juku
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of juku
1980–85; < Japanese
Explanation
If you’re a student in Japan, you might attend a juku in addition to your normal school. A juku is a private school that usually prepares students for the entrance exams to get into prestigious high schools and universities. Students, or their parents, have to pay fees to attend a juku, which is often called a "cram school." Because attending a juku is in addition to attending regular school, classes take place in the evenings, on weekends, or during school holidays — which means a lot of school! In most juku, students get extra instruction in core academic subjects like Japanese, English, math, and science. While some juku focus on the arts or sports, the primary purpose of attending a juku is exam prep.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After several rejections, we finally found a juku that would take us in.
From Salon • Jul. 15, 2018
The sports juku gave me a list of sixty things Taro should master.
From Salon • Jul. 15, 2018
The exam prep schools are called juku, and they are part of the boundless, multi-billion-dollar ojyuken industry that converts every parental anxiety into a business opportunity.
From Salon • Jul. 15, 2018
Three afternoons a week she leaves again at 4:45 for a juku session that lasts from 5:10 to 10:00.
From Time Magazine Archive
One index of the increasing pressure on young Japanese to pile up an impressive gakureki is the phenomenal rise of after-hours or weekend schools known as juku.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
