Why Japanese are Unwilling to Improve their English
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- As many of you probably know, Japanese people are one of the worst English speakers in the world. Even though Japan is supposed to have a relatively high level of education, why is it so difficult for the people to learn English?
So today, I will first explain how low the level of Japanese people's English is. Then, I will talk about the reasons why Japanese are so bad at English. Finally, I would like to share my views on the harmful effects caused by the Japanese people's poor English skills.
As I will also explain the characteristics of Japanese people and cultural aspects in order to understand their difficulties towards English proficiency, this video will be a great way for you to deepen your understanding of the Japanese. If you have ever had awkward moments regarding English with a Japanese person, this video may possibly clear it up, so I hope you can watch this video until the end.
[Timecodes]
0:00 Let's START!
1:43 How Bad Japanese are at English
3:57 Why Japanese are Terrible at English
10:23 Harmful Effects Caused by Japanese People's Poor English Skills
13:39 Today's Conclusion
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I'm teaching in a private school in Japan, and I know that when you're a certain age, you don't want to stand out from the crowd in Japan. There is this boy who talks to me in English (not perfect but way above the average Japanese person) only when he and I are alone (or with other non-Japanese people present). As soon as there's another Japanese student, his English vocabulary is reduced to "I don't know".
Oh, the same tall poppy phenomenon he frequently introduces in his shorts, isn't it?
That's the horrifying aspect of Japanese culture, I respect others cultures but some aspects such as this that lowers the confidence of students is indefensible.
Thanks for the comment. I did never teach in Japan. I only did an exchange program for 3 months there and there were days no Japanese person spoke to me at all. My lonely days an Japan... 😅 even though they were treating me very rude this way I understood that my Japanese hosts didn't mean to be rude. and I drew the conclusion that it must have to do with growing up in a collective society, blending in so eagerly and avoid at all costs to stand out in both ways - showing "off" their language skills as much as showing that they make mistakes while speaking. 🤷🏼♀️
Meeting Japanese people who spent some time abroad totally changes everything. They are so much more open minded, brave and understand very well to adapt their social habits while dealing with a foreigner. :)
@@gorbachevspizzahut2809 I love japanese culture, but the one thing that needs to go in my opinion is their over the top desire to humble people to the point it becomes bullying.
🤣
Based on what many ESL teachers in Japan have said, I reached the conclusion that Japan teaches English in a way for it to be tested, not for it to actually be used, making the subject pretty useless.
That is spot on. I like to say that the Japanese teach English the way the English teach Latin -- it's a dead language!
it's really no different from how French is taught in Canada or Spanish in the US (both of which are useless for learning a language)
-a Canadian
@@cottoncandykawaii2673 that happen with english on latin america, inglish is taught just to be puked on a test
That's how I was taught latin. 2 years in high school. I hated every moment of it and I love languages. The irony is I finished medicine so from my class I probably used it more than others.
@@arsethr.g3787 You are generalizing a bit too much for a sub continent that large, some regular schools of the public educative system kite it maybe, but in plenty others English is taught pretty well to be able and engage with native speakers, that the students do not invest themselves much on it is an entirely different subject, while I was learning by myself before I got to the courses, all the teachers I had put a strong emphasis on pronunciation, enunciation, vocabulary and conversation.
Years ago in western Canada, I took several years of French. However, there were no French communities where we could practice it. Without going to eastern Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, French is not commonly used elsewhere. And without a place to practice converations, one does not become fluent.
When I visited West Canada, I saw road signs also written in French. While people in the west do not quite use French, I cannot tell why French must be used.
@@duckduck6371 Because Canada has a large french speaking province (Quebec) that has an unreasonable amount of influence
@@EpicNicks Yes. Much resource and money keep going there to support them.
@@duckduck6371 French is mainly spoken when in government agencies when someone who has French as their first language. There are not many of these speakers left. Metis in Alberta. So if someone comes from Quebec and insists on getting his passport application from someone speaking French, he/she has that right.
Now if you are driving through Quebec and are trying to buy something, but don't speak French, many Quebecois will refuse or pretend they don't speak English.
It is common knowledge that all Atlantic Ocean exports and imports to Ontario pass through NYC and not Montreal. The British Empire came to Canada in 1587 through Siberia and used Mongolian Yak cattle as means of transport. The Naval fleet of Britain is one of the weakest in the world due to the fact that it is located in Central Europe and they had close to none strategical and practical knowledge of the sea or international commerce as the economic center of the world was Kazakhstan during the colonization of Canada.
I had a professor who told me that during the Meiji, Japanese who spoke English had no accents and were quite proficient at it.
Because most of them were from wealthy old Samurai families who had private English tutors or sent their children to Universities that were taught in a foreign language. During the Meiji restoration the government had to import teachers and proffessors from the UK, France and Germany to teach new modern and technical concepts to the Japanese not to mention nearly all of the highest ranked Army, Navy and Government officials had studied abroad in Europe. Once these men were educated they were then able to translate foreign texts and create their own bodies of work in Japanese so the need to understand foreign languages fell out of favour
Surprised Pikachu™ face*
Pretty cool
@@callanadamwilliams8200 perhaps the Japanese are the most isolationist modern group of people!
@@Birchlead pretty much-they seemed to have learnt nothing of the world at large since the Mejie period onwards.
The English education problem is not unique to Japan. Many countries also only teach grammar and some rules but we not learn how to speak and use it in real life conversation, just study enough to examination, like any other subject in school. Personally, I can speak, read, and listening a little bit because of internet media source in English, like songs, movie, series, documentary, UA-cam channel like this etc.
I hardly see Japanese people in any discussion on internet, even if the topic is about their own country like this video, while people from India, Korea, Europe etc are very present. Is like you can only meet them in Japanese forum and I think that’s also a factor for their poor English skill.
😅
Even if they are available, they are usually hostile as heck😂🤣
It's them being such isolationists that's the cause of that.
Language immersion is very important for learning. Media, like you mentioned, definitely makes it easier nowadays
@@TheBlueGoldenHawk I agree. I'm currently in France on a trip offered by my school, and I'm already better at comprehending it than before due to immersion.
Originally, i would think that tourists should try to speak the native language a bit if they want to go visit. It feels like a "how could this native not accommodate me?" vibe to it, if its outside tourist spots like tokyo, but your reasons here make sense. Considering how english is such a large language around the world. These points do make a lotta sense
Nope.... I'm from country that not using english as a main language and it already hard enough for me to speak english. I want to travel around the world someday, did u really think I want learn mandarin or japanese or dutch or arab or any other languages??? Ofc not, unless if I want to stay more than one month.
