I think teachers don't even know what to do. I've already given up because I think it's useless to consult with teachers.
I was rumored like half is XX before even knowing my character. At first I really couldn't make friends.
TodayWhat is the current situation today?
- Kids get bullied for the color of their skin, culture, and religion which are unchangeable factors.
- When one can't speak Japanese well, the mistakes in intonation and words get tolerated, so they rarely get laughed at. However the more the international kids study Japanese, the more the mistakes stand out and they get teased often.
- Teachers tend to not know how to deal with international kids, so bulling often get neglected. （Quoted from Iki Tanaka ”They don't speak at school. "International children" isolated in the edge of Japanese society” Japan complex travelogue , 5.24.2018 ）
Been told you're dirty and they will be infected just because of different skin color. （Quoted from Foreigner-dependent Japan "International children" being bullied in Japanese schools "is the established theory⁉" ）
They lost confidence to speak Japanese because they thought they would get bullied. （Quoted from Iki Tanaka ”They don't speak at school. "International children" isolated in the edge of Japanese society” Japan complex travelogue , 5.24.2018 ）
SolutionWhat kind of solutions do we have?
Make an environment where kids can go to a classroom and study Japanese
International kids can feel relieved by going to a classroom where there are kids with the same circumstances.
They can think they aren't alone and have a place where they belong.
Even if they mistake Japanese, teachers track them the correct words, so they can learn Japanese and how to study Japanese.
（Quoted from
YSC Global School ”Support for international children”
）
Classrooms for international children work an important role in two ways, but the fact is volunteer groups and NPO corporations are managing the classrooms instead of the country and municipalities.
It'll be hard for non-wealthy kids to go if the classroom is under private management because school fees will be needed.
In areas where there are less international kids, there may not be a classroom to go. The support will be not enough with local groups.
OpinionOur opinion
Since the kindergarten which I went to was international so I didn't think (ofcourse in a good way) when I saw foreigners is something special. If you learn diversity from an early age, I think it is more difficult to discriminate in appearance?
I think it's necessary to get used to it from a young age. Also, I wonder if making a manual for teachers will change the correspondence.
When I'm in a foreign country, I've never been prejudiced by my appearance which always happens when I am in Japan and I will be labeled as “Mix”. Maybe this is because foreigners are rare in Japan. I think we should teach from an early age that races are different and not everyone is the same and have the same race.
For a child who is a bully, I want them to imagine when they were taken to a country where you don't understand the language. When you are in Japan, you may not be able to imagine that you will meet other than Japanese people, but looking at the other countries in the world, various people live with various values, so it would be great if education could handle broadening your horizons.
Bullying is becoming a social problem, not just for international kids. Even if they are told that you shouldn't discriminate against race (for example) from a young age, I think there are some children who will bully.
Back
I've been laughed at many times because of my Japanese pronunciation, so now I keep worrying that "I don't want to mistake my Japanese"