Foreign Language Instruction in Japan

Japanese school regimentation

Japanese take great pride in their relative sameness and team spirit. In reality, of course, each Japanese is quite different from every other; each has his own hobbies, interests, and circle of friends; some children have brothers, some only a sister; still others have a parent who works for the government and another who is independently employed. Some children's parents smoke, others avoid alcohol, some are very kind, and some are very difficult. Nevertheless, many Japanese think that all Japanese are the same. Certainly in some ways they are very similar.

The general idea promoted by one's teachers, school administrators, and parents is that of working together. This team spirit is achieved by respecting each other's personal property, making appropriate sacrifices so as not to disturb the group, and disciplining oneself in such a way that one achieves assigned tasks, thus contributing to one's own and the group's overall success. Creating a disturbance with one's classmates, arguing with one's teacher, or not performing one's duties are generally discouraged. Taking a stand that is very different from that of everyone else, or ostentatious displays of competition that do not contribute to team identity, are considered inappropriate. When found, this wayward behavior can be punished in a number of ways including various pranks (itzura), lies, unfulfilled promises, prescribed punishment  from superiors, group punishment from peers (ijime), or in severe cases even criminal acts.

Acknowledged differences are often only those authorized by those of higher ranking persons including one's teachers, sempai (older classmates or siblings), parents, and administrators. One distinguishes oneself from his classmates by scoring well on tests, whose results one often does not see, participating in organized competition with targeted goals and carefully selected judges, and joining organized clubs in which one develops special interests that are different from those of other groups. Reading novels, if one has time, playing with friends in one's own neighborhood, or spending time with one's family are a luxury that many students do not have. Often the requirements of school and work are so demanding that the child and his working parent hardly know one another. Nevertheless, most everyone is taught to respect their elders, and reverence towards one's parents and ancestors is essential for many. Of course, not everyone achieves these ends in the same way, but the general pattern is preserved through school regimentation that is carried into the work place as one grows older.

Nature of the Problem

Why is it that a Japanese parent wishing to insure that his son or daughter receives a good English language education must pay additional money to send his child to a special school, when that same education could be much more cheaply and efficiently obtained within the public educational system, if only the administration of English language instruction were changed?

Perhaps more importantly, why should a Japanese parent whose child will never use English but to accompany a lost tourist to the nearest police box and read the decorative wording written on his clothing, CDs, and junk food -- 90% of which is manufactured in Japan -- be required to pay tax dollars that compel his child to spend 4 hours each week in a strenuous effort to master the grammatical skeleton of a language that in the end he will not be able to speak with proficiency beyond what he could more easily obtain from a bilingual travel dictionary, should he someday desire to take a week's vacation abroad?

Surely the answer to these questions is neither internationalization nor fair treatment. In the latter instance, students who attend private language schools, where they actually have the opportunity to speak English, are likely to get much more out of their public schooling, than those who do not. In the first instance, internationalization implies communication between oneself and foreigners, something that Japanese students, who do not attend private schools, and even some who do, are rarely ever able to achieve. In short, the Japanese public sector and many language schools in the private sector have a very restricted sense of what it means to internationalize. In the end a large part of this wasted effort probably arises, because most Japanese do not know whether internationalization is a good or a bad thing.