CONSEJERÍA DE EDUCACIÓN, CULTURA Y DEPORTES

PRUEBAS ESPECÍFICAS DE CERTIFICACIÓN DE NIVEL IN_C1_CTE_SOL_J_2019

TAREA 1
IKUMEN: HOW JAPAN’S “SUPER ATTRACTIVE” DADS ARE CHANGING PARENTING
Adapted from www.bbc.com 1,127 words
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Cast your eyes over a Japanese newspaper, fashion magazine or manga story and you may find (0) a
new kind of ‘superhero’.
They are smiling and handsome as they play swordfight over breakfast or take a bike ride together in
the park. The father and child may even be dressed in stylish matching outfits. They are sympathetic
and understanding, and they will happily do the cooking and housework.
(1) These are the ikumen: a combination of the word ikuji (childcare) and ikemen (attractive
man)- a stark contrast to the older stereotypes of the remote, workaholic father. The term was first
devised by an ad salesman in the 2000s, and in 2010 the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare
launched the national Ikumen Project to promulgate the idea as a way of encouraging greater paternal
involvement in family life.
The idea soon caught on, and today ikumen can be seen throughout Japanese popular culture. But
does this trend really represent significant progress in gender equality? Or do the glossy photoshoots
simply add a sparkle and sheen to a superficial change in attitudes, (2) while women still shoulder
most of the family responsibilities?
In years gone by, (3) the Japanese father’s primary role was considered to be that of the bread
winner. These ‘salarymen’ were devoted to their company, working long hours to climb the corporate
ladder and provide financial security to the family. “Utter commitment to one’s work represented the
apotheosis of manliness”, writes Hannah Vassallo, who recently published an anthropological study of
Japanese fathers for a book, Cool Japanese Men.
Japan, of course, was not alone in these views. But even in the 1980s the average man spent fewer
than 40 minutes interacting with their children on the average workday – and that was often during a
family meal. According to one observational study, some men could not even make tea or locate their
own clothes without their wife’s assistance.
Even so, change was slow. (4) In 2002, for instance, just 0.33% of eligible men took the paternity
leave after the birth of a child. One survey, from 2008, reported that a third of men would have
preferred to spend more time with their children – but they worried that their bosses would disapprove
of the time taken off work.
(5) The government’s Ikumen Project was meant to remedy this situation, generating “a societal
movement whereby men are able to become proactively involved in childcare”. It provided symposia
and workshops, and fathers were also given the ‘Work-life Balance Handbook’ to help them juggle the
competing demands of the office and the home.
Unlike previous campaigns to increase paternal engagement, the Ikumen Project painted the father as
a heroic figure, emphasising his masculinity and sexual allure; one of its posters depicted one man
tearing off his suit and shirt, Superman-like, to reveal the project’s logo on a t-shirt underneath, with the
slogan “Ikumen strength for society”. (6) The implication was that these “heroes” were not just
protecting their family; by nurturing the next generation of workers, they were helping to save the
country.
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PRUEBAS ESPECÍFICAS DE CERTIFICACIÓN DE NIVEL IN_C1_CTE_SOL_J_2019
Thanks to its connotations with the ikemen attractive dads, (7) the term was generally well received.
“Everyone in Japan would be familiar with the word ikemen,” says Vassallo. “And I think that’s how
ikumen was born and gained any traction – it sounds a lot better than the previous words for a caring
father that existed in Japanese before that point.”
As a marketing campaign, the Ikumen Project has therefore been a great success, sparking some
important discussions about the ways that fathers are portrayed. “The awareness is there,” says
Vassallo. Yet it has also received its fair share of criticism. Many women, for example, (8) feel resentful
that men are being treated as heroes for taking a fair share of very routine jobs. So although they
may repeat the phrase “ikumen over ikemen” – and express admiration for the caring fathers they
encounter – they also wonder why their own efforts aren’t being recognised to the same degree. “I
think everyone jumped on the bandwagon at first,” Vassallo says. “and then [some people], especially
Japanese women, thought 'let’s slow down a bit and see how much we should be holding these fathers
up on a pedestal here.'” After all, some men may claim to be ikumen despite doing a tiny portion of the
household chores. Even the official Ikumen Project Handbook – for all its good intentions – still
presented the mother as taking the primary responsibility for the children; for the men, childcare is still
a bonus.
Some men, meanwhile, have complained about “ikumen illness” - the exhaustion of meeting high
expectations at work and at home – and even if they personally hold a more progressive view, (9) there
is still the fear that a devoted father who takes time out of the office may be penalised by
antiquated bosses who don´t understand the new policies.
Nor should the Ikumen Project mask the many broader structural issues that can hold back gender
equality. Brigitte Steger from Cambridge University, for instance, points out that Japanese law still
doesn’t recognise the equal standing of each parent in cases of divorce. (10) She says that many
fathers are not obliged to pay alimony, and, conversely, they are not guaranteed to get access to
their children “even when they had a good relationship with them”. Overall, Japan still remains very low
on the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development’s rankings of gender equality in the
workplace.
(11) Even so, there are some signs that tangible positive changes are afoot. The take-up of
paternal leave, while still low, has significantly increased since the Ikumen Project was first introduced,
for instance – rising from 1.9% in 2012 to 7% in 2017. And fewer than 45% of people now support the
idea that “men should work, women should stay at home” – a drop of 15% since 1992, when 60%
supported the traditional gender norms.
And anecdotally, (12) devoted fathers are nnow more visible in everyday life. “You see many
fathers with their children, especially during weekends and in urban areas, and many fathers have quite
warm relationships with their children,” says Steger, who edited the book Cool Japanese Men.
Vassallo agrees that real behavioural change is slow, but she has found that the fathers she interviewed
were beginning to carve out their own, individual path. They may not meet the heroic image of the
prototypical ikumen – and some even felt embarrassed to use the term – but they were taking pleasure
in the upbringing of their children, sharing tips with other parents on Facebook and regularly attending
PTA meetings. “It filled me with more of a sense that they are navigating a healthy relationship with
their attitudes towards work and family,” she says. “That fills me with more optimism”
CONSEJERÍA DE EDUCACIÓN, CULTURA Y DEPORTES
PRUEBAS ESPECÍFICAS DE CERTIFICACIÓN DE NIVEL IN_C1_CTE_SOL_J_2019
TAREA 2
ON THE MIND: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT MULTITASKING

