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Effectiveness of Japan's English Language Training
How the decision was reached that all Japanese children must study English probably has little bearing on the current state of language instruction in Japan. Let it be noted in passing, however, that there was a time when languages other than English were the means of instruction at Japanese universities.
Learning a foreign language can be beneficial in several ways that differ from other subjects of study. Included among these are: one, the ability to communicate with people from other cultures, and thereby learn more about one's own culture and human society in general; two, improved international relations; three, better facility in one's own language; four, the transfer of technology and other information from another society to one's own; and five, travel abroad. Now let us consider each of these in turn and examine how they are achieved or not achieved within the Japanese system.
Learning about one's own culture
The Japanese public educational system simply does not provide Japanese students with the ability to communicate in any language but Japanese. Moreover, although the Japanese private sector has gone a long way to improve upon the public sector, it can hardly substitute for living in the country whose language one wishes to speak. More importantly, the effectiveness of the private sector in achieving communicability depends heavily on the amount of money that each student is able to pay. Based on the obviously large number of private English language schools that do exist in Japan, and the very small number of Japanese who have acquired near native fluency by attending them, one must conclude that even with the help of the private sector, the Japanese system has largely failed with regard to communication in a second language.
Without an ability to communicate in a second language at home what one can learn about one's own culture from resident foreigners or even passing tourists is largely limited to those Japanese who have studied abroad and those foreigners who know Japanese. As both groups of people are relatively few in number encounters with them are rare, and the benefit of the foreign presence in this regard largely diminished.
Communicating with someone from another culture
As mentioned elsewhere international communication can be achieved in different ways. One can learn the language of others, one can learn a common language that everyone speaks, or one can teach one's own language. Logic tells us that failing with regard to the first alternative means failing with regard to the second, unless of course everyone in the world speaks the same language and that language happens to be one's own. What is truly troublesome, however, is that Japan also fails with regard to the third alternative -- namely, making their own language available to others in Japan. This nation-wide failure is brought about by several factors only two of which will be discussed here: firstly, Japanese are so busy in their failed effort to master English, that they frequently forget, or purposefully ignore, that foreigners come a very long way to Japan at significant personal sacrifice to learn Japanese and Japanese culture from Japanese; and secondly, there exists a general reluctance on the part of Japanese to speak with strangers, be they from another country, another town, or even their own city. As a result Japanese either avoid speaking with foreigners altogether, or insist that foreigners speak English when and if a direct meeting does occur. As a result, the naturally occurring informal linguistic barrier that exists between Japanese and the outside world resident in Japan has actually been raised by another artificially created construct called katakana English. As a result, many foreigners lack the single most important tool that everyone requires to become close to any foreign culture -- the language of that culture.32
You may ask, how is it that there are so many foreigners in Japan? To which I am compelled to ask in return at what cost, to what end, and under what circumstances? Then too, are there really all that many?
Learning more about one's own culture
Learning a foreign language to improve one's ability to speak and write one's own language is another important derived benefit from foreign language learning. Unfortunately, due to the way in which foreign language is taught in both the public and private sectors in Japan, this benefit is largely absent. First of all, foreign language instructors in Japan, be they of Japanese or foreign origin, are either unable or not permitted to make the comparisons needed to achieve this benefit.
The vast majority of Japanese English teachers in the public sector, have never lived in a culture where English is the commonly spoken language, and the English that they teach Japanese children is taught in a manner far more akin to subjects like history, mathematics, and law, than linguistics or other language related fields of study. Students are required to memorize vocabulary and rules of grammar by rote and practice these within a particular patterned framework that easily breaks down, when certain logical preconditions are not met. The language they learn is not robust, reveals few of the nuances that would be helpful in understanding one's own language, and meaningful comparisons are difficult to make.
In the private sector foreign instructors are discouraged from making useful comparisons in the classroom, because they are often not permitted to speak Japanese. Moreover, proper incentives for learning Japanese in the first place are often absent. More importantly, the vast majority of these instructors have had little or no formal training in the teaching of English as a second language. Many of them are college graduates, who probably did not major in English, may have studied Japanese, but more likely than not majored in another subject area totally unrelated to language or language learning.
