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    Laut Umfrage sinken Japans Englischkenntnisse auf den niedrigsten Stand aller Zeiten; Japan liegt auf Platz 92, knapp vor Myanmar

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    30 Comments

    2. Zebracakes2009 on

      Not too surprising. English isn’t valued here. It’s a cool party trick, at best. And it’s a complete joke of a subject in school. The majority of workers and people don’t feel that they need it in life and they are mostly right. It might change someday as Japan continues to slip but we’ll see.

    3. No-Seaworthiness959 on

      I wish japanese people would somehow become more curious about the world outside Japan. Japanese culture is currently frustratingly focused on just itself.

    4. Udon259 on

      I think Japan needs to reevaluate the way it looks at foreign language. When I was growing up, learning a foreign language was to expose you to a new culture and new ways of thinking, and inspire people to travel and learn new things. In Japanese schools it’s treated more like “you’re learning this so you can help a clueless gaijin find the bus station.”

      Even the curriculum doesn’t focus on foreign cultures, at least when I was teaching here. Most of the exercises involved talking about Japanese culture in English, and a lot of the English vocabulary was just Japanese words written in English.

    5. Currawong on

      Funny this, I got downvoted on another sub for saying nothing has changed, and nothing will change, all because someone teaches a high school class where a couple of students try and talk to him, something that didn’t happen a few years ago. Yeah, there are kids studying EIKEN, but even those in the high kyu grades can barely converse with me.

    7. donkeymon on

      Ironically, one of the “native” english teachers at my school is from Myanmar.

    8. UnhingedJackalope on

      They don’t want to learn English, they have their own Japanglish which they use with each other. There’s no desire to speak to foreigners or leave Japan whatsoever.

      It’s unfortunately even quite common that someone with very good English will put on a fake Japanese accent and speak in broken English on purpose because they’re embarrassed to be good, or they don’t want to stand out.

    10. Action-Limp on

      I think this is Japanese way of resisting U.S occupation. If so, they’re doing a darn good job.

    12. funky2023 on

      This is what will keep Japan from being more appealing to first class country citizens. Abe when he came out with students must pass toefl to gain access to University made me chuckle…. If they didn’t give students a conditional entry on the premise they would have to pass later ( not followed up on ) the enrollment would have dropped to near zero.
      It’s not an implemented program. Even if they started a hour a day for every student it would take a decade for it to show positive effects.
      Their nationalistic pride is what’s keeping them down where they are and the future is not looking promising.
      It’s viewed as a hinderance annoying waste of time …they just can’t think outside the island mentality

    13. kiwijapan0704 on

      Japanese schools still place too much emphasis on teaching English from a grammatical standpoint. When I first learnt Japanese in high school (13) we started off with pronunciation then moved on to basic communication. Japanese schools are still based on Showa period teaching methods when Japan was able to provide for itself economically and didn’t need to look overseas for trade outside of trade that benefited Japan.

      Elementary schools are trying to teach kids English but there is still little impetus with still too few immigrants and a top heavy population demographic with older generations taking priority for kids to have a need or desire to use English.

      The government needs to allow more immigration to make up for a rapidly decreasing primary industry workforce in the future. This is the only way that young people will feel the need to communicate in anything other than Japanese (or maybe Korean for K-pop fans).

    14. vapourwave2204 on

      Makes sense. The average office coworker of mine has zero global views, opinions or any curiosity.

    15. Particular_Sun_6467 on

      Fourth biggest GDP in the world
      7th most powerful passport
      The list goes on how great Japan is. However just like any country, it is not perfect. Based on my experience, living in Japan is 100 times better than living in the US. Hopefully, things will change in the US for the better now that Donald Trump is the president again.

    16. domesticatedprimate on

      I’m OK with this actually. I’m a Japanese to English translator for Japanese clients who haven’t caught on how good AI is getting, mainly because they can’t understand the output anyway.

      So they still prefer human translators which means I still have a job.

    17. Numbersuu on

      Is there somewhere a statistic how good countries are with the first non native language? I wonder how the US ranks there

    18. sonnikkaa on

      What? Back when I lived in Japan in 2013-2014 almost nobody spoke English. This summer when I went on a vacation even the Mr Donut salesmen in Hiroshima spoke quite good English. At least the service sector has improved a lot, earlier most hotel staff couldn’t even speak English. Kind of surprising to see such results but of course this is just my own experience and I might’ve gotten lucky and mostly met people who can in fact speak English.

    19. soenkatei on

      I honestly think they should he learning Korean or Chinese in primary school. It makes so much more sense when the cultures are closer and gave similarities linguistically.

      Learning English should probably start at secondary school level.

      I’m from Ireland and the reason I speak Japanese so well now is due to my foundation in European languages before I even came here.

    20. Melodic-Plankton-896 on

      I wonder how important learning English will be once AI takes over. It’s just a tool/means of communication after all – nothing that can’t be solved through new tech and automation.

    21. JohnCenaJunior on

      They should be learning chinese, the language of the future. No hope for english as they barricade themselves from foreign relations.

    22. Shau1a on

      正直これは誇らしい結果だ。英語圏の国の植民地になった事がなく、自国語で高等教育を受けられるという証明だ。

    23. WeirdAFNewsPodcast on

      I can get a Dunkin Donuts coffee there but can’t speak to a soul, sadly.

    24. ShastaPlaster on

      Maybe instead of teaching them to pantomime, they should be taught how to actually hear and speak English phonemes and sounds that don’t exist in Japanese so that they can actually understand the things they’re listening to and are able to pronounce things.

    26. cantthinkofaname1010 on

      If the Japanese don’t want to learn English, then they don’t have to. There’s nothing wrong with that. It does close off doors to a lot to them internationally, but most don’t seem to care. It is what it is. Don’t see why a non-English speaking country not learning English is news worthy.

    27. Future_Comfort_208 on

      I’m a Korean Canadian visiting Japan, Mitsuyama.
      People are very nice and I loved everything I’ve experienced so far.

      It was still quite the experience not being able to converse AT ALL in English most of the times. Not a negative experience however.

      People in Korea, when they know a foreigner can’t speak their language, they would slow down, use body language, or mix in some English.

      None of that in Japan. Even younger folks too.

      Forced me to practice basic Japanese, though after my few attemps at speaking I can never understand their replies as they don’t normally attempt to slow down or show body language.

      But then again, this experience was mostly from store or hotel employees, so I have a feeling they’re just sticking to their customer service script.

    29. PotentialSpaceman on

      Huh…

      I would have thought it would be higher, as there seems to be an English school on every corner, and foreigners come here in droves just to teach English…

      I’ve never worked in the Eikaiwa space here, do people’s students just never actually get anywhere with the language despite coming to class?

    30. Heathen090 on

      Dude, it’s not education quality. It’s culture, they are simply not curious about what is outside their bubble, just like in the United States. In Europe I can assure you that the avg Spainard knows more about Italy or vice versa than the Japanese knows about the United States. Hell, in japan they barely get the stereotypes right.

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