English is international language, and now it easier with google translate
This remind me of my japanese friend who was exchange student here in Poland. She was really trying hard to learn polish even tho polish sounds are almost impossible to spell for her. She said its not nice from her side (almost as she disrespecting people here), she lives here and cant speak language and i kind of understood her. I personally believe that if you go visit country i should learn language of place i go to and not do lazy approach of demanding people to speak English just because it is considered by some as global language or using translator which in some situations can make you look like idiot to say the least. I also agree with Shogo points in the video, more languages you know, the better for you.
Not to mention, if you speak Japanese to a native Japanese person, there is a high likelihood of them looking down on you for any mistakes made.
This isn't the case for *all* native Japanese people, but it *is* the case for many. Enough for it to be completely reasonable to have them lean on their foreign language skills, rather than being ostracized for being a foreigner trying to meet them where they are. Because to many native Japanese people, speaking their language (however poorly) does not come off as endearing or empathetic the way it does in English.
More so because they do teach English in schools now, so for trying to teach it, they are doing a bad job. And can fix it in relatively straightforward ways
Depends on the nature of tourism.
Natives do not expect the tourist to speak the native language and neither should the tourist expect a native to speak anything but their native language. It's nice enough if there's mutual effort.
Hey Shogo, I'm an English teacher here in Japan and you hit most of the point on the head for how well (or not well) English classes are handled here. I've noticed in my time here a few other reasons Japanese English classes don't help Japanese people learn English well. The first being that they use Katakana to learn how to pronounce English (which as you stated means they miss a lot of vowels). Learning English IPA from a native speaker would fix this (I'm doing it in my elementary schools and already see a huge improvement in pronunciation). The second problem is the don't teach the rules of grammar, only where grammar exists ( like you stated, teaching English for exams). The third problem is that most JTEs (Japanese English Teacher) don't understand English themselves and stick to the textbooks only (it's the blind leading the blind). I hope you find somewhere that will help your children learn English, I know the majority of my students go to some sort of cram school after school, so it isn't uncommon.
IPA IS A MUST. language teacher here a must
Just give them Star Trek episodes. Hopefully it will help them learn English. Not Dubbed ones, of course. I mean, dubbed anime, come on…
I am an experienced reading teacher, however the embassy never selected my application me despite the fact that I have wider knowledge and experiences in application drills when it comes on language field... specifically, reading and pronunciation.
Our country is trying to upgrade curriculum designs additionally training all educ students to be more equip and versatile (also pass the licensure exam because that field never ever allows pervs to have direct physical to physiological contact with learners).
teaching english is a waste of time in japan.
It sounds to me similar to how ancient greek or latin are taught here in germany; but there is an explicit acknowledgement there that those languages are not going to be used for communication.
Same reason my Spanish speaking skills are rotten. The way it’s taught isn’t very organic/stale and because I’m not using it on the daily, due to the region I was raise in the states. I can get by with the basics conversationally but I’ve forgotten most of what was taught in Spanish class. Still feel quite bad about how terrible my Spanish is and I’m embarrassed when I try to communicate in it. It’s hard using a language you aren’t use to/doesn’t come up a lot.
Same with my german
Can relate.
@@arnoncardosofilho life is too short to spend it on learning German.
@@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115 Nein.
English is not my native language. Yet I've always scored well in tests in school and speak it fluently.
My personal secret: learn to watch movies and tv-series with subtitles. I started doing this at a very early age. It's quite amazing how you can pick up a language this way.
Doesn't work for all languages due to grammar ane syntax being different. But as far as European languages go, their linquistic rules are rather similar, along with a lot of words that cross over between languages.
Sadly, for people in the U.S, I heard that dubbing is far more common than using subtitles. So Americans would probably have to make an effort in getting used to watching stuff with subtitles.
But it's certainly worth it in the end, because it really helps you learn.
Take spanish for example. I did take a little bit of spanish classes in school many years ago. But over the years most of it was forgotten.
But then I started to watch a bunch of shows with a lot of spanish speaking characters like Narcos, El Chapo, Narcos Mexico and The Mayans M.C. And I quickly noticed how a lot of the stuff started coming back to the point where I barely read the subtitles as I listened to the spanish speaking characters talked on screen.
Chris Broad has talked about his experiences with teaching English in Japan, and IIRC, he had 3 main criticisms:
1) Like you say, it's pretty much entirely memorizing vocabulary. Almost no teaching of proper grammar.
2) Many of the books used for teaching English (at least in his classes) appeared to have not been edited by a native English speaker, so you had things like the phrase "like a magic" in a spot that should have been "magical". This results in the flaws learned in English in one generation being repeated to future generations.
3) The foreign English teacher is not actually there to teach English. They are there to teach about their culture, while also happening to expose the students to natively-proficient English as a side benefit. There is value there sure, but it doesn't help with English-proficiency as much as if, for example, the students were asked to translate sentences to English and have the teacher critique them (though that style of teach is, as I understand it, something that would be difficult to get accepted in Japanese schools, where making mistakes in front of the class tends to result in mockery).
Can you explain more on detail about the third part? "The foreign English teacher is not actually there to teach English. They are there to teach about their culture......"
@@faizyusuf2470 Native English Teachers are used mostly like the skeleton for biology class. The teacher brings them in, and makes them do (say) things, but they are not there to actually tell students how things work, they are not allowed to influence the flow of the lesson prescribed down to a sentence level. Requests like "Please read this" are the most common orders Natives usually have to obey, and actually teaching is the role of the Japanese teacher, most often playing it "safe" by sticking to the coursebook. What's there exists, what's not there doesn't exist.
@@faizyusuf2470 His examples were that he had one lesson where he described the geography and weather of the city in England he was from, and another lesson that was basically listing off his favorite desserts and describing each one. He wasn't having a conversation with the students, or pointing out where what they say is incorrect or awkward, to improve their ability to speak English, just exposing them to natively-spoken English. If not for points in lessons where students were allowed to ask follow-up questions, he could have simply been a recording.
@@ZopcsakFeri I do think that's more so the case for elementary/junior high school ALT teachers. High school ALTs tend to teach or co-teach the classes. But that may be a problem in and of itself, for ALT teachers are often not hired for their English teaching skills, but as cultural ambassadors, and yet given the task to teach students English. Basically as long as you have some kind of bachelor's degree you can be an ALT :/
it's shameful for a popular country for tourism. i wonder why their business still doesn't decline.
Not only does English have way more sounds in its inventory- it also has a completely irregular pronunciation. Japanese just get confused by the unpredictability of pronunciation they encounter. In my country, the education system is also rigid, and requires students to memorize a lot for tests. To be honest, English language books are bigger, but I think Croatian being Indo-European just like English helps.
Any European will definitely have an easier time than Asians for learning English just due to the fact the languages are more similar. But you're right, English is quite inconsistent with its writing and pronunciation. It just doesn't have enough letters to clearly represent all the sounds it has
@@TheBlueGoldenHawk "Any European will definitely have an easier time than Asians for learning English just due to the fact the languages are more similar."
