Regarding the idea of 仕様がない, that concept is one of my biggest pet peeves. Of course in Korea you hear a lot of complaints about the state of affairs in many areas of life (particularly international relations), but it’s a lot better than the apathetic attitude of 仕様がない. I’m waiting for the next generation of Japanese to finally rise up and expand on their position in the international community, and diversify their skillsets as human beings. I suppose we could start by doing away with individual university entrance exams and “school for tests” instead of “school for life”.

Thanks for the comment, Tyson! Hope to see you around on future posts as well!

Good article. I have to agree with you when it comes to forcing
Japanese youth to learn English – at least for those who want to
enter University. It seems like a lot of the students are frustrated
by this lack of choice, but approach as something that is “しょうがない.”

Random question: Do you think Japanese feel they MUST speak to foreigners
in English? I am already fluent in Japanese – although with MUCH room for improvement – but when I meet new people, they always seem to have a need to speak English, despite their lack of ability and it breaking down our communication. I guess it is an unexpected outcome of being forced to learn English for six years, and then not using it: By speaking in English, despite being unnecessary, it consoles a Japanese person by making them feel their time was not wasted studying English.

I hope that makes sense, and I would love to here your comment on it.

Again, nice blog.

Naturally, English will remain at the top. Most people perceive the greatest utility in English, although for the most part they don’t ever get to use English on the job. But, at least people who have goals that will take them places where it’d be more convenient to learn a language other than English will have the option to study towards them as an alternative.

This is not limited to the student I used as an example. Another friend of mine (who I actually met in a Korean program that we were both enrolled in) majored in Chinese so she could work for a company based on international commerce with China. Of course she studied English to get into her uni, but after that she focused entirely on Chinese and even went over to the country to study as an exchange student for a year. If she had studied Chinese in the first place, she would have been able to expand her skill set further beyond commerce and language. (Like in international policies, etc.)

You are right about getting English speakers to learn a second language – For the most part they see no merit in it, because of the widespread use of English internationally, and then they get their feathers ruffled when they travel abroad and encounter language barriers that they feel shouldn’t be there for them. And this isn’t even limited to tourists! Have you heard some of the demands of English teachers in Japan? They absolutely refuse to learn Japanese.

English evolved to the most spoken language in a long historical process. That can’t be changed by ruling. Otherwise we would all be speaking Esperanto or something similar.

And the biggest obstacle would probably be the countries with native English. Would be hard to get them to actually learn Spanish. lol

If Spanish formatted it’s verb conjugation system, that might be a better choice, with a far lower level of redundancy than English.

Also English has the highest number of speakers (native+non-native) worldwide. It makes sense to find one common ground for everyone in a time of globalization.

Math and Science are universal, but English is not. English is mandatory in schools because it’s mandatory for entrance into universities. Change the entrance requirements to something more flexible like “three years of a foreign language”, then we’re getting somewhere. I’m sure the majority would still study English, though. But it’s still nice to have options.