japan needs english.

Who better to tell Japan how to handle it's future than someone who's only lived here a few years, and still doesn't have a typical highschooler's grasp of the language? That's why I'm gonna take this opportunity to share my opinion on the world stage (aka blogger).

Japan needs English. By hook or crook, Japan should find it's way to speaking English as well as other developed countries.
Setting aside the reality that even the most English-positive of my educator friends don't think English is very important to the Japanese, there might seem to be a conflict of interest. I am after all, reliant on the English learners of Japan. But I fall squarely in the self-hating camp of English educators. I share my reason for disliking eikaiwa with a lot of teachers, in thinking we aren't very effective, but with the novel addendum that I believe we're failing them on a very important matter.

Having taught students from 5 years old to retirement, in the public and private forums, I've watched and taken part in the failure at several levels. Recently I delivered a sub-par lesson to a very serious student. She's a doctoral candidate shooting for a position with a global charitable organization. It got me to thinking, am I really the best she can find in Japan, even when money isn't an object? As a serious graduate student, why doesn't she already speak near-perfect English like my German friends?

She's not the only example either. I see people day in and day out who are studying English to speak to their French and German and Chinese colleagues. Professional, sincere, hard-working folks who studied for 6 years in middle and high school, and often in college as well. After their 10 years of ineffective study, we just don't have the juice to solve the problem in 40 lessons. I don't have even an inkling of how to remedy this systemic shortfall.

I returned to this thought today (as usual) after reading an editorial at Yomiuri. I agreed with the editorial for the most part, that Japan would greatly benefit from a stronger presence in the UN, and greater involvement in the international politcal community in general. Japan, being a resource-poor country, benefits from almost all strengthening of international ties, be they via university exchange programs, tourism, or business. Yet the de facto international language elludes them.
Especially as Japan moves away from being a sattelite of planet America and becomes part of the new league of semi-super powers, it needs to be able to take English ability in it's populace for granted.

(wow. all flash, no substance in this entry)