#Oh my Japanese learning credentials are only two years in high school

[alangdorf]

Hi :) I finally made my Magolor conspiracy theory board! I know the text is small so I’m gonna write out a transcription plus all the stuff I couldn’t fit without making everything completely illegible. Be warned, this is gonna get long.

By the way, please don’t take this overly seriously; I’m just shaking thoughts out of my head. I used to be all “yeah Magolor is exactly the type of character I would like but I’m just not that crazy about him.” But then the Epilogue came along and we had a blackout where I barely had internet access for a couple days and these two things combined flipped a switch in my brain and I thought about/talked about nothing but Magolor for literally a week straight. And so here we are!

First off, a note about the Another Dimenion creatures (Doomers, Darpas, Deppas, Dippas, and Dupas). In Japanese, Sphere Doomers are called Sphere Lowpers – Lowper being the romaji spelling used in the files, although in Japanese it’s pronounced Rōpā (ろーぱー), and most likely originating from the English words “interloper” and/or “robber”. B and p are closely related in Japanese writing, both being a slight alteration of the consonant h (via diacritic marks called tenten [two little lines] and maru [a circle]), so は is ha, ば is ba, and ぱ is pa.

The other creatures are variations on Rōpā with different vowels in the first syllable (they’re actually called morae [singular: mora] instead of syllables though): Rāpā, Rēpā, Rīpā, and Rūpā. These are changed in English to match the fact that Doomer starts with D: Darpas, Dippas, and Dupas, according to the Magolor Epilogue song titled “VS Darpa-Dippa-Dupas”, and then Deppa for Rēpā as a logical extrapolation of that.

(Side note: since this game came out before Kirby localization teams were given a lot of guidance, the names in other languages for Doomers are alllllll over the place in terms of meaning. Sphere Chimera, Sphere Spook, Spectre Sphere, and my favorite is the Italian, “Fenix Sferix”, meaning Phoenix Sphere. For their translation of “VS Darpa-Dippa-Dupas” they went with the same play on the vowels, so it’s “VS Fanix-Finix-Funix”. But then?? What are their Deppas called???? Probably Fonix but it’s still funny lol)

Now is probably a good time to talk about Magolor’s name; get all the translation fun facts out of the way. In Japanese, his name is Mahoroa (まほろあ). “Mahō” is the word “magic” in Japanese, so the English version starting with “Mago”, derived from “magic”, is a good close translation. “Lor” and “roa” are both their respective language’s name for the Lor Starcutter, and are roughly equivalent in Japanese pronunciation. The devs have said in a Miiverse post that Magolor’s name was also partially derived from the Japanese word “Mahoroba” (まほろば), which is the name for the concept of a “far-off land full of bliss and peace” (per the Wikipedia page for Mahoroba), which could certainly be translated as “paradise” (note on that in a second). With ba and pa being almost the same letter, it makes me wonder if Mahoroba and Rōpā (まほろば and ろーぱー) are meant to be so similar as a cheeky wordplay thing. Mostly because I think it would be really funny if that was the case.

The aforementioned note which is about the meaning of “Magolor” in the language the Jamba speak: there is a pause screen in Star Allies that lists a bunch of translations for words in their language, most notable here being “Mafo = lie” and “Lor = paradise”. “Mafo” having a different third letter than “Mago” is hardly an issue; fo and ho are written the same in Japanese unless you’re being really pedantic about loanword spelling (ホ vs フォ), “Maho” being equivalent to “Mago” is already established, and Star Allies had a notoriously messy localization anyways, so I would hardly be surprised if they just forgot to change it to “Mago”.

