force-fed pizza
So I was ranting about how my students aren’t learning anything.
Is English just an exceptionally difficult language to learn, for native speakers of Japanese? I think that can pretty much be ruled out. Taiwan is also an island, whose language also has little in common with English, and the English I saw/heard in Taiwan (judging by random people I talked to and the correctness of English on signs and posters) was significantly better.
So it’s something else. And I’m starting to think that it’s more than a classic case of not wanting to be uncool in front of classmates. It’s a national mentality.
At least once a day I meet somebody who, after a minute or two of conversation, reassures me and anyone else in the area with a laugh that they can’t speak a word of English. They are not embarrassed, it’s almost like they’re proud to have survived 5+ years of English instruction without retaining any scars or even basic vocabulary.
Okay, so maybe not exactly proud, but it is apparent that they find their expressed lack of English ability completely acceptable and expected. It’s almost a comfort, you use it to ingratiate yourself to the group: “Oh, English is difficult, wouldn’t you agree? I, for one, can’t speak a word.”
Why would it be specifically not cool to be able to speak English? Is the language unpopular as a result of the war, the last bastion of resentment? I really don’t know. But it sure seems like there is active resistance to English becoming a second national language, and in the most ingenious way, by turning it into something Japanese.
Every visitor to Japan eventually wonders why the English on t-shirts is consistantly warped and has been for decades. Why is it that the English copy of the owner’s manual to a product from a wealthy and respected company contains uncountable spelling and grammar errors? Doesn’t anybody speak the language? Couldn’t they at least hire someone to edit it? Can’t they afford a fucking dictionary?
Well, far be it from me to explain this mystery, but Japan has found a powerful and effective way to completely undermine a language–mix it up, use it like art or disjointed poetry, make it part of the background noise, render it meaningless. Even the English terminology that is salvaged for actual use is filtered into katakana script and stripped of its English roots.
On an everyday level, I think the resistance to spoken English has to do with a particular Japanese attitude when it comes to fitting in.
There is a saying, “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” I prefer to take this in the sense of a caution, rather than a threat–it’s not that they believe the nail should get hammered down, it’s just that you should be careful because if you’re the nail you could get hurt. But no matter how you spin it, it still sums up a stifling group mentality.
Nobody wants to set themself apart by claiming ablilities above anyone else, so foreign language skill is kept on the down-low. And maybe by extension, my students have the impression that it’s more or less okay if not downright expected that they fail to learn anything in my class.
I should mention, though, there are plenty of exceptions. My supervisor and a couple of the other English teachers are fearless speakers. I do have a select few students (at school and in my adult class) who are genuinely interested in improving and not afraid to practice. But for every one of them, there seem to be 10 of the others…
The result is that English, despite years of exposure and the efforts of a national program designed to import native speakers at great expense and throw them at the Japanese school system, has still not really penetrated into Japanese culture. It is reduced to meaningless art on t-shirts, gramatically hobbled, kept in its place.
Quebec should take notes.
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