Cultural Differences 2: Teacher - Student Relationship
Several years ago as an Instructor at Nagasaki Junior College of Foreign Languages I shocked a couple of students by saying, “I’m a human first, a man second, and a teacher third.” The explanation involves not only personal opinion differences between individuals, but cultural differences between Japanese and Americans in regard to the role of a teacher. These differences become important to understand as more and more Japanese study with American teachers.
In Japan, like the rest of Asia, a teacher is respected and looked up to. Rules govern the behavior of students towards their teachers. Young Japanese are taught to say “sensei” rather than addressing the person by name. Young Japanese are also expected to use polite forms of language at all times. I’m not sure how prevalent this is, but many Japanese high school and younger students also bow as they enter and exit a teacher’s room. To an American’s eyes, this sort of extremely formal behavior is a little strange. I gather that in Japan the teacher is approached with a mixture of respect and caution, if approached at all. Perhaps students even avoid approaching teachers because they are in awe or feel fear.
Growing up in America I was taught to address the teacher as Mr. or Mrs. followed by their family name. In America today, some elementary school students are ignoring, or rejecting, even that low level of formality, addressing teachers by their given names instead. I guess for an American I’m a little traditional in that I could never approve of, say, a second grader calling me “John.” The few times my nephew called me “John” rather than “Uncle John,” I did feel that this was too familiar and a little disrespectful. So some level of formality between student and teacher is not unheard of in American, nor adverse to my own views. However, I’ve been referring to elementary, middle school, and high school students to now. What about university students and their professors?
I encourage my students to call me “John.” This mainly stems from the fact that I am acknowledging that my students are adults, and that I am still middle-aged, if not young (I like to think so!). I’m not sure how I’ll feel when I’m 50, or 60, or even 70. For now “John” is fine even though I don’t feel offended by students who persist in calling me “sensei.” Addressing another person involves, of course, mere words. We could say different forms of address are cultural, but they also reveal underlying attitudes and ways of thinking. How do my students perceive me? More important to the point of this essay, how do my students perceive our relationship?
Western teachers sometimes feel a coolness from students in Japan. However, as is always the case living in a foreign culture, we don’t know exactly when the coolness is personal, and when it’s cultural.
One example is from previous years when I required all students to come visit my office to talk about the class and their progress. In many cases I was forced to ask a string of questions, to which I received, most often, brief replies. Most students did not open up, freely discussing their concerns, criticisms, desires, or even chit chat. However, some foreign students were also members of my class. With those students the conversations were not so formal. The conversations flowed without as much tension. With foreign (non-Japanese) students, neither of us seemed to be playing our roles of student and teacher, although we each were aware of those roles. On the other hand, many Japanese students do not seem to feel comfortable talking with the “sensei.”
How do Japanese students--elementary, junior high school, high school, and university age--feel about their relationship with teachers? Are there strict rules to follow and precise roles to fulfill? You, my students, can answer these questions more fully than I.
Perhaps I’ve drifted away from my original statement that I promised to explain, that I’m a human first, a man second, and a teacher third. I say this because nature endowed me with being a human, and being a man. In a sense, these are not roles I play, but my natural state. Being a teacher, on the other hand, is a role. Human rules for behavior in certain circumstances has certain value. However, in my heart, I feel that these are just roles and we should be able to see beneath and beyond the roles so we don't see a category, or a label, or an idea, but the actual person. “All the world is a stage,” Shakespeare wrote, “and all of us just actors.” I hope we all can enjoy the “play” unfolding at AIU, and enjoy and learn from our relationships with those "above" us (teachers, administration, and upper classmen) and those "below" us (your juniors).
posted by giant @ 1:39 AM
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