It is arithmetic that we often hear about in the Kumon Method, but Japanese is not well known. In Japanese, just as in other subjects, there is pre-emptive learning, but it is not a subject that necessarily produces easily understandable effects such as faster calculation.
So what are the effects of Kumon Japanese?
From the perspective 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 reading comprehension and culture, which are the basic foundation for learning. This benefit comes from the following three points
Increased knowledge (amount of reading)
The greatest merit of Kumon Japanese is that it encourages students to read a lot.
In Kumon Japanese, you cannot learn that many kanji. Of course, there are materials for learning the words themselves, but 70-80% of the materials are used for reading comprehension questions.
And the quality of the books used for reading comprehension exercises is very high. The following are books used in the GI materials, which are considered equivalent to first year junior high school.
The Power of WordsThe Eye of the RabbitA Christmas CarolBotchanWhat Einstein ThoughtHow Do You LiveShakespeare's TalesThe Silver SpoonThe Adventures of Sherlock HolmesReading back the poems in the textbooksThe Fun of Poetry
Reference: Kumon official website
Of course, the full text is not available, but you can get a lot of reading done just by working on Kumon printouts.
It will motivate you to read
It is not only because you read Kumon prints that you are able to secure a good amount of reading. The interest in reading itself grows with Kumon Japanese.
As mentioned above, the quality of Kumon Japanese texts is high. Not only is the quality of the writing high, but the questions are made by extracting the parts that are suitable to be treated as teaching materials. So I can come into contact with many new worlds of knowledge, and my interest is piqued.
I was also intrigued by Kenro Doi's 'The Structure of Amae', which I read in the H materials, so I looked for it in the library and read it. I was shocked at how every emotional expression in Japanese is explained by amae, and from there the quality of the books I read clearly changed. My interest shifted from age-appropriate novels to critical writing and philosophy.
I believe that great writing is often a problem when studying for examinations. However, not many children have the time to enjoy great essays while they are studying for exams and feeling the pressure of the examinations. By coming into contact with great texts without the pressure of exams, you can expect to be motivated to read and become more active in your reading.
You can acquire a wide range of culture.
You can acquire a wide range of knowledge because you can read famous texts in Kumon Japanese, which is difficult to read in normal life. It is knowledge that is more akin to culture than something directly related to exams. Liberal arts are not immediately useful, and it is difficult to see the relationship with exam scores, but they will be useful for a long time in the exam and beyond.
From the outside, education may seem to mean nothing, but from the person's point of view, there is nothing more reassuring. It makes it easier for them to understand concepts that their friends around them struggle to understand. Also, because education is treated as a prerequisite for talking, if you don't know about it, you may not be taken seriously in a discussion.
Kumon will give you basic skills that you can use throughout your life, even after you have finished your exams.
The biggest reason for being disappointed with Kumon Japanese is 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 examinations.
It is difficult to feel that Kumon is reflected in grades.
It is difficult to feel that Kumon Japanese is directly related to grades.
That is part of Japanese language skills in general 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. Also, in the junior high school entrance examinations, a great deal of reading comprehension is required in subjects other than Japanese, but it is also true that being able to read question texts is just a prerequisite. Just being able to read question texts does not directly lead to a score.
Also, there is no focus on Kanji characters, so it would be difficult to say that it is directly related to the exam score.
However, it is just not directly connected. Reading comprehension and prerequisite knowledge, which are bottlenecks for many people, can be developed in Kumon Japanese. This is something that the students themselves who are learning Kumon are probably most aware of, rather than their parents or instructors. The basic skills that are called "groundwork" or "thinking skills" are not something that is immediately reflected in scores, nor are they the kind of skills that can be acquired quickly. It is important to insist that Kumon should work steadily on these skills because they are not directly related to the examinations.
Little effect on junior high school entrance examinations
Kumon is not designed for junior high school examinations.
It may be that it was born in a time when the junior high school entrance examinations were not as popular as they are now. Not only in Japanese, the Kumon method is not suited to junior high school entrance examinations. For example, in arithmetic, it does not cover part of the elementary and junior high school range. The Kumon Method does cover the entire range of high school, but it does not deal at all with problems involving figures, so naturally it will not be useful in preparing students for the junior high school entrance examination.
Even if you study material from several grades ahead, it is common for students to fail the entrance test at a cram school. This is because they are aiming for completely different things.
If you want to take the junior high school entrance exam, you should be aware that the Kumon method is not something you can do all the time. My view is that if you do Kumon, you should aim for the final material.
Parental commitment is necessary
Most 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 system is limited and they do not necessarily do that much other than manage the progress of the material and grade it. As 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 fulfil 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, the idea that it is not cost-effective is understandable.
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 absolutely cannot do at home.
If you are taking the junior high school entrance exam, I would say that 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 the junior high school entrance examinations, and they provide an environment where children can study in their care. The quality of the teacher's lessons can make a big difference to the way you grow, and if you get good grades, there is an incentive to study in a class with good teachers and fellow students. You can easily feel the meaning of paying money and working hard.
In Kumon, on the other hand, the power of the teacher is not as great. Of course, there are well-known classes that produce many highly-advanced students, but Kumon is self-learning in the first place. There is basically no material that can only be taught by a teacher. The basics are repeated, so you just repeat over and over again material that is somewhat easy for children today. 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 training for athletic teams. Running around the perimeter and doing strength training is not something you can do without belonging to an athletic club, equipment and 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 also obvious that you don't need to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for RIZAP to lose weight 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 of success is to do what anyone can do, but in quantities that no-one else can. In the same way, there are probably few children who can do basic calculation 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 clear results right away, but in the long term, the baby will store up words and you will continue to read to them, believing that one day it will have an effect.
Kumon Japanese is similar. As it is difficult to show the results in scores, it is difficult for parents to feel happy that their children are doing Kumon Japanese. However, for the child, it is an opportunity to come into contact with a text that will become a lifelong asset. If you are someone who understands the feeling of investing in something invisible, Kumon Japanese is suitable for you.
Conversely, parents who want visible results may be dissatisfied with Kumon Japanese. Kumon is not directly connected to exam scores or Kanji certificates. If you have a specific result you want, then naturally you can expect better results from a cram school or teaching materials specialising in that purpose.