Also, given the fact that Return to Dreamland Deluxe added a line for 100%ing the game that clarifies that Mags was lying about being from Halcandra but studied Ancient culture there for years and that this whole post posits the theory that he was originally some sort of Another Dimension creature like the Doomers and co. (Side note: in the context of whatever possible relationship the Doomers and Ancients used to have [Rampaging Doomers are implied by Sphere Doomers EX pause screen lore to be ancient Doomers and have the gear aesthetic and that could mean any number of things], and the limited individuality of the Doomers/Darpa-Deppa-Dippa-Dupas and their subservience to Grand Doomer, I see this less as cultural appropriation and more like uhhhh trans coding, kinda. Please don’t come at me about this; I often joke that Kit, my nickname, is short for Catboy Discourse but I don’t actually want to fight on the internet about this catboy), the fact that this pause screen is for a version of Unhooded Hyness from the SAME UPDATE that added Magolor to the game is so hysterical. Maggie rocks up to a fight with someone he’s never heard of (Hyness claims in his rant that the Ancients erased his sect from their history after the schism), they reveal themself to be an actual Ancient, and the game itself calls him a liar???!? Like dude you had at least one other outfit you could’ve worn today lol

Anyways, I have some loose appearance similarities to point out between Magolor and the Doomers and co. His ears are shaped, striped (his hood is at least, though I know it’s more similar to Hyness’ ears), positioned, and even move similarly to the top two projectiles on a Deppa. The ears do have more jiggle physics now, unlike the Deppa projectiles, but they’re often portrayed as horns instead of ears in his boss forms (and concept art but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything for current Mags) anyways. Also, Dupas’ feet are a little strange. With the way that they move back and forth unrelated to how the Dupa actually moves and the way that they can stand upside down, it definitely could be that those appendages are disconnected similar to Magolor’s hands and the Dupas actually move by floating around. Admittedly they’re not the same color yellow and this one is a vague connection at best, though the Dupas are also slightly egg-shaped like Magolor. Oh, and in Magolor Epilogue his projectiles and the Rampaging Doomers’ projectiles look almost exactly the same to me. I could also point out the fact that Magolor’s 2nd phase/Soul form has a large mouth like the Doomers, Deppas, and Dupas, though it doesn’t look very similar. Girl what is that thing. Why do you look like W.D. Gaster.

A slightly stronger connection is the eyes. Flat yellow eyes (upright ovals with variations for expression in this case) aren’t that uncommon on Kirby creatures, but a lot of notable examples, such as Hyness, the other Jambas, and Wester, have their eyes on a black background, likely to symbolize shadowed, glowing eyes. In Hyness’ case at the very least, this is proven by his unhooded appearance. Magolor, on the other hand, has his on a brown background, which, as indicated by his visible ear in the Epilogue, is just his skin color. (Meta Knight is similar in this regard, but he has his own whole thing going on species-wise, and his eyes were white when not shadowed until like Brawl anyways which just supports my point.) It being a solid color, and comparatively a dull one at that, is dissimilar to the Doomers, though it makes sense with his design to not make it too busy. Also a couple of the Doomer types have different eye colors, but that’s also clearly for the purposes of making a good palette.

My favorite evidence, however, that links Magolor to the Doomers is his first phase boss theme, Welcome Your New Overlord (née Under My Control). I think it’s so similar to Another Dimension (the song that plays in the rift segments before each Doomer fight) and VS Sphere Doomer (context self-explanatory) that they were intentionally written in the same style. (Grand Doomer is also somewhat similar, but to a lesser extent in my opinion.) All these songs have synth chords through most (less in Grand Doomer) of them that, well. I didn’t take enough music theory to be able to identify chords more complex than triads, but I would describe them as “dissonant” or “jazzy”, and they step around to different keys relatively frequently (Oops, just realized I wrote “chord structure” instead of “chord progression” on the board, oh well. It’s probably non-functional harmony anyway but either way, I just meant this). They also have very similar rhythms, playing the same chords multiple times in a row, often falling on offbeats (again, Grand Doomer is the outlier here). Pre-final boss themes in Kirby are often written to be complex and disorienting, but the way that these songs are similar is specific enough that I think it’s reasonable to assume it was on purpose. Also can I just say how much I love Welcome Your New Overlord? Amazing song.

