WTF Japan? Epic thread of problems

[PaulOakenfold]

Actually Finnish is pretty average language on most accounts. Just different from what you are used to One thing we have a lot is "cases" (?), for example

tiede = science
tieteen
tiedettä
tieteenä
tieteeksi
tieteessä
tieteestä
tieteeseen
tieteellä
tieteeltä
tieteelle
tieteettä
tieteineen
tietein

I cba to make example lines of them to translate. Constructing new words is easy and basically you can make infinitely long words in Finnish using suffixes (not that they mean anything sensible anymore thou). Somewhere it was said that this is the longest word that has been in use (I guess it's too long for the forum because it adds a space there )

lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliups eerioppilas

Pronouncingwise Finnish has to be one of the easiest languages in the world. Basically it's just read as it's written. Although I suppose it's hard to pickup for english speakers because of double (long) vowels and consonants and maybe some other things.

If you are interested in languages, goto http://wals.info/

Oh yeah, japs are crazy

Haha, we have an English version of that. In English, however, our long complicated words are based in Latin, and aren't spoken and basically used in just doctoral-paper-land, or PhD MD land.

There's so much stupid controversy over it (not mainstream mind you, behind the nerd English scenes). Here's the wikipidia on it, you won't learn any damn English from it though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English

edit: to be honest, I grew up always thinking this was our longest real word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidis...shmentarianism and I bet a lot of people here that grew up in North America would agree.

[PaulOakenfold]

By the way, Finnish sounds like that Elvish language in Lord of the Rings movies to me and my friends. I think it and Icelandic (I'm sure that language may be easier for you for reasons you explained earlier) are just so fucking foreign to us Germanic-Anglican speakers that we're completely ignorant to it and just say 'sounds complicated' :/.

[Pandagirl!]

Honestly, as a second language as child I found French easier. It's easier as a child to remember feminine from masc. My first language was actually German (first year was in Lithuania before moving to Britain and then America many year later) and holy crap was that the best language. I think everyone should stop adapting to American English and Chinese Mandarin and start adapting to the so so easy German Language. I sound like god damn Hitler right now, but really, it's a basic language.

I agree. I took German in high school and I picked it up quite easily. This might have to do with the fact that it sounds so much like English, but I dunno.

[Displaced]

fun fact, Japanese can pronounce Finnish (i.e. read out loud from a book) almost perfectly even though they have never seen the language before :turned:

[Izor]

too bad they cant say r's/l's

[RednaZ]

fun fact, they can.

[Galleleo]

Doesn't Japan have various layers in their language, depending on who you talk to in Japan? Like, you talk differently against a peer than you would talk to an older person?

Personally I prefer southern Dutch/Flamish to German, it is a lot softer sounding and not as harsh as German. It is true that German is not a very complicated language besides the whole der/dem/das whatever...

I hate French, I can't stand the language, for some reason English comes very naturally to me, but at other languages I tend to suck. I can understand and follow German, but I can't really speak it. I am lost when it comes to French.

[Money]

edit: to be honest, I grew up always thinking this was our longest real word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidis...shmentarianism and I bet a lot of people here that grew up in North America would agree.

supercalifragilous-expialidocious?

[Liquid Blue]

I think it's really interesting to see how Hikkomori is so prevalent throughout Japanese society. Or I should say, how the society is handling it. I understand it's a different culture and I try to embrace different cultures so I can learn more about them (and myself)- I just find it fascinating how like I mentioned in the OP, a family literally built another kitchen when their son locked himself in their old kitchen.

The suicides and long work hours, as well as the HUGE fear of losing face like Displaced and Epi mentioned, are also things I kind of knew about, but didn't think they were so deep-rooted and intertwined in that society. There's always been the big noise about Japan's strict work-ethic and how much the students study, how long they study and the pressure- so it's understandable that so many (and I don't blame them) simply cannot take the pressure and high expectations thrust upon them. It's alot to deal with, especially considering they're dealing with teenage drama ontop of all of that.

Since alot of the suicides are people in their mid twenties and thirties, I wonder how long the level of pressure on studying and getting into a good school/job has been going on? Since the 60's, 70's?

This is a really interesting set of issues and I'm glad so many are willing to talk about it here.

[Epinephrine]

The Japanese education system is similar to many other East Asian education systems. Basically, there are standardized tests for everything.

