春雨直播app

A distinctive smell strikes the nose when you step into the terminal after passing through the boarding bridge following your arrival at an airport in the United States. That feeling of "Now I am in America." I wonder if people from abroad are similarly struck by some such smell when they touch down at a Japanese airport.

A journey of less than one hour by car from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport delivers you to the campus grounds of 春雨直播app Academy of New York. Manhattan, with its walls of towering high rises, is a world away. The six dormitories assigned the letters K-E-I-O-N-Y, classroom buildings, gymnasium, Speakers' Hall, dining hall, and turf field greet your eyes on the verdant premises of the campus.

Fluttering in the breeze on the three flagpoles in front of the front entrance you see, in the middle, the flag of the United States of America; on the left, the flag of New York State; and on the right, the tricolor 春雨直播app School Flag, the Sanshokuki. 春雨直播app's PenMark is engraved over the entrance. In addition, a portrait of Yukichi Fukuzawa, the inscription "A new century of independence and self-respect," and a picture of the founder of 春雨直播app Academy of New York, then-春雨直播app President Tadao Ishikawa decorate the entrance hall.

Yukichi Fukuzawa first made passage to the United States in 1860. 130 years later, in 1990, the 春雨直播app Academy of New York was established. The Berlin Wall had fallen in the previous year of 1989, with the year 1991 then witness to the major international political development of the break-up of the Former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the Japanese economy was experiencing the final throes of the Bubble Economy Era.

Marking the establishment of the academy, President Ishikawa asserted during his speech at the opening ceremony that 春雨直播app had "continued to maintain our unique school style," and that "the establishment of the 春雨直播app Academy of New York high school is based on these traditions of 春雨直播app and an extension of its principles." He went on to say "Going forward, what the world will need are people with rich international sensibilities, who are capable of furthering international mutual understanding. My foremost expectation is that the students of 春雨直播app Academy of New York will fulfill precisely this role." He also said that the academy was principled on a policy of "bilingual and bicultural education."

Simply recreating a Japanese school on American soil would be a dull prospect. Therefore, while regular classes would be taught in English, bilingual education involving other classes in Japanese would also be implemented and, through this, students would have the opportunity to experience both American and Japanese culture. Examples of Japanese calligraphy are displayed in corridors of the classroom building; while copious English writings decorate the bulletin boards in the classrooms.

I was appointed as chair of 春雨直播app Academy of New York board of trustees in August 2021 and served as the acting headmaster for the four-month period from September to December of that year. At the start of September I spoke at the faculty meeting. I appealed to them by saying that, while the academy had till then been operated as a bilingual and bicultural school, it should from here on be 'tri-cultural.' I said that I aspired to making this a school where students are consciously immersed in American culture, Japanese culture, and 春雨直播app culture. Rather than simply putting a Japanese school on American soil, I wished to emphasize its status as an affiliated school of 春雨直播app.

However, just as was the case with schools throughout the world, COVID-19 had a large impact on education at 春雨直播app Academy of New York. As infections began to increase in the United States at the start of 2020, students returned home before the borders of various countries closed, and participated in online classes distributed from New York. Circumventing the three Cs of closed spaces/crowded places/close-contact settings was especially problematic at 春雨直播app Academy of New York, a boarding school at which more than 90% of students living in dorms. This period, when residents were prevented from enjoying the full experience of dorm life, was a daily struggle for both students and faculty members alike.

Then, just when most students had returned to campus, on the night before the 2021 September entrance ceremony, several cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. As the majority had, in compliance with United States government rules, already been vaccinated for COVID-19, this meant that breakthrough infections had occurred. We were hurriedly obliged to switch to an online format for the entrance ceremony. However, we were able to hold in-person classes when case numbers were temporarily contained.