Overall, the trick to all Kirby lore is trying to judge whether things are done by the developers for the purposes of gameplay and game experience or for the purposes of canon lore, and I’m not gonna make a judgement call on this one, but I really like it as a headcanon at the very least. A couple more related headcanons about Magolor for reading this far: Not sure whether I think that Mags named the Lor after himself or himself after the Lor, but I think for the “Mago” part, he either named himself after the Ancient word for “lie” on purpose as an inside joke for only himself (not knowing the Jamba were still around to call him on it) or he named himself after the Ancient word for ��magic” and it just so happens to be either a homonym or synonym for the word “lie”, possibly because of negative opinions toward the Jamba. Possibly both options, even. Also I think the reason he talks Like That, at least in English (in Japanese he just uses katakana instead of hiragana a lot, which, katakana is usually used for foreign words so it gives a “foreigner” feeling), is because he’s a very studious and book-smart foreign language learner, but unfortunately the first native speaker of Kirby’s language he met was Marx (there’s a well established fan theory that he has met Marx before based on his dialogue that he knows someone who knows Kirby) and he internalized entirely too many of his speech patterns. On purpose. Mini speech headcanons: At Merry Magoland he either addresses to the patrons as “parkgoers”, “paying customers” (he doesn’t charge admission but he got used to saying it at the Shoppe and thought it would be funny to continue saying it in an inappropriate situation; it does make some people freak out thinking they were supposed to buy a ticket), or “gamers”. Also during the beginning of Return to Dream Land he laid the flattery on a bit thick with calling the main group “kind strangers” and “my saviors” and he still calls them that sometimes after they’re friends for real just to be annoying.

Thank you for reading!

[invisiblesoulink]

No Smoking

A peek into Hiro’s past

“Hey!” The voice came from the other side of the counter, and made Wesley bristle hard enough to break the toothpick between his teeth. He raised an eyebrow as he turned and saw a gruff man standing at the counter, piles of junk food and sodas laid out and ready to be rung up-- no different than any other customer. But the cash register was unattended. It was odd-- enough for him to stare, perplexed for a moment before the man scoffed and banged his hand on the counter.

“You just gonna stand there? Is my money no good here or somethin'?” He hissed.

Wesley spat out his toothpick, fixing his mouth to snap back, but business had been slow today. Slow enough that he hadn't even heard this fool come in and rummage around. He lumbered over without a word, rang up the snacks and bagged them up.

“Ain't you got some workers in here? Shit, I had a hard enough time findin' everything I was lookin' for.” The man muttered as he fished through his pockets.

“Usually.” Wesley lifted a broad shoulder. “Money's no good here if it's invisible, by the way...”

The man huffed at him and smacked a crumpled twenty and a few loose coins down in front of him. “Keep the change. You need it more than me.”

Wesley just raised an eyebrow. “You're short eight cents, friend.”

Flustered, the man scrambled to find another dime, snatched his bag and stumbled out. A trucker, most likely; one who had been drinking on the job. Wesley was sure that he should report that to someone, but there were other matters to attend to.

Where on Earth was his employee?

It took a few minutes to check around; that knee injury hadn't healed up like the doctor's had promised, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, he was getting old. His hair was like steadily burning wood; a dulling brown that was beginning to crumble into ash gray, even more so in his beard. He could retire at any time, he supposed; but this gas station on the edge of town was all he had, and he no one to give it to.

It took even longer to look around as he had gotten distracted with his own thoughts, but as luck would have it, he didn't have to look too many places. He poked his head out back and found him there, hunched over a book with a notebook one his knee and a cigarette in his mouth.

Wesley cleared his throat and the kid bristled, much like he had before. He was a daydreamer too; or maybe he'd gotten lost in all those numbers in that book.

“You're a smart kid. I get that.” Wesley stepped out to prop the door open. “But I'm beginning to wonder if you can read.” When he received a blank stare, he tapped a sign just above the boy's head. “No smoking. See? Even got a little picture on it.”

Color rushed to his face and he took the cigarette and ground the ashes out. “Sorry. I never noticed that...”

“This is a gas station. You wanna blow us both into next Tuesday?” Wesley laughed and sat in the chair that for some reason the kid had decided not to occupy. “What are you even doing out here?”

