The Difference Between My School in Madagascar and in Japan

              For two years and six months, I was a student of the American School of Antananarivo, which is called ASA in short. There, I made many friends and I met wonderful teachers. My classmates welcomed me although I was not able to speak English at all and taught me many things about the school. Thanks to them I was soon acclimatized to the style in ASA, but there were many differences compared to the elementary school I used to go when I was in Japan.

              First of all, there was no “homeroom”. The students had to move classes for each subject whereas in Japan, students stay in their homeroom and wait for the teachers to come. On the very first day I came to ASA, I was very confused because all of my classmates suddenly started to go out of the classroom and move somewhere else with their pencil cases. Some classmates came to me and said something, but I could not understand what they were trying to tell me, so I decided to follow them. Immediately after, I found out that they were heading to the math class. Furthermore, there was no cleaning time as I had had at my school in Japan. At first it felt strange not to clean the classrooms but I gradually got used to it, and I felt weird when I cleaned my homeroom after three years of having an easy life.

              Secondly, lunch time was very different from Japan in ASA. In Japan, students eat school meals, or Kyushoku, in classrooms. However in ASA, students were free to eat wherever they wanted. I had fun choosing where to sit for eating my lunch every day, but it was hard to find a place when it was raining. My favorite lunch time place was the table next to a small pond near the science room buildings. On days when it was not raining, I went there with my friends, ate lunch with them, and chatted. It was not rare to exchange lunches with a friend, and my friends loved the sushi made by my mother.

              Lastly, the difference of the grading system surprised me. When I first received my report card, I was shocked to find it so unlike the ones I got in Japan. Each assignment was graded with the percentage written clearly, and the final grade was basically the average scores of all the assignments. Effort grades were also very new to me at the time. In Japan, report cards, called “Ayumi” (meaning “steps”) are handed to students at the end of each semester. Grades are written inside Ayumi but they are very abstract, and there are only two categories: Very Good or Good. As I was used to those report cards, I was astonished at seeing my grades given strictly for the first time in my life. However, I liked this system better because by showing grades for each assignment definitely, I was motivated to put efforts and work hard on them.

              At first I found it hard to adjust to the ways at ASA because there were many differences between ASA and my old school in Japan. I had to move classrooms for every period, eat lunch outside (though I liked this), and the grades were given quite severely. However, on reflection, I think it was a great experience and I am glad that I was lucky to be able to go to ASA.