By ABHISHEK GUPTA
Students around the world have different perception about the seniors ad they face the word firstly under their seniors and then following to sense the senior feeling closely. In Japan seniors are generally called by 'Senpai’ which is the Japanese translation of senior. The kanji for senpai is 先輩 in which the kanjis literally means the person or fellow who is ahead of you or a superior elder. Being taught by senpais now and then what to do what not to the ideal meaning of senpai changed for me. As having senpais who act just like fountainhead was really awesome. But when I was amused while talking to my Japanese friends as they had different and varied experiences of senpai and kohai (Junior, 後輩 ).
So this urged me to go deep into this relation of senpai and kohai which led me know a fact that there are no big difference between the relation anywhere in the world. The difference in the relation depends on the situation, place and the environment you belong to. While talking and asking viewpoints of general public I was totally convinced that there are many ways to perceive anything, it just depends on the viewpoint of the person. So, there are many roles of senpais at different places like high school, university, circle, bukatsu and other places. Generally in high schools senpais are really strict and even in some high schools the kohai have to greet their senpais and use ‘Keigo’ whenever they see them. Apart of academic help the senpais in high schools gave lots of advices about the courses and how to study for getting into the university (like which one is good or nice).
I was totally convinced that there are many ways to perceive anything, it just depends on the viewpoint of the person
In the university the senpais are generally not very harsh on like in the high schools but the relation becomes more like a teacher student one. So, in the university inside the courses the senpais help with various type of advices about the courses and inside the circles they teach their kohai various sports and other co-curricular activities. One of my friend from Kyudo club told me that, “Kyudo is a Japanese traditional sport so, we have many rules regarding behaviour in the sport field. So, we can enter the field only after we acquire the series of the behaviour.” She also added that they had a lot of test regarding the behaviour as they had a total of ten phase of tests for behaviour which are tested by the senpais. Therefore, here the relation between senpai and kohai is similar to that between a teacher and a student.
"We have many rules regarding behaviour in the sport field. So, we can enter the field only after we acquire the series of the behaviour.”
It is really interesting to know so much about things which are totally different from the general things that you know. Also senpais in PEAK are really kind and generous and very different from other senpais. They help in almost every things and also teaches us life hacks so that it’s easy for us to enjoy our lives. This relationship between senpai and kohai is a general example of mutual understanding between people.