It's entrance exam season.

In japan, entering a college is much harder than graduating from it. (I heard that the opposite case is true in foreign countries.) Elementary school kids take private school until late at night to be able to enter a nice college in the future. Parents also enroll their children in establishments affiliated with prestigious colleges so that they can skip the difficult entrance exam. Japan is still an academic career-based society even now. If you can enter a good college, you may join a famous company after college. That would mean that you may get a good salary and stable life....Ahh it sounds so empty to me. What a boring life it would be. but recently, things are finally changing. I won't say that it is "meritocratic,” though. A good "college filter" is still working very well for job chances, but at least people’s idea for happiness seems to be changing. I would never want to work for one company until retirement.

By the way, today’s topic is not a serious one. February and March are the entrance exam season. In this season, entrance test takers and their parents are nervous. Many people make wishes to a god and businesses take advantage of it. Sometimes they are so funny and sometimes excessive. I wrote about ratboy, a Japanese robin hood. people chip off a piece of his grave because people wish for his "slipping into" skill. At a shrine, we write our wish on a wooden plate called an "ema". This is a regular type. I read Shiga prefecture has their own special ema. Shiga is well known their sigaraki pottery and the most famous motif is a Tanuki, which is a small animal that looks like raccoon. So they made this, Tanuki writes number 5. This is a play on words. in Japanese ta= other, nuki = over pass. The number 5 is read "go", and kaku = write. In Japanese gokaku = pass a test. "Tanuki writes 5" means "you will overpass others and pass a test". (does it make sense?)

Not only shrines, but you can also see such distorting(?) of wishes at the super market. Karl is very popular corn puff snack. During this season they have an Ukarl version because "ukaru" means to pass a test in Japanese. Hi-lemon is a lemon candy and it changes its name to Hi-ru-lemon, because "hairu" means to enter in Japanese. KitKat sells well in spring because KitKat sounds like "kitto katsu", which means perhaps to win. The reason why many of them have a cherry blossom design is not only because the entrance ceremony is held during cherry blossom season in April. In the past a notice of test results was sent by telegram and cherry blossoms blooming meant that "you pass", while fallen cherry blossoms meant "you fail". There are not only these, but there are many many wish goods and wish versions during this season.

Comments

[Kim Kah Hwi]

I am a lecturer in University Malaya I hope
Can somebody can send my soft-copy of secondary school enterence exam (chu gaku nuegaky shiken) for english maths and science in Japanese.
I am planing to send my daugther for study the secondary school in Japan so send me some question for preparing the entering exam.

[ashish]

i need some information about entrance exam conducted on district basisas tehsildar etc.and class 1 and class2 officer exam conducted in maharashtra state

[ashish]

i need some information about entrance exam conducted on district basisas tehsildar etc.and class 1 and class2 officer exam conducted in maharashtra state

[gOdong]

I think in Indonesia is the opposite. Entering university is easier than graduating from Senior High School. Sometimes I feel confusing about Indonesia academic system. Why the government can't place academic problem as hight priority.

[Rhys]

I'm not saying Chris is wrong, you can find a lot of forgiveness in the us education system. All I am saying about college is that because of the congress' recent deficit reduction bill - it's more expensive for poor students to go to college than ever before and now there is an economic incentive to push kids into math, science, and national defense interest language courses. I have nothing against those disciplines for those who choose them, I have an MBA in Finance after all. But I believe I am a better person for having a BA in anthropology. I dislike the message that some disciplines are superior to others. And graduate programs ARE starving for foreign students even Canadians are having trouble getting in.

[Chris]

I'm not so pessimistic on the US academic system as is Rhys. The reality is, as I mentioned with my comment on the community college system in Virginia: if you want to go to college, you can get it somewhere, and most likely you can get in at a State sponsored college system (and, at least in Virginia, community colleges often have affiliations with four year universities).

I not only attended college, but I worked for a State university for several years. The world is not crumbling. Universities and States find ways of getting students into Universities (and they don't stipulate that you have to give up on liberal arts).

It makes economic sense in the US to find ways of getting people into colleges and into diverse programs of study; therefore, it will make sense to continue having a system that doesn't gateway people out of being able to get into college or diverse programs of study based on a test scores in high school. We're not 1700 Oxford over here.

Chris

[Mari]

Hi There
They say "many Japanese companies today pay and promote workers based on talents and abilities, a sea change from a decade ago when seniority-based pay and promotion were the norm." This would be better society? maybe so. But this may make savage society? yes maybe so too.

[Rhys]

I feel so depressed about America's education system these days. We are taking all the bad parts about Japan's system and introducing it into our elementary and high school systems (mandatory yearly exams leading to rigid memorization). We are taking every strength of our vast university system and destroying it (our new federal college loan systems strongly incentivizes people to pursue "practical skills" majors like accounting and business instead over liberal arts). We are taking our strong Graduate programs and sapping them of the foreign students they need to keep America competitive. Either we don't let them in to study or we force them to leave the country when they finish. Perhaps the reign of the darklord Bush will end someday...

[Chris]

I first went to college quite a long time ago (1986) and recall the application approval period was very stressful. As was the experience getting into an MA English Lit program in 1991. At the time it's happening, the process feels like it will literally make or break your life.

Since then, though, I've discovered the joys of Virginia's Community College system, which is a great system for getting students from high school, the business world, and the community in general, into college-level, well-instructed classes. For example, on a whim, I decided to start taking Japanese and our Northern Virginia Community College system offers fantastic courses with bilingual native Japanese teachers (the College system offers Vietnamese, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, etc., too). It's a great way to receive a college level course-work (at the Freshman to Sophomore level only, however) without having to attend a four-year University. And just about anyone can gain admissions (as long as you have a high school diploma) -- but you do have to pass the classes! ;-)

Chris

[Shay]

Oh yes, it's entrance exam time. I've heard plenty about them and their infamy from my girlfriend (whom is Japanese). Have fun kids! ^_^

[Randy]

I really enjoyed this post.

In this state (Alabama), you may enter a Junior college on a probationary basis even if your high school grades were very poor.
If you do well in the Junior college then you may transfer into a 4 year college and usually most of the courses that you completed at the Junior college will transfer for credit to the 4 year college.