Japanese School Teachers

Teachers are the last resort for me. I prefer googling for answers.

I always ask whenever I don't understand. The teacher will even ask us if we get it or not. I don't see what's so embarrassing about asking questions. Unless you ask something you already know just to make a joke about it...

This looks like the same artist that does the Habanero-tan comics. Love those~

I had a crush on my Physics teacher once, so no problems there^^;;

Usually if I don't understand I just wait till someone else asks. I only bother if they don't!

I do rather search the answer for myself but If I can't then teacher or friends is the last thing I would ask from for the answer to my confusing question.

I don't know why, I guess I didn't want to waste time after class or because I thought I could just use the internet for all my question needs. I know that when class ends, most people don't want to think about class anymore. I still do it now, and I'm in college. I'm trying my best so far without my teachers help.

hhmm yes yes, I ask questions.
I do prefer to do research to get a better understanding.
Generally, during lectures, people or the lecturer would of answered my problems.

Things like looking into weird theories or about certain weird stuff I will seek the lecture for help/info/directions. I still wonder what I have studied within...'Cyber Culture' today >_>

This is also common here - it's not just in schools for children - even for adults - people are scared of asking because they don't want to look like they aren't smart enough. I always wondered why - if you're that smart you won't need to be in class...

Being a man of questions, I always ask questions ^_^

Back when I was in school many moon ago, most of the time I would raise my hand & ask, should there's any thing it's not explained clearly by the teachers or I feel that the explanation given can be further improve.

But sometime ended up debating over a subject, so the pupils around me would just give me a weird glare as I was delaying their time so that they can end the class early & continue doing their own stuffs.

So when I in high school, I couldn't bother to ask in class knowing most student didn't even care about what they learn in class, instead I note it down & ask the teacher after class.

Now knowing that those who ask, had learn more than those who doesn't. Although, my class is 8hours per day & I sleep up to 3hours+ in class during my high school, I still score above average in the whole grade.

People don't ask because they are think that everyone else in the class knows the answer. This is in fact and underestimation and usually end up there are many people in the class who have no idea what the heck is going on.

I always try to ask question when I don't understand, either during class, or after it's over...

what f*cked up is, and i really hate it when it happened, I don't understand at all, to the point that I don't know what to ask... yes, epic fail.

I too was shy to even make eye contact with a teacher but thats all changed because I got my confidence from Densha Otoko ( Train Man)

You guys should watch the show its very touching and also its a comedy drama show.Although its not an anime but its a touching show about an Otaku trying to fall in love <3

I ask if i ever get stuck... But usually i solve it after 5 seconds so i don't really bother...
The only think i like doing is asking lecturers about their opinions more than help lol... (3D modelling XD)

If I'm not wrong isn't it:

"You are a fool for 5 mins if you ask.
You are a fool for life if you don't.
But, you really are a fool if you ask every 5 minutes."

I think it's from one of the photo articles '-'?

sorry just can't help it.

I love to learn, and I'm naturally curious, so I always ask. Sometimes, admittedly, I feel silly for doing it. The best way to teach me something is to explain it very simply and deliberately, which unfortunatly gives others the temporary impression that I'm stupid. But explain it clearly, and I've got it right away, easy as pie! As you said, a fool for five minutes if you ask, a fool for life if you don't ^^

I usually ask when I dunno something on a subject i'm interested , things like history and all hardly get to be processed in my brain for me to ask anything =.=

I am liking the slow life simulation game Kuma-tan!-kuma

I always ask my teacher if i dont know anything-kuma

I hardly ask my teachers and prefer to ask my classmates instead.

When it comes to maths, asking question is a must for me but for programming, I don't have the tendency to ask since it's more fun solving the problem on your own.

The sense of joy after fixing an error.

except for my first year of junior high school religion teacher, and my senior high school german teacher, everything else are suck. They're too dictating, too stricted, too anoying, always forcing what they want regarding I like it or not, and always using punishment to treat me if I disagree with them...

was always afraid of asking during math classes cause our teacher would take you to the front to solve some difficult equations or something on the blackboard... -_-;

I always used to ask my teachers for help when I didn't understand something. Luckily that was rare though, because I usually didn't have much trouble in school. If I had frequent trouble, then maybe I would have been more hesitant to ask so often.

I tend to ask friends before teachers..

First, do not want to interrupt the class.

Second, if friends knows how to answer me, that means I should also understand and that also shows I need revision.

If students don't know, then I'll go for teacher. Its kinda bad to interrupt the whole class if I'm the only one not getting it. If I STILL can't understand it, will try to arrange lunch appointments(though very seldom).