Me, a native Finnish speaker: *Oh no*
(English being the first foreign language I learned, I kinda vaguely assumed that all the languages are as dissimilar as those two, or even more so. It was quite a shock when eg. German and Swedish turned out to have such a similar grammar and vocabulary to English. Not without their own unique characteristics, of course, but you can still see they share roots.)
A lot of words used in English are not, in fact, English. Hence, the inconsistencies.
@@Rettomus Cuz today's Finn's descend from some Non-european roots...
@@samuraijosh1595 Possibly, though Finnish language =/ ethnicity. When the Proto-Finnic language appeared to North-Eastern Europe, what would later become the Finnish people were already living in the area.
And not just proto-Finnic, proto-Indo-European also (potentially, there are multiple theories) came initially from outside Europe.
TL;DR; The proto versions of both Indo-European and Uralic language families are not natively European.
We have a similar problem in the Netherlands, but concerning our own language. We have a tradition of teaching Dutch language in such a way that reading is something you do to pass (learning frankly useless theory of reading like distinguishing 'what is a detail'), rather than for your own enjoyment. Disecting the text with performative reading comprehension, that is utterly useless in actually understanding a text.
I used to read tons of books and I even really enjoyed writing in English, but reading and writing in my own native language was something I couldn't bring myself to, because any enjoyment I had for reading was drained out of me. Now, I only write essays on the internet in English and I listen exclusively to audiobooks and never to Dutch audiobooks. Even if I wanted to, I just can't push myself to read anything in Dutch, because school has impressed upon me that Dutch was uncomfortable and dull to read.
I thought my country was the only one. I always thought my native language, Filipino (standardized Tagalog + 170 other dialects), felt like an afterthought for learning. Very few kids and young adults know deep Filipino and if otherwise, it would be to the extent of a dialect. English is prioritized since we get many business opportunities compared to other languages.
For the most part I write in English and interact in Filipino while adding a few bits of English or Spanish such as kompyuter for computer or alas-tres/kwatro/singko for 3-4-5 (time). Some of my classmates can't even pronounce dates and just resort to saying twenty-twenty-two instead of dalawang libo't dalawang dalawa. Those are just fragmented memories.
I'm dutch as well and I think the same thing, It feels like our language doesn't have satisfying and fitting words for alot of things and sentences. A small example is if you want to say 'all right' there isn't even a proper translation. Sorry but thats the only example I can come up with within a sec
We have the sale problem in france too.
Same, in fact right now I'm procrastinating on a essay.
crazy that the swedish used to be made fun of because of their horrible english and accent but nowadays the young people sound indistinguishable from americans.
In Taiwan most of our english teachers are foreigners who don't speak a single drop of mandarin or taigi. You'll hear a lot of "聽不懂" from them but at least it works. Japan could do a similar thing without changing its immigration laws, just make it easier to get a work visa or the equivalent.
They've had issues with that. Like teachers and students having innapopriate relationships, or English teachers not even being allowed to speak directly to students. Even if they did allow that, it wouldn't be immersive enough.
Most English teachers in Taiwan are white sexpats who don't have any teaching qualifications.
shameful, really.
@@jojothermidor How is that a reason for stopping the communication, get another teacher then..
It's as such things don't happen or would never happen..
That‘s literally changing the immigration law…
Also, Japan already has the same system, but it doesn‘t work because hiring native speakers doesn‘t fix the bad system.
This feels like an awkward kind of topic I never would imagine telling a Japanese person in Japan to speak English. I am glad you brought the topic up though and the point about international business with having a language barrier would make it harder to do that kind of business. There are Japanese game developers that do not speak English and I could never bring myself to ask or even wonder why they don't when I don't even know a second language myself. It think it would make things easier for these game developers if they did know English themselves instead of depending on translators. Course I don't feel comfortable being the one to say that. Learning a language is hard and I know you know 3 Languages at least and you do speak English so well too. I hope your video does help give others better understanding.
It is doubly hard because many Japanese are quite shy, so interacting with them as a foreigner becomes difficult. The ones who do speak English seem much more open-minded and relatable to foreigners, although it may be hard to determine which came first, the international perspective or the English learning. What makes it awkward is that they know English is the international language as seen in their mandatory 6 years of public curriculum, but yet they fare so poorly after those efforts.
i dont really see it as much of an ask. if i was to meet an adult in the states who couldnt do basic arithmetic i would be surprised because i know that that is part of the general education curriculum. the same is true here: english is part of the general curriculum of japanese students, so the fact that most have such a poor understanding of english is actually surprising.
i've had this conversation with a lot of my japanese friends and they all point out pretty much the same points that shogo does here.
Shogo, you could not be more correct about this.
Many years ago a group of English teachers from Japan visited my college German class. A friend in the class explained to me, based on his experience living and working in Japan, that the version of the English taught in Japan is almost like a different language.
Everyone learns Standard British English with Received Pronunciation outside the US/Canada. Many Americans who encounter Japanese with English proficiency often have difficulty with communication because of differences between US/British English. forms.
@@blueberrymuffin1348 nope. If this were a problem, then Americans would have a problem communicating with the Brits and the ton of other countries that learn British English, wouldn’t they?
@@blueberrymuffin1348 Japanese has an alphabetic system called Katakana, which they use to depict foreign words. The pronunciation is the exact same as you’d find them in Hiragana btw. Because the Katakana is used for foreign words, what happens is that Japanese tend to speak English in Katakana pronunciation, coz why not, when you already have a fully fledged pronunciation system? I’ve been on an exchange trip to Kyushu before, and i guarantee you that their pronunciation is nothing near British English or RP, they’re speaking Japanese but with English words if that makes sense.
@@erenjinchuriki Americans find it very difficult communicating with the British because of stark differences in grammatical structure, orthography, syntax, and pronunciation. The British also have difficulty understanding specific US regional dialects such as in the Southeast and in the Southwest parts of the US.
@@blueberrymuffin1348 This is patent nonsense. Don't peddle such rot!
Tbh, same in Hungary. I learned English due to reading wikipedia, reading books on various natural sciences, reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, reading light novels, chatting with people online.
My country is very hostile to learning a foreign language - it's "un-patriotic", at least in my village. Only 30% speak English, and even then - most speak english in a "Professional" manner, rather than a genuine conversational one.
How many people speaks Magyar versus the ones speaking ebonics, pidgin or another mutilated and bastardized version of English.
also due to Orban's propaganda)
@@nsa3679 the man improving the birth rates or else Magyars would become a minority in their own country? He's based.
Sounds like a fascist country
English speaken by hungarians sounds like a whole different language even tho we ranked 17th in 2021 on the EF Proficiency index
In my country (i.e India) it's completely opposite.
You are bound to learn English in order to pass your interview/viva/or to get a job (since our country is largely populated so competition is also high) .