It is one thing to be a native speaker, it is quite another to know how to teach one's language to a foreigner. If you find this difficult to understand, ask most any foreigner, who has tried to learn Japanese from a Japanese in casual conversation, or most any Japanese who has actually taken the time to teach a foreigner his own language. The task of learning another's language or teaching one's own can be daunting.
In order to improve one's ability in one's own language, it is useful to learn a language that is closely related to one's one, In the Japanese context learning Korean -- the language spoken by Japan's closest neighbor -- would be ideal. English is probably the worst language in the world for Japanese to be learning in an effort to improve ability in their own native tongue. Not only are the root vocabulary so completely different, but the syntactical base is diametrically opposed. Learning English for Japanese is much more akin to learning to crawl all over again, rather than participating in a stiff race where each nuanced improvement means the different between victory and defeat.
In one important respect, however, learning to speak English does help Japanese in their ability to communicate in Japanese, but the obtainment of this benefit is largely restricted to the private and tertiary educational sectors, where contact with native English speakers can sometimes be intense. The win/lose, truth seeking attitude of many anglophones, and the high premium sometimes placed by them on logical rigor, compels Japanese to examine their own native writing and speaking habits and improves their ability to communicate to large audiences. Nevertheless, those who reap these benefits are obviously few in number, because they require significant second language formation at the outset.
Technology Transfer
By compelling every Japanese to learn to read primitive English language texts, Japanese are able to master enough of English logic to make it possible for them in the company of others, if not alone, to decipher technical manuals and reports. During Japan's early industrialization and during its postwar recovery this ability likely proved invaluable. Fortunately, this period of Japan's development is largely over. Accordingly, Japan is now in a position where it must convey knowledge to others, not simply acquire it. Passive, English reading skills, those that Japanese master best, are very valuable for gathering information, they are not very useful in communicating that which one already knows.
Travel Abroad
Finally, travelling is a favorite past time among the wealthy, the messianic, the adventurous, the homeless, and the wayward; Japan's per capita income is among the highest in the world. Unlike citizens of many other countries, whose individual sense of adventure takes them to exotic places of danger and excitement, often alone or with a friend, Japanese tend to travel in carefully organized groups. This phenomena probably has as much to do with the salary structure and organization of Japanese society, as it does with the conservative, risk averse mentality of most Japanese.
Young Japanese workers cannot afford to travel far away from home for prolonged periods, and older, retired Japanese, who are able, are often more interested in creature comforts and social status, than their younger, poorer counterparts. Also, prestige in Japanese society has more to do with one's social rank, than particular life's experiences. After all, it is the nail that is sticking up that gets pounded down, and few Japanese wish to deviate very far from the norm. Thus, with money and time in hand, the typical Japanese traveler visits famous places with large, name-brand, international hotels on carefully arranged tours that promise a high level of security, comfort, and name recognition.
Recent trends show a shift toward greater independence and more adventure. Nevertheless, even as new places become known and the need for group tours diminishes, still the places that Japanese can visit are largely limited to those where registering in a hotel, ordering from a menu, renting a car, purchasing a bus or train ticket, commanding a bell-boy, and following the calls of a dealer at a resort casino can be achieved in English. In short, the entire scope of independent language activity is largely limited to the world's international hotel chains and carefully selected spots in the anglophonic world, such as Hawaii or Guam, where many Japanese can feel comfortable in the company of other Japanese with a relatively limited set of English language skills. In short, one travels alone, but to places where there are other Japanese!
Concluding remarks
Having briefly examined each of the possible benefits obtainable from the acquisition of a foreign language in Japan's educational system, we observe that Japan achieves qualified, but good success in the areas of technology imports and tourist exports, but is poorly equipped to derive net positive benefit in all other categories -- most important among these internationalization.
Nevertheless, the system persists. Why?
32 Katakana (カタカナ) is one of three popular ways to express the Japanese syllabary. The other two are hiragana (ひらがな) and roma-ji (ローマ字). Roma-ji is the Japanese word for Latin script -- the basis for the English writing system with which it is often confused. (text)
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