University In Japan
University In Japan
QR Link
Access this article on a mobile device
Preparation
Transcript
José Cruz: Do you think our students um appreciate the opportunity that they have here? In that sense you know, studying here?
Danny Minn: That’s a good question. I see these students, uh yeah in general their parents are paying (Right) for the tuition, and they’re even sending them money every month. (Bags of rice) Bags of rice and other ha ha.
José: Uh (other supp-) here I know I know you’re out of underwear, so here’s a- a three-pack (Yeah) of underwear for you too.
Danny: Yeah supplies, yeah. So Japanese students uh don’t really have to worry too much about money. (Right) Although they complain that they- they wish they had more money to, I don’t know, go out on the weekends.
José: Go to karaoke, yeah right right. (Yeah yeah) Which which you know, I- I we shouldn’t giggle about that. I mean everyone wants to have a chance to blow off some steam and stuff.
Danny: Yeah that’s fine. You want- you- Everyone needs to have a little play money. (Sure) Uh but I don’t know if most Japanese students appreciate their time at uni- universities, yeah.
José: I think one thing that kind of um shocks my students- and I don’t know if these numbers are the same, but certainly when I was going to university they were they were kind of like this. Generally in Japan, uh at least for all the time I’ve been here since 1991 to now. Um the the uh um- what’s the word I’m looking for– the matriculation rate from high school to university so that’s the entrance rate from uh high school to university, not the graduation rate uh was something like 85% to a four-year university. So something like 85% percent of kids went on to four-year university. I could be wrong about that. It could be like both second year and fourth year university
Danny: Yeah probably both. Yeah yeah.
José: Probably both. OK. Then there’s the technical colleges and stuff. Technical high schools and stuff but um, it is- it’s actually relatively rare to meet somebody who didn’t go to university for me. (Mm hmm) You get that experience? (In Japan?) Yeah (Right) Most of the Japanese people you meet went to university.
Danny: Right or including two- two year yeah yeah.
José: Including two-year programs, right? OK. So second- two-year and four-year programs. (Right) And 85% 80% is a fair number. (Mm) I think most of the people who’ve been living here long enough know that, yeah, that’s about right. (Mm) But when I tell my students that’s not the case in Canada and I ask them can you guess what the number is for a similar statistic in Canada. They just can’t guess that it’s something like 30% (Mm hmm) They you know- More than two-thirds of the people in America never get anywhere close to university. (Mm hmm) And this was before the the you know, the recent scandalous prices uh that are being charged in American universities. Even when it was reasonable, it was just hard to enter. (Mm hmm) And then I ask them, “Well now, do you know what our graduation rate is?” Because they think about the graduation rate in Japan, and it’s close to like 90%. (Right) If you enter, as long as you can keep paying you will graduate.
Danny: Right. Well, attend classes.
José: Well just-. T- Yeah you’ve got to- OK, you’ve got to show up a bit. But like it’s- Yeah, OK, that’s really rare, right. So OK let’s let’s make it easy, 80% again. (OK) OK? That that- It’s hard to argue with that number even if it’s, um even if you you put in all of those things. But um, when I tell them that you know, graduation rate in Canada is closer to 50% 40%. (Mm hmm) Most people don’t graduate even if they begin a program, they’re just shocked. Because I- I think people take it for granted that you’ll go to university here. (Mm) They’ll take it for granted that you’ll graduate. It’s part of that locomotive you were talking about before.
Danny: Ha ha. Yeah.
José: Right?
Consolidation
QR Link
Access this article on your mobile device
University In Japan
Speakers
José Domingo Cruz
Canadian
Vancouver, British Columbia
Danny Minn
American
Portland, Oregon
Statistics
- words (including pause words)
- minutes in the mp3 audio
- words per minute for this article
Related Posts
Spritz
To spritz only part of this conversation, highlight the text you want and click the “SPRITZ NOW!” button. Clicking the button without any text highlighted will spritz the entire page.
To quickly adjust the words per minute (wpm), you can use the left and right arrow keys.
Writing comments will help your English writing skills. Feel free to ask questions and share opinions. We try to respond to all comments we get on the site. test
1 Comment
Submit a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Recently, in japan, I think Most high school students Go on to university, too.
It is public flow or the environment where I grew up.
For, example my father graduated from high school and got a job.
That job is a leading company.
My father made an effort and became great some time.
But he cannot be promoted beyond a certain standard level because he is not in college.
He was not wealthy when he was child. So, he had no choice to go to college.
In this way If you do not graduate from university, the road will be closed in the future.
That’s why university entrance rate is high.
Also, I think that scholarships will spread.
I think university students are poor.
Certainly, many students pay remittance and tuition fee.
But, the more you go to urban colleges, the more money you pay.
For, example rent apartment, water bill, and electricity bill.
Especially, the rent of the apartment is high in the urban.
Urban students almost pay rent in the remittance.
So, that’s why I think most college students are working part-time job.
I have heard that Japanese universities are difficult to enter and easy to graduate and foreign universities are easy to enter and difficult to graduate, too.
But I don’t know the reason.
Why do you think?