As a result of which now we have the 2nd highest English speakers after America . Our country has total 125 million english speakers ( which is like 10% of our population or entire population of japan).
Sometimes I myself get confuse that either we should be proud of it or not because despite giving so much importance to english I also don't want my native language to die out.
India was also erhh "colonised" by Britain, which even if they have left, must have left a big impact, language wise, that could spread to the country.
Japan never was, the closest was the US victory after WW2, but they never tried to force English on the country. And so, the insular mentality took roots again, and here we are :/
@@jawstrock2215
We indians already know about that. They were over our country for 200 years , than it will automatically influence our culture unlike usa who didn't even properly colonised japan.
Now thing is that's not my problem. My only problem is that I don't want my native to get wipe out because of this issue.
I'm not sure what your native language is, but at least the major languages of India are so widely spoken I don't think there's much of a chance of them dying out. And for those smaller local languages that might be in danger, Hindi is likely at least as great of a threat to them as English. There are languages genuinely threatened by English, but they tend to be languages with a very small native speaker base and that offer very limited financial opportunities.
I think bilingualism with English will continue to be an identifying factor of the Indian upper-middle class, just like it is in many former British colonies in Africa. And I don't think they should be ashamed of it, English is the most useful language to know in the modern world and being able to speak it fluently doesn't mean you have to give up speaking your native language and passing it on to the next generation.
@@costakeith9048 Actually it is unlikely that any of the at least semi popular native languages in India are under any threat of extinction. India has a lot of Individual speakers in each languages for any of them to go extinct. There are even my many places in India where the native languages easily dominate over English.
Shogo, traveling in Japan used to be much more difficult. I remember when I went to Japan 15 years ago with my friend, we were shocked that many of the main tourist sites did not have 1 bilingual staff member or signs in English. I can kind of understand the lack of English speaking staff members but we thought there'd at least be some signs in English. My friend speaks Japanese fluently because she graduated from a university in Japan. My Japanese is at the level of a child. We would've been completely lost if we didn't know any Japanese.
Haha I feel this, my Japanese is on the level of a toddler at best and I want to visit Japan some day. But I don't think I'd survive as I wouldn't be able to communicate.
My handwriting is also atrocious and I'm convinced I'll never memorize the writing system 😅 so embarrassing.
bravo you just discouraged us to go in japan.
@@jeishiikanzaki Having been there several times myself I would say: BE BRAVE. Particularly visiting Tokyo is very possible even for someone with no japanese language skills at all, if they are brave enough to try and pick up the phrases they need, communicate in other ways, and deal with the uncertainty of navigating a world where you cannot speak. Trains are signed and stops are vocalized in english. Many signs are in passable english. You can always buy food from convenience stores without saying anything at all, and just use the cash register to see how much it costs. It's doable if you have guts. More than many other countries. If you are toddler level as you say, then you can do basic things like ask how much something costs and hear the price, or say "Excuse me where is ________" in Japanese, then you will do fine!
@@jeishiikanzaki You can visit Japan. Bigger cities like Tokyo have a lot of English speakers. Also in cafeterias, Starbucks etc. Airports are not a problem (at least not the *central* parts of airports.. the periphery may be more difficult). But learn Katakana. It doesn't take long, a few weeks at most. Learn Hiragana at the same time while you're at it. There are *tons* of English loan words in Japanese, and they're all written in Katakana. As soon as you figure out how to map English pronunciation to Japanese pronunciation and how that's written in Katakana then you can read a lot of signs etc.
"アイスクリーム" in Katakana is something like "Aisukuri-mu", which is an approximate pronunciation of ice cream. Beer is bi-ru, which is ビ-ル in Katakana.
Then figure out the train system. Learn how to read the essential info on ticket machines. Most (but not all - and it doesn't depend on the size of the station) machines have an English option as well. Cities have a short Kanji name, learn a couple (where you're staying, where you're going), and you're off traveling by yourself. City buses are easy as well - enter the center door, grab a ticket, it's got a number, watch the screen at front, it says how much you have to pay at the point where you're leaving. Put the exact amount in coins in the box near the driver and leave at the front door.
Get money from 7-11 or any post office with your credit card. Those two are the reliable (and cheaper) ones. They have ATMs that accept foreign cards.
Even toddle level Japanese is enough to say thanks and please..
@@daenackdranils5624 The beauty of Japan outweighs the language barrier issue. Been to Chino, Nagano where almost no one speaks English. I have survived using a translator app. It's challenging but gosh Japan is so so so so very beautiful!!!
This is very interesting, I always thought Japan has that problem with English because the learning method. As computer scientist I can say that is really important to know English, I'm from Mexico and in the university in some point teachers will give students only English resources, so many students have to learn English to understand the resources. Also a funny thing is that for Spanish speakers pronounce Japanese is very easy because the sounds are similar, however pronounce English is harder even when, at least in México, we live with many English resources (movies, commercials, music, etc)
I’m so glad I’m not the only one that noticed the similar pronunciations between Mexican Spanish and Japanese. I’m not sure about other Spanish speakers, but it can be very surreal hearing Mexicans pronounce Japanese words perfectly without even knowing anything they said.
Mexican Japanese Spanish interpreter here. I can testify this as true
@@jerryborjon Not only Mexican Spanish, I would say Spanish in general have this advantage when learning Japanese. As a Costa Rican Japanese Language Teacher, I can testify it too.
@@azarishiba2559 - Very true! I mostly specified Mexican Spanish because Castilian Spanish doesn’t seem like it has this trait.
@@jerryborjon Oh it does, it's just that it has a few extra sounds that aren't needed in Japanese, but it doesn't mean they have less shared ones if that makes sense.
While traveling in Osaka and Kyoto, most of the younger people wanted practice speaking English.
Maybe if you're a young woman. But certainly not a 6ft and somewhat large man like me.
So did you practicing with them?
@@nicoarmin8997 As a 5'10 woman, young people found me a curiosity. Anyone under 70 is still considered a kid in Japan. 😃
@@oscheoroset1298 Definitely. Speaking, hearing, and reading Japanese presented no issue. Writing hiragana and katakana took a very long time and lots of practice.
@@blueberrymuffin1348 you have my respect, madam. Cheers.
There is an equal problem that native English speakers (especially we Brits) blithely expect everyone else to speak English. We should have a go at learning some basic communication in Japanese for shops, hotels, restaurants etc. Now… who do we know who runs a Japanese culture channel and could give us a few lessons?
Of course, it is unreasonable to expect people in non-English speaking countries to always be able to accommodate you in English. However, looking from a Japanese perspective, it would still be beneficial for them to know English even unrelated to tourism.
