Shanghai 2008

I have been to Shanghai this week. I took a 4 days holiday and visited Shanghai. It was my first trip to the main land China. What I was overwhelmed by was lots of people. The city is really large and streets are wide, but because of too many people, I did not feel large compared with Tokyo. Walking around streets there are lots of people dropping litter. I found lots of food wagons selling Chinese food but did not feel like buying and eating on the smelled street. Lots of people do not obey the traffic lights at the crossroad. It seemed to me that there was not public order in the city. Shanghai is the most developped city in China, but the city is completely different from Tokyo. When it comes to Chinese food, I found also the difference between Tokyo and Shanghai. Although I had really looked forward to eating the genuine Chinese food, unfortunately it was not my taste at all. It was so oily that I could not eat up. I went to cheap restaurants instead of posh restaurants. I realised that my favorite Chinese food in Tokyo is arranged for Japanese. There is one more thing I was astonished at. The gap of price between expensive and cheap was really wide. Chinese food local people eat costs just JPY 150 to JPY 300, on the other hand a cup of coffee and a piece of cake in a posh cafe costs JPY 800! Getting across the river by underground costs just JPY 45, but by the tourist tunnel costs JPY 620. Going up the tallest and the newest skyscraper costs JPY 2500. I think ordinary people cannot afford to go up skyscrapers. The high price is set for foreigners and rich Chinese. I realised the gap between rich and poor in China. My accomodation in Shanghai this time was amazing as I had not expected the quality. I stayed at a youth hostel. The staff spoke English well and the room was really clean and modern. You cannot imagine the quality when you are walking down the smelled street in Shanghai. The hostel equipped Wi-Fi and the room key was IC card. The bar had nice atmosphere. I must say thank the staff for their hospitality. I could totally enjoyed Shanghai.

comparing to Finnish education

I found an interesting article about education. What I thought after reading the article are that the education system in Finland is brilliant and the educational environments between in Finland and in Japan are completely different. Looking back the Japanese education system that I was taught, I would describe that the Japanese system is a sort of training in military fashion rather than education. In Japan students wear uniforms and exercise how to march round school grounds in physical education. They learn how they work well with others, but not how they recognise and encourage diversity. They are tested and evaluated by the way in which they get a good score in a test and cooperate with others. The idea in Japan is completely opposed to the idea in Finland. I think the reason of the difference would drive from the volume of the population. Japan has about a population of 127 million, which is about 24 times as large as Finland has. In addiotion, the population density in Japan is 21 times as large as in Finland. There were over 40 pupils in a class when I was a child. As a teacher has to lead 40 pupils in an overcrowded classroom, the class would be regulated and tend to be like a military exercise. It is easily imaginable that nobody can afford to think about the quality of education in that situation. For that reason, Japan has had to regulate its uniformed education system over the last few decade. However, this trend is coming to an end because Japan has one of the most aging populations in the world. We have lots of opportunities to improve the quality of the education in the process where the Japanese population is going to shrink in the next few decades. The Finnish education system could push our educational standard ahead. It is time for us to show our determination to restructure the current system. I think all children should take better education than their parents.