“I uh...” He hesitated, prepared himself to lie; but Wesley was sure to give him a hard look and it did the trick. “...Homework.”

“Homework.” Wesley leaned back in his chair. “I didn't know 20 year olds still had homework. You in college, son?”

“...No.”

“Oh. So I'm guessing you're not 20, either.” Wesley chuckled. He had known all along, but it had been a few months. He had hoped that the kid would have wanted to come clean by now. But it was such a nice evening out, and he didn't imagine anyone else coming in for a while. It was about time they talked.

“No,” came the inevitable reply, and he shut the book. “I'm 15.”

“Fifteen and smoking?” Wesley glanced over at him. “But studying hard and working here almost every day.” He raised an eyebrow. “Something about that don't add up.”

He wasn't looking at him now, but Wesley could see the pain in the way that his shoulders slumpled. He waited for a few moments before he cleared his throat.

“How long have you been on your own, Hiro?”

“I'm not on my own.” Hiro drummed his fingers against the book. Calculus. Wesley had only heard about that. Smart kid. “I have a brother... He stays with the neighbors until I get home.”

Wesley studied him for a moment. “So you go to school and you work. You're not old enough to drive... and you're taking care of a little one.”

“It's not that far of a walk... only an hour and a half.” Hiro shrugged and opened his book again. “I don't mind.”

Wesley had to cough to cover the sputter that he almost let slip. “You mean to tell me that you walk here and back every day you work?”

“Yes sir.” Hiro glanced up at him. “I run track at school.”

“Mm. I'd forgotten what it was like to be that young and full of energy.” Wesley offered a little smile. “But... you know, there are people to help when--”

“No.” Hiro's fingers clenched slightly around his pencil. “They'd take Yuki, and I'm not letting that happen. He's almost old enough to take care of himself. ...Almost.”

Wesley scratched his beard. “It's awfully noble of you to give up your childhood, just to keep your family together,” he murmured. “Is that why you call yourself 'Hiro?'”

Again, his pale face colored and he sat up straighter to look at him. “That's my name.”

Laughing, Wesley raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry, I wasn't sure. I'm learning all kinds of things about you today.”

“It's Japanese.” Hiro looked back down, trying not to look embarrassed. “Not a complex.”

“All right, all right. I wasn't gonna assume.” Wesley tipped his head. “Anything else you think you might need to tell me?”

Hiro didn't respond until he finished writing-- it might have been an equation, but Wesley couldn't be bothered to ask. Math had never done him much service past counting money. But, the young man looked up at him again once he had tucked all of his things away.

“I really need this job...” His hands were laced in his nap. He was nervous. “I didn't think you'd hire me if you knew that I was  just some kid still in high school. But I have to take care of Yuki. He's all I have left, and I'd do anything for him.” He looked at his bag. “Even if that means doing things I don't want to. It's not his fault any of this happened.”

“I'm assuming it's not yours, either.” Wesley raised an eyebrow. “What happened to them?”

“It's not important.” Hiro shook his head. “You're not gonna fire me, are you?”

For a moment, he considered it. Not because he didn't like him; he was a hard worker, even moreso than he realized, apparently. He came in and did what he was supposed to, for the most part, though he knew now why he'd sometimes have to summon him from the back. But if someone found out he was working a kid like a grown man, he could get into a lot of trouble. But in truth, no one had come to check up on his little business in a while, and as much as Hiro needed this job, Wesley needed him there, too. He had been glad to put that “HELP WANTED” sign away; it had begun to collect dust in the window.

“I'm not gonna get rid of you.” Wesley reached over to pat him on the back. “If you weren't so damn good at everything I ask you to do, maybe. But you sweep better than I ever would these days. I still can't figure out how you lift half the shit that you do.” He chuckled. “But you gotta keep from lying to me from now on, kid. You're gonna need somebody on your side, you know.”

Hiro nodded a little, slowly relaxing a bit. He was relieved, though Wesley couldn't exactly imagine why. It seemed as the this kid was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he had somehow managed not to complain. No wonder he smoked.

