Imperial Pokemon

[JC Helary]

Le Thu, Feb 01, 2001 a 06:47:48PM -0800, Dennis Robert Redmond a ecrit:

> Pretty much every culture on the planet has similar forms of violence,
> though. I remember from my own high school days being mugged, bowled over
> by a stomach punch, hassled as a geek, etc. The hierarchies are more
> subtle in the US, but they're still there.

i am not saying they are not (or they are only in japan). maybe what i feel 
here is based on a 'misunderstanding' of the local codes, but well, I've 
travelled to Lebanon, Cambodia, countries in Europe, the USA enough to realize 
that there is something else here. still, i always try to make parallels to 
what i lived in france until adolescence. ok, briefly said, the hierarchies 
here are unnaturally strong, they are inhuman and they are very explicit, i am 
not talking about subtle understanding of how you relate to your surrounding 
but how a one year difference can totally change the way foreigners deal with 
each other. this starts in school (primary) where the kids move on together to 
junior hs and then to senior hs. for 12 years, they are together, with the 
same kids in the grade above and below. this social (age) difference is a 
basic principle on which they base everything. thus the symbolic importance of 
the seijin ceremony, when they all gather one last time before becoming adults.

i don't know the rate of kids who stay in one grade one extra year, 
but according to the reaction of teachers and kids during my school visits 
-about 60 over the course of 3 years- i'd say it is almost non existant.

> Any sign of the Japanese high school system significantly changing?

nothing i heard of, not that there are no 'educational' reform though, but the 
system is not going to change if you don't touch ps jhs and uni as well, which 
is not going to happen (ooops, in fact national universities are to be 
'privatized' if the related law makes it to the assemblies, but here again, i 
am not up to date.)

jc helary