Category: applied linguistics
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Do Japanese really need compulsory English?
In today’s Daily Yomiuri there was an article about the results from a survey of 3,225 middle school students on their perception about English. The survey conducted by the National Institute for educational Policy Research found only eleven percent of students want to find work which requires English. But seventy percent also said they believed…
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Respect for teachers – Japan at the bottom of the heap
According to a quiz question on Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q (The Quiz Show that Goes to the Ends of the Earth [for answers]) Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, The Philippines and Romania rank first (with 100%) as countries in which their tecahers are respected most by their students. Second was Italy and Third was…
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How many hours do Japanese students have to study in order to master English?
I was told by one of my teachers back in my undergraduate days about twenty years ago that for me to master Japanese it would take me 700 hours of class time. The number now seems to be 2,200 hours. Japanese is a language notoriously difficult to learn for native English speakers because of their…
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Literature, second language, authenticity, passion
I have fond memories of my undergraduate days as a Japanese major. To me they were exciting times. The world was seemingly spinning at a furious pace. The people I met were doing things, going places. My future was ahead of me. My future now, of course, is still ahead of me (metaphorically, can it…
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If you can’t even get your Japanese right how are you expected to get your English correct
My kids watch this show on NHK called Cooking Idol Ai My Mine. Great show about a girl who is a real live cooking show host. Shows like these truly give kids imagination and creativity. But I was really disappointed in the looseness of their script writing in this dialogue shown the other day: Child:…
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Why we should continue to teach the “‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’” spelling rule
The British government has said this spelling rule is no longer worth teaching because there are so many exceptions to the rule. I think this is a mistake – a mistake to get rid of it and a mistake or misunderstanding of where the rule is supposed to be applied. I was taught this rule…
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Japanese primary schools to teach 285 English words in 2011
From the Yomiuri Shimbun (copied and pasted due to lack of archive) Fifth- and sixth-year primary school students will learn a total of 285 English words and 50 expressions in compulsory English classes to be introduced in the 2011 school year, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry said Thursday. The students are expected to learn…
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