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Vietnam is 60th but it speaks French as its second language
Hi Ed,
What I'm about to say please don't take us disparaging. Based on what I've seen and heard especially about Japanese television they take English as a joke and yet the government says you must learn English but it's not taken seriously. I think this goes along with the rest of what I've seen about Japanese culture they talk about it they talk about it they talk about it but nothing gets done in my opinion very disappointing
I've never met a Japanese person in Japan who even tries to speak English. Not even high school/college students who presumably have just had years of English classes and would want to practice it.
Proviso, I haven't lived there long-term, just a lot of visits and spending time with in-laws.
Anyone else think that England should have made the top of the list?
And then of course there are the foreigners who think they're the best at English but definitely aren't, i.e., Scandinavians.
They tend to make tons of tiny errors that rapidly build up over time, or they try to use Nordic-language idiomatic expressions and metaphors that don't make any sense in English. This is especially noticeable in older Rock n' Roll and "Country" songs where Scandinavians think they're singing English like American blue-collar workers or cowboys.
Someone might say, that the Japanese government isnt the Japan people. Even though the government wants the Japanese people to speak, I doubt that most Japanese want or need English
You are making a good point. In my 5 years in Japan, one of my most memorable take away would be that 'IMAGE' is more important than anything else in a Japanese life. Utter a couple of English words and You will be remembered as a linguistic genius. Creativity, logical and independent thinking is frowned upon and usually unwanted in the workplace. Just follow the rules and all is fine, no matter how stupid the 'rule' or the person is. That's why Japan is stagnant and regressive in so many ways. Some people in Japan have recognised this inflexible attitude but again it just gives an image of recognition but no action will follow. As always! Some cultures mistake words as action.
Television is universally a pile of dreck.
Wow, the Netherlands is up at #1. I was born in Canada, and only speak english, but my dad's side of the family is from there. I mentioned to one of my Dutch relatives that I should learn a little Dutch before visiting, and I was told to forget that idea! They speak english just fine. And once I got there, even if one person in an outing does not speak dutch, they all default to English 😮.
Does it dilute their culture? Hell no. It most likely enhances their soft power in Europe and around the world.
If Japan broke through the barrier of English being a joke, to English being a tool for flexing its influence… 🤷🏼♂️
Child like behavior. Unknowing of the world beyond themselves.
i think that if all Japanese were to learn English, it might change the whole nature of the Japanese way intrinsically. Much better to have differences, also their own culture goes back way further than UK, and after all how many people speak Japanese in other countries?
They sure love using the word "Global" a lot when they try to promote or show that they are progressing.
And yet. Should the Japanese people want to learn to speak English they would be very efficient at it.
English is taught in Japan purely to pass the high school and university entrance exams and focus on reading and writing. They need to include the listening component at least to improve their conversation skill.
After being forged into a solid block of unity. The Japanese citizens kept part of the Samurai Creed. But also followed (to the letter) the wishes of the EMPEROR! It was with the EMPEROR'S will that everyone survived.
Please sir tell me more about what is humorous to you about the people. That has been forged in the fiery hell of the heat of NUCLEAR war. Until your steel has been tempered in the fires of hell. And then honed beyond the razor's edge by invasion. Perhaps I missed something. Sir, I await your answer. Thank you.
If their government thought it was important, they'd make it mandatory in school. When I was in high school, we had to take a foreign language. Most kids took spanish because it was easier. Many of the girls took french for obvious reasons. I took german because I thought it was cool. I even know a few words in Japanese because of an old TV mini series called Shogun.
Just back from Japan (10 very short days) and yes, I was the entertainment for many a school kid as they practiced their English on me. Lots of "hello", "where are you from", "what's your name", that sort of thing. I took it in the spirit in which it was intended, knowing that I was the foreigner.
As European who recently (over a year by now) started following some Japanese people on twitter regarding my hobbies, I agree that it seems that English is viewed as entertainment, or modern "print", even in their tweets. Since twitter has been showing me japanese tweets even by people I don't follow, I've seen so many Hello/Good morning/Happy birthday in a "funny" fonts (eg. 𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕪 𝕓𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕙𝕕𝕒𝕪; there was so many tweets with misspelled version 𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕪 𝕓𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕕𝕒𝕪) then rest of tweet is in japanese.
I did try to communicate with some Japanese people I followed and they followed me back, I had mixed results, my tweets were in english, and most people would reply back in japanese, which is fine because twitter has translate option and I never expected them to reply in english, then I had some people reply to me in english and japanese, and occasional replies just in english.
I was also surprised of media consumption of Japanese people, especially in this day and age of Internet, from tweets I saw most people listen to Japanese music and watch Japanese tv shows/movies with occasional Korean kpop and kdramas.
I feel it's so much more different here in Europe, we are exposed to English speaking content much more, without dubbing, and UK/US TOP40 is on most FM radios.
Tho I guess I can understand their position, an island with no neighboring countries and no need to learn other languages. But as I said in this day and age of Internet, and possibility to communicate with other people outside your country so easily, it seems so weird that english isn't getting more popular in Japan.
To be fair, in countries where English is the main language they aren't much better at speaking alternate languages. It never ceases to amaze me how in the UK you spend at least five years learning another language (usually French but there are plenty of others) and by the end of it most students are nowhere near fluent. However, I realise that alternate languages have less value in the wider world if you speak English as a first language.
Are you talking about 月曜から夜ふかし ? 😂
They did a bit which sounds similar to what you're describing. It was kind of funny but a bit sad at the same time.