JSランゲージスクールブログ | High school in Japan and United States
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Today I would like to talk about studying in high school in Japan vs. studying in the United States. The systems used in school are very different in these two countries.
High school in the United States is more relaxed compared to Japan in my opinion. Many schools in the U.S. focus on extracurricular activities for their students, such as sports, choir, or drama. They want students to be well-rounded individuals. This means that students should be able to do many things well, not just studying. If you want to go to a good university in the United States, you have to get good grades and also be involved in volunteering and you also have to show that you are a leader in some way. If you are involved in more clubs and volunteering, it is more likely you can go to a good school.
In Japan, students in high school are very focused on their studies if they want to go to a good school. Japan mainly looks at how well students perform on tests to evaluate their ability and to decide whether they can get into a high-level school. If students join a club in Japan, they usually only join one because school clubs take a lot of time and also many clubs are active all year. In the United States, many clubs are seasonal and you do not have to go to every meeting, so you can join a lot of clubs at the same time.
In Japan, high school seems to be the most stressful time for studying. Many students are worried about getting into a good university, so most of their free time is devoted to studying. Many students go to cram school so that they can do better in school. Cram schools do not really exist in the United States. We have some institutions for studying after school, but students only go there if they are not doing well in school. High school students in the United States have much more free time than students in Japan. However, in university the roles of the two countries switch.