I am from a country with a relatively low English efficiency, and I would say that knowing a decent amount of English really helps me a lot of in my personal life and would benefit my country as a whole if we has better English education (Though we probably have more urgent issue to worry about than English education).
i think there's a split in Brit holidaymakers that dont give a single fart about the place of culture theyre in; they come for the beauty, the nightlife, the alcohol. Lad's holidays to Ibiza or Tenerife aren't born from a love of their culture. From my limited experience I see that particular group across all peoples. Gosh, German tourists... ;D Regardless of these people - if Japanese could more easily communicate with them, they can make more money.
Then there are culturally respectful people that do care. I find the Brits I have visited with and talked to, to be overly worried of their poor ability to communicate and the possibility to offend people with social misunderstanding. I would imagine that "respectful group" exists across all holidaymaker's nationalities, surely.
My mother has no interest in Japan outside of my absurd Japanophilia but is still constantly worried about offending Japanese; the Bri'ish culture of politeness. If that barrier is lifted and people aren't worried about misunderstandings because they can communicate in English, this benefits both parties and again - Japanese businesses can succeed and make more money.
UA-cam channels to learn Japanese? Here's me the idiot only listening to music and using boring books to study past N4... :(
There is only one...That japanese man, Yuta!
Japanese ammo with Misa, Japanese From Zero and Tokini Andy are all great Japanese teacher channels too ✌🏾 😊✌🏾!
There's a lot less people in the world that want to learn Japanese just to visit Japan a couple times in life time, it's a lot easier for japanese people to learn english to receive a lot more tourist from all over the world and get a huge boost in their economy.
There's one facet of this I rarely if ever see anyone talk about: not only is there no need to learn English, there are also very few opportunities to hear or use the language organically. Of course there is "Engrish" everywhere in Japan, but almost everything coming from outside of Japan gets translated. Foreign movies and drama series are dubbed, as are video games. Because there are so many Japanese people, you can find any information you would ever need in Japanese, so most people don't even consider searching for information in English. There is almost zero organic English language input happening for the Japanese.
As someone who tried learning Japanese before, I can attest that it’s an incredibly difficult language to grasp if you haven’t gotten used to that family of languages. I can definitely see the reverse being true with Japanese people struggling with English since it’s so fundamentally different from what they’re probably used to.
And you have to remember that English is the hardest Western language to learn, with all the crazy nuances and mind boggling double standards you'll find in the language, like one word having a baker's dozen different definitions and words that should rhyme often not rhyming, like Through and Though.
Actually, there is no such thing as "that family of languages". Japanese is practically a language isolate, being only related to the languages of the Ryukyu islands such as Okinawa.
Japanese language doesn't have a family, so it is not correct to say "If you haven't gotten used to that family of languages".
@@capivara6094 Japanese and Dravidian languages have grammar syntax similarities.
@@Frame_Late is it, though? I’m pretty sure it isn’t. What you are bringing up is standard in all languages (indirect hinting and registers). And I can assure you that many other European languages have equally silly spelling (Danish and Faroese, for example).
@@peterfireflylund yeah, but English is the only language to have words that sound identical but have completely different uses (like they're, their and there.)
The nuances in English are much worse.
These facts kind of shocked me-
I tried learning Japanese and a few other languages and this is quite relatable.
I'm born in the Philippines yet I've been growing up with the English language and I've become very fluent with it to the point I forget what the English equivalent of Cebuano numbers are, and have to ask a family member what number it is, which is kind of embarrassing xd
were born*
Oh!! You are a Cebuano too??? Hello there!! 👋
Totally could relate to you... Unlike the new generation who had lessons with mother tongue usage... We are taught English indirectly as a baby and professionally as early as kindergarten.. As a result, me, a girl with hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) english words were more familiar to me than Cebuano, and some extent Filipino (Tagalog)....
The deep Cebuano words used by my parents and elderly and also, yeah, the numbers, sometimes I do ask what do they mean cause I have no clue what's the meaning... I am secretly agnostic but I think reading Cebuano Bibles and Cebuano rosary might help with Crippling Cebuano fluency..
@@yachishairclips2250 yes
@@achraf8694 It is not "were born", it's "I'm born". Your "correction" is incorrect.
@@trulyrebekha i know that was the joke
With any language, you really have to consciously engage outside the classroom. Unless you're taking conversation classes or living in the target country, knowing grammar without ever speaking will not get you there.
I would say the most important aspect of learning English is how to pronounce our vowels and consonants and vocabulary.
Our grammar can kind of be flipped around and most people can probably tell what you're trying to say.
Just like when Yoda speaks. We understand him fine. Even though his grammar is backwards.
Correct, you indeed are! English is a flexible language, rather htan a rigid one. Which is both a boon and a curse.
@@MelissiaBlackheart German here, this can also be done in German. As long as the "building blocks" of a sentence aren't switches up, it's totally fine to flip them around as you please. If you flip withon those blocks, then it gets a little difficult, but most of the time it's still understandable enough to get what you want.
This is esp true because there are so so so many accents and dialects in the English language.
I stayed in Tokyo for a month back in 2004, I was really impressed by the level of English of the people I met. I stayed at The New Koyo Hotel which was super cheap in Minawa. I had many amazing conversations in English, I even spent an evening drinking on the street and chatting with a homeless man, his English was amazing.
Ah yes that point 3.
I mostly learned English not from the school but from a lot a media such as movie, books, and most notably, games. Since there are few games that accomodate my language (Indonesian), I have to learn English so that I can enjoy the game, which at the same time, helped me to learn English by being get used to it.
However this is rarely the case for the Japanese, as they're one of the leading country in terms of entertainment, especially games, so obviously they'll have a lot of games which have Japanese language options on it, reducing the need to learn English.
Mine is probably kpop and kdramas. I tend to become a fan of unpopular idols so my fellow fandom-mates are foreigners only. I used to watch kdramas with engsub because I don't even know that kdramas with indo sub exists back then. Another ways of me learning English is probably reading English kpop fanfics.
I learn English from movies then from watching way too much UA-cam. To the point where I can understand memes. I learn Japanese initially from Anime and untranslated Japanese games... then Touhou Project which also introduced me to Japanese folklore (and the various ways it can be played with, like the Giant Centipede from the Tale of Tawara Touda being a miner, and how this Tawara Touda may be related to Mokou, and how there's a Karakasa Obake who gets conflated with the Ippon Datara making her a great blacksmith (Surprise~)).
self selected pleasure reading or watching are one of the best learning techniques, you unconsciously learning like a baby picking up a language without even aware that you are learning, the 2nd best are immersion listening and shadowing, your brain will pickup grammatical rules naturally without you even aware there's are such rules but you need to monitor yourself or you can have parent like figure to correct your "baby talking" be it your friends or someone you respect like teacher
As a native English speaker who later learned Japanese, I have always felt that the two languages do not really translate, but are rather interpreted. When I have spoken to native Japanese speakers who do speak english they often have to think before being able to translate the between the two languages. It's like the two languages are completely alien subjects.
