Do you know in Japan, the teachers will make sure their messages are clearly delivered to their pupils by politely asking their pupils : " Is my message clear enough? " If a pupil raises his/her hand to ask the teacher to repeat the messages, the teacher will actually go over to the pupil, bow his/her head and apologise for not getting the messages across clearly to the pupil! Ridiculous right?!

Picture the above mentioned scenario in Singapore, our teachers will probably say, in a harsh tone : " I think all of you are already clear about what I want, right? So don't let me repeat them again! " You can probably see the fearful eyes in the kids. Even if they don't understand what their teachers demand, they will most likely not ask their teacher to repeat for fear of being scolded.

Another scenario in a Japanese classroom, if a pupil thinks that he/she already understand what the teacher is trying to teach, the pupil can actually raise his/her hand to inform the teacher : " Hi Teacher X, I already know this, can I do my other stuffs? " The teacher will proceed to say : " Yes, pupil Y and other pupils who already understand this topic, please go ahead and do your other stuffs. " If more than half of the pupils raise their hands and request the teacher to skip to the next topic, the teacher will actually do as the pupils had requested! The teacher will proceed to tell those who didn't raise their hands that he/she will arrange another session to teach them. So exaggerating isn't it?!

Can you imagine this happening in Singapore's classroom? Kids will abuse this special privilege and climb all over the teachers! Where will the teachers stand then?!

Such is some of the teaching methods in Japan!

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 3:23 PM