Oakland high school students share impressions of Japan
Posted Jul 14 2007
I think this is a funny situation, where a person talks to a complete stranger, giving all kind of information. However the interviewee talks about a lot of great topics. One that catches my attention is the difference between Tokyo and Ogaki. I am familiar with Tokyo because it is the capital and we've talk about it in class many times. But Ogaki, I have never heard of before. I'm guessing since Ogaki is an easier place to live if you have a family that it must not be as crowded as Tokyo.I find it weird how the youth face their problems. The interviewee says how they are having education being taken away from them because the government is not funding them. I see that their problems are much different than youth in the U.S. Their problems all face technology and education but in the U.S. our problems is violence. I'm not trying to say they have it better than us, but I do feel that it is a lot safer there.
The interviewee says that American don't feel they have to help out immigrants, as if it was their choice to come here, I also agree with him when he says that the U.S. expects immigrants to speak English fluently while in other countries people constantly apologize for not speaking English that well.-Jestin R.
I think the interview was very interesting. It covered very controversial topics that exist not only in Japan but in the United States and all over the world. For example, it talked about immigration, women, gang violence, education, the government, laws and even cell phones and texting. There were many things that caught my attention. The first one was about the gang violence. I found it interesting that a lot of the gang violence was blamed or caused by the Latino immigrants in Japan. The second thing that caught my attention was how that Japanese government does a lot to try to help out immigrants. That's very different from the U.S, where a lot of Americans don't feel that it’s their responsibility to help out immigrants. The U.S. doesn't really do much. Instead, they blame immigrants for all their problems. I think Japan is doing a very good job for that. They set up classes so immigrants could learn the language and to me that was very interesting. Another thing that caught my attention was how women in Japan don't receive the respect and attention they deserve. Even though Japan may be more advanced in technology the U.S. is more advanced when it comes to equality of males and females.-Arely A.
How is it that in Japan a place that kids are pushed to be the best these "freeters" can live? They must be going through hell with family but they would love it here in the US if they have the game to get a girl. The women work with the men but have kids and it seems like they feel they cannot work in the same way.
If someone is more "intelligent" then another, so what? All should be able to get a good paying job. Most governments do not care about their people.
If some people here could do what the "major companies " are doing over there, life would be good for them.-Ed H.
This article includes facts about many things that are kind of similar to some of the U.S. One thing that she talked about was how life is different in Tokyo and Ogaki. She said that Ogaki was a place to live easier. Ogaki is much safer and people are more open and anyone will talk to anyone. Another thing that she talked about that was interesting was that there's a large number of Brazilians living in Japan. Brazilians are like immigrants here in the U.S. They are willing to work for a very low wage, which Japanese won’t do. Here people that are documented won’t work for low wages, but undocumented immigrants will. Another point that caught my attention was how women that worked for the government are not as important as men in that business. When a woman has ideas on how to organize something their ideas will get ignored. Chinese girls usually go to Japan and then start working at night clubs. This article was very interesting to read because we got to know about how someone from Japan thought about their own people. We can also see that just how teenagers here are always on their cell phone and communicating through the internet. People don't communicate through (spoken) words anymore. This article actually shows how there are some similarities to our way of living.-Maricela C.
One point that caught my attention in the article is that Ogaki has no big gang problems This relates to me because in Oakland there is a huge gang problem and it surprised me to hear of a place with very low gang problems today. Another point that caught my eye was that there were a lot of immigrants that move to Japan. In the article it mentions that there was a lot of Brazilians that go to Japan to find work, especially in over-populated places. This relates to me because many immigrants that I know and see come to the United States to make more money and start a new life. If an immigrant does not like his new way of life then they move to a different part of the city, another city or move back to where he or she came from. The final point that I saw was that the few Brazilian teacher are trained in Brazil not Japan. Many of the teachers I have asked at our school either were trained in the Bay (outside of Oakland) or in another part of the United States. -Ricardo A.
There are many things that caught my attention but three caught my attention more and made me think a lot. The first one is that there are Brazilians in Japan. Another thing that caught my attention is that Japanese people teach Brazilians how to speak Japanese and Brazilians teach Japanese people how to speak in their language. What I am trying to say is that these two countries care for each other and not like Americans who don't feel that it’s their responsibility to help out immigrants because it was their choice to move to the United State so they should have to adapt. And the last thing that caught my attention is that there are a lot of countries who want to get involve with Japan's culture, like Brazil and Portugal. In conclusion I learn that Japan is like United State because both have immigrants. -Candido S.
The interview helped me understand more of Japanese life and how it is very similar to life here in Oakland. One example to this would probably be the drop out cases. I say this because both students from Japan and Oakland drop out because of their frustrations and their problems in life. They usually become criminals or join a gang.
In a girls case in Japan and Oakland females disrespect themselves when they don't have money. Girls in the U.S become prostitutes because of economic problems, and over in Japan females tend to work in strip clubs. Even though they don’t get a lot of money, they do it because it’s better than not having anything at all.
The United States and Japan are not alike when it comes to immigrants. I say this because in Japan they tend to help out an immigrant and in the United States they just treat them all wrong.- Leslie V.
I agreed with the article. It had many things that I liked or agreed with. Most of the things I agreed with were about immigrants in the area and how they work. Like the Brazilians for example, all they do is work. Working keeps them away from getting caught and sent back.
The schools grabbed my attention too because I didn't think that the schools were all that good out there. According to the article Ogaki Kita High School is one of Japan’s best. Only the top 10% of local junior high students are eligible to go there.
