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This article will be about the author of this blog, Youki. I don't think you'll learn anything new, it will be a long story about just a regular high school student who went to an American school for 10 years and graduated.
If you are still interested, please read on. If you are still interested, please read on.
If you are still interested, please read on.
Introduction
First of all, let me briefly introduce myself.
I came to Malaysia in 2012 and have been attending an American school for 9 years since I was in the 4th grade, graduating in 2021. When I first came to Malaysia, I had no English skills, but now I can speak English at a native level, which is funny to say for myself.
I passed the AP exam in 2020, which is a college credit that can be taken at an American high school, and I graduated in the midst of a pandemic.
In this article, I will not talk about my life in Japan, but I will describe the changes in myself from the time I started attending the American School to the time I graduated, and the skills I gained at the American School.
My First Experience at American School
The first time I entered the American School was in 2012, when I was in the fourth grade.
The first American School I entered was an integrated elementary, middle, and high school international school, and because it was in its early days, it was a very small school with about 10 students and more teachers than students.
Therefore, when I first entered the school, I had the luxury of being the only 4th year student. At that time, 4th year students and 3rd year students were considered to be in the same class, so the schedule was the same and only the content of study was slightly adjusted, but such an environment was the best place for the me who had no English ability at all.
There were only three of us, including the third-year students, and there were always two teachers, so we were taught English intensively in an near one-on-one environment, and the lessons were very valuable when I look back on them later, as they taught me the basics of pronunciation, simple English words, and the basics of the basics.
It is no exaggeration to say that my English has grown so much because of this.
How Long Did it Take to Learn English?
In the beginning, I had no English ability at all, but in six months, I can have a normal conversation with my friends and teachers.
I have to admit that children learns really fast.
When I look back now, I can't believe that I was able to learn enough English to keep up with the classes at the school in just one year.
For those of you who are thinking of moving to Japan for language purposes, you will be surprised to know that children learn English very quickly.
There were only a few students and the I was the only Japanese in the class. Please imagine the situation, if you are suddenly thrown into a situation where you have to learn English to survive, you will for sure study hard.
There were only a few students and everyone welcomed me, so even though I couldn't speak much, they treated me kindly and I still keep in touch with my classmates from that time.
It is very rare to be able to keep in touch with your classmates because it is very common to lose contact with them when you change schools, and many students change schools in international schools.
That aside, the school life that began similar to the situation to the Japanese TV show of "Japanese in This Part of the World?" However, thanks to the generous support from the school, I was able to get used to the school within a few months, made friends, and now I am really glad that I went to that school.
Choosing School until the Last Minute
That school is the American School in Johor Bahru called "Raffle American School", but at first I had trouble choosing the right school.
Initially, I was planning to enroll in Marlborough College, which is a prestigious British international school. Although it was not a mammoth school at that time, it was a very popular school with several hundred students and strict examinations.
In fact, I enrolled in Raffles on a "limited time" basis until the results of the Marlborough College exam came back. I had already decided that I would only attend Raffles for a few months because I couldn't afford to miss school, and it was just to fill in the gaps.
Raffles also had an enrolment interview, but I passed a token test on the same day and they said, "you can come tomorrow," so this speed was just right for filling in the gaps. Later on, I successfully received an acceptance letter from Marlborough College as well, and that's when I started thinking about whether I should transfer to another school. Marlborough College was the one I originally wanted to go to, and it had a better name value and quality, and Raffles was a temporary school at that time.
However, I was just getting used to the environment at Raffles and making friends when I received the notice, so the I, who was in elementary school at the time, made the decision that I did not want to change the school.
This is how he ended up attending Raffles American School for about five years.
The First Trouble
When I first entered the school, it is surprising to say that language that was not troubling me.
In fact, I didn't have that much trouble with the language because I was still an elementary school student with immature Japanese, and I was able to swallow English quickly and make friends even though I couldn't speak the language.
What confused me the most was the educational style of the school. I had attended a Japanese public school for three years until I was in the third grade, and I was amazed at the difference between the Japanese style of education and the American school style.
In Japan, there was a blackboard and the teacher would stand in front of the blackboard and students would write in their notebooks and raise their hands to answer when the teacher asked them to.
There was not even a chair, but instead a "balance ball". But really, it was a "balance ball" placed around a big round desk, and the teacher was thinking together with the students from their perspective.
This style was very shocking for me, who had been an "honor student" in Japan.
"Why don't you raise your hand to speak?"
"Don't you copy what the teacher writes in your notebook?"
I knew something was wrong when the only thing on the list of things to bring to school was a water bottle, but what they were using at school was a computer.
No, I was in elementary school, and we only had one computer at home. Of course, 10 years ago, there was no way that elementary school students had smartphones.
