For the past two years, my family and I lived in South Korea. As a family of polyglots and strong advocates of assimilation when living in other countries’, my husband and I took it upon ourselves to prioritize a full linguistic and cultural immersion for ourselves and our two children during our time there. We also took advantage of the inexpensive airfare costs and traveled to Japan regularly.
During our time in Korea, I fully immersed my daughter into the Korean school system. However, as we were nearing the end of our stay, I began to fully comprehend the enormity of finding an appropriate school to facilitate a love of learning, academically and emotionally, within my child. It was during one of our many visits to Japan that I came across one of the most life-altering thought-processes as a parent.
Within the United States, math is often viewed as a particularly difficult subject. There’s a common stereotype that says if you’re Asian, you must be good at math. This statement is obviously not logical, one has nothing to do with the other. Interestingly enough, when I looked at the Japanese school system, math was not a particularly challenging subject. There was not a large number of students who failed, it wasn’t dreaded, feared, or followed by a groan (usually). So, could it be true that Japanese students are simply better at math than American students because they’re Asian? And looking beyond the math example, could it be that Japanese students simply perform better than their American peers?
The answer is yes, but not for the reasons people assume. Japanese students are not inherently better at math than American students. In fact, the secret behind their success is a cultural one.
In social psychology, the theory of planned behavior is a means of using emotions about a behavior and intentions about a behavior will predict the actual outcome of behavior. While this is far from simple to predict, Japanese culture has created one of the most profound and simple examples utilizing the theory of planned behavior within their education system. As a collectivist culture, majority of Japanese students’ report enjoying school (Mandrapa, 2015), and the failure of one child is not just the failure of the student, it is the failure of the entire community. As such, students have a positive attitude towards education, pressure to prioritize academic success, and the follow-through of behavior (seeking academic success) places them within the in-group. Which, while important in Western culture, is vital within collectivist idealism.
As a parent, finding the correct approach to kicking off my daughters’ education has been a primary concern of mine since I initially found out I was pregnant. What attitudes did I want her to adopt? How could I create motivation for success without creating a negative stressor? Watching the masterful application of the theory of planned behavior within Japanese culture, I came to find that the process of creating an emotional and intellectually intelligent child isn’t quite as difficult as it was once made out to be.
References
Mandrapa, N. (2015, March 11). Interesting Facts about Japanese School System. Retrieved November 3, 2019, from https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/interesting-facts-about-japanese-school- system/.
Due to the young age of my daughter (she was in Kindergarten) we were not pressured towards academic success by our Korean neighbors. Instead, the primary focus was on assimilation, manners, and general cultural compliance. Things such as Hagwons (after-school programs), extremely early government subsidized daycare (Korean day cares accept children as early as 6-months and they are widely used), and constant social engagement were strongly encouraged. When discussing future education concerns and policy with my Korean friends I was commonly faced with statements like “Wow! You sound just like a Korean Mom!” or “I didn’t know Westerners were so concerned about their children’s education!”, which shows a fairly common stereotype. Since my daughter never ‘failed’ at anything academically, culturally, or linguistically, there was never any negative impact reflected on our family. Instead, my constant involvement, my own linguistic prowess, magnified by my daughters aptitude made us an excellent example of a successfully integrated family. Funny enough, when we moved, a friend who chose to enroll her daughter in our old Kindergarten informed me that my daughters picture appeared frequently throughout the promotional enrollment paperwork.
I think this is an excellent post. Often times people attribute academic success to genetic factors like ethnicity, but it is very true that cultural differences make a huge difference in how education is appreciated and executed. There are distinct differences in the quality of education systems between individualistic countries like the United states and collectivist countries like Japan and China. Like you mentioned, students often excel in education in collectivist cultures because there is a major emphasis on the success of the family and not just self. A failure by the student in collectivist cultures is seen as a failure of the family and a disgrace to their honor. According to Gruman, Schneider, and Coutts (2017), someone within this collectivist culture would classify their family and community as an integral part of their “self.” I am curious to hear if you and your family experienced these social pressures to succeed academically in order to bring honor to the family or if you were assimilated into the Western philosophy that success is a personal mission and not reflective of the family. I’m sure it would be more difficult to make that transition to collectivist society because it can be overwhelming.