In the article it said that gender is still not equal. It is not equal because the mom is just working hard. The dad just does chores at home, and picks up the kids from school. It is also said that many high school boys waste up all their money at a bar in one night, so they live off their girlfriends and parents.
I can't relate to it because everything especially our laws are different from theirs. Like they are high school boys or they must be young and they can go to bars. Here in the U.S. if you get caught doing that you will be in a lot of trouble. The immigration is just like the U.S. The Brazilians in Japan work so they won’t get caught. Here in the U.S. you have many Latinos trying to work to stay away from getting deported. I just can't relate to this one though, to live off a girlfriend. In my point of view I think that's embarrassing and disrespectful. That is why I can't relate to most of the article. –Jaciel G.
This article is very interesting, specially were it says that immigrants in Japan are given a lot of more help and support so that they could learn how to speak Japanese and to get used to Japanese culture and way of life. I think that it is very interesting since in the U.S. it is difficult for immigrants to get help and support since Americans here in the United States feel that immigrants should go back to their country and that they don't have the same rights as citizens from the U.S.
It is also interesting how women don't get the same respect as men do. This means that up to now men and women are still not equal. I think that should speak whatever they got on their mind since our opinion is very important in society and may change a lot of issues that we are going through. The article also talked about how women in the government also were not taken so seriously and that their opinion sometimes didn't matter.
Another interesting point that I thought was interesting was that when Brazilians couldn't learn Japanese or just didn't went to school they would start hanging out in the streets and start hanging out with gangs. For me this is interesting because it seems familiar how when teenagers drop out of school (in Oakland) you also see them hanging out in the streets whit their friend and doing bad things.-Maria A.
Based on what I read, Japan sounds like a nice place to live. Where I come from and where I live it's rare when someone is friendly. It’s interesting how Japan got Spanish speaking people like the Brazilians.
Japan is a place to live when you want to relax and don't have to worry about watching your back. It will be nice if in the place live people where I live people will walk me home. Also how people will ask you if you needed help. What catches my attention is the fact that they won't discriminate with the language that you speak.
The population of Brazilians in Japan is amazing, how a lot of immigrants here we call Mexicans immigrants so over there the Brazilians are considered immigrants. The positive thing about being a immigrant in Japan is they don't get put you down and have people discriminate against them like here in the United States people.-Edgar B.
I really liked this article I feel like it’s so right in what is going on. This also shows how Tokyo really is it has its negatives but they don't go to the extreme or compare to the U.S.
I feel like Japan is a real nice country. It treats all of its people well. That's being compared to the U.S. I read the part about the Brazilians. At least Japan try's to treat everyone equal. Not like the U.S. They treat immigrants bad, especially Mexicans. But like I said, they do have some negatives like how they have a working system that wants to keep the non-prepared people that live in Japan down. But mostly all countries are like these.-Cesar F.
There a lot things that there different from the U.S. In Japan they don't discriminated the people. In the U.S they discriminate against the people that come from other counties. For example, Latinos have been discriminated against. In Japan they help you if you’re lost. In the U.S they don't do that. People there in Japan are nice with you.- Celia M.
One important fact that I saw was that in Ogaki there exist the same problems as here in the United States. Here, there are gang related problems. Here and there people are fighting against their own people. Brazilians are fighting against Brazilians and so on. People shouldn’t be fighting against each other. Instead, they should try and help other people out, especially people from there own race or the same place they come from.
Another fact I saw was that over in Ogaki schools have reputations as well. Some schools have teachers that are more qualified to teach better in some schools. In other schools teachers tend to help kids better. Even though all schools supposedly are public schools some have more things to work on. For example not in all the schools the teachers teach English and in all the rich kids schools they do teach the language.
A fact that I saw that was important was that women are not treated equally. They say that they do but they really don’t. Women still don’t have the same power to what they say. It’s the same as here in the U.S. The females go and pick up there kids to school and do all the chores in there houses. Men tend to get more promotions in their jobs easier. Men treat women with much less respect and do not listen to there opinions.- Karina V.
These things caught my attention because not only did it say that Japanese people were being nice to the immigrants but also it said that they were being nice to them by understanding. It caught my attention because I am not sure but I think that maybe learning Japanese is a language that you can learn faster then English .
The other main point that I saw in the article was that when the Brazilians first arrive there they will be assisted in school to learn Japanese from a real Japanese person. Also it’s the same situation with Japanese because if they want to learn a language they just go to school and pay to get professional teachers to show them. I wonder why doesn’t it happen over hear in the U.S.-Irving C.
I really like this article because most of the people in Japan are very friendly to each other. It’s not like over here in Oakland where not a lot of people are friendly to each other.
Some things that Japan and Oakland have in common is when immigrants enter a new country they have to speak the same language. If they don’t, they would be the most likely to drop out of school. They would start doing drugs or even join gangs. Some of these people would even become criminals.
Most women in Japan don’t have the same rights as men. They would be treated unfairly. In Oakland the women do have the same rights as men.
In Japan the Brazilian people that enter would also be called immigrants. That’s one thing that caught my attention. I only though that Mexican people would be the ones, but no. Most of the people in Japan don’t really make fun of your language. They would try to help you. Some of them would even try to learn your language if they can.-Gustavo S.
all of this articals sound verry intresting, I like the fukt that all of our students had so muche to say and at their aige they all sound very weal inform and inteligent