To add to the lack of education, some of the English levels that pass for being English teachers, are teaching something they don't really know anything about to begin with. Without paying for private tutoring or taking initiative, it can really seem hopeless to learn English to some.
As someone living in Japan, I’m seeing the effects of the politicians only looking after the older generations. What makes it worse is young people don’t even know why it’s happening because they have no interest in politics and don’t vote.
I'm Canadian and I had the highest french grades for the entirety of public school (so 8 years or so) and I could never speak it. I could read it semi-well? But at best I had a child's comprehension of language. The way languages are taught in schools for the sake of making them "testable" is so frustrating and the way you explained it was perfect!
I haven’t been to Japan myself, but I have met some Japanese people here in America. Two of them, I can’t communicate with them in English (I can, they seem to understand but don’t reply), otherwise most them have a decent understanding that we can communicate easily. One even speaks English like a native
Japanese people shouldn't feel obligated to learn English for the same reason I'm not obligated to learn Japanese. I don't live in Japan, and people in Japan don't live in an English speaking country.
If I move to another country it would be rude of me to expect them to learn my language, and instead I should put forth the effort to learn the local language and assimilate as to not be a burden.
I aint moving
Thing is english is kind of a world language, i think everyone should be on conversational level, i learned english just from the internet and not actively learning it. But i get your point if soneone doesnt wanna they shouldnt have to
Too much knowledge is concentrated in English on the Internet. Not understanding English is locking yourself out of a huge amount of useful knowledge.
It's not so much that they are forced to in order to accommodate others. It is that it would be a boon to them to know it. As with most knowledge and skill!
many japanese still dont know uncle roger, even after 2 years of his debut! because they less understand english
I think the biggest contributor to language acquisition is always usage. This is a common challenge for people learning a language that is rarely used locally. Regarding Japan particularly, being relatively developed, I think people might also have a lower desire to learn English for overseas education, emigration, working in outward-facing industries, etc.
I don't think everyone (or even every young person) in Japan needs to be functional in English, though. Some domains like tourism or academia will need people with proficient English skills, and it's definitely better not to waste schoolchildren's efforts with ineffective language curriculums, but I think the reality is English genuinely is not a priority skill for a lot of people in non-English speaking countries. Besides, I've seen plenty of East Asians speaking terrible English but an EXCELLENT second language from the region. They are no less curious about the greater world and prepared for living as a world citizen as English speakers.
I work in IT. I like Japan and looked into working in my field in Japan. Japan makes it almost impossible for immigrants to come work there. I can understand a homogenous society might be reluctant to have foreigners come in and 'upset' the harmony that they are used to. However, with a declining population you would think they would find it necessary to attract talent in order to grow the economy.
They rather go extinct
@@mayshusakuhanamurasufferli5438 this is the truth
I taught IPA to a Japanese student I was tutoring and she made significant improvement within 8 months. I started with a pronunciation baseline check of all the vowels and consonants to find her most significant problem areas and we tackled them using a variety of techniques that are fun. She was amazed that there are so many more vowels in English than in Japanese. I told her not to use katakana for English. We did the test again at the end of the program and she improved in all areas!
Are you able to point to some of these fun pronunciation techniques? They sound interesting.
Eh…..but even with the best teachers available, motivating oneself into studying and improving on a language will be the ultimate factor in reaching language proficiency.
The reason why I can speak Japanese natively despite not being able to read or write it is due to using it nearly every day with my mom (who is the only person I know whom I can speak Japanese with). Also because I didn’t learn Japanese in an academic setting, I have the convenience of not seeing additional learning (boosting vocabulary) as work. If I had to learn Japanese as a second language at school, I would not have been able to keep up especially if I had to do it at an older age and if my mom primary spoke English to me. After a while, I often get burnout or lose interest in certain subjects or goals.
I've been tasked with learning Spanish and German when I was in school, none of it stuck because we never used it. Nobody wanted to learn it because the area we were in spoke primarily English. I tried to teach myself Italian but nobody I know speaks Italian so that fell flat too. The only language that has stuck with me was the little bit of Japanese I learned from the karate classes I took as a kid, we used it regularly and would use it to communicate with each other (even if it was usually just please and thank you). That communication really is key to learning any language.
I watch Japanese TV regularly (as part of my Japanese learning), and I know it happens a LOT, there are Japanese variety shows where they gather celebrities together to test them in English, in the name of entertainment. Whenever they make mistakes, they are ridiculed and made fun of. Even though it's in the name of fun, and they are laughing at themselves, I keep thinking that it is a terrible way to promote the use of English. If anything, it actively discourages people from learning English properly because they are afraid of being embarrassed of making mistakes in front of other people.
I think I saw that one too...
That's so sad!
That amount of time it takes to learn another language list was pretty interesting.
My thoughts on this video:
I gained my experiences mainly in Tokyo, Nikko, Yokohama and Kamakura in 2019.
I actually was pleasantly surprised that even a lot of older Japanese people made the effort to learn some English as a preparation for the Olympic games. I hope they will continue to send service stuff to language classes. I even met an older lady who was watching me enjoying the shrines and temples of Kamakura so much so she started by herself to explain some symbols for me. Such a lovely person!
But my personal point of view is that if I am a guest in a country such as Japan for longer, it is a matter of respect to learn some basic Japanese as well, which I did.
I agree that Japanese do not speak English if they can prevent in general. Whenever I asked a question in English especially young people understood my question completely but chose to use Google translate to give me an answer. The most extreme part of Japanese not speaking in English was during my exchange program when on some days, no one spoke to me a word which was kind of an awkward experience for me. Of course I spend a lot time why this happened and my conclusion is that Japanese just do not want to stand out for "showing off" their language skills or showing their lacking English skills (naturally non native speakers make mistakes). So I guess there is a lot of social pressure on them that leads to to their upbringing into a collective society.
I appreciated the last bit a lot! I love hearing the personal stories that you tell. Not random at all, I hope to see more like that!
Shogo this was extremely interesting! I was delighted to learn the key points and facts around this complex problem that is low proficiency levels of english in Japan.
Thanks for your hard work and I'll be waiting for your next videos!
Hi Shogo, I've been following your channel for a while now and love your videos. I just want to say thank you for this video. I has really helped me to understand my Japanese ESL students a lot better and has also given me ideas on how to improve my classes. You continue to bring such a unique insight to Japan, its people and culture. Thank you from an ESL teacher.
Math 101 in University teaches you to never assume the converse is true. All squares are rectangles, but to assume the converse is true is to assume that all rectangles are squares. The state department looked at English speakers learning Japanese, to assume the converse, or infer anything meaningful from the converse (Japanese to English is hard) is bad logic. Other than this one point, great video :)
This is true. Reading comprehension comes to mind. English is much easier for Japanese to read than Japanese is for English speakers.
