Nanryo Upper Secondary
School Nanryo Upper Secondary
School Welcome to the homepage of Nanryo High School! We are a public senior high school located in Toda, Japan. Toda is a beautiful city in Saitama Prefecture, which is about 30 minutes from Tokyo by train.
Nanryo High School is currently attended by 932 students who are taught by 60 staff members. Nanryo is a school that focuses on equipping students with the necessary skills to enable them to be successful in an international environment.
Hello! My name is Susan Krulic and I am an English teacher at Nanryo High School. My official title is the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). I am originally from Anchorage, Alaska in the United States of America. I moved to Japan in July 2000 and was stationed at my school by the Japanese Exchange Teaching (JET) Program. This is my second time living in Japan, as my father was stationed in Okinawa, Japan from 1985-1988 with the United States Air Force. Japan is a country that has always intrigued me and I thoroughly enjoy living here. Teaching at Nanryo High School has been an incredible experience for me, both professionally and individually. I have about 400 students and teach 15 classes a week. The staff and students at the school are exceptional and have made my job enjoyable and rewarding.
Nanryo is a unique school in the area of English studies because it offers students the opportunity to enroll in a specialized foreign language stream, known as gaikokugoka. When students take the entrance examination for our school, they can choose to try and enter the school under either gaikokugoka or futsuka (normal high school curriculum studies)
The gaikokugoka is for students who have a special interest in English. The curriculum in gaikokugoka allows extra time for foreign language studies and other international related classes taught in English, which are not available to students in futsuka. Forty new 1st year students are chosen each new academic year and they remain in gaikokugoka for all three years of high school. Gaikokugoka allows students to study English an extra 2-5 hours per week at school. These students are also taught by a native English speaker, like myself, for all three years of high school. Whereas, futsuka students are only taught by a native English speaker for the first year of high school.
In addition to gaikokugoka, Nanryo High School holds an annual senior English speech contest, has an active English conversation club, English summer camps, school trips to foreign countries and hosts many international foreign exchange students. This year we are hosting a student named Derek Kightlinger from Pennsylvania, USA. This summer 18 Nanryo students are traveling to Adelaide, Australia on a school study excursion.
Nanryo High School is a school that is dedicated to providing its students with abundant opportunities to learn about foreign languages and cultures. I believe that the education students receive at Nanryo High School prepares them for successful lives and careers in the global environment.
(an exchange student from USA)
Even though I had been to Japan once before, I was not sure what to expect when I was selected to go to Japan as a year-long Rotary Exchange Student. I was excited to have the chance to travel and live abroad on a longer-term basis. I was also looking forward to seeing what high school is like in a foreign country. I have discovered that there are many interesting differences between the high school education system in Japan and America.
First, the appearance of schools is different. Every classroom in Japan is nearly identical and Nanryo has six floors, which is more than most similar sized American High Schools. Other differences are in the sports facilities. The soccer and baseball fields in Japan are all dirt, as opposed to grass, as one might find in America Also the gymnasium is built in a way that makes the most of all useable space, and not to be an arena for spectator sports. These differences are mostly due to the limited amount of land area in Japan and aren’t too important.
But one difference, which I think influences the students more, is school uniforms. During school, all students wear the exact same uniform, as well as identical special gym floor shoes and color-coded slippers. Even though some individuality is lost, it’s not such a bad idea. In fact, I think it makes life simpler, or at least mornings before school, and makes the students seem more equal, since they cannot be judged on how they dress or what kind of clothing they can afford. However, the Japanese system often seems a little excessive with things such as wasting class time to carry out school wide hair color and fingernail checks. Although most of my American classmates would disagree, I wouldn’t mind if my high school adopted some kind of a uniform policy.
Second, the way the classes are taught is different. In Japan the teachers move from classroom to classroom, rather than the students moving from class to class as in America. Even though this might seem like a very small thing, I think that it gives the impression that the students are actually in charge and the teachers are the ones catering to their time schedules. The instructor cannot personalize his or her classroom, and it would be more difficult for a teacher to impose their own individual rules, which may be necessary as all classes are slightly different and require a different learning environment. Also, I think that this inhibits some mixing between students of other classes and can lead to students only knowing the 35 or 40 other students in their homeroom. Moving around might also add a little excitement and at least force students to wake up at the end of every class.
