学校のルール：日本と北米（意外な点も）• 英語イマージョン • Rules/Bans in School

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:03]In schools in Japan, there are many types of things you are not allowed to do. Example, have certain hair length or colors, maybe the different types of clothes that you can wear or cannot wear at schools. Here in Japan have been known to be pretty strict. But what about in Canada and America? Today me and Adam are going to share with you some of those things that we had to experience growing up as well as talk about our opinions of the things that are banned in Japanese schools.

[00:00:36]Hey everyone, welcome back to another Uh, Suzuki-san, how short is that skirt?

[00:00:42]Uh, kind of episode where the host, my name is MJ. My name is Adam. And welcome back to another Immersive English video and conversation just for you, all you wonderful people who are passionate and focused on improving their English. Me and Adam create these videos for all of you to listen to just native English speakers, to join our conversation as a friend, not a student, as a friend to improve your listening and pick up some new phrases and words. If that sounds good to you, I suggest subscribe and check out our past videos, too. Today we're going to be talking about schools banning different types of things. What are some things that were banned while we were growing up in our school? So, Adam, we'll start with you.

[00:01:27]>> My school, I remember a few things that were banned. One big one was, now it's popular again, but Pokémon cards. And the reason was because students were bringing their cards to school and maybe sometimes some of those cards would go missing or they'd get damaged, and parents would call and complain. And another reason is the distraction. So, kids, they have these brand new Pokémon cards with these wacky characters from Japan. Yeah. And they would take them out during class and show them to their friends and talk about them in class and and get distracted from learning the lesson. So, my school and maybe some other schools were like, "Okay, no more of these Pokémon cards. Don't bring them to school. If we bring them to school, the school is going to take them." And another one that is also Japan related is Tamagotchi. Oh, wow.

[00:02:23]>> Yeah. So, >> friend. digital friend, the digital pet.

[00:02:27]We had uh another sort of game. I don't think it ever went to Japan, but it's called Pogs. Pogs. Pogs, yeah.

[00:02:36]>> Totally. Yeah, something like Menko, yeah. Same similar idea. So, those three things are what I remember from elementary school. I'd like to mention that those are really of the time. Those were things that were on the Hayati level, right? Where they were they were becoming popular. Everyone was wanting them and showing them off and buying them. Exactly.

[00:02:58]>> right now in Japan, that's happening with stickers. Oh.

[00:03:02]>> Kids come into school with sticker packs. They're shito uh sticker packs. And there's special kind of like bumpy stickers that >> Yeah. kids have and they're trading or getting lost. So, the same idea of these kids are excited. They want to show that they're like their friends and everybody else where they have them, maybe show off and say, "I have the special one."

[00:03:23]Mhm.

[00:03:23]>> there can be issues of being distracted.

[00:03:25]>> Mhm. They're not focused, as well as some can go missing and then there's a problem with not only like the the students versus students, but then maybe parents can get involved. It can be a little bit of a frustration for everyone.

[00:03:39]>> Yeah. So, that's when the big ban comes on and says, "You can't do this." Right.

[00:03:45]>> Now, were there anything that you can remember that was not because of like the popularity of like too much like these Pokémon cards or the Pogs. What was like a just a solid rule all across the board?

[00:03:59]>> Cuz for me like a simple one is like don't bring toys to school.

[00:04:03]>> I remember like simple small rules like don't wear steel-toe boots. Oh, interesting. Yeah, it's a steel-toe boot that you wear to school. There is a steel plate and it's around the toe of the shoe. So, they're steel-toe shoes like a lot of construction workers use these because if you drop something on your foot and it's heavy, you have a steel cap to protect your toe.

[00:04:25]>> Right. But also, it could be used as a weapon if you're going to try to kick somebody.

[00:04:29]>> Exactly. I think that's why they didn't want anyone getting kicked with a steel-toe. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:34]>> We weren't allowed to play football in the school. Like contact soccer?

