Japan Society of Fairfield County
Culture Watch, Society Watch (9)
by Dr. Ikuko Anjo Jassey
It has been more than a decade since I started
teaching Japanese at an American university; two are in Connecticut and
one in New York, all of which are co-ed. Indeed, I met a variety of
students on campus in attitudes: enthusiastic; nonchalant; diligent;
lazy; self-centered; disrespectful; courteous; manipulative; or even
"I-deserve-A." I assume that there are some students who are
extremely grade conscious on any campus in any country; however, she
was the first kind whom I encountered. Not only overly grade
conscious was she, but also self-centered, manipulative, and even
deceitful. However, since she was outwardly very charming and
attractive, I never imagined that I would eventually have experienced
such uncomfortable and unforgettable moments.
Whenever a quiz or an examination score
unsatisfied her, she got cross and showed her frustration in class.
Once she protested in a scathing tone by saying that it was not fair
that I had given them too difficult questions, without her realizing
that the majority of her peers had received much better scores. Once
she slammed the exit door when going out to a restroom. Once she
ignored my question. Yes, one time she said, "In all other
courses I am taking, professors give us a chance to retake an exam, but
you don't." My response was clear. "Well, other professors are other
professors. If and when I judge that my students should be given one
more chance, I might do so. But I just don't follow other
professors blindly." As far as receiving a good score, of course,
she was happy and congenial, with a smile on her face. By the way, she
was still a hard-working, enthusiastic, and disciplined student who was
academically excelling on campus. She was also a skillful
negotiator. Four or five times, she tried to negotiate over her
grade and what she said was something like "I am a scholarship
recipient and need to maintain A or A-," which was, I found out, not
true, or "I don't want to disappoint my mother" or "I don't want to
disappoint my coach." Thus, she never did say anything clearly and yet
subtly suggested that I should reward her with A or A-. So once I said
to her, "I don't negotiate over grades with my students"; on other
times, "In real life, you can't get everything you want. You will
get a result based on your performance" or "You will be treated fairly
and get what you deserve." Also, not only once but as many as twice,
she falsified my assessment of "check" and "check +" on homework
assignments.
And yet, I continued helping her with extra hours.
I believe that it was my role as an instructor to assist my students
when they need it, and at the same time, I admired her industrious and
tenacious attitude. I helped her, usually in the early morning before
my first class started, say about ten times during the final-semester
period. Nevertheless, she often failed to say "thank you" after the
tutorial session. Or she even sent me e-mail late in the evening,
specifically at 9:48 and at 10:45, in which she required my immediate
response or my extra help on the very next morning. Moreover, whenever
my response did not meet her desire or plan, she ignored it or said
that she had not received it or that she had not opened her e-mail or
that her computer had broken.
During the final examination period of
her final semester, she came to me to make sure that what she had
repeatedly suggested for her grading had filtered into my mind and
heart. She said, "I didn't receive the Scholar-Athlete Award,
because I got B+ from you for my mid-term grade (--again this was not
totally true, because she actually got one more B+ from another
professor as a mid-term grade). My coach was disappointed and I
don't want to disappoint him, you know, who is my father figure in the
States." "Are you studying for your coach? Aren't you
studying for yourself? Look, even if you succeed to get A or A- by
negotiating with your professor, the A or A- is not a grade you deserve
because of your brain power," said I. "Oh, I know, I know. I'm
not negotiating." "Righto! You are not negotiating. You are
demanding," I murmured in my mind.
I, as her instructor, was fully aware
how enthusiastically she had studied the language; however, just as
many of those who make tremendous efforts to get into, say, Oxford or
Harvard unfortunately would not succeed in being admitted to those
institutions, sometimes our efforts necessarily do not lead to what we
desire. My intangible reward, if any, for teaching her in class and
outside class was, as I referred to before, to observe her passion for
learning. What grades did she get throughout the four semesters?
Well, she got what she deserved. No less or no more than that. I
sometimes wonder if that extremely manipulative and disturbingly
aggressive attitude is a temporal product of immaturity that will be
eventually replaced with a self-controlling and respectful attitude of
a young woman with social grace.
The measure of her dealing with an
outrageously competitive mind was thus nothing else but a cultural
shock to me who had never met a student like her on a Japanese college
campus. Her extreme attitude of demanding "A or A-" for
self-gratification hopefully will not become a trend or a pandemic on
American campuses.
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