oikawa's past comments

  • 1

    oikawa

    This is getting more and more hilarious everyday!

    Please oh please keep tweeting Mr Hashimoto! You have nothing to fear but yourself.

    Posted in: Ishihara advises Hashimoto to stop tweeting

  • 4

    oikawa

    What was going on over to the right? They've got some happy leers on their faces!

    Posted in: Small businessmen

  • 2

    oikawa

    Huh? It was a primary school, not a kindergarten.

    Posted in: Man shoots himself dead in front of children at primary school in Paris

  • 2

    oikawa

    Cos

    It's not my theory, there are lots of studies you can easily google showing prospective interviewers were prejudiced against certain names because of what they read into them as you seem to say yourself, although you contradict yourself by saying people would still meet candidates in that experiment irrespective of their name, yet these kids would have as much chance if their name was Kim Horishi etc, and talking about gender and religious discrimination. Are you saying there was discrimination or not? It's common sense anyway, anything outside the mainstream for a mainstream job will be discriminated, probably against.

    Posted in: What do you think about parents who give their children names like Pikachu, Bakudan (bomb), Messiah and so on?

  • 0

    oikawa

    Thunderbird 2,

    probably much better than those you mention! But at least those kids had very rich parents and grew up in circles where weirdness was not just accepted but positively welcomed and encouraged, as opposed to these kids who probably won't have too many problems with their friends but will never know if they got turned down for that job interview just because they were called Pikachu.

    Posted in: What do you think about parents who give their children names like Pikachu, Bakudan (bomb), Messiah and so on?

  • 5

    oikawa

    I think they're most likely morons.

    Posted in: What do you think about parents who give their children names like Pikachu, Bakudan (bomb), Messiah and so on?

  • 0

    oikawa

    Chiba is becoming the new Saitama..

    He only "found out" recently that his mother was dead?? Even though she died 10 years ago and presumably he was living in the family home being unemployed?? You've gotta love it

    Posted in: Man busted for receiving dead mother's pension

  • 3

    oikawa

    Papigiulio

    Thanks for the link. They seem to be a mixture of rules and advice though. It can't be a "rule" that you have to take care, look both ways before crossing, or wear bright clothing at night. Common sense and good advice, yes, but not "rules", and that might be one problem with the driving here, no-one seems to know what a rule is and what good driving "manners" are. It should be a clear rule that keitai use while driving carries a certain penalty for example, not just that it's a bit of good advice, which is what I think pedestrians still checking for cars when crossing is. You don't go charging out into the road just cos the light's green even if you have right of way, you still look first. Especially in Japan!

    And this part drives me mad!

    Many traffic accidents involve elderly drivers. If you notice an elderly driver, try to reduce your speed and drive with consideration for the other vehicle.

    I hate bringing this kind of "consideration" into driving. If you're not competent to drive on the road get the f*** off it! It doesn't matter what the reason is for your incompetence is. I'm sure a lot of accidents would happen with 10 year-olds if they were allowed to drive, which is precisely why we don't let them.

    Posted in: 7-year-old girl run down, killed at pedestrian crossing near home

  • 0

    oikawa

    Drunk U.S. serviceman arrested for trespassing in private residence

    I don't see what the offence is here.

    Posted in: Drunk U.S. serviceman arrested for trespassing in private residence

  • -1

    oikawa

    Papasmurf

    Thanks for the long reply. I agree it's all possible, the problem is like you described in your last paragraph it's a long road to go down and even then is dependent on making contacts and being lucky in finding somewhere near where you live with openings. You could live your whole life here and never have that luck. And even that is dependant on getting an MA or maybe PhD, but which has little guarantee when you're still dependant on a lot of luck to find a postion and even then liable to have to find another job after the contract is up, which they often are after 2 or 3 years.

    Alternatively there's the eikaiwa route but I don't think there are any Eikaiwas around nowadays that offer a realistic chance of much promotion and making 5 million a year, unless you're the one person who becomes an area manager or similar. I thkn the best option is like you described too, finding a job in a private school, which is not too hard to do, but I would say the salary is usually a bit lower than 5/6 million, more like 4million, although you can supplement that easily due to the amount of time off you get.

    Anyway good luck with whatever you're doing!

    Posted in: Silver bullets won’t help Japan, and neither will JET

  • -1

    oikawa

    Papasmurf

    People with actual qualifications and can find higher paying positions if they search for them, or with some basic marketing skills can start their own business which can be VERY lucrative.

    Like what? Assuming you're talking about teaching I agree with you about starting your own business, but aside from that you'd have to very lucky and stay here for a long time to get a gig that pays much more than standard eikaiwa rates, but which you could probably still match with an ALT gig and privates.

    And Japanese teachers certainly do not get "massive" bonuses anymore, if they ever did. This isn't the 1980s anymore! as everyone seems to be saying..