I normally will ask teacher about anything I don't understand if the teacher is reliable... And yes, Just when I'm having enough sleep the day before it...

The phenomenon that many of you are describing where you won't ask a question if no one else does because "well I must be the only one who doesn't understand" is called pluralistic ignorance. There's been several social psychological studies on this hehe. If I recall it's more prevalent in collectivist cultures such as japan than in individualist ones like the US or Canada.

Ask only when no one else knows...

I hate having too much attention on me, I hate even when in a group of friends having the attention on me. So I hardly ever asked, only when something really intrigues me I'll ask. If not I can look it up elsewhere later.

You're stupid if you don't ask the teacher and why should you feel a fool for 5 min if you ask?! That's the dumbest thought I ever heard, when I don't understand something I always ask, be it in middle school, high school, university... if you keep your mouth shut than you're dumber than asking, no one knows everything. The relationship I have with my current and former teachers is great, we greet ourselves if we meet outside classes, sometimes even eat together, my teachers have always been great though I caught some nasty ones of course mostly in the university :P

I tended to ask the people around me more than the teacher ^^; But most of the time I didn't need to anyone.

It's not worth getting left behind if it takes 5 minutes. Especially in college when your time is PAID for. If you don't understand something and a professor asks you if you do or not you should tell him/her/it the truth because you are now invested (monetarily and time-wise) in this. Everyone in the room is there to learn something seriously, no one is out to judge if you don't understand something. Googling the answer is fine after, but if you got stuck in a 3 hour lecture about something technical then that means you need to catch up afterwords and like mentioned above do you really want to be doing classwork after class is over?

Will ask if the teacher is approachable. If not, will either ask my friends or ask them to ask the teacher on my behalf. ^^;

I usually ask my professor as a last ditch effort after I've read through the text book and any handouts thoroughly. I hate it when people inquire about information that's otherwise right in front of them when I'm at work so I carry that over to school. That and I find that I understand the concept better if I read and research it my self than someone teaching me.

I prefer not to ask the teachers since i'm pretty much independent, I like to do things on my own or find out myself. If i can't i ask my friends or last resort i do ask ^;^

I usually asked my firends first to see if they knew the answer but I usually find myself asking the teacher in the end about a question. I hate doing it in front the whole class though seeing how sometimes you have those teachers that like to torture you when you don't understand something >_<. Anyways, goo bit of wisdom there Danny about being a fool for five mintues if you ask and being a fool for life if you don't ask.

I usually ask the teacher when I dont understand anything because it makes me feel really un easy when I don understand the lecture.

Maybe they don't ask because they'll mostly be asking in fornt of a classroom-ful of peopl, and are afraid of asking what others might think is a pretty silly question. That's understandable.

Almost never asked teachers cause I was a tensai surpassing them lol. Seriously, in my neck of the woods asking a teacher is considered lame, even if you don't understand a thing, which is even more lame...

^_^

I want that game...

As for asking questions, I'd generally ask my friends as opposed to the teacher.

Don't really ask a teacher as I mostly have bad memories of asking and some good ones. Usually when I feel like teach really doesn't want to help at all, the tone of teach's voice seems different from when teach is lecturing, seems to be annoyed by the question I asked. Maybe I just had bad luck for getting those not so great teach for the classes i'm not as good at, although I do remember those nice teach's who helps me out a lot.

>You are a fool for 5 mins if you ask.
>You are a fool for life if you don't.

Very true. And sometimes the teacher or co-worker don't explain everything in detail because he/she is not sure how much you know and don't want to insult you by explaining every small detail (usually happens when people don't know each other well yet).
So it's very important to ask.

Must admit hardly ever did back in the day now if I'm being taught something I'll always ask questions and your quotes are very true.

Depends what kinda school you go to and what your follow classmates are like from my experiance.

Never felt like a fool for asking but i reckon other think i was one.

I don't see the problem with asking if you don't understand. Better learn it while you can. )

I remember one of my teachers would ring you out if you disrupted the class by asking a question. He just tell you sit down, shut up and ask a classmate when the lecture was over. Other then him, I'ld always ask if I didn't understand something.

Depends on the subject. If it's math I usually don't and then ask my friend whose in a higher math afterwards. Part of it has to do with the teacher. If I usually understand the teacher but don't for one specific thing, I'll ask, but if I usually don't understand I don't bother because I just don't get his/her way of explaining.

Yeah, I make a point of asking, especially if I find the instructions for something unclear. I've had a couple times where I didn't ask and got marked off for not following directions simply because I thought they meant something else. >.<;

I always ask questions… sometimes too many.
I also email my teacher if other questions come up.