Adapted from pastemagazine.com, 749 words

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This column, On the Mind, is a series about the latest in cognitive science and neuroscience research
that applies to our everyday lives. (0) This biweekly series is for those interested in cutting-edge
findings about the practical side of habits, memories and multitasking. What are the recent
studies, and what is the context? See what science says and how you can apply it to your life.

With our personal, professional and social lives inundated with texts, emails and social media, we’re no
strangers to multitasking, which can be defined as a person´s ability to do more than one thing at the
same time. It seems inevitable in our continuous struggle for work-life balance. But at some point, it
gets annoying when a friend gets frustrated for not receiving a response to a text or a client calls you
after not receiving a reply to an email sent 20 minutes ago.

Studies say
Scientists focused on multitasking research in the past decade in particular, questioning how the
Internet has reshaped our thoughts and behaviors. This trend toward rapid attention shifting and
increased multitasking is often linked with distractibility and poor self-control, researchers from France
and the United Kingdom said last October. Although some of this concern may be exaggerated and not
supported by evidence, they say, (1)other studies point to a definite change in our brain related to
multitasking. Beyond what can benefit our to-do lists, researchers are also using multitasking research
in medicine. How our brains handle tasks can potentially tell us how to understand and treat serious
diseases. In fact, several medical studies from the past few months have investigated multitasking
related to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke patients, especially active duty military
members.

Key Takeaways
Let’s face it: Multitasking is here to stay in today’s connected world. As we learn more about what it
does to our brains, however, we can understand how it rules our thoughts and actions.

1. Multitasking is hard.
Certain parts of the brain process tasks, and if we’re doing too much at once, that can divide our
attention. Of course, different tasks are more complex than others, so we can sometimes effectively
pull off simple tasks at the same time. At the same time, (2) several New York researchers reported
that task-irrelevant sounds can distract us and affect our performance. Additionally, as we age,
our brains are less flexible with multitasking, even during walking. Have you ever watched your elderly
parents stop on the sidewalk to answer a text? I’ve always wondered why, and now it makes sense.

2. Our genes affect our multitasking abilities.

(3) It’s not fair, but not all of us are created equally as multitaskers. In the past few years,
researchers have discovered a group of extraordinary multitaskers they call “supertaskers” who can
more successfully handle two attention-demanding tasks at once. Brain scans show that their brains
use two parts of the brain more efficiently to keep track of what they’re doing.

3. Multitasking with media can hinder us.

(4) Extensive media multitasking for teens and young adults, such as reading emails on their laptops,
looking at texts on their phones and watching Netflix on their TVs at the same time, could be
detrimental for attention, language and social skills that are still developing. In fact, it may be linked
CONSEJERÍA DE EDUCACIÓN, CULTURA Y DEPORTES
PRUEBAS ESPECÍFICAS DE CERTIFICACIÓN DE NIVEL IN_C1_CTE_SOL_J_2019
to lower test scores in both math and English, poorer working memory and more impulsive behaviour.
If there’s one ray of hopeful light, it’s this: Action videogames don’t seem to fall into this category. In
fact, (5) focus on a particular game may increase attentional control.

4. Cognitive training may help.

If our modern world makes multitasking inevitable and necessary, why don’t we find a way to adapt?
Brain training could change our brain activity and prevent cognitive decline in areas related to memory
loss, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, (6) the brain training market is a rapidly-growing
multibillion dollar industry being promoted by app and videogame companies. Studies are still
investigating whether the apps really provide long-term benefits.

(8) In summary, even though we know a great deal from brain scans, scientists still aren’t exactly
sure how multitasking works in the brain all the time. In fact, it seems to vary by the type of task
and who is doing it. (7) Future studies will likely focus on the different parts of the brain that
process tasks, and how to provoke more activity in those areas through app training, brain
stimulation or old-fashioned single-task focusing.