And our first assignment was to make a presentation. I still remember making a presentation called "What kind of place is a tropical rainforest? I made a presentation called "What is a rainforest?
I didn't know any English, and I had never touched a computer in my life.
They can't even tell the teacher that they have never made a presentation before. Don't you memorize? Don't you copy the words? My head is full of shocks and questions.
My classmates around me didn't seem surprised at all, they were just reaching for the power button on their computers. They push the button and start working on something called "Power Point".
What's that?
When I was flustered, he kindly taught me how to use "PowerPoint" and how to look it up on "Google", even though I was clueless and couldn't understand a word he was saying.
I didn't know there was such a convenient tool, that I didn't have to go to the library and look up things in a dictionary... I had just started my shocking school life full of such new discoveries.
But, was it Fun?
This was the beginning of my new school life, and of course it was difficult at the time. The ally of "familiarity" did not appear immediately to me.
It is true that there was a feeling that overcame the difficulty of suddenly entering a "school" that I had never even imagined before.
That is the feeling of "fun."
In spite of this situation, I was able to enjoy "school" to a degree that I had never been able to before. Even though I was in elementary school, I knew that Japanese public schools were not suitable for my personality, and I was not comfortable with Japanese schools that demanded the average.
In the Japanese education system where being different from others is bad, I was told to get a disease name.
It's okay to not know what you don't know, because that's what you're going to school to learn. I realized that "reviewing and preparing at home and answering correctly when the teacher asks" to be an honor student at school was not being an honor student.
After that, I rarely studied at home until I graduated from high school, because I went to school to study, and I finished all the inputs at school.
Back to my story, even though I was thrown into a new situation where I didn't know anything, I enjoyed school because I was able to enjoy it more than before.
I was fortunate to be able to enjoy school.
Experience From Japan to Malaysia
I was a fourth grade elementary school student when I was suddenly told that I would be coming to Malaysia from Japan, or was it third grade to be exact?
When I first came to Malaysia, I thought it would be really hard, and that feeling overwhelmed me more than anything.
When I first came to Malaysia, I was temporarily enrolled in a different school on a long-term trial basis, not an American school.
It was 9 or 10 years ago, and we don't live in an age where we can do everything with one convenient app. It was a time when you had to call a cab to go shopping, or spend an hour on the phone to do so.
There was a technology of internet, but it was not as widespread as it is today.
Of course, as an elementary school student at the time, I didn't understand the existence of the internet that well, nor did I think it was useful at all.
In an age when "just look it up" was not an option, suddenly entering a school where you didn't even know the language was a big deal.
Ever Wanted to go Back to Japan?
Have I ever wanted to go back to Japan if it was hard?
In conclusion, "I didn't want to go back to Japan!"
The reason is, as I said before, that I enjoyed the school, I liked the school more than ever, and that's why I never wanted to go back to Japan.
I never thought that I would want to go back to Japan because I would have to go to a school that I don't enjoy forever.
It's so much fun!
As I get used to it, you realize that the American School is the right educational system for me.
When I was in elementary school, it was just "input," but as I entered junior high school, I was able to keep up with English perfectly and graduated from the "English as Second Language Class" I had taken in elementary school.
Now that I'm studying up to my third language, I understand everything that's going on in class. It was in junior high school that I realized that the American school style of education suited me and that the Japanese educational system had its flaws.
The American school system does not create "average" students, but rather helps them to further develop their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses.
For instance, in my case, I had perfect pitch and was good at music. At that time, my music teacher asked me, "Why don't you give a performance? At that time, my music teacher asked me if I would like to give a performance, and suddenly I was asked to perform in front of hundreds of people in the whole school.
Thanks to this opportunity, I gradually became less hesitant to appear in front of people, and my homeroom teacher, who had been watching me, invited me to a "debate competition".
These were the two events that changed my personality the most. I have been invited to perform on a regular basis since then, almost every year.
I also participated in several debate competitions, and through these activities, I think I was able to develop the ability to plan and negotiate on my own.
In order to participate in the debate competitions, we organized a fundraising campaign as a team and had the school's planetarium opened for movie screenings.
We had to negotiate with the school to use the planetarium, and then with the person who manages the planetarium to show the movie.
It was because the school didn't give me permission that I was able to develop these skills, and if the school had cooperated fully, I wouldn't have been able to develop my negotiation and planning skills.
If the school had given me full cooperation, I would not have learned negotiation skills or planning skills, I would have just followed the school's lead.
Transferring in 2017
I, who had been enjoying her school life, came to a turning point.
I was reasonably satisfied with the school, but I had heard rumors that there was considerable dissatisfaction among the older students in terms of "support for higher education."
It was true that the school did not provide enough support for higher education, and I was told that I had to do everything by myself, and that the support system was not well organized. Although the school was improving year by year, it was time for me to think about higher education, so I decided to change schools.
