Actually, in some ways Japanese schools do a better job of promoting individuality than most of ours do. In math classes, Japanese schools are more oriented toward solving problems creatively and less toward just following the same rote steps on each question.

That said, the way in which schools are measured is also seriously flawed at the moment. On account of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are required to IMPROVE every year until 100% of students pass the standardized test that the state school board decides to use as an instrument. Failure to improve results in the failing grade Razara is referring to. Tragically, you can't even blame NCLB on Bush, Clinton was promoting something virtually identical when he was president.

Sorry to derail.

I've learned far more through my own study endeavors than I did in the vast majority of my formal schooling. That being said, even though Arizona's public schools suck ass, my high school had a rigerous honors program, and though I almost went to UC-Berkeley (too goddamn expensive holy shit), ASU Honors College has assets comprable to Harvard. If you're a Joe Blow Sun Devil, though, good luck. ASU Main is the definition of a diploma mill, and Michael Crow is lowering entrance requirements AGAIN. Since Arizona doesn't have a tier system like California and Texas, you get the kids that could set curves at MIT and the kids who wouldn't last a week in the same school. It's interesting.

blahblahblah wrote:

Business Context

Intercultural communication occurs in many different types of business settings, including domestic contexts with multicultural workforces and international contexts. Intercultural communication occurs in encounters with supervisors, subordinates, peers, clients, and customers. These cultural differences are reflected in three areas: work-related values, communication styles, and business etiquette.
Work Related Values
You should recall from the Topic of What is Culture that values are enduring concepts of what is right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust, moral or immoral, etc. that guide society in response to social episodes or contexts. When it come to the business context, there are six values that need to be considered: power distance, individualism versus collectivism, work as material gain, quality versus efficiency, task versus relationship priority, gender expectations, and interpersonal relationships for gain. And so forth and so forth.

Translation by Giovanna's limbic system wrote:

'Intercultural communication' occurs in many different types of business settings, including the office, the boardroom, the break room, the elevator, and the odd secluded janitor's closet. Intercultural communication occurs in encounters with supervisors, subordinates, peers, clients, and customers, but it's most fun when it's a supervisor and you're a naughty naughty woman jockeying for power with the best tool available to you while you get bent over your Indian/German/Italian/South African/Japanese/Egyptian supervisor's desk. The cultural variations on these situations are reflected in three areas: amount of foreplay, degree of coercion, and roughness of the sex.

(The remainder is not processed as Giovanna's mind ran off with Akio and an office much neater and luxurious than her actual boss's.)

satyreyes wrote:

The textbook can't count.

That's actually not the first time my text has done that. Nor is it the second. I actually lost track.

lazypirates wrote:

Messed up system

Wow. o_o If that's how it works, then it seems inevitable that we would be marked as a school in need of improvement. Last year, the test was moved up so that juniors had to take it, rather than sophomores. As a result, the sophomores who took the test two years back had to take it for a second time last year. It doesn't make sense to assume that students who are taking the test for the first time could surpass the scores of those who have taken it twice.

Even so, I still think that my school should do some looking into as far as the quality of our teachers are concerned.

A List of Stupid Things My English Teacher Has Said:
- Being a homophobe isn't wrong as long as you don't burn people's houses down for it.
- There are some things you can't become, even if you work hard to achieve your goals.
- Students are like hillbillies because they talk about teachers behind their backs, yet I talk about students behind their backs all the time.
- Partying is bad. If girls didn't go out drinking and partying, then date rape wouldn't exist. (ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?)
- It's completely understandable if you hit your kid once out of anger, and no one will care if you do, just as long as you don't hit them too often.
- You can't assume that a man is an alcoholic just because he publicly humiliated his daughter this morning when he stopped the car in the middle of traffic, pulled her out of the car, started screaming at her where an entire bus full of kids could see, and then drove off, leaving the girl there until a school nurse came to get her. The girl probably wasn't completely innocent, and she must have done something to provoke him.

Teachers should be good role models for students. I feel like I am getting stupider when I listen to her say stuff like that. [/rant]

Razara wrote:

A List of Stupid Things My English Teacher Has Said:
- Being a homophobe isn't wrong as long as you don't burn people's houses down for it.

Does that mean that bashing homos is AOK then?

- There are some things you can't become, even if you work hard to achieve your goals.

As sad as it is to agree, life is chock full of unfairness and the above statement ends up being true.  That been said, its not just how hard you work, its how smart you work too.

- Students are like hillbillies because they talk about teachers behind their backs, yet I talk about students behind their backs all the time.

I thought the real mark of the hillbilly was wanting to shag your siblings. (That puts Kozue in a bad light)

- Partying is bad. If girls didn't go out drinking and partying, then date rape wouldn't exist. (ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?)

Thats because it would be replaced with the old fashioned force her at knife point style of rape.

- It's completely understandable if you hit your kid once out of anger, and no one will care if you do, just as long as you don't hit them too often.

If by no one, he means the old fashion Bible basher types who believe that sparing the rod will spoil the child, then I am sad to say, would be correct.

On the other hand, you try that tactic in a lot of others places than you will get a lot of verbal abuse in responce.

- You can't assume that a man is an alcoholic just because he publicly humiliated his daughter this morning when he stopped the car in the middle of traffic, pulled her out of the car, started screaming at her where an entire bus full of kids could see, and then drove off, leaving the girl there until a school nurse came to get her. The girl probably wasn't completely innocent, and she must have done something to provoke him.

It might be some other problem involved besides alcoholism, maybe he was just born with the fucktard gene.

Teachers should be good role models for students. I feel like I am getting stupider when I listen to her say stuff like that. [/rant]

It does kind of suck coming out of the mouth of a high school English teacher, but it is probably true.  That said, a lot depends on context.  If she said it after someone announced that they were going to run for president one day, that would make me a bit mad.  But if someone said they were going to grow up to be a cat (my ambition when I was four years old), the response would be appropriate. 

When you PM'd this to me, you accidentally (?) wrote "rick" for "sick" in the first sentence.  My impulse was, clearly there is no such thing as a culturally acceptable rick role behavior.