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‘Ganbatte’ is not the same as ‘Good Luck’

By on August 11, 2017

Japanese parents believe that having their children focus on hard work is the ticket to academic success rather than an inherent ability.

Where some cultures say ‘good luck’, the Japanese put emphasis on effort.  Thus, the ubiquitous Japanese word of encouragement ‘Ganbatte‘ (do your very best) is what parents usually say to their children before taking a test, joining a school competition or accomplishing homework.

The results of a survey conducted by Kids Line, a company that runs a babysitting service in Japan reveals that 54.1% of parents help with homework while 45.9% say they will help only if asked. Very few families do not help with homework at all.

The study also reveals that parents struggle with not having enough tools, skills and above all, time for research. One parent rants, “It is very time consuming to come up with an idea from scratch. Usually there isn’t enough time to supervise research and this leads to homework wars.”

 

 

About Ted Tanaka