English Speakers in Japan

Hi again everyone,

Today, I will talk about something that is very close to the hearts of all who work in Japan or have traveled/want to travel here: the presence of the English language.

As I mentioned before, education is mandatory until the end of middle school (9 years), but the vast majority of students continue into high school as well (for a total of 12 years). The government recognizes that English is very important for international relations and their export-based economy, so English is a required subject in school from the 5th grade and on. So, you'd expect the English abilities to be reasonably good in the recently-graduated population.

It's very hard to find some real statistics on English-speaking native Japanese people. Wikipedia and other sources estimate that 10-15% of the population are fluent in English, while this chart ranks Japan as number 14 among countries where English is not an official national language:

I, and everyone else who has lived here in Japan, know that these statistics are a farce. Here's why:

Especially where I live in the far north, finding a person who speaks English on the street is nearly impossible. In the service industry, where you'd think English would be more important, English speakers are non-existent as well. Every time I've gone to a bank, store, or restaurant, or called customer service on the phone, nobody has ever been able to speak English. When actors in commercials pretend like they can speak English, their accents are horrible and sometimes unintelligible. Strange, isn't it, how a country where English is required has no English speakers? What's up with that?

First of all, going to school and being taught English are mandatory, but you're not actually required to LEARN anything. In some schools, there is very little motivation to learn, and kids just screw around in class all day. The teachers, helpless to remove the kids from school, have developed a "just pass them along" mentality to get the problem students conveyor belted out of the school system. Basically, as long as you are present in the school for the time you're required to be, there is no way you will flunk out. The same applies to English classes. The kids may be taught English, but there is no guarantee (or requirement) that they learn it.

In other schools that are more stringent and have better kids, it is the teaching style that holds students back from being able to speak English. Here, classes mostly emphasize written grammar and vocabulary, caring almost exclusively about spelling and syntax. Following the traditional Confucian style, teachers talk at the students and scribble on the board, while students sit quietly and stare blankly back. Afterwards, everyone opens the textbook and reads the prepared passage aloud after the teacher, with the teacher translating along the way. Then they read it again. And again. Then they are timed on how fast (not well) they can read it. Then they write a translation in Japanese. This is what classes are like in Japan. This is their extent of English language learning.

Students hardly ever get any conversation practice (despite my efforts to force them into the lesson plans), so while they can read and write at a decent level (my definition of "decent" has dramatically plummeted since arriving here), none can produce English on the spot. I'll ask the simplest of questions, and students will consult with their nearby buddy for half a minute or so before deciding on and answer and choppily spitting it out. This is attributed to lack of urgency in learning conversational English, cast aside in favor of "written test" English.

Pronunciation is also a problem in the classroom. I'm not much of a stickler when my students don't pronounce things perfectly, but the weak pronunciation affects more than just speaking. They haven't heard the sounds of actual English very often, so spoken English is difficult for them to understand. They're not used to hearing the unusual consonants and vowels that don't exist in Japanese, along with connected speech concepts. They get confused when they hear words that end in consonants, and don't understand that the final consonant sound usually disappears unless there is a vowel sound after it (I'll get more into the problems that come with differences between English and Japanese in a different post).

These pronunciation troubles are mainly the fault of their teachers. In my experience, nearly all of the teachers have the same pronunciation problems I mentioned above. They all speak in katakana English (mimicry of foreign words using Japanese syllables), which spreads through the ranks of students like a virus. My girlfriend told me about the teacher she works with, who got frustrated with Siri on her new iPhone because it wouldn't recognize any of her English. Bad pronunciation aside, the teachers can barely even hold a normal conversation in English without lots of stalling and horrid grammar mistakes. Conversationally, my Japanese speaking is far and beyond their English speaking, and I'm only considered to be at a high-intermediate level. I would be a laughingstock if I considered myself capable of teaching Japanese in America.

And here lies the root of the problem: the teaching system. English teachers are hired solely for their English ability. If they can pass a standardized English test, they can become an English teacher. I haven't seen the test itself, but according to their abilities, I'm assuming it isn't that difficult. What's worse is that teaching ability is completely ignored, resulting in the class practices I mentioned earlier. The teachers go to workshops occasionally after they've become teachers, but I've never seen any of it implemented in the classroom. I took the effort of going through the TEFL Program at UCSD Extension before I came to Japan (which I HIGHLY recommend, by the way, even though it is very expensive compared to online courses), and the English teachers here are abominations in the standards of TEFL.

In a nutshell, that's why Japanese people suck at English. And they know it. Lots of Japanese people avoid conversation with foreigners like it's the plague because they're embarrassed about their English. I recently saw a TV commercial where the main actress (portrayed as innocent and normal) expresses strong reluctance to talk to a foreigner, despite the goading of her boss (portrayed as annoying and obnoxious). This is the kind of behavior that is viewed as the norm:

Here's a translation of what they're saying: "What's wrong? Frozen stiff? It's just that there's suddenly a foreigner in front of me, and it's making me nervous. You've got to "LEELAX" (lol) more. This is Amanda, a representative of Premium Outlets. She's a "KOWNECKSHON" of mine, so ask her anything! Erm... I can't speak English. It's all right here *pounds heart*. Right here. (I cannot for the life of me discern what she says next) Why choice Shisui?" And the rest is irrelevant, as the foreigner does her best to speak Japanese naturally, but you get my point. Look at this crap.

Ranting aside, it would be wrong to conclude that ALL Japanese people are terrible at English. I have met several Japanese people who can speak English at a proficient level. Some are the English teachers I work with (although definitely not a majority of them), some have lived in English speaking countries for a while, and others have just studied it for so incredibly long that they're finally decent at it. One of my neighbors and friends, the head of the local Tenrikyou religious branch, speaks excellent English because of his lifetime of study and international experience. If I have any questions about a stubborn Japanese problem, or if I want to learn more Kansai dialect (he is from Osaka), I ask him. I also enjoy practicing my Japanese with his very kind wife, who speaks absolutely no English.

Nevertheless, I am still surprised every time I find someone who can speak English. Most of the time, the conversation slowly turns to Japanese because it's just more convenient and less painful for me that way. But occasionally, I can talk to someone solely in English. Some of them are Japanese people who really want to practice their English. Others are people who are so convinced that I don't speak Japanese that they are only willing to speak in their broken English. While looking over some sandwiches in a Starbucks in Tokyo with some (Caucasian) buddies of mine, one of the worker girls came over to me and suddenly started explaining the contents of each type of sandwich. I totally knew what was in each sandwich already, but I let her finish because she was REALLY cute (and her English was pretty good, which is more important of course... tee hee).

The point I'm trying to get across is that English speakers indeed exist in Japan, but don't get your hopes up. If you plan to travel there and go somewhere other than metropolitan Tokyo or the big tourist spots, DEFINITELY take a crash course in Japanese or get a translation guide. Don't count on your English to get you through a tough situation. Even if it's only a little bit of survival Japanese, it might end up making a big difference. I left my backpack on a train during winter break (in Toyko even), and if my Japanese was any worse, I probably wouldn't have been able to get it back. It's important, so make sure you're prepared to find no English speakers!

That's all for this time! See you next time, when I explain the big differences between Japanese and English and their implications on communication! Sounds like fun, right? RIGHT???