“Listen...” Wesley looked back out at the setting sun. “If you need to change some things up... work a little less to make time for... I dunno-- homework, or driving lessons ,or something... I can work with you. You're doin' a good job here, you know. I think you could use a raise.”

“Sounds like you're doing it because you feel sorry for me.” Hiro murmured, rubbing his neck.

“Well, yeah. Sorry for feeling sorry? I ain't exactly human but, shit. I got a heart still.” Wesley laughed. “And I know you ain't exactly human either, so don't act surprised.

Hiro did not have a very good poker face; he looked up at him with surprise. “How did you--”

“You might have a few legs up on me when it comes to books, but my nose'll tell me more about this world than your head would ever tell you.” Wesley grinned. “That, and I can see your ears in that fancy up-do.”

Hiro set his jaw a little and reached up to take the soft band that kept his ears and hair tied up atop his head. “I lost my hat on my way here.”

“Don't people ever ask you where your ears are?” Wesley asked.

“I can wear a hat at school, too.” Hiro winced a little as he rubbed one long lop rabbit ear. “I have to get better at hiding them before someone notices.”

“Don't tell me you're trying to pose as a wolf, too. Because let me tell ya', son. You're not scaring anybody.” Wesley chuckled.

“No, just... human. For now.” Hiro looked back at his bag.

“Somethin' in there?” Wesley tipped his head.

Hiro hesitated again, but this time he needed no encouragement to tell the truth. He reached over to search through his things and held up a newspaper article for Wesley to see. The article was small, but from the local city  nearby where non-humans like the two of them were living freely. Wesley squinted at the small print, then raised his eyebrows.

“The Army?”

“Special Ops, from the sound of it. If they're looking to do a Therian unit, I want to be a part of it.” Hiro's voice had an air of confidence. “But the recruiters aren't looking for just anyone. So I got into this high school with better credentials. It's human... mostly. Some of my friends have an easier time hiding what they are than me.” Hiro raised his shoulders. “I've never been able to shift all the way. Yuki can't either.”

“It's one of those things.” Wesley chuckled. “Some of us can, and some of us can't.”

“You can.” Hiro sounded almost admiring. “I had no idea.”

“You're out of touch. Probably because you're trying too hard to be human. But if anything, you should know a predator when you smell one.”

Hiro's brow furrowed a bit. “What do you mean?”

“I'm a coyote, son. If you and I couldn't walk and talk the same, pretty sure we wouldn't be talking period.” Wesley chuckled.

“Everyone eats rabbits.” Hiro murmured, looking up at the sky. “Humans do too. It's just how things are. If that was the case, everyone would smell like a predator.”

“Still. If you're looking to join some... 'special ops' army thing, and they're looking for Therians, they're gonna want you to know how to be a Therian.” Wesley stretched out and cracked his neck. “They probably ain't lookin' for many bunnies. So you're gonna have to be the best damn anything they've ever seen. And then you also let them know that you're a bunny.”

Hiro's expression hardened a little, but in a way that Wesley recognized as someone who was taking words to heart. He was a smart kid, after all.

“So now that that's all squared away, get on up to the front. I don't think anybody's come for a visit, but if they are, I don't want them thinkin' they can get things for free,” he said. “You've had your break, so I reckon it's about time for mine.”

“Sorry...” Hiro climbed to his feet and grabbed his book bag. He paused before he headed in though, and turned back to Wesley. “Thank you.”

“Any time, kid.” Wesley gave him a toothy grin. “Just remember... no smoking.”

Hiro rolled his eyes, but went inside to take care of the shop. Wesley stretched out in his chair, kicked back and enjoyed the breeze for a while. His wife might have laughed at him, if she'd been around to hear about what he was doing. She would have called him a soft-hearted old pushover. And maybe he was; he felt good about it.

[zipgrowth]

What U.S. Companies Should Know About Asia's Edtech Market

Last summer, when I was working for ThinkCERCA, which helps students develop critical thinking skills through reading and writing, the edtech startup was facing a big decision: should it try and break into the lucrative Chinese market?