The questions I usually ask seem to be on some tangent to the relevant material. My professors seem to like answering them, but I doubt it's helped my grades much in the last five years.

O, and Kumatanchi is a really cute game. The last interior set can take months to collect though.

Teachers are my last options, when my friends don't get it, when google doesn't show the answers, then off to the teacher I go! =3

i ask questions most of the time when i really cant get an answer or completely lost. well, if you want it done right, just search it up on the net ^0^

in my country we have a couple of sayings: there are no stupid questions only stupid answers.
better to ask twice then not at all.
simple sayings but very important learnings for our children.
in all my years at public school and later, all my teachers always tried their best to make sure that we all learned what they teached.
in some ways i can understand if children in japan dont ask their teachers question when their in doubt, because that would mean that the teacher have failed his/hers job.
when a teacher fails the child may think that they are at fault.
a teacher is the most influencial person in our life, from our childhoud to adulthoud they set the standart of our knowledge. not many will agree on this, but thats what i have learned in my job.

most of the time I would ask

I can't say I never ask teachers or professors for help... if I'm really desperate and lost, I will. I generally like searching for the solution on my own. Theres that sense of satisfaction when you do. On the other hand, theres always the problem of not being able to ask... some "qualified" teachers aren't exactly the best or brightest at explaining certain things...

If it's something I really don't get, I'd definitely ask..otherwise no.
Though I remember my Math teacher not being all that bright and failed when it came to explaining problems.. and whenever I asked her something, she actually managed to make it more difficult for me to understand :x

I tend to ask most of my teachers... except Chinese.
We ask her the question, and she gives US the question right back. So in all, we don't get the answer until we look it up on the interwebs.

Teachers tend not to know much about what they teach, or at least mine didn't, so asking may put them on the spot. Best to make the learning process as painless as possible for everyone.

change the teacher with pastel ink (moetan) !!!!

my teachers always encouraged us to ask questions said "there is so such thing as a stupid question"

and i used to answer "there is no such thing as a stupid question but there is a stupid person"

the good old days.now that im in college i can make open jokes like this anymore

I make it a point to ask although it is not always at the in the middle of the lecture. For my current classes, its on a case on case basis because: 1)One of my classes has really dumb people that ask every 5 mins, so essentially the lecture grinds to a halt. 2)The instructor is flaky and doesn't always know the answer, but always uses the excuse "Sorry, I usually a Mac at home" 3)I'm chatting with the cute female classmate I strategically sat beside

I ask peers for help or look online (I use a laptop to take notes) to prevent the teacher from wasting precious class time on me. The curriculum is incredibly packed, so even 5 minutes of time is very valuable to the class, especially now that AP and IB season is coming up.

The teachers at my day school encourage asking questions, so i take full advantage of it. Usually when i have questions on calculus/physics, i would make sure to ask so i will be able to do the homework right when i get home.

In Japanese class, i try to figure out how to exactly use particles and phrases, so i can practice at home properly, since Japanese class is only on saturdays

Most of the time I try to find other solutions to how to solve my problems or answers without asking the teacher. One of the reasons being me not listening through the entire class so I might end up asking about something that has already been explained. Another reason is that my class is a bunch of lazy bums so if you ask one question you stand out like the nerd.

Some of you say that you try not to disturb or interrupt the teacher, but doesn't not asking defeat the point of being at school? I mean, if it's just the lecture you're after you might aswell just get some audio books or something and study at home?

I've been out of school since June '06, but as far as I remember I asked for help most of the time. Either from the teacher or a classmate.

I have a crush on my algebra 2 teacher so I ask for help even when I dont need it.

I usually try to find the answers myself. There were quite a few times when I asked my profs questions, most of them before/after classes and three times during office hours. They're nice people and most (actually, all but one) answer questions in the middle of lectures.

I would ask 2-3 freinds before I would finally ask the teacher ^^

At high school I was something like an asking machine. Now, at college, I just do not know what happened to me since I'm keeping quite some questions to myself. Maybe it is because I feel a little discouraged by my teacher's resumés. Which just does not make sense since their resumés does not change the fact that they're there to teach and answer questions.

Most of the time I don't ask. I've had too many teachers who are purely textbook teachers and and just makes up answers if I ask them something. Sometimes I ask questions just so to test the knowledge of teachers sometimes. heheh! But I had this awesome teacher once who was so good I had a great time asking him all the stuff I wanted to learn about even if outside the context of the curriculum. Wish more teachers were like that.

