Comments on J-List side blog: The needless tragedy of 'ijime,' what's easy and h...

Well I'm not talking aboit ijime but... Peter I wa...

2007-03-08T14:59:00.000+09:00

Well I'm not talking aboit ijime but... Peter I wan't to thank you for the perfect ammo to irritate my sensei! Zombies, venus flytraps, cyborgs! LOL that's perfect!

Traeonna, yes, junior high is worse than high scho...

2007-03-08T14:10:00.000+09:00

Traeonna, yes, junior high is worse than high school in Japan since it's a lot stricter. Actually, high school is like college here, you choose where to go based on your ability and how hard you want to work, so similar personality types are in each high school, probably lessening some of the problems.

Fifthdream, yes, Flan is all over the place here. The Japanese call it "purin" which they think means "pudding." Not quite...

Sera, different is good ^_^ Part of the act of growing up means realizing this. My kids sure know they're different, and we try to use that for their benefit, i.e. make them think about what larger dreams they want to have compared with, say, some of the dreams of local kids who may never own a passport in their lives.

Chibisama, right on! My high school was half Navy housing, half Tierrasanta (somewhat upscale) kids, and although I lived in the latter I always hung out with the Navy people. It was odd when I got put into AP English because of my writing, since there was probably not a single Navy kid in there.

When I moved to a new school in elementary school ...

2007-03-08T12:20:00.000+09:00

When I moved to a new school in elementary school I was unfortunate enough to make friends with the unpopular kids first. The popular kids were TERRIBLE to me all through middle school.

As it turns out, however, one of the unpopulars I became friends with is still one of my closest friends today. Although, being teased constantly lead me to the "I don't care what people think" attitude I have today. The best part of it all is by the end of high school I ended up becoming one of the most popular girls without even realising it.

funny how things work, isn't it?

Yes, I was. I was the "weird art girl" all through...

2007-03-08T12:18:00.000+09:00

Yes, I was. I was the "weird art girl" all throughout middle and high school. Granted, I wasn't that strange in reality, I didn't dress strangely and I was in all the "smart" classes. My peers still managed to sense something "different" about me, so I was made fun of and bullied an awful lot. -___-

As for Flan, it's a special spanish caramel custard. :)

I was picked on a lot in grade school. Teachers la...

2007-03-08T08:40:00.000+09:00

I was picked on a lot in grade school. Teachers largely did nothing about it, even when it happened in the class with them. One time i told a teacher that kids were throwing rocks at me (because, well, you know, rocks flying at your head is not something you want to continue happening, really), and she called me a tattletale. After that, i just had to put up with it on my own. I can sympathize with kids having to deal with bullying.

Oh, and flan ("a Spanish dessert of sweetened egg custard with a caramel topping") is tasty. I've only had it a couple of times, but i like it.

I was a red-head that had leg braces as a child, t...

2007-03-08T03:25:00.000+09:00

I was a red-head that had leg braces as a child, then when I finally rid myself of those, I had braces on my teeth and on top of that, I was a d dork that was interested in "strange" things, so how could I not have been? I believe Junior High was probably the worse followed up by High School, but even in Elementary it was quite bad.

Have you ever been subject to ijime? I was, but it...

2007-03-07T22:16:00.000+09:00

Have you ever been subject to ijime? I was, but it was largely my own stupidity. One does not, when one goes to a 99% black school in a poor part of Maryland, use the "N" word against anyone for any reason. If one does, one gets a lot of ijime that one totally deserves...

I was not the smartest third grader in the world back then.