On the one hand, China’s private education market is projected to grow 9 percent per year until 2020, reaching a value of $330 billion—an enticing market for many American entrepreneurs. On the other, the uncertainty of the market, and the fact that it looks very different from the U.S. education space, can pose serious challenges to any organization.

After a summer of market research and competitor analysis, the company eventually signed off on a collaboration with a Chinese partner, TAL Education. A year later, this project has grown steadily with over 300 Chinese students enrolled in the joint program. ThinkCERCA is definitely not the first U.S. company that has eyed Asia as the next big market. But their story is not a blueprint that will make sense for every company.

If your product or services can easily pivot to English-teaching or improving students’ readiness for standardized tests, then Asia may provide a big potential market

Back home, I’m a Chicago teacher, but I spend my summers consulting with edtech companies in Asia. Today, as I am drafting this article in the middle of the hustle-and-bustle of Tokyo’s Roppongi crossing—after working on another digital learning project in Japan over the summer—I realized many companies still don’t understand the realities of the Asian market. Between the drastic variations in business culture, social norms and day-to-day education affairs, there are a lot of differences companies should know about (along with a few similarities). Here’s a handy guide for anyone in edtech looking to cross the Pacific.

Boom Times for English-Teaching and Test-Prep

Parents in China and Japan are used to investing their own in money in education outside of school. Almost everyone I met during my time in Tokyo has been enrolled in a juku, or private cram school, at some point in their academic life, and the same goes for Shanghai, where I grew up.

Teacher friends in China tell me it’s now common practice for teachers to connect with parents through group chats on WeChat (a ubiquitous messaging app), so they can keep up with what their kids are learning at school and help supervise at home. Parents in China are deeply involved in their children’s learning and development. As a result, a bigger part of the accountability for a child’s academic performance is shifted to the family, which makes them more committed to providing supervision and resources.

This is good news for educational products with a B2C—or business-to-consumer (or, in this case, parent)—model. The education markets in China and Japan have birthed many prosperous companies. In China, there is New Oriental, VIPKid and TAL Education. In Japan, there is Kumon and Z-Kai. As EdSurge and others have reported, these companies greatly concentrate in B2C English and tutoring services (and sometimes a combination of both).

If your product or services can easily pivot to English-teaching or improving students’ readiness for standardized tests as ThinkCERCA did by redesigning its curriculum to focus on supporting English language learners, then Asia may provide a big potential market.

Why B2B Edtech Is a Harder Sell

Deep down, it is the pervasive exam-focused system that stifles schools’ motivation for upgrading technology

While the Asian education market focuses heavily on test-prep and English tutoring, it can be hard to make sense of why business opportunities are not as lucrative for other subjects, such as STEM education, which is a fast-growing area in the U.S. In my experience, this phenomenon is partly caused by the limited business models that an edtech company can efficiently pursue in the two countries.

Last year when I visited home, I made a stop at my alma mater, Kongjiang High School, a top-ranking school in Shanghai. I was surprised to learn from my former literature teacher how little has changed in more than a decade—both the facilities and the way she teaches. When I asked if she uses any technology in class, I got a blank stare in return. After a while she said, “Oh, the projectors are still there.”

At least I can say my high school has Wi-Fi and does not restrain the use of mobile devices after class. A year ago, I took a group of exchange students from Chicago to Taizhou No.1 High School, a top school in a small, affluent city in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai. There we encountered even harsher restrictions on technology. The school’s Wi-Fi is exclusive to teachers, and any use of mobile devices is banned. You would think that the hype around the use of technology in classrooms in the West would have had some influence on these elite schools in China’s most economically-advanced areas. But the reality is that in most K-12 schools, the infrastructure for edtech adoption simply does not exist.

The situation is similar in Japan. Although the country is perceived as a pioneer in technology innovation, teachers’ mindsets around tech use and facilities in Japanese K-12 schools are no different than in China. I spoke with teachers from five different schools while I was in Japan and found that most schools seem to view the internet as a source of distraction instead of a source of essential information, and so restrict the use of technology in schools.