At that time, a new American school that was under construction was completed nearby, and that was the prestigious American high school called "Shattuck St. Mary's" where I would stay until graduation.
The school was a boarding school with a history of over 160 years, and they were preparing to open a branch school not far from my house.
After listening to various stories and visiting the school, I decided to change schools.
This was in 2017, just as I was entering the 10th grade from the 9th grade. At the American School, 9th grade (junior high school in Japan) is considered high school, and the 4 years from 9th to 12th grade is high school.
However, grades 9-10 are the "last chance" to transfer schools, and many schools do not recommend or accept transfers after grade 11.
This is the only time to change schools, so I took advantage of this last chance to quit Raffles, where I had been for five years, the longest period in my life, and start a new chapter.
Transferring Changed my Mind.
Then came the change of schools, and after the change of schools, my way of thinking changed again.
Up until now, I had been placing importance on "input", focusing on studying English and repeating "input" anyway, but from that time on, I also started to question my Japanese language skills.
I realized that as long as I was living as a Japanese, I needed to learn about Japanese culture and Japanese language, which is something I could only realize when I was abroad.
Furthermore, when I temporarily returned to Japan around this time, I could barely speak, but could not read or write. I can only write my name, address, and name.
I even had an experience where I was asked, "Are you okay using Japanese?
"No, I'm Japanese."
Even though I was not aware of it at all, I realized that my Japanese was still the same as it was in elementary school when I first came to Malaysia.
Even though I had grown up and was about to enter high school, my knowledge of Japanese had stopped at grade 3.
What I realized was the importance of "output" rather than "input. After analyzing why I had forgotten Japanese, I realized that it was because I did not use Japanese outside of home.
I use English at school, on the street, and in conversation with friends, but I don't use Japanese at all except with my parents.
It's easy to forget.
That's when I realized that "Japanese output" was the shortcut to improving my Japanese, and I started blogging as my Japanese output.
This was a turning point for me as well.
Strictly speaking, I had already started blogging a little before I moved to a new school, but as I became more aware of moving to a new school, I wanted to write something about my experiences, and it was clear that moving to a new school was one of the events that helped me understand the importance of output.
The school I transferred to was the same American school, and there was almost no difference in curriculum, so it was a smooth transition.
Since St. Mary's was a new school, there were only a few students and only about 100 students in the whole school. This is a very small number for an integrated school with kindergarten through high school.
In addition, because the school had just opened, there was an atmosphere of "feeling the school grow up", and the school was able to carry out various student-led projects.
In a fully grown school, everything is in place and the quality is high, but this was not the case for the author. So, I enrolled in Raffles a few days after the school opened, stayed in a temporary building for the first two years, then moved to the main building, and finally left in the fifth year when I thought everything was in order.
If I had stayed at the school, I would have been behind in my "stable" student life, but since I was at the American School and had experienced and enjoyed "change" from elementary school, my thinking would have been to seek "challenge" rather than stability.
If I had been in a Japanese school, I would definitely have sought stability. Name value is also important, and a prestigious school with a long history is preferred over a new school.
Preparing for College in American School
From the time I moved to a new school, one thing that was always on my mind was preparing for higher education.
At the American School, we are trained to think about college from around 10th grade.
Are you going to go on to higher education after graduation?
Why do you want to go to college?
Where do you want to go to college?
What do you want to do after college?
These are the questions were asked everyday.
We go to college because it is considered "normal" and "the right thing to do.
But if you think like that, people will say, "You don't have to go, it's useless. This is where the American School is so strict. If you want to go to a university, you need to have a purpose, what do you want to study and where?
Do you want to get a skill, do you want to get a name value? The question is always, "Why go to college?" As a college entrance test, you need to write an essay on "Why do I want to go to this university?" This is the norm in other countries.
If you think that you can get into a university around here based on your score, you will just be told to work then.
It's totally fine to change your mind, as long as you have a clear goal in mind, and the school is flexible enough to respond to your change of mind because they see it not as "change = bad" but rather "change = step up."
In order to do this, they give us the opportunity to talk to many universities and listen to explanations of interesting departments at many universities. This is a characteristic of the American School.
It was only after I transferred to the American School that I started to think about getting credits and preparing for graduation. It was also exciting that I was always in the "top grade" for the first three years after transferring.
When I first entered the school, I was in 10th grade, but the school did not accept 11th and 12th graders. I understood that students who entered the school as 10th graders would "become the school's first graduates" and I fell in love with that.
When there are older students, you can hear their stories and ask them about the school's actual support system and what path they took, but if there is no one above you, you have to decide for yourself.
However, if there is no one above you, you have to decide for yourself. If there is no example near you, you have to poke your head into various things, ask around, and if it's not right, you can go another way.