Another major difference is in how foreign languages are taught. The Japanese style seems to emphasize reading, direct translation, and perfection, rather than trying to express ideas in the new language. Japanese students spend a huge amount of time studying English, beginning in junior high school, but I don’t know if the students ever grasp English as something more than just a bunch of rules and vocabulary. English is very much alive, as is every spoken language in the world. I don’t think that the problems are the fault of the teachers. In fact, the English teachers I have met are all doing their best with the curriculum and accepted teaching methods provided to them. This very dry teaching style may be the best way for the instructors to prepare the students for the all-important exams.
A third difference is in the club system. This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest strengths in what I have seen of the Japanese education system. Clubs keep students more involved with their school. The clubs encompass a wide variety of interest areas, from flower arranging and English, to ping pong and judo; any student who wants to can find a club that appeals to them. As compared with American High Schools, where activities are more limited and there is often too much emphasis put on two or three popular sports. I am in the basketball club now at Nanryo, but I plan to try a number of other clubs before I return home.
In conclusion, Nanryo High School has strengths and weaknesses, just like American high schools, and overall provides a good environment for its students. So far, I have only attended Nanryo for a little over one month, and therefore my knowledge of the Japanese education system is very limited. As I continue my stay here in Japan, I will learn more, and in the future will be able to give a better-informed opinion.
International Understanding at Nanryo High School
My name is Susan Krulic and I have had the privilege of being the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) at Nanryo High School for two years. During my time at Nanryo, I have learned that it is an excellent school in many respects and is proactively providing students with abundant opportunities to develop international understanding.
International understanding can be difficult to define, but in my opinion, it is a way of thinking and perceiving the world around oneself. It is also the ability to see the world through the eyes of other people. International understanding is the result of repeated efforts of stretching one’s own thinking to encompass a global perspective. I believe the first steps to attaining such a vantage point are to study about other countries, to communicate naturally and frequently with people from different cultural backgrounds, and to travel to various countries to experience a different way of life.
I believe that Nanryo is continually striving for new ways to provide students with ample and valuable opportunities to develop international understanding. Now, I would like to highlight a few ways in which Nanryo is promoting international exchange for its students. First, Nanryo staffs a foreign ALT every year that teaches approximately 400 students, which is about half the student body. The ALT’s responsibilities include: engaging in multifarious English teaching responsibilities (such as communication classes, a Foreign Affairs class, an English Expression class, etc.), overseeing the English Club and ensuring it is both active and educational, assisting with the annual Nanryo Senior English Speech Contest (which has approximately 35-40 participants every year), interacting and helping students individually outside of class, giving speeches in English and Japanese (if possible) at various meetings (PTA, jr. high school students who are considering attending our high school next year, etc.), as well as taking an active role in other school activities. Having a foreign language teacher on full-time staff at school gives the students a chance to practice English and converse with a native speaker at any time. Secondly, Nanryo also hosts a foreign exchange student every year. Nanryo is associated with the local rotary clubs, which facilitate student exchange programs between Japan and other foreign countries.
This year, Fabio de Oliveira Reis, from Brazil was chosen to attend Nanryo as a second year student. Nanryo students are also encouraged to apply with the rotary exchange programs and attend high schools overseas. This year, four of our students are studying abroad: one in the U.S.A., one in Mexico, and two in Brazil. Thirdly, Nanryo provides students with opportunities to travel abroad. This past summer 16 students spent 13 days in Washington State, U.S.A. The summer trip before last was to Adelaide, Australia. In addition to overseas trips, students also have the opportunity to participate in the British Hills English Camp that is held in Fukushima Prefecture.
The efforts of the teachers and staff at Nanryo have enabled students to actively study about other countries and languages, communicate and become friends with people from different backgrounds, and to travel abroad to various countries. Nanryo students have plentiful opportunities to foster international understanding by participating in these activities. In doing so, I believe they will gain a new perspective from their experiences.
| 1st term | April 8th to July 18 | Spring vacation | March to April 8th |
| 2nd term | Sepember 1st to December 24th | Summer vacation | July 20 to August 31th |
| 3rd term | January 8th to March 22th | Winter vacation | December 22 th to January 7th |
| April | spring vacation | Octorber | school excursion to Okinawa of 2nd students midterm exam |
| May | midterm exam | November | long distance race |
| June | parent-teacher conferences | December | term exam winter vacation |
| July | term exam school camp by the sea |
January | winter vacation |
| August | summer vacation | Februry | high school entrance examination |
| September | school festival | March | term exam graduation ceremony spring vacation |