But the reality is that in most K-12 schools, the infrastructure for edtech adoption simply does not exist

My friend Norbert, who used to teach English in a small town called Minowa, said that his school made news three years ago when they found funding for installing projectors and purchasing 140 iPads for the school’s 775 students. The only school I interviewed that is equipped with high-speed internet and 1:1 tablets is an all-boys private boarding school located in the outskirts of Tokyo. When I asked my friend Jose who teaches there how he uses the tablets, he said he only uses them occasionally to share notes.

Deep down, it is the pervasive exam-focused system that stifles schools’ motivation for upgrading technology, as the purpose of schooling is twisted from preparing students to be ready for life to getting them ready for exams. Edtech projects that try to enhance students’ learning experience without directly targeting test-taking skills—such as gamified learning products and project-based learning platforms—do not appeal to schools whose biggest priority is test-performance. (And you can forget about products that focus on emotional skills or social justice.)

In the U.S., a good number of edtech products, such as Google Classroom and Edmodo, are designed exclusively for in-school use, and cannot survive without a B2B market. Parents alone won’t use them, and schools don’t have the infrastructure for them, making adoption a non-starter.

Sparks for Change in Japan

The craving for a more diverse educational experience in Japan can be felt in many places

Flash back to a humid Saturday afternoon in August, when I was invited to serve as a judge for an English speech competition in Tokyo. After the competition, the parents of one of the contestants, a lovely girl named Asuka, approached me and we exchanged some thoughts on education. They were concerned that Japan’s test-driven approach would hinder their daughter’s development of creative and social skills. “I would love to send her to an international school here or even a school in America in the future,” Asuka’s mom told me.

And she is not alone. The craving for a more diverse educational experience in Japan can be felt in many places. Every day during my two months there, I would pass the Roppongi Hills, an integrated development area with apartments, offices and all sorts of businesses, where I would see parents line up to enroll their children in the summer workshops. These workshops taught everything from Scratch and game design to the culture of Gujo City and 3D printing deer horn necklaces. These innovative educational experiences attracted a big crowd of Japanese parents from this upscale neighborhood.

In response to these needs, some schools, such as the one that my friend taught in Minowa, are starting to change. Japan’s education policy has also been debating whether or not to adopt yutori kyōiku, roughly (and somewhat misleadingly) interpreted as a more relaxed education.

Gearing up for the Olympics in 2020, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has announced major changes for education, including adopting fully online and computer-based testing and requiring college admission to assess a full spectrum of applicants’ credentials, including extracurricular activities. In the U.S., policy changes, such as the implementation of Common Core and online-administered standardized tests helped speed up the shift to digital in schools. The impact of the new education policy remain unclear, but there is a chance that it could have the same effect in Japan.

And in China

Privileged families from China and Japan are becoming pillars of a greater variety of edtech companies’ sales in Asia

In China, the growing need for change in education is fueled by the country’s emergent middle and upper class. These families, who benefited from China’s fast economic growth in the past few decades, now have the financial leeway to offer their children a new choice: a college degree from a foreign institution.

Suddenly, the outstanding standardized test performance of those renowned traditional Chinese schools has become irrelevant to these families. Paired with the anxiety to maintain their children’s social status in the consolidating social stratification process, they are eagerly looking for more personalized and humanistic ways of schooling. From 2010 to 2017, the number of international schools almost doubled in China to answer the growing need. Privileged families from China and Japan are becoming pillars of a greater variety of edtech companies’ sales in Asia. My friend, Eddy Zhong, founded his own summer camp, LeanGap, for high school entrepreneurs, which focuses on creativity and problem-solving. He now receives tons of applications from across Asia to attend his $6,000 summer program.

In that respect, privileged schools and parents in both China and Japan may be opening up a lucrative niche for the U.S. edtech companies. But institutional change takes time. Will these sparks ignite a shift to a new, tech-driven era in Asian education? It’s possible. Just don’t count out the power of the all-mighty test quite yet.

What U.S. Companies Should Know About Asia's Edtech Market published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness