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I'm born in Japan, but attended primary school in Italy, middle and high school in an international school back in Japan, and I am currently studying in the United States. With a lot of moving and encountering different people, it shed light on a lot of my thoughts on education systems across the world.

There really does not exist a single education system that works for everyone in the world, and there probably won't be no matter how hard educators try. It really is up to the individual (or the parents) to seek for the best option for themselves, the best "fit", just like a pair of shoes.

Many people underestimate the power of education. No matter what kind of system you're in, you learn things. So what is good education and what should people try to earn out of education?

Consider a Japanese style education: Entrance Exams. While there exist exceptions, the primary method to enter a university in Japan is through taking an exam. High school students study their guts out to get into the university of their dreams, placing their bets on one that one paper they write. These kids spend a ridiculous amount of time going to cram school, often times skipping their classes in school. Why? At this point, these exams are no longer testing your pure knowledge of the material. There are companies who study trending topics for popular universities depending on past papers and sell material to parents and cram schools who teach according to what's 'hot". Students learn based on these statistics and simply try to beat the exam. Their goal is to beat the exam, right?

Take a step back and think about what it really means to receive education. Yes, getting into a university of your dreams may be important; maybe you want to be a researcher, maybe you want to be employed at some company, or maybe you just want it for the pride. But the Japanese way of geting into a university has derailed so much from the purpose of education that it is almost like beating a game of super mario brothers. Their goal is not to learn - it's just beating the game. The game of getting into university.

What's more, because these kids work so hard to get into college, once they've accomplished their mission in life, they forget to learn anything on the other side of the finish line. University is where you can concentrate on what you really want to learn, and it is where you really develop that inner personality of who you are. Yet these Japanese fluke out.

Who is it to blame? Is it the students? Is it the universities? One could think of a myriad of answers, but I believe it really is embedded in the intertwined nature of Japanese history and society that rejects uniqueness. Because of a strong hierarchy between classes of people, historically it was frowned upon to stand out in the crowd. Thus by nature, people had to race the same way: a national exam. Your personal essay, or your extracurricular activities had no significance in such society. It was purely fair and square, in a way.

While there is a lot of room for criticism, don't forget Japan currently has the world's 3rd largest economy with a population of just over a hundred million. It is the world leader on electronics and automobile manufacturing and the only Asian country in the G8 (Russia... is controversial with Moscow in Europe) with strong political power.

The educational system the Japan used was very successful in creating people who worked hard and diligently, followed the crowd and never complained. The economy surged from the strong work force and overall people were very knowledgeable of what they had to do. Manufacturing that involved good mathematical background and repetitive work was very suited for the Japanese, and thus came the Toyota and Sony. With the economic power in the 80's Japan became a global leader in exports and political voice.

Pittsburgh snowed like crazy the whole week. It was the best weekend for skiing Pittsburgh can offer in a while.

So of course, plans were made and we were off. 11 people, one Honda Civic (me driving), one Toyota Sienna.

Well, look at the photos below. 'nuff said. I saw it from my back mirror - the van behind me just skid and disappeared. Moments later we get a call - "We fucked up - It's pretty serious". It reminded me of the movie "The Hangover".

Shattered window, flat tyre, smashed bumper. Just dived into someone's lawn and destroyed their fence. No injuries, no big deal.

Craziest part is they still came skiing after fixing the tyre.

Research has shown that children learn a language best from ages 2-7 (e.g. Newport 1990).

Sounds pretty normal? Well, actually children do not need the whole span of those years to actually be able to communicate in a language. Psychologists have examined children, who through unfortunate circumstances such as abuse, have not been exposed to the world of languages until age 6. These children, by the following year are up to level with their peers in school in most cases. However, when this period becomes later, say 15 years of age, it becomes very difficult to master a language. After that, it is virtually impossible.

Language is a very complicated concept. Linguists spend all their lives delving into topics of language, yet cannot find a single algorithm that unifies languages makes them comprehensible to computers. You all know Siri is not perfect. But children have the capability to acquire a language in a year, without much force, at least to a level of colloquial communication. This kind of brilliance of the human brain kind of amazes me.

I'm actually a first hand experiencer of this language acquisition phenomenon. No, I was not abused into a dark room for 6 years. Mine is a case seen by many international students. I, born in Japan and raised there between two Japanese, Japanese speaking, parents, moved to Italy and enrolled in a British school in Milan Italy at age 6. At this point, I really did not speak English. As you've guessed, but the second year I remember myself communicating with my peers with no hesitation. By the next year, I bet people around couldn't tell I only knew this language for two years.

Being the international student I am, I have also been exposed to a couple other languages. Italian, having lived in Milan for 4 years, had become quite native to me before I departed the country. Once I got back to Japan and started school at an international school, I took Spanish as one of my language classes. While my Italian faded away from less use, I enjoyed my new counterpart. Now, second year in college, I've started learning Chinese.

Reflecting back on the languages I learned and how I learned them, I really concur with some the theories about the human brain presented above. Japanese and English, which I learned before the age of 7 are still native to my tongue, and I can confidently call myself bilingual. Italian, which I was exposed until age 10, which has slowly faded away, was learned from real-life situations than learned in a classroom. This was definitely part of the age phase which allowed me to learn it in such a way. Learning Spanish in a classroom was very different, but given my still young age, came quite naturally. The teaching style of the curriculum was also more based on using it as much as possible, rather than cramming in the grammar. That was probably adequate for my age then, a transitioning phase into the adult brain. Now that I am in college, I can no longer experience the flexibility I used to have learning a language. While there are no chances of using Chinese in America, words just do not come out of my mouth like my Italian or Spanish used to do. I am finally experiencing the adult phase of language acquisition. The way I learn the language is also quite different; hitting the books. Learn the vocab, learn the grammar. Plug it into a sentence.