Although it is arithmetic that we often hear about in the Kumon Method, Japanese is not well known. Although Japanese, like other subjects, is studied ahead of other subjects, it is not a subject that necessarily produces obvious effects such as faster calculations.
So what are the effects of Kumon Japanese?
From the standpoint of a former Kumon student who studied Japanese, I would like to talk about the features and effects of Kumon Japanese, and conversely, the parts of Kumon Japanese that are not expected.
The greatest merit of Kumon Japanese is that it expands your intellectual world.
The merit of Kumon Japanese is that it can deepen your reading comprehension and culture, which are the basic foundation for learning. This merit comes from the following three points.
Increase in the amount of knowledge (amount of reading)
The greatest merit of Kumon Japanese is that you will learn to read a lot.
In Kumon Japanese, you cannot memorize that many kanji. Of course, there are materials to memorize the words themselves, but 70 to 80% of the materials are used for reading comprehension questions.
And the quality of the books used for the reading comprehension exercises is very high. Below is a list of books used in the GI materials, which are considered equivalent to the first year of junior high school.
The Power of WordsA Rabbit's EyeA Christmas CarolBoy Einstein's Thoughts on How You LiveShakespeare's TalesThe Silver SpoonThe Adventures of Sherlock HolmesAn Adventures of Sherlock HolmesReading Back the Poems in the TextbooksThe Joy of Poetry
Reference: Kumon's official website
Of course, the full text is not available, but you can get a lot of reading done just by working on Kumon's printouts.
It will motivate you to read more.
It is not only because you read Kumon's printouts that you can secure a significant amount of reading. Interest in reading itself grows with Kumon Japanese.
As mentioned above, the quality of Kumon Japanese is high. Not only is the quality of the writing high, but the questions are made by extracting the parts that are appropriate to be treated as teaching materials. That is why I am able to come into contact with many new worlds of knowledge and interest.
I was also intrigued by Kenro Doi's "The Structure of Amae," which I read in the H materials, so I searched for it in the library and read it. I was shocked at how every emotional expression in Japanese is explained by amae, and the quality of the books I read clearly changed from there. My interest shifted from age-appropriate novels to critical writing and philosophy.
I believe that great writing is often a problem when studying for entrance examinations. However, not many children have the time to enjoy great essays while feeling the pressure of an exam during the days of studying for the exam. By being exposed to great texts without the pressure of an exam, students will be motivated to read and will be able to become more active in their reading.
Students can acquire a broad range of knowledge.
By reading famous texts in Kumon Japanese, which is difficult to read in ordinary life, you can acquire a variety of knowledge. This knowledge is not directly related to the examinations, but more like a liberal arts education. It is not something that is immediately useful, and it is difficult to see how it relates to exam scores, but it is something that will be useful for a long time, both in exams and beyond.
From the outside looking in, it may seem that education means nothing, but from the person's point of view, there is nothing more reassuring than this. It is easy for them to understand concepts that their friends around them are struggling to understand. Also, since culture is treated as a prerequisite for conversation, if you don't know it, you may not be taken seriously in an argument.
Kumon will provide you with basic skills that you can use throughout your life, even after you finish taking exams.
The biggest reason for being disappointed with Kumon Japanese is to take the junior high school entrance examination.
On the other hand, there are many people who are disappointed with Kumon Japanese. The main reason for this is that Kumon does not match well with the junior high school entrance examination.
It is difficult to feel that Kumon is reflected in your grades.
It is difficult to feel that Kumon Japanese is directly related to grades.
That is part of the overall Japanese language ability to begin with. Even if you read a lot of books and understand difficult concepts, you need techniques to link your reading comprehension skills to your grades. In addition, in the junior high school entrance examination, reading comprehension is required in subjects other than Japanese, but it is also true that being able to read the questions is just a prerequisite. Just being able to read a question does not directly lead to a score.
Also, since there is no emphasis on Kanji, it is difficult to say that it is directly related to the score of the examination.