Google's my friend. :D

Well I don't usually feel comfortable asking if I'm in a large class, but in smaller ones I ask away...

Same I usually ask as many friends as possible in my class before asking the teacher xD

I sucked at school, so I asked a lot of questions D:

First I would try to solve my own problem since I have all the resources, internet, textbook and notes and most of the time other people ask the question I wanted to ask in the lecture.

I usually choose to ask the prof after lecture time or in his/her office hours. even back in high school, I ask the teacher only after class or in his free time.

got a question: well asking a teacher question is rare "I lived in hk before, and I know I never ask the teacher any question, not until I came to Canada then I bash the teacher with question as I don't understand anything". I just wonder....in Japan, do anyone point out the teacher mistake in class? I know we students =P in the schools I have been to in Calgary, we always point out the mistakes the teacher or prof makes in class and we all have fun about it XD

It depends on who I'm asking. Some teacher's are more approachable, however I experienced being scorned at after asking so yea, it really causes people to stop and think before asking or stop asking altogether =/

Personally I feel it always good to do some research before asking so in a way, I wont be seen just sitting around and waiting for answers for I have already done some my share of work =)

I start to regret not asking the teacher questions in class, but at the end of class when the teacher is more approachable, can have a 1 on 1 convo...
I should start asking more questions ><

Sorry, off-topic, but... That Kumatan Chi game is sooooo cuuuutttteeee!!! I'd love to get it, but I don't really know how it works. Hopefully as simple as it is in the video, cuz I really do want it.

Uh anyway back to the topic... These days I don't go to school anymore, but I think I'll be asking more because if I don't understand I'd be in trouble since a lot of times I'll be taught at work and if it's at work then I NEED to know for sure.

I used to be too shy to ask, but I also had no problem because I was the class whiz and understood everything. ^^; By the time I entered a special ed. program and needed to ask questions again, I'd gotten over my shyness.

Pretending to understand something you don't, or pretending to be able to do something you can't, always, always comes back to bite you. You either end up hopelessly behind, or assigned and depended on to do something you can't. In the end, you end up looking even more foolish and having to overcome even more shyness to set things right.

Which is why when I need to know something I ask - if it's vital and the rest of the class looks lost, right away. Otherwise, as is often the case, I ask after class.

The only time I don't ask is when the teacher is obviously malfunctional. If I learned more reading from the textbook and she has trouble conveying a simple idea, I'm not going to go ask her and have her waste both of our time. At that point it's either go to the TA or self-study.

lol wow I soooo want this game now!

I would much rather ask the internets when I don't understand something. cuz the internets knows everything! XD

well see if I am interested in the subject (back in high school lol)
but I'd rather ask my smart friends instead...

To be honest, the only times I have have what you might call a "problem" with anything in school, is when I don't quite understand the premise for a basic step. For example, in math, I might make a mistake in understanding why such and such is part of an initial equation, which could throw off other parts of my equations.
On the bright side, I'm usually able to figure out what I'm doing wrong/ how to do something just by watching the teacher give examples of whatever such premises on the board.
That said, sometimes I do have a real problem and can't solve it myself. In which case I will be obliged to ask the teacher. Once you know how to do everything, you can ace your test, and then people learn to respect you past those silly questions in class - realizing that you are serious.

Kumatan look so kawaii!

I'll ask when I don't understand or sometimes i google for answers on the net.

i would ask if i dont understand something but if i ask too much my teacher would get all irritated and put me on her blacklist..

I never ask, because what i dont understand are the mathematics and it dont matter how time been explained me.. >.< lol

i would aaaalways ask questions regardless of how stupid they were 75% of the time. I have almost bnever been embarrased of asking.

I say it really depends on the class, time of day, ect.
Another thing for me to think about is that I often come off argumentative when I'm just trying to understand something.

i always tried to read it to understand it first. though that immediately changed during college when i started realizing that i was now paying THEM for class time. I made sure i got my moneys!

Japanese students are usually quite reluctant to ask questions in class as the education system is quite a passive one. It is generally accepted that the teacher talks and you listen. Asking questions and "questioning" the teacher are concepts that I suppose make students uncomfortable in Japan.

Added to that, they hate to stand out from a group. In most classes, most students would prefer to melt into the background and not be noticed. They aren't worried just about looking stupid in front of their friends. They are also worried about looking too good and out performing their peers which is just as "bad".

In fact, students will sometimes play dumb to dodge a question so someone else gets asked.

A rather strange state of affairs but perhaps better than students throwing chairs at like they did at home when I was a student back home in Blighty...

thankfully i always understood everything
just didnt do my work:)