No matter what Japan does, they cannot seem to mangage to learn English. It is a deep and wide problem stemming from (I believe) anything and everything including history (never having been colonized) as well as wealth (managing to become the second largest economy without mastering English) as well as many other issues.
Bottom line? I don’t think most Japanese really care to learn English more than they have to. They don’t need to. Life is fine with rudimentary “Engrish.” If it really mattered, then I think the tide would change…
High school English has little impact on Japanese [The Straits Times]
Japanese can’t learn English
Hmm, it’s an interesting story… Gen Kanai weblog: Japanese can’t learn English Bottom line? I don’t think most Japanese really care to learn English more than they have to. They don’t need to. Life is fine with rudimentary “Engrish.” If…
I think that a lot of it has to do with attitude. My students tell me that they are Japanese and don’t plan to leave Japan, so they don’t think that they should have to learn English. What do you say to that. Some of them can learn enough words to get by on tests, or even get into a decent high school, but most of them don’t even bother to do that. Why should they? There are no repercussions if they don’t, and no benefit if they do. The article makes sound like I should appeal to nationalism and racism, and tell them that they have to learn English to stay ahead of the Chinese and Koreans.
One of the main reasons the japanese have a difficult time learning english is that the people in power will not be open to the input of native speakers. When i was teaching english in japan, as a native english speaker as well as someone who taught public speaking and speech arts in new york city, I thought my input would be listened to. I was very wrong. If they will not listen to people who really know the language, and keep teaching “japanese english” so the students can pass the japanese tests they need to pass, the situation will not change.Its very because many japanese people really want to learn english ..