Cross-cultural communication （61）　

61) The abilities of Japanese students who are not at a loss for words in English
This is an experience I had in Paris, where I worked as a doctor for two and a half years from 1995. I was mainly involved in the medical care of Japanese people living in Paris. Children of Japanese expatriates and diplomats have to attend school in Paris. There were two main options: Japanese schools or international schools. The topic of this article is related to the latter, international schools. The international schools in Paris are also known as “Bilingues” (French for “bilingual”), and they mainly teach in English, with French as a secondary language. Therefore, the Japanese students who study there are overwhelmingly those whose parents are Japanese, so they can become almost perfect in English as well as Japanese, and also have a decent grasp of French.

Although there were not many points of contact between the students at the Bilingues and myself, there were a few. As part of their off-campus training, the students would go to companies and hospitals and report on their experiences there. The American Hospital where I was working was one of these facilities. There were several students who did their practical training there during the two and a half years I was there. Also, although Bilengues is a high school, after graduating many students go on to study at universities in English-speaking countries. I was often asked to do their health checks and write the medical certificate for this.

The students I spent a few days with during their internship were all good, honest kids. And yet, they were all very smart and accomplished in everything they did. A few weeks later, they showed me a report they had typed up in French, and it didn't look like something a high school student had written, with all the charts and diagrams. I later learned that the girl who wrote the most impressive report had been accepted into the returnee student quota for the Science III (Medical School) course at Tokyo University. The students who had their health checkups had the names of the universities they had passed written on their official papers for the medical certificates, so I knew straight away which universities they were going to. They had all passed prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

At that time, I thought that, apart from the Tokyo University School of medicine, if Japanese high school students who are reasonably intelligent have English skills that are good enough to compete with English-speaking people, they should be able to pass any of the difficult schools in English-speaking countries. At least, American high school students don't study for entrance exams as hard as Japanese high school students studying for entrance exams.?

Certainly, the children are working hard and achieving results, but I would also like to talk about the hardships of the parents who are paying the price from the parents' perspective. The average tuition fee for an international school is around US$20,000 (around 2 million yen before 2000 ) per year, anywhere in the world, including Japan. This is not a sum that can be paid by parents with an average income. A diplomat I know who works overseas receives a special allowance, but he told me that if he has children, all of it goes on education expenses, and he ends up in the red. In particular, if your child is attending an international school in Japan and they fall behind in their studies or are expelled, the tuition fees will have been completely wasted and they will have no academic record in Japan. Therefore, it is certainly true that there is a considerable risk in enrolling your child in an international school in Japan. However, if the tuition fees are financially viable and your child is capable enough, it is thought to be a cost-effective choice as a place for your child to receive an education abroad.

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