28-11-2007 Assignment

Assignment; Write a short essay describing how college life in the U.S. differs from college life in your home country.

There are some differences in college life between the U.S and Japan where I live. In this short essay, I will describe the differences between them focusing on the teaching method through George Washington University (GWU) life in the U.S. and Tokyo University life in which I studied from 1995 to 2001 in Japan.

First of all, all professors in GWU describe their teaching plan, purpose and goals more clearly in their syllabus than their Japanese counterparts. Thereby, students in the U.S. can more effectively study the topic of class in advance.

Second, many professors in the U.S. place emphasis on a discussion about issues which are the center point of their classes, while many professors in Japan tend to use teacher-fronted approch. Thereby, students in the U.S. can learn negosiation skills, management skill or self-expression skill which might provid advantage to the students when they work at somewhere in the future.

Third, many professors tend to give more assignments than their Japanese counterparts.

Fourth, a class evaluation system by students is established in the U.S. This system is expected to lead to improve teaching method more effectively.