When I was an ALT in Shonai town, I used to play the system in a bit of a sneaky way, but it was the only way I could get my ideas across. Basically, and thankfully, I worked at two junior high schools, and it took me a while to realise this, but I started saying ‘at the other school, they are doing this’, to great effect.

By simply saying that other people are doing something, it’s enough to convince people to do things. I’m not sure if this is just a Japanese thing, but I assume it won’t go down as well in New Zealand.

It’s sort of lying, but whatever. That’s a good reason why you shouldn’t do something just because someone else is, or someone else is said to have been doing something.