School on a Holiday?

Today was a school holiday but I spent a good part of the day there anyhow. Started around 2:00 I had to go for a orientation on the Business major, they gave us a overview of the courses that we need to take and that was about it.

After that I met up with my group for Race Studies where we started working on our presentation. We watched the movie "Go" which is a movie about a Zainichi Korean and the things he goes through living in Japan. One of the students in my group is a 3rd gen Zainichi and she was able to offer insight into the movie that may have otherwise been missed.

One thing I found interesting is that in Japan there are Korean schools where students learn and study in Korean. They are discouraged to speak in Japanese at the school and are sometimes punished for speaking Japanese at the schools. Different speakers would even come to the school and discourage students from joining Japanese schools. Korean people have a very strong sense of National Pride. It is interesting because even people who's parents were born in Japan and they themselves were born in Japan will often go to a Korean school where they learn Korean and about being Korean. I think having this type of school makes it more difficult for the students to assimilate into Japanese society. I also find it interesting that the 2nd and 3rd gen Zainichi can have such a sense of pride about being Korean even though they have never even been to Korea.