Interesting stuff! I had no idea this was such a big problem, it must be very difficult for the younger generations, especially regarding IT.
Great video Shogo!
“Shogo, when he was in elementary school, used to live in Michigan” seriously? 😅 the same sentence in Japanese would be something like … “Shogo, elementary school in (he) was when, Michigan in live used to.”…that’s how different the two languages are 😁
If there's something I've learned from watching anime with subtitles it's that _the vocabulary_ I could learn with time, but it's impossible to make heads or tails of _the syntax._ Calling it "twisted" is an euphemism.
The first one isn't a sentence. You forgot the period and it's one sentence with a sentence fragment shoehorned in with a couple commas. Try, "Shogo lived in Michigan when he was in elementary school." The written word is not colloquial. That means you don't write how you speak. The goal is succintness and efficiency. This also makes translation easier.
@@MelkorPT It's mostly the order of the prepositions, not much to do with syntax, unless you get into tenses and participles, then slightly tricky, but still not so bad.
I get the point of trying to do one-to-one translation to demonstrate the utter weirdness of translating across two different grammars, but glides are a real technique and they get the point across without completely obliterating meaning the way that word-for-word translation does.
Something like: "Shogo (about) the time of elementary school (during) Michigan (in) live (used to)"
Thank you for speaking about this topic! After studying abroad in Japan, I became a English teacher there so I could share the same cultural and linguistic exchange with other students. I was placed in a rural area where there were virtually no other English speakers, and many of my students didn’t prioritize English because it didn’t seem related to their future plans. In some ways, that made sense to me-my middle school Spanish education wasn’t a priority for me, since I wanted to learn Japanese-but, like you said, it also made me concerned they wouldn’t be able to engage with the increasingly global economy and culture. Unfortunately, the method of teaching doesn’t help at all. Practice drills are prioritized over communication, even if newer textbooks encourage conversation activities, and the lack of real-world application makes both students and teachers feel unequipped to use the language. While I loved my students, my coworkers, and my job as a teacher, it did leave me with a bittersweet view of language and cultural education in Japan. Overall, wonderful video! It really gets to the heart of Japan’s struggles with English education.
I didn't mind poor English skill when I was visiting Japan, in fact it kind of added to the aura of Japan's exoticism. It was only on one occasion that it caused significant stress (we had an issue with the train ticket). However what surprised me, happened prior to my trip to Japan. Back in university years I did meet Japanese students in volunteer camps in Europe, and all of them (3) had very poor english language skills. They were very shy when speaking, always trying to speak correctly. It was like in school, very early school. This is very different compared to some other nationalities which admittedly had easier task but cared less about speaking correctly-they cared only to be understood. Japanese' verbal skills were in stark contrast to vocabulary, which was fine. But I agree, knowing language is like having IT skills. Modern world requires both.
I went to Japan a couple years ago and to be honest, it was difficult communicating with staff of places like at the airport sin card stall or food court. I feel like at least these types of places should try harder to speak a couple sentences in other languages.
Your post script about the struggles of growing up in different cultures really hit home. Thank you for your videos, they are very informative.
I'm sort of in a similar situation.
I'm a Filipino whose mother tongue is Cebuano. This means that I have to learn a couple of languages like English and Tagalog at school. For the most part, every subject other than Filipino are in printed in English albeit taught in my mother tongue except for English-related courses like Speech, Reading, etc. Coupled with the fact that I've never been to Luzon or any place where people speak in Tagalog, I find it really hard to speak this language whenever I have to although I can completely understand it.
The same goes with English where I still have trouble speaking this language since I'm not always in situations where it necessitates its use. Ngl schools I've went to should've kept that speak English or get fined rule. Another thing is variations of that lame "nosebleed" joke whenever people hear someone speaks English makes it very awkward to speak this language in the first place.
That "Only speak English for English class" is way too relatable
Interesting perspective! By the way, I don't think the ending was too off topic. There are struggles with picking up a second language any way you look at it. I wonder if a shift towards an emphasis on conversational language would benefit people. I find that if I can talk with people, the "book learning" comes a bit easier. The hard part for most is finding people to talk with in your daily life.
I agree with the points brought up by Shogo in this video. I have been dealing with Japanese companies in the past few months due to business purposes. I would say 90% of the companies who replied me insisted to have the discussion made over the phone and it has to be done in Japanese. I have suggested to discuss it via email so I could only translate my discussion in Japanese through Google Translate, however the discussion usually ends with them declining my offer unless I do it their way. Now I have another reason to learn Japanese. :)
I really love your channel as you do not oversimplify things in your explanations. Well done!
Very well explained & thank you.🙏
Thanks for becoming proficient in English and making UA-cam videos!
it seems that English is presented as a nasty, burdensome task that you have to endure to endure to pass a test. That does not make a student eager to work on English lessons as homework.
Informative and educational! Thank you!
Shogo, thank you. I enjoy your channel so much!
We have similar issues in Arabic speaking countries. Although we're not internationally recognized as bad at English, it is also very different from our language. Add to that the fact that there are over 20 counties that have Arabic as an official language, with a total population of over 400 million people as native speakers. Arabs get comfortable and feel that they don't really need English for daily lives or internet use. Almost everything is available in Arabic, and what you learn at school is just enough to get you through the basics of a video game or a website registration page. Even though we certainly don't have a lack of time we spend learning English, at least not in my country Iraq, but it's all just about grammar and memorizing some old poems. We can definitely use more practice based teaching techniques. Surprising to me that It seems like Arabs rank even lower than the Japanese in English proficiency, which doesn't seem very accurate, to me at least 😅
BTW, from my personal experience, I have a feeling that well-educated Japanese have much better English than well-educated French. I would even say that the well-educated French have the worst English out of all well-educated people. I think it has something to do with the ressentiment feeling stemming from the memories about the epoch when the French language had the status the English language has today.
thank you sensei!!!! your education is always so appreciated
Very enlightening analysis, Shogo!
Growing up in Canada, technically I had studied roughly 9+ years of French, but outside of certain regions; it's mostly regarded as a subject to earn a compulsory credit over anything else, so my retention of it was so minimal that I basically have zero French ability today. Unless you liked the language, it was basically akin to taking calculus with no intention of going into any maths fields for future study just for the credit.
I took four years of French in high school and one conversational course in Japanese in college. I found Japanese to be easier than French. Japanese felt more logical to me; I wish that school had offered continued education beyond the conversational level. It was one of the most fun courses I took during my ten years attending college, and my memories of that class still make me smile.
Watashinonameha
Thankyou for the insight!
This is extremely informative, thank you!
