In Japan, we study English from Junior high school to University. Which is about 10 years. wow, that is very long. However, we are struggling to SPEAK english. Even though we study such long period of times, we think it is not enough. no way… Actually, it is very enough to study. Nowadays, Elementary school will start to learn English.
At this point, Japanese gorvernment want us to SPEAK. Japanese are good at writing English only for Exams. Japanese are not good at speaking. WHY? We did not have enough speaking time with their thought. I mean I can read text book, but there was no emotional meaning. It is like a machine. Just read. And big problem is teacher who cannot speak english well. How they can teach for children.
In Enlish class, Japanese should learn using Englihs only. Japanese learn English through Japanese.
I live in the UK, and I think you have a great site. The picture of the river and bridge is lovely. I have set it as my background.
I admire other cultures that learn English, it makes me feel very humble, we, the English are not good at learning other peoples languages, and are very lucky the whole world bothers to speak English.
Great site.
From Marion
>taka
Hi, Marion. Thank you for visiting my blog. I am so glad to learn other culture. If you have any opinions for any other culture, please comment at anywhere you can comment.
Hi Taka
Interesting post. I’m involved in English teaching in Japan, and this issue worries me too. I wrote a post about it yesterday.
It’s quite long, but my basic points were these.
Kids are intelligent, and most of them leave school knowing what they’ve been taught. They can’t speak English because they haven’t been taught spoken English – they’ve been taught Entrance Exam English!
And the problem with that is there’s no oral element in exams. This has always amazed me.
So the system sends out a confused message. On the one hand it says “I won’t ask you to speak English because you’ll never need to. You’ll only need it to pass a written exam.”
And then on the other hand, the government complains that no one can speak English after all these years of education.
I’m surprised that they’re surprised! It seems pretty obvious to me.
Of course there are other problems – teachers who are unqualified to teach English, use of katakana for pronunciation, emphasis on translation, not enough native speaker contact etc.
Great blog, Taka. I’m enjoying reading it.
>Taka
Thanks, Jon.
Japanese Education system is not enough at all. Someone has to notice where we are going to for the future. This issue will cause a lot of problem on the business level. So, when I am ready, I will try to change this.