However, it is just not directly related to it. Reading comprehension and prerequisite knowledge, which are bottlenecks for many people, can be developed in Kumon Japanese. This is something that the students themselves, rather than their parents or instructors, will be most aware of. The basic skills that are called "groundwork" or "thinking ability" are not something that is immediately reflected in scores, nor are they the kind of skills that can be acquired quickly. It is because they are not directly related to the examinations that I would like to insist that you should work steadily on them with Kumon.
Little effect on junior high school entrance examinations
Kumon is not designed to prepare students for junior high school entrance exams.
This is probably due to the fact that Kumon was born in an era when entrance examinations for junior high school were not as popular as they are now. Not only in Japanese, the Kumon method is not suited for junior high school entrance examinations. For example, in arithmetic, Kumon does not cover part of the elementary and junior high school ranges. It does cover the entire high school range, but it does not deal with problems involving figures, so of course it will not be useful in preparing students for the junior high school entrance examination.
It is common for students to fail the entrance exam of a cram school even if they have studied material several grades ahead. This is because they are aiming for completely different things.
If you are planning to take the junior high school entrance examination, you should be aware that the Kumon Method is not something you can do forever. My view is that if you are going to do Kumon, you should aim for the final material.
Parental commitment is necessary.
Most of Kumon learning is self-study. If there is a large amount of learning to be done at home, parental involvement is naturally required.
Moreover, the role of the teacher in the Kumon Method is limited, and it is not always possible for the teacher to do that much more than manage the progress of the materials and grade the students. Since the classrooms are run by individuals, the resources of the management are not always sufficient.
Many parents may look to a tutoring school to help their children learn. Kumon does little to fulfill that role. The advantage of Kumon is that children can eventually develop the habit of self-learning, but this is not possible from the start. In terms of learning time in relation to the burden on parents, I understand the idea that it is not cost-effective.
The monthly fees are high, but I feel that what we are doing could be done at home.
There are few things you can do at Kumon that you cannot do at home.
If you are preparing for the junior high school entrance examination, it is impossible to do at home what you do at cram schools. This is because cram schools have a vast amount of information and know-how about junior high school entrance examinations, and they provide an environment where children are entrusted to study. The quality of the instructor's lessons will greatly affect the way your child grows, and there is also the incentive of being able to study in a class with good instructors and peers if you get good grades. You can easily feel the meaning of paying money and working hard.
On the other hand, in Kumon, the power of the teacher is not so great. Of course, there are famous Kumon schools that produce many highly advanced students, but Kumon is a self-learning program to begin with. There is basically no material that can only be done with the help of a teacher. The basics are repeated, so you just repeat over and over again material that is somewhat easy for today's children. The lower the grade level, the more I feel like I can do the same thing without having to bother paying a monthly fee.
I think it's similar to basic practice for an athletic team. Running around the perimeter and doing muscle training are not things you can do without belonging to an athletic club, equipment, or friends. It is possible to do the same thing by running alone along a nearby road and doing strength training in your room. It is obvious that you can lose weight without paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to RIZAP if you exercise and watch your diet.
However, it is also obvious to anyone who is not a member of an athletic club that there are very few people whose basic fitness is better than that of an athletic club or who can successfully lose weight on their own. Some say that the secret to success is to do what anyone can do, but in quantities that no one else can do. In the same way, there are probably few children who can do basic math and reading comprehension problems as thoroughly as Kumon students.
What kind of person should do Kumon Japanese?
Parents who were active in reading picture books to their children are a good match for Kumon Japanese.
No matter how much you read to your child when he or she is a baby, words will not come out of the child until much later. You won't get easy-to-understand results right away, but in the long run, words will be stored in the baby, and you will continue to read to the child, believing that one day it will be effective.
Kumon Japanese is similar. Since it is difficult to show the results in scores, it may be difficult for parents to feel happy that their children are learning Kumon Japanese. However, for the child, it is an opportunity to come into contact with a text that will become an asset for a lifetime. If you are someone who understands the feeling of investing in something invisible, then Kumon Japanese is for you.
On the other hand, parents who want visible results may be dissatisfied with Kumon Japanese. Kumon is not directly connected to test scores or Kanji certificates. If you have a specific result you want, of course you can expect better results from a cram school or teaching materials specialized for that purpose.