Students

I have a 12-year old girl every week who sums up much of what is out of balance about this place. She has no life. She studies. When she's not studying, she studies. Her life is school (which she hates) and cram school (which she doesn't hate so much) and cram school homework.

She goes to cram school every day, although some weeks she'll not go there on a Sunday. But only some weeks. In her school holidays: well, she doesn't have school holidays she has cram school.

She never hangs out with friends. I don't even know if she HAS friends. I think they all bore her.

This week we were talking about how boring and pointless school was and I said the point was to get through it so you could get through university and enable yourself to have the freedom to do what you want after that.

I asked her what she wanted to do in the future. She said 'eat'. I suggested being a food critic might be a good job for her. She said she doesn't want to work, just eat. Oh and travel around Japan to eat and visit slot parlours. I asked her how she'd afford it if she didn't work....

She said she'd marry a rich husband, but had no idea how she'd go about finding one.

She has no life and so she cannot imagine having a life. I find this sad. Although I've been here long enough to not be surprised by this.

She'll turn into someone like one of two sisters I teach if she's not careful. They are adults and as dull as dust. Every week I ask them what they did the previous week. Every week (for nearly three years) the answers have been 'I played tennis with my friends' and 'I went shopping'. Said in a toneless voice. And yet I persist in asking this question.

Just shoot me!

P.S. - nobody commented on the video clip below. Go watch. Comment. It's silly. You might even like it.