In Japan, many children go to juku, 塾 (じゅく), to prepare for entrance exams for High School, University, etc. These kinds of schools don't really exist in Canada or the U.S., if we feel our kids need to study more we hire a tutor to come to our homes and help them study. Usually, the teacher will contact the parents saying their kid needs help and will recommend a student of a higher grade to tutor them.
In English, we translate juku as cram school. This comes from the verb to cram which means to force something into a space which is too small for it. For example:
The pushers on the yamanote line crammed the people into the train.
Wow~! Did you see they crammed 15 clowns into that tiny car!
Be careful, in English pusher means (illegal) drug dealer but in Japanese it is someone who pushes people onto crowded trains during rush hour!!!
Now, from that meaning students started to use it to talk about last minute studying because they have a lot of information to cram into their brains in a short amount of time. For example:
Man, I'm not ready for tomorrow's final... I'm really gonna have to cram tonight!
I had to cram all weekend to pass my history midterm.
Often when students have to study hard they pull an all-nighter. This means that they study all night without sleeping!
My teacher is crazy~! I had to pull an all-nighter just to read this week's material!!!
Hmm, that's it for now, have a great weekend,
Phil
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment