Job Discussion Forums

[TawtViet]

I made up a card that to hand out to Japanese people. It is printed in both English and Japanese. I have been pleasantly surprised that most Japanese people I have given the card to completely agree. The card says: "English is never a foriegn language in any country. It's the international language and it's being responsible to be able to speak it in a global community."
I believe that abbreviations like "TEFL" should be considered outdated at this time in history. To Japanese people who say, "You are living in our country, you should speak our language," I want to reply with: "No, you are in the world, you need to be speaking the international language." I get furious (in judgement of the Japanese) when I see people from the poorest, most underdeveloped countries imaginable, with English speaking ability. These foriegners don't have even close to the resources of the Japanese: money, high-tech language learning software, nearly countless language schools and foriegn teachers, great television programs for English learning, and etc.. "We don't need English in Japan" is a worthless excuse.
If English speaking ability is not important, why has so much money been spent to get the Japanese beyond university entrance exam skill in English? Japan has been referred to as the "poster child for failure at English."
My disgust level gets overwhelming. One newspaper article I read awhile back gave advice to Japanese people who wanted to practice their English with "non-Japanese". "Non-Japanese"(!!!), why did the article never once refer to "native English" speakers? It's because I assume, nearly every foriegner a person can meet here, regardless of their native language, can speak the international language!
I do have a Japanese friend I respect even though her views may be a little too radical. She would like to marry a westerner and raise her children by him monolingual English. She views her native language as so insignificant to the world at large. It's only limited to some isolated island according to her.
Another thing I want to say to Japanese people is "Don't hold up your two fingers in photographs if you don't care about the language of the global community!!!"
The other day a certain station was flooded with just-arriving tourists for the EXPO. a Japanese man assigned to tell any foriegn face he saw
approaching storage lockers that they were full would spit out nothing but fast Japanese. Did he expect them to understand him? Why was he assigned to the position? I saw the same overwhelming stupity at international airports in Japan. Why are these Japanese people given jobs dealing with international travel? The disgust level I feel is nearly health-damaging to myself. To compare this phenomena to an English speaking country not doing the same doesn't work, English is the international language, hands down.
I respect Japanese people who care about and put out effort for the language of the global community beyond "just a hobby." These people keep me going as I can stir up some respect for them. I don't respect fresh-out-of-university Japanese who can't even spit out baby English.
Japan should be a place where people are helped with English improvement and maintenance, not beginner classes after 8 years!
I probably won't find anyone who feels like me but I wonder how so many are "comfortable" here. I suppose I should chill some but it nearly seems impossible. Perhaps I should seek another country to teach in.

[matador]

You do have a point. But its important to remember that Japan is NOT in most ways an 'international, multi-cultural, multi-faith' country. Its conservative, inward looking, nervous and self conscious. It IS changing but its at a glacial speed. Thats how it is in Japan. But its a safe, clean, efficient place where you can earn good money.

Learning/using English is not a priority for most Japanese. You don't need English to be a rich country....just look at Japan!

So...relax, dude. But you do have valid point that needed to be vented!

[Glenski]

[Iwantmyrightsnow]

When did English get appointed the international language? You can go to plenty of points on the globe where it won't help at all but you will get by with french or arabic or whatever. With the internet it may well become the international language but sorry the majority of the world won't be using the internet on a regular basis anything soon.

These people may have accepted your cards gracefully but that is only because they have been raised not to be as blatantly rude or arrogant as you have. Can you possibly be more ethnocentric?

As pointed out earlier, what use is English to the local fisherman, supermarket worker, Japanese magazine publisher? Our lives would be enriched by understanding CNN, Desperate Housewives, or the latest John Grisham? Great if people want to study English, they might even have advantages if they were fluent but it isn't necessary for the majority of the world. Not everyone wants to be able to speak to the lastest expat Coca Cola executive or even a shitty English teacher (which I am).

[Iwantmyrightsnow]

[freddie's friend daniel]

I could be way off track here, TawtViet, but I suspect you are not a native speaker of English yourself.
You write:

[Gordon]

I have to totally disagree with you. The Japanese do not want to learn English or at least work hard at learning it because they don't need to. The vast majority of the Japanese do not need to speak English. Many people in third world countries speak better English because it is seen as a way to imporve their life and get a better job. It isn't like that here. When someone comes up to me and says they want to learn English, I ask "why" and am quite surprised (I live in a fairly rural place). If they do go abroad, they travel in a group, eat in Japanese friendly places with Japanese menus and go to the duty-free shops where everything is in Japanese and English. They like that.
How would you feel if someone in your home country came up to you with a card that says "you must speak Chinese or French". What would you say? I would tell them where to go. As the previous poster said, they are just being courteous to you.

[Vince]

You bash the Japanese for being irresponsible members of the so-called global community, but you're being an irresponsible guest for telling them how to behave. As Glenski says, people who need or want English have ample opportunity to learn it. That, in my opinion, is enough.

I don't see how the questionable concept of global citizenship trumps the reality of national citizenship and cultural prerogative. Since the Japanese aren't hurting anybody by not being completely bilingual, it isn't a matter that needs to be dragged into the global arena. Can you imagine how absurd it would be if the UN started making resolutions about Japan's lack of English? Maybe you can't, but that's how your complaint sounds.

As the other posters point out, English isn't as global as you seem to think. Other countries promote it for the sake of opportunity, not world peace. Speaking of peace, it's quite the exaggeration to insinuate that the Japanese have no right to make the peace sign because they're hindering peace by not learning English.

I might have annoyed you by prefacing global community with so-called. Although the world is more interconnected than ever, it's still awash in drastic cultural differences. That tension between wanting to explore and wanting to be with our own is at our core, which is why we're so well served by acknowledging neighborly distance. That concept is especially important in Japan, your expectation of global citizenship notwithstanding.

How long have you been in Japan?

[Roam]

If you're really handing out cards that say that I think you need a little down time back home for a few weeks. You're losing it.

[Sody]

TawtViet,

I think you need to learn to not judge other people and just relax. Your logic doesn't make sense at all. What's wrong with someone who poses with a peace sign? That doesn't imply they are against English as a global language. Why are you trying to change an entire nation to conform to your thinking because you feel disgust?

Sody

[Synne]

I will agree with you only becuz I feel that any economically sound country should have a high level of English within it somewhere.

I will disagree with you becuz Japan does have a high level of English where it needs to.

You are in mainstream Japan, thats really all it comes down to.

[TawtViet]

You all gave me some good food for thought. Perhaps I have nearly made English into a religion. Maybe I need to back down some. I have viewed English as "the" international language rather than "an" international language. I have viewed the use of the article "an" before international language as inapproriate when it comes to English. I didn't realize that there were so many non-Western foriegners who couldn't speak English as some of you mentioned. I have had the opposite experience which perhaps wrongly impacted my views. I have witnessed a phenomenal amount and variety of people who can.
It's hard not to get angry though. One time I was talking to a group of Japanese people about a program to provide safe drinking water (through well designed wells) in Cambodia. One man said "Japan is an isolated country so we don't know anything about other countries and their problems." His thinking seemed so ridiculous and wrong. I admit I tend to view the Japanese lack of interest in English as part of an attitude of separating themselves from the rest of the world. I understand the facts expressed that the Japanese don't need English, but on the other I tend to view their lack of interest in the global language as hiding from the world (hopefully not as extremely as the North Koreans). I have seen English advertized as "The Global Language" in another Asian country. Forecasts say that "by 2015 there will be 3 billion non-native English speakers. By 2050, so many people will be speaking English that it will no longer be a foriegn language in many countries." A fact: "At any moment in the world there are more conversations going on in English between non-native speakers of the language than there are going on between Native speakers" It just seems that the Japanese don't want to be as international as the government is pushing them to. When I asked a Japanese JHS English teacher what is demanded of her, she told me ability to make English conversation with much of the world was top priority. That's what she claims the government and board of education want.
Some say one can only become fluent in another language by living in the country of the target language for quite sometime. I used to believe that until I met Japanese people here who have reached fluency by only making use of the educational system already set in place. This fluency was reached without enrollment in language schools or going abroad. These people are not involved in international business. They just seem to care about English. I met a Japanese junior high school teacher who was so excited about English when he was in the JHS that he studied the textbooks a year ahead of each school year. I can't expect all to care like the ones mentioned but to see them not care at all is hard for me to chill about.
I believe if another language rather than English happened to have it's level of world importance, a majority of Westerners and others would rise to the occassion and learn that language. I get a feeling from all the non- Japanese English speaking people I have met here (from such a wide variety of nationalities) that they simply own more of a "we are members of a global community mindset." The Japanese (who once wrongly viewed themselves as "a divine nation") on the other hand seem to hold so tightly to their "we Japanese are different than all other people" view of themselves. Perhaps I have been wrong but I tend to associate their lack of interest in English as a sign of continued isolation from the world. Such isolation is a universal absolute of wrong.
Perhaps I have made English more important than it is and I have somewhat wrongly associated the Japanese views toward it as connected to a panorama of the awesomely wrong thinking I see here. For example, the Japanese Imperial Army slaughters over 20 million in the most heinous of ways making Hitler's less brutal killing of 6 million seem insignificant in comparison. The citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time are making ammunition in their homes. Being the most evil nation in the history of the planet they wrongly view themselves as victims (rather than monsters) of the bombings that brought about their surrender. Every man, woman and child was willing to fight to the death. Another example: One time I asked a Japanese friend how she could believe in praying to spirits of dead ancestors and evolutionary theory at the same time. I pointed out that evolutionary theory would not allow for any existence beyond the molecular. No spirit surviving boldily death could possibly exist. She responded with "It's ok not to think deeply." Yes, it is wrong not to think deeply! One more: Any country of people could copycat other's technology and make changes if they spent countless hours doing it to the neglect of families. Most countries people put family as number one, not work. These examples are only the tip of the iceberg for the wrong thinking I see here. Maybe I have associated the lack of interest in English as in the same category of all the wrong thinking I see here and perhaps I shouldn't.
I appreciate all the input and it did make me think. As you can see some people and evidence have come into my life causing me a view of English that may be a little to strong. There are universal absolutes of awesomely wrong thinking here which I cannot see as me judging-them-through-the-eyes-of-my-own-culture. I will try to separate the Japanese view of English from that category. Although my views of English will remain pretty strong, I will try to chill some thanks to the input from you all.

[Brooks]

Japan is the most evil nation? Well if you said the government was evil during the war I could agree with you.
Look at what Stalin and Mao did.

I find that thinking about the war doesn`t help me teach English.
But the fact that Japan lost the war in 1945 is why I am here.
English is still considered an important language for Japanese to learn.
And Chinese will only become more important as time goes by.

not all of our students want to learn English, but they aren`t crazy about learning geometry, physics, and kanji, are they?
Some of my students only like sports or music, or their computer class.

yes, there is a difference between what Mombusho dictates and what the　teachers try to do.
Not all Japanese want to be internationalized.


Compare Japan to America. Lots of Americans could care less about learning foreign languages. The difference is that learning English is required for kids aged 12-18 in this country.
Imagine if Spanish was a required language for all Americans to learn while in secondary school. I bet they wouldn`t be too motivated to learn.
In fact, they would resent it.

It would be good if Japanese students had a choice in learning foreign languages (like Korean or Chinese) but it won`t happen.

It is good for us to learn Japanese, not just to communicate, but to understand how it is for our students to learn English.
I find Japanese tough and kind of boring because I have to memorize and practice a lot, and then I forget, so I have to learn again.
I am sure my students feel the same about English.

[campestre]

Spain is right up there for bringing disease into the Americas.

[canuck]