The tutorial class also functioned as a space where the children themselves
could express themselves more freely than in school or at home. According to
a Japanese teacher who taught at an elementary school in Yao from 1990 to
2000, the “children see how their parents struggle and how hard they work, so
at home, in many cases they seemed to have been not able to pour out their
inner struggles.” Having friends of same background in the tutorial class, and
the fact that there were no other Japanese students, students were more relaxed
to release whatever they had within themselves. Similarly, Saturday
school in Nagata has such role. With the help of volunteer teachers from the
community around, not only had it functioned to advance academic performance
of Vietnamese children, but also functioned as a comfortable space to
raise their voice and develop more positive self esteem. The teachers give positive response to everyone in every small thing. When it is necessary, they scold
children, however it was seen that with positive comments which encourage
every small efforts they make, they develop self esteem which function as a
fundamental element for people to participate in Japanese society.
Mutual learning is one of the significant reasons why integration is advanced in
Yao and Nagata. As we have seen in previous section, bullying take place at
school. Many words in quarrels affect them, as well. At one elementary school
students got into a fight. As raised previously, Japanese student said “(name in
Vietnamese), Go back to your country!” Instead of scolding the Japanese students,
the teacher took up the theme why the boy is here in classroom discussions,
to try to understand his back ground, to share information, which majority
don’t usually know. Such measures to facilitate mutual understanding were
taken and mutual learning was emphasised. As a result, both areas are quite
progressed in terms of integration. With active participation of minority in society
(such as being able to fight with class mates, taking a role at school, raising
voice to community organizations, etc), majority become aware of issues
and share them. In this way, exclusion from the society is prevented better.
We have previously found out that language fluency nor an ‘insider’ understanding
of Japanese culture which often depend on the effort of non Japanese
do not automatically make participation in Japanese society smooth for “non-
Japanese”. It is never too much to say integration depends on the majority of
the society if there are further barriers that can not be overcome by efforts of non-Japanese.