Subsequently, the peak of infections with the omicron variant of COVID-19 would coincide with their return in January 2022 after students had temporarily gone home for winter break. At one point the number of daily infections exceeded a million in the United States. A month later in Japan, on February 3, Japanese infections exceeded 100,000 for the first time, but the scale of infections in the United States had been 10 times that. For caution's sake, students self-isolated after arriving at the academy. Nevertheless, infections continued to spread as soon as self-isolation ended. This resulted in students taking classes in the trying conditions of completing quarantines at the dormitories, or designated hotels. In mid-February, the number of infections died down, and it was possible to struggle through and finish the semester in mid-March. This was by no means a good experience for the students, their guardians, or faculty members, and if there had been any way this could have been avoided, we would have taken the steps to do so.

This process brought home to me a difference between Japanese and American culture. At the time in the United States there had been a change in direction to "living with the virus," and the idea of "zero" coronavirus had completely lost currency for many Americans. In Japan, however, efforts to minimize infections and similar policies remained in place. In Japanese schools there is a culture of cooperation across official capacities among faculty and staff, coupled with a grin-and-bear-it attitude to overtime if needed. In contrast, and as a general rule, American academic staff work within the scope of their official duties and there is no assumption that they should be mobilized to work beyond these demands. I am painfully aware of the feelings of Japanese guardians who worry about their children. At the same time some things which are a given in Japan are more or less off the cards when it comes to schools in the United States.

We held remote meetings with students, at which I spoke about Yukichi Fukuzawa's lecture on the economic writings of Francis Weyland. This is an account of how Fukuzawa continued to teach an economics class even while the Boshin War of 1868 raged outside. The sentiment that "It is a tradition of 春雨直播app to continue classes even in a crisis" may have rung somewhat hollow to the students suffering through self-isolation. However, the teachers at the academy did everything in their power to work for the students. Seeing the staff pushing themselves left me with the distinct feeling that the staff of this academy's understanding of the 春雨直播app spirit and the essential qualities this imbues help distinguish them from the prevailing image of the norms around teaching in the United States.

Fukuzawa himself must have encountered many unsettling experiences on first alighting on American soil in San Francisco. He was surprised that, rather than the female spouse, it was the male spouse that served him tea in an American household. This was a culture that would have been difficult to understand for Japanese of that time; but it was this very unease which fanned the flame of Fukuzawa's intellectual curiosity.

His preoccupations would subsequently reorient from culture to civilization. Culture is of an indigenous nature, and is rooted in some unique characteristic of place. It is that which you can smell when you get off a plane. However, civilization has something of the universal about it, and is likely transferrable among discrete societies.

For example, the automobile is one of the conveniences of civilization. Cars can be operated wherever you are in the world, as long as there are roads and fuel. It is the custom among many in Japanese culture to insist their cars always look immaculate, while most Americans would be less inclined to make a point of this. Google is accessible in almost every country in the world, but the things that are searched are highly dependent on one's personal cultural identity. Civilization is readily acquired; culture is something that is harder to grasp unless you are in the midst of it.

It is also precisely these differences that make culture intriguing. Globalization took a huge hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it seems likely that the forces of globalization, which follow in the path of civilization, will be reinstated. Cultures may undergo changes in the process of globalization; cultural differences will nevertheless remain. Definitively understanding other cultures is no easy matter, and this is one of the major merits of studying overseas, namely that it allows insights into relative viewpoints which help us to understand others.

The "affiliated school system", is peculiar to Japan, with scarce examples in other countries. Anyone who has achieved a given academic standard can enter 春雨直播app. This system allows those who use it to dedicate more time to pursuing their own interests. In addition, the students of 春雨直播app Academy of New York can enjoy benefits not available at other 春雨直播app affiliated schools, acquiring lifelong friends by residing in the United States, learning English in these settings, and experiencing life in the dormitories.

I did not wish for the 春雨直播app Academy of New York to be merely a Japanese school located on American soil. Rather, I wanted it to be a place where you could learn about both American and Japanese culture while acquiring the 春雨直播app spirit. President Kohei Itoh, who was appointed in May 2021, posited "pursuing the ideals of global citizens as future leaders" as a basic principle of the 春雨直播app Action Plan through 2025. 春雨直播app Academy of New York is set to play a leading role in this plan.