    Posted in: Silver bullets won’t help Japan, and neither will JET

  • 0

    oikawa

    “Japan’s unique history, tradition & culture

    Sounds like he's fitting in well.

    Posted in: Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo appoints new executive chef

  • 0

    oikawa

    Reformed

    I don't think it is a political agenda though, and I don't think you should either. You have to accept people's opinions at face value and debate the content of the argument, or not debate them at all if you think people are coming from a prejudiced viewpoint. You can't debate something if you think someone is not being honest, it's just impossible.

    What action would you want people to take exactly? You think a single gaijin is somehow going to have the motivation and ability to somehow change people's attitudes? I do all all I can by pointing out when friend's kids are in danger and what else could I do?

    I certainly agree Japan isn't the worst when it comes to driving. People generally drive safely and considerately. But too many people, including myself, my Japanese wife when looking at her friends, and lots of other posters on this board, have noticed a very lackadaisical attitude to children's safety in Japan compared to England, in my case, and not just concerning driving, but letting very young children get into situations where any mature adult or even teenager in England would have stopped them long before. Even if we're wrong at least it's an honest viewpoint.

    Posted in: 14-month-old boy dies after being hit by garbage truck

  • 3

    oikawa

    What Eigen said

    Exposure to foreigners, better spoken English models,

    sums up the fundamental problem in the entire system, but in the wrong way. People are focusing on completely the wrong thing. ALTs are not needed (and I am one). Exposure to foreigners is not needed. Different teaching, practice and production methods are the only thing that will improve Japanese students English. Who does it is completely irrelevant, it's how they do it that is the only thing that will change things.

    Posted in: Gov't plans to increase number of foreign English teachers to 10,000

  • 2

    oikawa

    Reformed Basher

    Holding your kids' hand in a car park is the limit of what you could have done. You can't foresee stupidly unpredictable behaviour by others. But not looking after a 1 year old in a street is in my opinion, criminally negligent. You can't even legally leave a child in a house by themselves until they reach a certain age, let alone 1 year-old, and a street is a lot more dangerous than that. If they won't change the law so it should be a criminal offence people's attitudes at least need to change. I don't have much doubt, although some, about their love for their children, but I have no doubt about the comparative lack of commonsensical care or thought about potential dangers by parents in Japan compared to ones in England.

    Posted in: 14-month-old boy dies after being hit by garbage truck

  • 0

    oikawa

    JoiceRojo

    Thank you for your reply. I think it's highly debatable that adults get confused when learning a language because I've never heard a case study where an adult has tried to learn another language in a natural environment. Adults study and try to learn exactly in the way you've described but I hazard that if you could somehow put an adult in an environemt where they were taught the same way children are they would learn the new language just as well as children do.

    Also I feel you're example actually contradicts what you say and supports precisely my point. "Ai shitteiru" and "suki desu" will be translated and "taught" as "I love you" but it's not quite as simple as that. In this situation and others explaining the words and looking at context are the best way to learn. Understanding the conext is crucial but will often fail if you try to relate it directly to your native langauge.

    Posted in: Required or not, English knowledge no guarantee of success

  • 4

    oikawa

    It is not difficult to keep your eyes on a child literally all the time in certain situations. Letting them crawl around the house where nothing can happen is not one of those situations, but putting your 1 year old child unsupervised in a street certainly is. It doesn't matter what stupid or negligent things other people might do. It is YOUR responsibility to make sure they're not going to die if someone makes a wrong move. It's very very simple.

    Posted in: 14-month-old boy dies after being hit by garbage truck

  • -1

    oikawa

    I carry 20 in my brief case, so when I’m stopped at a red light I can read.

    Lol! Indicative of the common sense level of Todai?

    Posted in: Are Tokyo University students cleverer than other people?

  • 1

    oikawa

    gogogo

    I agree.

    Posted in: Fuel-rod cooling halted by rats at Fukushima plant

  • 3

    oikawa

    There have been a few comments about the lack of space in Japan. While obviously true, there is also an abundance of parks, and by virtue of that lack of space almost by definition not too far away from houses and apartments. Take the kids to the park, it's not too difficult, or let them run around inside, instead of outside on a road at 1 year-old. The thing is, when you go to the park you see what people are really like. I've got a few friends who seem completely oblivious to the possible dangers of not knowing where a 1 or 2 year-old is even for a split-second when there is a major road running all along one side of the park 20 metres away. I've had to tell my friends their kid was about to run into the road through a hole in the bush, or trying to climb over a climbing frame 3 metres high at 1 year-old. I don't know if they've been lulled into a false sense of security or what, but luckily for them compared to their attitudes car drivers usually drive relatively attentively.

    Posted in: 14-month-old boy dies after being hit by garbage truck

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