Are You Taking Learning for Granted?
Trailer for Undeclared, a prematurely canceled show about college life
Earlier today I was venting to R about certain classmates that complain about, well, everything. They moan at the thought of a vocab test, complain to the teacher about receiving worksheets, and make sarcastic remarks and gestures to emphasize their less-than enthusiastic desire to be in class.
These whiners drove me nuts with their complaining. If they didn’t like being in school, then why bother coming? Leave the rest of the students alone to study. I’m tired of people taking being here in Japan for granted, an opportunity that only comes once in a lifetime for some. A lot of students were declined, didn’t have the funds or the right connections in order to study abroad, many of whom were probably more deserving to be here.
It’s not just limited to studying abroad, though. I can think of many instances back at my home university in which people took the opportunities they were given for granted. The way American media perpetuates the “college experience” practically tells you to let loose and have fun in the form of drinking, doing drugs, having random sex, and partying. So of course people think going to class is a waste of time and treat it as such.
In Japan, however, the word for skipping class is saboru (サボる), which comes from the word sabotage. Interpret it how you’d like, but I find it interesting that they had to borrow a foreign word in order to come up with a term for skipping class, and even more interesting that the word that was borrowed means to intentionally ruin something. This could explain why people outside of America come to American universities to study and end up excelling tremendously, often times over the heads of native students.
Having access to higher education should be a God-given right, but unfortunately it remains a privilege, especially in countries in which the government doesn’t offer much assistance in the way of educational funds. Those of us in college should be thankful–not scornful–that we are allowed to go to a place where we can learn practically anything we want. We should be grateful that we are taught by professionals with information we could otherwise never get, and for the experiences we would otherwise never have.
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