[00:04:40]>> Soccer? No, actual American football. We could play soccer, but we weren't allowed to play contact football or rugby, like those kinds of sports. Yeah.

[00:04:49]>> Nothing with contact, body contact. Even when we we used to play foot hockey. You mean soccer with a small ball?

[00:04:58]Basically, but not exactly. So, that's a sport to do, but what about like to bring? Example, what about clothing? For me, I'm going to bring it up to like >> bring it up. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:08]>> Yeah. Of course, in America and in English, I should say, there are a lot of ng kotoba. There's a lot of swear words >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:17]are in our wonderful language.

[00:05:19]>> Yes. And these swear words are things that we encourage children, young kids not to say.

[00:05:27]>> Yes.

[00:05:27]>> Parents tell them not to say it. Of course, at school, we say, "Don't say this." It's very frowned upon.

[00:05:32]>> Right.

[00:05:33]>> And of course, usually in high school, there was a few rebels, a few risk-takers who would wear something uh a little too extreme, a little risqué for school. Yeah.

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[00:06:48]I wore one shirt Yes, I did.

[00:06:50]>> [laughter] >> I wore a shirt >> you did. It's true. With the word on my shirt. And yeah, got in trouble. Nothing too uh maybe sexually provocative, and I got in trouble for that. Too I was getting into anime, and you know, the anime look of uh women could be a little bigger than usual in certain areas, and showing a little more skin. And I'm like, it's a cartoon, you know.

[00:07:15]>> It's not real.

[00:07:16]>> Exactly. But, yeah, still those type of provocative images, of course, are NG.

[00:07:22]And this can happen because, different from Japan, Mhm. public schools, we can wear whatever we want to wear.

[00:07:29]So, I believe this is one rule that came up. Now, on the flip side, in Japan, there is the rule of, of course, everyone mostly wearing uniforms from middle school into high school.

[00:07:44]>> And of course, there are rules about how you can wear your clothes. Now, the things that I've heard are there's a certain length for the skirts for the girls. Yeah. Like it has to stay at this length.

[00:07:56]>> Right, right.

[00:07:57]>> Or whatever their school uniform is, if it's a very long skirt or to the knees or something, and you can't alter it, right? You don't want to change it at all. Yeah. But of course, there are plenty of people who like to either defy the rules or who just don't like the style. So, very common I've heard from my friends that are girls in Japan who would Yeah, they're like, "Oh, we just roll it." You know, you roll it up and you make it shorter. So, that's a common thing. No makeup. No makeup, okay.

[00:08:28]That was in my high school time in the US. So, I'm not sure if that's in the US. I remember girls putting makeup on at that time, and there was a bit of a rule that like I think there was like a little bit's okay, but not so much. Like you can't overdo it.

[00:08:43]>> Right.

[00:08:44]And so that was a fine line of of what is too much, but there was that rule for for middle school kids. And I don't think there was for high school so much.

[00:08:55]>> I don't know if there was a rule for like in our middle school ages for makeup, but definitely high school was similar. I went to like a Catholic high school, so we had our uniforms. Strict.

[00:09:07]It's not It was It was like point that out compared to public schools.

[00:09:10]>> Yeah, compared to public schools.

[00:09:12]>> of a Catholic or a religious type of school usually is stricter. Mhm. They They were strict, but not like what you would see in the movies. Like your pants have to have a crease on it, and your hair has to be flat. It wasn't like that.

[00:09:25]>> Our school was kind of relaxed a little bit. Yep. They wanted you to wear the school colors for your uniform, but it didn't have to be like >> Okay. the school's certain uniform provider, right?

[00:09:38]>> Jacket, yeah. Okay, okay. But girls did height- heighten their skirts by rolling it. That was one thing. They could wear makeup. A lot of girls did hair styling and all that stuff like >> Ooh. Um our shoes had to be black. We could wear sneakers as long as they were all black. When I was in grade nine, it was like dress shoes. You had to wear dress shoes. But as I got older, then they kind of loosened the rules a little bit. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't as strict as it would seem. And our rules were just standard, similar to yours like with the graphics on the t-shirts.

