Just for background, I am 18. I was supposed to finish highschool this year in my home country, but my mom told us we were supposed to move in 2021. So she asked us to stop highschool there, but then covid happened. Our move got delayed for a year. Until on March 2022, we finally came here. For the rest of the year, they enrolled us to a japanese language school because it’s impossible to get in hs without knowing a single word of Japanese.
Now, we’ve already stopped going to that japanese school and are planning to take an entrance exam. We’ve had so many problems about this but I won’t mention it bc it would make this post longer. The problem is the entrance exam is in Japanese, and just the math exam is already difficult enough(or maybe i’m just dumb?). There’s also 国語 which is just japanese hs test. I don’t know if I can do this. If we fail this, my parents might divorce(I know it sounds too much but thats my parents for ya). I’ve really been doing nothing but study what math i’ve learnt for the past four years, and it still seems impossible from the past entrance examinations i’ve been looking at.
Are there any alternatives to this or am i doomed not to get a high school diploma here? (Also test is in about 20 days🥲)
9 comments
Ouch, that feels like the exact situation we warn against when parents come here looking to change their entire lives to live out their weeb dreams without thinking about their kids at all.
Not that I know the specific circumstances that your parents moved here for though.
Sorry that I can’t help you there, are your parents ready to shell out money for an international school?
Ask your parents to enroll you in an online high school in English. Ontario Secondary School Diploma can be done by distance and they will probably credit you for the work done in your country. High schools in Japan are not part of obligatory education, which goes only to the end of JHS, around age 15, so your parents are setting you up to fail with this hare-brained idea. Japanese kids graduate HS at 18 anyway.
You are already 18. You don’t need to go to high school for another year in a country where you won’t understand the language. You would probably gain more from working part time. Your parents failed you by taking you out of school a year out from graduation. Find a way to get a high school diploma or equivalent (like a GED) from your home country. There are often online programs available for this and some people get theirs well into their adult lives. The sooner you do this the sooner you can find work requiring high school education or enroll in university. You don’t have to follow your parent’s plans for you. Your healthiest and happiest future may or may not even be in Japan.
Good luck.
I’m in the same position as you and I know a bit on what you’re going through. I’ve seen some of your post and just know that we can both get through this. I’m currently studying in a Language school and I’m most likely gonna do online classes and get to a university…
Idk much about your situation, but you’re 18 and seem to have not great prospects here, why not just go back to your home country? I’m not seeing any reason why you need to force yourself to be here based on what you’ve said.
Google online high schools in English, Tokyo.
They exist and would be perfect for this situation
I’m not sure where your home country is, but you might want to consider finishing highschool online. I moved back to Japan during the latter end of my highschool education and got my diploma through an American accredited online institution instead of trying my hand at a Japanese HS because I knew entrance tests are hell, even if Japanese is your primary language.
Does your prefecture have some sort of remedial/pick-up high school? I have an acquaintance who dropped out of middle school to pursue being an idol, and to get back into education she went to a prefectural high school that deals with the kids who have dropped out of the system. It worked well for her and she went on to getting a respectable job with the city.
Sorry you got dropped into this stressful situation.
Your English is excellent, where are you from? Many places have online high school options where you can complete your requirements to graduate. Perhaps your home country has something like that. Alternatively, you may be able to enroll in an online high school in the US, Canada, or another English speaking country. Get your high school diploma or your GED.
Beyond that, what do you want to do? Have you considered different possible certification paths to get you started on a career? Getting into something like networking might be a good option if you have at least a little technical inclination and are willing to study & work hard. Lots of datacenter jobs out there where you can learn and get paid.