As I understand, they have exams at the end of primary school which determine what middle school they get into. Then there's exams to determine which high school you get into. And then if you want to go to university, each university has a special exam you have to write to get into it. Because of all these exams, especially the university exam, a lot of people end up going to 'cram school', basically after school lessons in an attempt to learn extra material to pass these exams.

I believe there are specific tests for each school you have to specially write, although there may ALSO be some super standardized super-test which is for everyone. Either way, these tests also have rankings so you know exactly how you ranked compared to everyone else.

As I understand, schools also may individually rank students, and post this information publicly after each semester as well.

So basically, there's a lot of stupid hurdles to pass through to get anywhere in life and you're constantly ranked and compared to your peers. I could imagine that to be a bit stressful for all but the smartest students.

The immense pressure for these university exams is not to be underestimated. I know there is a similar system in Hong Kong. Even now, my parents still have nightmares of waking up late for the exam, or showing up for that exam and not knowing the answers. It's one of those things that really drives people crazy.

[Izor]

As I understand, schools also may individually rank students, and post this information publicly after each semester as well.

So basically, there's a lot of stupid hurdles to pass through to get anywhere in life and you're constantly ranked and compared to your peers. I could imagine that to be a bit stressful for all but the smartest students.

The immense pressure for these university exams is not to be underestimated. I know there is a similar system in Hong Kong. Even now, my parents still have nightmares of waking up late for the exam, or showing up for that exam and not knowing the answers. It's one of those things that really drives people crazy.

Wait schools over here dont individually rank students!??!

I think what you mean, is that people actually give a fuck about what 'rank' they are as students. Me? I never gave a fuck. In fact, about the top 10% of my high school class really cared too much about their rank from my memory.

[Epinephrine]

I guess America is more crazy than here. My schools never ranked anyone.

[Squeezer]

I guess America is more crazy than here. My schools never ranked anyone.

Come on.

You didn't know we too were highly subjected to and evaluated based on standardized testing?

You have hear of the SAT right? That thing you used to have to get over 1000 on, or be a super duper dunkmaster to get into college?

In my state there is a standard test issued in 1st, 4th, 7th and 11th grade, called the WASL (WA= Washington Standard Learning test). Two years ago an amendment was passed by the state that declared every public school student had to pass the WASL before graduating from high school. You get two chances to do that. If you fuck up your two chances, too bad. No HS diploma in the state of Washington.

Kind of fucked up if you ask me. That's part of the reason I went to private school. I didn't have to worry about touching that crap.

edit: and lets not even get into how these tests affect school funding.

[Pandagirl!]

We have those tests in Ohio too, the Ohio Graduation Test. You take them for the first time as a sophomore, and you can retake any section you fail twice a year (once in spring and once in fall) until you pass/stop trying. But really though, the tests were a joke and ridiculously easy.

We also had tests starting in 3rd grade. I'm not really sure what the purpose was - probably just to rank schools and see if they are teaching well. We had to take the Terra Nova test, which was the lesser of the tests, in 3rd, 5th, and 7th grade. We took the Proficiency Tests, which were a big deal, in 4th and 6th. Maybe 8th too - I don't remember.

However, our class rankings weren't really a big deal at my school. Anyone who had a 4.0 or above was automatically ranked #1 in the class, so nobody really cared and wanted to be the one who was officially number 1. I ended up something like 13 with a 4.1, but it was recorded as #1 so it didn't really matter.

[Summa]

We have those tests in Ohio too, the Ohio Graduation Test. You take them for the first time as a sophomore, and you can retake any section you fail twice a year (once in spring and once in fall) until you pass/stop trying. But really though, the tests were a joke and ridiculously easy.

You say that from the perspective of a well educated female from Ohio who had the means to succeed. What about the kids who are socioeconomically retarded? It isn't a joke, and it isn't ridiculously easy. Same for those who are disabled. You are someone who is attending college so I will simply assume that you are fairly intelligent and got a lucky draw in the gene pool. Not everyone is that lucky or intelligent. Now what you have in Ohio seems far more lenient than what we have here in Washington and seems to be set up in a way that encourages success far more than our WASL that gives you 2 shots or else go get your GED if you got the money for it. Here's the thing though: a college degree is now the equivalent of what a high school degree used to be. So what use is that really? I mean sure it is better than nothing, but hey once you are done with that standardized test, hop on board the SAT train and standardize yourself once more. And just maybe you will punch in the correct combo to get yourself into some higher education.