[00:10:15]Like we did have days a day every month where we could come um Oh. in our >> casual clothes.

[00:10:22]>> casual clothes, yeah. Yeah. And then it was the same >> went all out.

[00:10:26]>> Yeah, they did, but they there's like the same rules like for those days, no uh foul language or graphic, you know, Yes, yes.

[00:10:34]>> content on your shirts and make make it clean. No revealing tops for girls >> yes. Mhm.

[00:10:42]But it was standard. One that you hit upon that was like, oh, set a light bulb in my brain was uh colored hair, dying hair in Japan. This has been a controversy >> Yes. of different levels in Japan. Many people have black hair. Yeah. And naturally, so some people would like to change that hair color. And as they get older, there are some that do change that. I know in elementary schools now, I've seen there's a very relaxed rule where I've seen kids with like little streaks of color going to school. Oh, really? Wow.

[00:11:16]>> Yeah, yeah. And of course, elementary schools are also non-private ones >> Yeah. you can wear your casual street clothes.

[00:11:23]>> Right, right. Yeah. Right. So, it's more of a relaxed feeling, which is nice, you know, let the kids kind of like be free when they're younger.

[00:11:29]>> Right. And then little by little tighten up the grip. But, there are rules that they still have to obey. Yeah.

[00:11:36]Interesting ones are no pencil cases with certain kinds of like maybe characters on them.

[00:11:45]No pencil boxes that make loud noises.

[00:11:49]All right. So, like you need to get like a soft one, not a hard like clack or something. No mechanical pencils.

[00:11:56]Really?

[00:11:56]>> Which actually in elementary school >> elementary school? I don't know if there was a rule against it, but they were just like we use regular pencils.

[00:12:05]>> pencils.

[00:12:06]We were not allowed to use pens even.

[00:12:09]Pens started when we started to learn script Yeah. middle school. Right, right.

[00:12:14]>> Right.

[00:12:15]>> Yeah. No scented erasers. Ah. Can't have an eraser that has a smell on it. Or, no colored erasers. Ah. Colored erasers.

[00:12:28]>> a white eraser. The whole point is to keep kids focused. And if there's any small little thing for them to play with that kids might play with it. The funny and interesting thing is about all of these rules Mhm. is that as kids, even when I was a kid, we always found a way to break the rules. Yeah. In the gray zone. Like >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm going to take my white eraser and color it with my pencil.

[00:12:59]>> [laughter] >> Okay, okay, yeah.

[00:13:01]>> Oh, you didn't say I couldn't draw a character on my pencil case.

[00:13:04]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:13:06]Oh, man.

[00:13:07]>> So, I always notice like those things like for example, no toys in the classroom. Okay, fine.

[00:13:14]But, I've seen videos of kids making darts with paper and flicking them at the ceiling to see if they could stick.

[00:13:22]It's a way to block kids from being distracted. Mhm. But, a distracted kid is going to find a way to entertain him or herself.

[00:13:31]>> No matter what rules can come up >> Yeah. by the authorities, if it's in school or somewhere else, people are going to find a way to bend that >> To bend that rules.

[00:13:41]>> it or get around it.

[00:13:43]>> Yeah. I heard experiences of girls in Japan who because they weren't allowed to wear any other color sock than black, they would buy black socks with little characters on on the little side on there. Oh, okay. Okay.

[00:13:58]>> Just to be a little bit different. Yeah, they're still black.

[00:14:02]>> black, but they have hearts on them.

[00:14:05]There's something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:14:06]They're reading between the lines of these rules where it's like it doesn't say that that is not Right. And so, what do you think of these rules overall? All of these rules saying kids don't do this, you got to stay concentrated, you got to follow the rules all the time. I think some rules are good like the ones that are distracting, but things that it takes away from a child being able to enjoy learning is not good. Do you know what I mean? Like Yeah.

