and hired me as a regular teacher instead of a sub. It worked for us...until it didn't work for us. They have been asking me to refer people because they are looking for other teachers but I can read between the lines. They are looking for my replacement and soon I'll be back to living off my scholarship alone which will suck.

Out of FOCUS

This third and final semester of my first year in business school is providing me with a set of challenges that I didn't really have during my first two semesters which in theory sounds a bit like growth, right? Continuous challenges beget continuous improvements...or so they say. I'm sure somewhere disguised in the fact that my only self-apparent skills are succinctly expressing my opinions by commenting on blogs I follow and condensing my wit into 140 characters or less via Twitter there is growth but I'm not sure that counts. What I'm trying to say here is, lately, I have been having a very difficult time with FOCUS.

3rd semester began a very short 3 or so days after 2nd term ended, around December 6th I believe. This term I am enrolled in a total of 6 classes in my B-School curriculum. Yes, once again, I missed enrollment for Japanese classes and once again it was completely my fault. I went through with the preliminary stage of registration but missed the orientation meeting like an idiot. I was so pissed with myself because I don't just miss meetings for absolutely no good reason but that leads me back to this issue I've been having with FOCUS. My courses for the semester are as follows:

Finance
Management Accounting
Business Ethics
Operations Management
International Business
Marketing

The last three subjects Operations Management, International Business, Marketing are all intensive courses that are held on the weekends and other national holidays. Originally, these courses were supposed to be taught as a part of the regular 3rd term schedule but due to the in-availability of the usual professors, my school has solicited the services of professors from other universities (including Waseda, Keio, Sophia) to teach those three class. Since the stand-in teachers already have students and curriculum of their own to instruct at their respective universities we get the luxury of enjoy our weekend time with them. Happy Happy. Joy Joy.

The first three classes are held Thursday and Friday. Which means Monday through Wednesday I have no classes and loads of "free time". Of course its not really free time at all. It is time I should be using wisely to prepare for my classes, search for internships (which I'll address in another blog), prepare for this management field study assignment required for graduation (also to be addressed later) and so on and so forth but I can't seem to bring myself to FOCUS.

I have reached out to close friends and other facebook buddies alike for advice and the suggestions ran the gambit from natural solutions such as peanuts, cranberries and ginko biloba to prescriptive solutions like Ritalin. I have tried some of them and at different times my head seems to be clearer than others but there is still something that is blocking me from being fully engaged in the tasks at hand.

If you are reading this and you pray, meditate or talk to whatever entity you believe in, will you do me a favor? Next time you and your "person" have your talks, mention that I'm having a bit of a tough time here and could use a mental breakthrough. This next year is going to be a long one and with my desires to return back to America increasing daily and that voice that says "Girl, what in thee heck are you doing with yourself right now?" getting increasingly louder, I'm going to need something a little stronger than Ritalin to shut her up.

Now was that necessary?

The second semester is over and done with and our grades came out last week. Overall I was pleased with my results with exception of one stupid C. Actually, I was really upset about that C and I'm really contemplating retaking the class so I don't have that C on my transcript. Note: In this program, if you take a class over and make a better grade the second time, the new grade replaces the old.

A few days ago, my classmate asked me what I got in Business Strategies and when I couldn't remember the grade I went back to check it out. I didn't notice at first when I checked my grades but for Business Strategies there was a hash mark where my grade should have been and a mark of "Failed" beside that! I didn't notice it because it was all the way at the bottom of the report card. Stunned by that discovery I quickly emailed the teacher to see what was going on. This Business Strategies class was a series of 6 lectures by different business professionals that each gave a homework assignment that would be evaluated and the averages of 5 of those assignments would be our final grade for the class.

It turns out that 2 of the lecturers didn't receive the emails I sent with my assignments in them for some reason. So I had to resend them to the Professor at my school who is in charge of handling the grades for this class and he resent them to the lectures who graded them and sent them back.

I just got an email from the Professor. Here is that message in its entirety:

"Hello:

I received the evaluations of your reports. On the basis of the average of five best scores, you got A (but not strong one)."

Now please tell me what his point was in saying "but not a strong one". He could have kept that last little bit to himself.