International Interview report
Cecelia Johnson
5/9/08
4 period
International Interview project report
On April 26, 2008, at International studies Academy we sat down with Mitsui, Tomoko and interview her on living and studying in Japan. She came to San Francisco to attend college and she also came because she feels like they expect everyone. The main thing she talked about was education so in this essay I will be talking about education in Japan. We asked her what she thought was the best thing about the United States. She answers, “I think the education is better and I also used to look at the politics and think that it was a very strong country.” She confessed that she likes the United States a lot but she also misses Japan. We asked what she misses most about Japan. She looked and laugh and said, “I really miss Italian and how everything thing is very high tech especially the toilets and I also miss being a citizen.” U can tell that sometime she feel like she does belong, it’s obvious that she really misses Japan but she goes to visited a lot so she does really miss it that much.
She talked about education in her country and from what she said going to college in Japan isn’t as hard as is seem. She said “they just study in high school to get the name and be able to say oh I go to this university.” According to what she seen in Japan people only try really hard in high school so that when their final examination come they could do really well and are able to get into one of the best universities, she confessed that once your in college you don’t do much. She said, “Once you’re in college they don’t really care about getting good grades.” She compared college in Japan to college in the United States she said, “I think it’s good here you go to school to study really hard.” In Japan as long as you don’t get fs you pass and you can graduate basically. She feels that going to college in United States is better than in Japan. College in Japan isn’t hard only in high school and passing the examination.
She also talked about how the interaction between student and teachers or different she said, “I feel bad when I ask the teacher questions I feel like I’m going to stop the teacher from talking.” According to what she said she feels like she going to stop the class from learning if she asked a question she feel weird asking questions. In her country everybody’s is the same and she doesn’t feel bad about asking the teacher questions. I was interested to hear about how everybody is the same so I asked her, “Is boys and girls treated equally in Japan schools she said. “There are treated equally but I sometimes I feel like boy’s can do more like things than girls as in sports and other things. In my mind I was thinking the same thing that it was just like the United States sometime I feel the same way that boys get to do more than girls.
When we asked her what’s school like and what do the wear she said, “They wear uniform and they are really well behaved.” In my mind I was thinking that I wish it was like here because unlike Japan, the students are not that well behaved from what I’ve seen in the schools. She also said, “I like it better here because everyone’s different in Japan every ones the same everyone’s doing the same thing you can be your own person here.” That’s good it’s like that her because you always want to be your own per son you don’t want to be the same as each other.
Mutsui Tomoko also talked about scholarships she said, “ I like it here also because when you get a scholarship here you can change your major, In Japan you have to stick to one thing you can’t change it are you have to pay the scholarship back. According to what she said you can’t change your major you have to stick to one thing in Japan colleges. Here it’s not like that at all you get as much time is you want to decide what you’re going to do and pick your major. She said, “If I change my major I would have to pay almost 7,000 a year is very hard to change.” The United States is better than Japan you don’t have to pay anything back.
It seems to me that education in the United States is so much better than education in Japan. Maybe going to school in Japan isn’t as hard as is seem from what she told us people in the United States take college more seriously than in Japan. To me it seems like it’s not difficult at all. This project was a good experience I have never done nothing like this before. It taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know about Japan. It was fun I enjoyed it, one thing that she said that stick with me is once they get into college they don’t really care about getting good grades that just get into college to say oh I go to this university. It surprised me I didn’t think that is was like that in Japan. This was a fun project and I would love to do it again and maybe ask something’s that I didn’t get to asks.