Of course it’s easier to learn English if you’re living in an english-speaking country, consume english media or can speak it with friends and family, but it’s still difficult. I think the government should really enable young people more to learn english. Today’s world is becoming more and more international and english is practically essential in international relations. So I think they would really profit from it, especially if they want to work internationally interconnected company or fields like Science, Engineering or IT
I worked teaching English in Japan for a few years and I realized the curriculum is just awful. Simply put, they teach English to pass tests, not to actually learn. Many times I would have to correct improper grammar and punctuations of Japanese student's work. The teachers themselves would tell me just to follow how they teach English even though it was obviously incorrect. The students who do learn English at a high level usually do so on their own depending on how interested they are about learning English.
Thanks for making this informative video! 🙌🏼
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have articulated so clearly my educational observations that I have always thought about it in my 15 years teaching English in Japan.
I hope this does change, even though the two languages (English and japanese) are hard to understand for both of the countries. Even though translators are an option, they dont really work very well.
Although, I remember something from NASDaily, of someone from japan called "Takuro" creating a device that can translate any sentence to any language. Did you know anything about that Shogo?
Translators have a lot of trouble with east asian languages compared to latin derived languages. The grammar seems to really throw off the translation.
Learning from you, how hard it is for Japanese to learn English, I admire and am amazed even more, how clearly you speak! :)
I love that you point out when something is your opinion and not statistical data. That is an awesome approach :)
The thing I love the most about your channel, even more so than your professionalism, well researched knowledge, and clear presentation in both media and speech, is the fact that you're very fair and impartial on the majority if not the entirety of your content.
I watched one comedy by Meshida SAN. He said only the Japanese who cannot fit with the society have time to learn English and speak to foreigners. Is it true?
But I remember that during the period of Meji revolution, the situation forced high-ranking samurais to learn Dutch and then English.
Btw. I have encountered two Japanese women who cannot speak English and other languages judging my Japanese by comparing to their Japanese. Very interesting indeed!
In Flanders, Belgium, with Flemish Dutch as my native language, I was taught French, English, German and Spanish in school. (Also some Latin and ancient Greek, but that's another story.) The languages I am now best at, were taught by native speakers who spent a big part of their classes telling stories about their lives, and who demanded that all communication with them be in their language. Also, the availability of media like music and tv series in those languages played a big role. Which can be a bit random: UA-cam once bombarded me with Scottish stand up comedy, and these days it has decided I need to spend more time watching French UA-cam shorts... 😅
Only Frisian and Afrikaans are closer to English (and Scots English) than Dutch.
very interesting , nice video!
The "Off Topic" at the End of the Video added so so much to the Video's personality, thank you Shogo!!
5:41 slight suggestion for the word order: in my opinion, the Japanese word order would rather be like "Shogo, when we was in elementary school, in Michigan [he] used to live."
I am from Croatia. English we learn in school is useless. You learn a lot of grammar and vocabulary is taught just to be forgotten in next few weeks. I am anti talent for languages and I was barely passing a year in elementary school. The only reason why I learned how to use English is that I started watching TV shows, reading books and comics, listening to music in English. There is no other way to learn the language.
Very interesting and informative 😁👍
Thank you for your explanation. You have been very helpful. :)
I had an incredible Japanese teacher when I was in college and as someone who teaches now as well I already know what one of Japans main problems regarding English is: Japan. NEEDS. Native speakers.
The amount of correction and learning I gained from my Japanese teaching BEING JAPANESE cannot be understated. They could catch all the little flaws and mistakes and correct them. Too often Japan won't go to the proper source and as such gets flawed learning.
About a decade back I read an article in a newspaper about how officials are trying to maintain and improve methods of education in my country. One part of the article talked about teachers travelling to East Asia - I believe the countries were Japan and South Korea - to learn about East Asian educational methods. The teachers that were interviewed said that language teaching in Japan appeared to be several decades behind the methods in my country, basically that the last time Japanese methods were employed in my country was in the late 70s, early 80s. I don't know how much the situation has improved in Japan in ten years.
Most likely none at all. Even with the JET programs.
This is a great video. I really enjoyes the end part where you shared your experience.
Love the videos
That sounds reasonable, so I decided to practice Japanese with Duolingo, so I can speak Japanese sentences, I can't write Japanese but I can at least speak and pronounce, learning Spanish from my Mom helped me improve the way Japanese phonetics work.
This episode hits different becuase this is something you are thinking about as a Father to your children. The tone is slightly different, even from the other serious episodes. I wish you luck in endure this issue and confronting it as you are.
Excellent video Shogo.
For me though it also highlights the the universal struggles of communications. It’s so easy for us English speakers to be complacent and expect the world to ‘come to us’ in terms of language when in reality, the responsibility rests with each and every person to improve our level of communication. English is by its very nature already a blend of many other languages, Latin, French, Germanic ,Norse, plus the language of science and so on. Perhaps one day in the future, there will indeed be one universal language that we will all be familiar with. We can but hope. Love the work of you and the team Shogo. Arigato ! Tze Tze , Dankeshön, Grazie , Thanks mate, etc etc.
Great video, I like that you also included your personal thoughts that were not based on research, I think there is still a lot of value in them even if they are subjective
I have been watching anime in Japanese in subs for more than half of my life & it's still difficult to use verbs to form sentences for myself I only know some phrases & sentences but I can't hold a conversation. I want to learn Japanese properly to become trilingual since I already speak English & Spanish.
In all fairness in the UK we're taught French for several years, yet even less people in the uk could speak french even remotely fluently. Both english speaking countries and japan seem to be unfortunately 'proudly' monolingual.
This is a very hood and easy to understand explanation seems spot on
thank you for sharing your off topic opinion at the end. i really appreciate your unique perspective on this topic. i hope you're able to impart multiple language to your kids as it is definitely a skill most people will need to succeed in this global economy
About your last comment, I've had the complimentary part of what you describe. When I tell my Japanese bosses that learning a foreign language doesn't have to do with leaving a country (I speak Japanese, Spanish and English, without leaving my home country), their faces look like this 😰. They tend to label me as "smarter than them" but I don't think so...
This situation is very similar here in Brazil, but the worst part is that English is relatively next to Portuguese, so it's not like it's a whole different language. Actually, there are a lot of words in Portuguese that if you change a little you can kinda 'guess' how it is in English and there's a great chance that it would be right.
But like the Japanese, the teachers here don't care if you learn English or not, as long as you pass the tests at school. And with the current-day attitude of not failing a student no matter what, there's no real need to study anything, after all. I'm really afraid Brazil will have an almost total dearth of even basically skilled labor in a very few years.
@@mariadocarmosobreira8323 Yeah, that's true.
I was super impressed with the English I found spoken in Tokyo. Not a lick of even an accent! Granted, that was a city center and I stayed where the tourists stayed mostly, and I'm comparing Americans being able to learn another language, but we only get 3 years of schooling required. I'm glad you pointed out the overall proficiency and the difficulties societally by not learning the lingua franca of the world.
Amazing video, this are exactly the answers I was looking for! Love your vids (and you speak great english imo)