For a while now, I have been wanting to correct some things I said on one of 's posts a while back on Google+. Most of what I said in the comments of that post were correct, and I stand by them, but the following is something I would like to revise. I wrote the following to Heather and : "Many Japanese people actually admire American students, because they can (both regulation-wise and culturally) ask questions. In Japan, teachers prepare full lectures (which is probably what a lot of that time is used for) and basically just read the lesson out, and the students take notes. It is rote memorization. They are excellent at it, and if it involves memorization (including of math concepts), they can beat nearly anyone else in the world. However, if they are asked to go outside the script, they stumble. For example, ask what year a war started, and they will know it (for the test, at least...then forget later on), but ask why the war ...