[00:14:36]>> the fun part about going to school was having friends and talking with my friends and sharing things we had in common like whatever characters or designs or you know, anything. It could be anything. And if a pencil case that I got from Japan had the clickly clack buttons on it Yeah.

[00:15:02]>> and had a picture of like a Gundam on it and my friend was like, "Yo, where did you get that?"

[00:15:08]Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:15:10]It would be cooler than having just a regular zipper pencil case and focusing on the class but being distracted by the ideas that my brain has because I have so many ideas as a child. Yeah.

[00:15:25]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:26]>> Yeah.

[00:15:27]Ooh.

[00:15:28]>> good, but some of it is you don't need I think. Yeah, dude. It This is a tough one because I do see like both sides of this of this coin, but deep inside I am very much more of the the individualist >> what? The rebel, I guess yeah. I'm the one that gets in trouble with >> [laughter] >> Wear this on my shirt. You know, bringing my skateboard to school and like them being upset about it.

[00:15:56]>> Right. Oh, yeah.

[00:15:57]>> Like what how like I didn't know that I wasn't allowed to, but I guess maybe I did roll around inside the school, too.

[00:16:03]So There's that.

[00:16:06]>> yeah. There's the rebel in me.

[00:16:08]The part the part that feels I want to be more of a different from everybody else >> Right. and not trying to do anything bad, but also I don't want to be constricted to fit in this box.

[00:16:22]>> Right. Right. And when first rules come to me first I'm like no way.

[00:16:28]>> Yeah.

[00:16:29]Wait. Oh, yeah?

[00:16:30]>> No way. Oh, yeah?

[00:16:31]>> Oh, yeah?

[00:16:32]>> Watch this. Yeah. So, maybe it's not a good mentality especially you know with kids and like you understand that mhm we can't just let them run wild because >> Yeah. there are certain rules that are good to help but not just everyone else, but also themselves. But at the same >> time before we cut it off, I do see that some kids need that flexibility.

[00:16:57]Yeah. Because they might have something that that's inside of them that they want to express that they can't express.

[00:17:06]Yeah.

[00:17:06]>> And not being able to express that thing makes them not want to express anything which down the line you'll have kids that can't say anything or they say it in different ways, in negative ways.

[00:17:19]Mhm.

[00:17:20]>> So, you could see that. Like, kids who dye their hair are labeled as troublemakers.

[00:17:26]>> probably troublemakers, right?

[00:17:27]>> Yep. Yep. They hang out with the bad crowd.

[00:17:29]>> Yeah. So, it kind of pushes them that way because maybe they just want to express themselves that way. And then a label comes up saying you're a bad kid.

[00:17:37]>> "Okay, fine.

[00:17:38]>> I might as well be the bad kid then.

[00:17:40]Nobody likes me here anyway, so I'm just going to go with them cuz they like me."

[00:17:44]So, it's like there's good and bad to rules, but we also have to know that kids need guidance more than more than rules. They need >> just rules. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They need reasons and they need to be understood.

[00:17:58]Yeah. We were all kids once. Exactly. If we can all like sit back, at least for us, you know, I guess for me, thinking about it now as an adult, yeah.

[00:18:08]Yeah. To to also remember that some of these things that kids do that I think are like, "Man, I can't believe they It's like, "Woah. You were there too.

[00:18:15]Maybe young MJ would have done that, too. So, let us know what you guys think down in the comments.

[00:18:22]Uh this turned into a bit of a interesting subject about just overall rules. Are they good or are they bad? Uh we know about different types of things that are banned in school. So, let us know what was something that you thought was too much for your school that was banned uh in the comments down below.

[00:18:39]>> Yeah. Well, that's [music] it. We'll see you on the next step.