In the my case, I contacted the university myself, requested the necessary documents from the school, and consulted with the school's academic counselor to fulfill the requirements and finalize the credits.
I think it was the change of schools that taught me that it is okay to take on the challenge of going on to higher education and that if things are not right, we can always change again.
Since I had attended the American School for a long time, I was exempted from English tests, some tests were no longer required, and I was even exempted from the "foundation course" that is common in British universities.
The diploma from the American school is quite strong, and if you have credits such as AP (Advanced Placement), some universities will consider it equivalent to IB (International Baccalaureate), and IB is a two-year course, while AP is one year per subject, so it is a good deal.
I couldn't have known until I tried it myself that it would save me time and result in a higher performing higher education.
Arrival of Pandemic
Just when we thought things were going well, the "Covid-19" that was raging around the world arrived in the final year of the 12th grade.
Malaysia was no exception, and schools were closed for a long time.
Half of the final year is now online, and the most important part, the last month of school, is also completely online. Even the graduation ceremony was held online.
The impact of Covid-19 was huge, and the fact that schools are closed for a long period of time means that the quality of classes will also decline. Class hours were shortened and tests were not held.
The SAT test, the most important test in American school, was cancelled twice. When I checked with the university, they were flexible and said that SAT scores were not required.
In addition, the graduation project requires the school to organize "something", which in the past would be an event or a co-curricular activity.
Usually, this would be some kind of event, co-curricular activity, etc. However, the school closure coincided with this time of year, and we were in a desperate situation.
We needed to deal with such problems, so we chose something that could be done online. In the end, we settled for creating a website, but I guess this experience is because we are graduating in 2021.
Even though the graduation ceremony was held online, we were able to finish this year's "typical" tumultuous academic year, and if you think about it the other way around, we were able to have a valuable graduation ceremony that only the students of 2020 and 2021 can experience.
I will never have such an experience again.
Being able to graduate from high school in the midst of such history has its negative points, but I think it is because of my time at the American School that I have come to think of it as something that can only be done now.
At the American School, we were trained to always look at things from different perspectives, and even when studying history, we would always look at it from "different countries' perspectives," and even when writing a paper, we would always look at it from "different researchers" perspectives.
The same goes for the news. The American school taught me to think that "news is basically fake".
In the U.S., it is normal for news to lie, and there are many biased articles. In such a situation, you can get the facts as close to the truth as possible by getting information from various sources.
Such "knowing from many sides" is one of the most important social skills I learned at the American School.
The crisis of transferring to the "British School" that came along the way...
I actually thought about going to a "British School" along the way. I've been studying at an American school for five years now, and I'm considering joining a British school when I enter high school.
The British School is the same as the American School in the sense that it is an international school, and I think that Japanese people are more familiar with this educational system than the American School.
Since the Japanese education system is based on the British one, it is closer to the Japanese style of teaching.
There is some deep thinking styled class, but still a lot of memorization type classes, and a lot of test type grading instead of project based. There are differences from school to school, but there are almost no tests in American schools.
In contrast to the American school, which incorporates a lot of active learning, in the British school, there is still a clear distinction between "the teacher is teaching" and "the student is learning."
Compared to the American school, where the students are the ones who learn and the teachers are the ones who support them, I could clearly see the difference just by listening to the person in charge.
Although transferring to a British school was an option, in the end, I decided that the American School was the best educational style for me (although there were several other reasons as well), and I transferred from the American School to the American School.
Looking back, I attended the school for 9 years from 4th grade to 3rd grade.
Finally
As a result, I attended an American school for nine years, and this school life was a good fit for the me. Of course, there are children whose personalities are better suited to the British system.
You need to "choose the right school" based on your personality, and it is not necessarily that American school is recommended. Especially in the upper grades, the American school becomes more self-responsible, and the classes suddenly become more difficult from around junior high school.
The educational style using the curriculum of America, the country of the freedom, is indeed "free," but because it is free, high school is treated half like a university. You are free to come to class or not, and if you lose credits for it, you are responsible for it.
If you ask for help from your teachers, they will support you, but if you just sit back and wait for them to provide you with something, there is no point at all.
If you want to wait, it would be better to go to a British school that offers it.
If you want to work on your own and do things on your own, the American school is a great match.
This has been a long, long article, but thank you for reading.
I attended the American School for nine years and was able to graduate.
The story of nine years cannot be summarized in one article.
I have experienced many things that are unthinkable in daily life, and if I were to unravel them one by one, the story would be worthy of a book.
Since this is one article, there are many things that I have left out, but it is thanks to the support of everyone that I was able to graduate successfully.
Thank you again for reading till the end. Please follow or like for the support.
This article is also available in Japanese
この記事の日本語版はこちらから
