Things You Can't See in the US, Part 3

3. Teachers called their first names by their students

(Note: I haven't been to school in the US in many years, so this may have changed, as it certainly has in Japan)

Japan has a reputation for being a very strict place, education-wise. That's why I was so surprised to hear my students referring to their teachers at school as "Megumi" or "Hajime", rather than "Mr. ---" or "--- sensei". When I was growing up, we never, ever called our teachers by their first names. The first time I ever called a teacher by his first name was in college, and that professor was a communist, so of course he believed in equality!

Some people in Japan seem to believe that all Americans are on a first-name basis. This is definitely not true. Especially in the case of teachers, you should call them "Mr.", "Ms." or "Mrs." unless they say otherwise. I know of one case where an American teacher visited Fujinomiya and was surprised that she was introduced to people as "Julia", even to children. Her students in the US would never call her "Julia"!

For the record, I go by "Mark" here because I want to avoid the "shut up, listen and take notes" atmosphere of the usual English class in Japan. If everyone called me "Makino-sensei" I'm afraid they would get too passive.