It s A Shame Japan Gave Up On Learning English

[@forgeryyy]

Abroad in Japan is the best place to learn english! You learn such important phrases like "Like a magic!" or "British shit man" from Professor Natsuki

[@22515362]

Don’t forget the most popular “ASO” song on ITunes

[@ProtoMarcus]

Justice Delicious!

[@forgeryyy]

@@ProtoMarcus Always fucking place

[@sayantanmazumdar3]

@@forgeryyy Abandoned love hotel = Scary fuck point.

[@pate7179]

I had to stop myself from using natsuki-isms in real life

[@rankoprose]

What is sad is that Japan has spent more money on learning English only for their proficiency to go lower. And Ludwig is wrong, it isn't being replaced by Mandarin, Japan just does a really horrible job in teaching another language. And there are those who regret it. Flare from Hololive has been open about regretting not paying attention in English class, for example, as many students do not see a reason to learn. After the Japanese economic miracle ended, Japanese students just do not see the value in ever leaving or learning about the outside world. They are becoming self isolated.

[@ZnakerFIN]

It's not just a problem in Japan. I live in Finland and we generally have good education but a lot of it also comes down to how much the student wants to learn the topic. I'd say one good example of wanting to learn is Raora, from Hololive, who learned her English skills in the past 4 years on her own.

[@rankoprose]

@@ZnakerFIN Subaru is very impressive with how good she has gotten. Yet, all of ID are still better than JP in English skills, which is just a reflection of their nations as a whole.

[@ankokuryuumugen]

I think japanese have to live abroad for a while to even pick up conversational english. Ririka, Lui, Subaru, chama for example.

[@khunshub1846]

​@@rankoprose I mean its the same as america, most americans dont know any other language and dont know anything about the outside world with a large amount never even leaving their state.

[@guava88]

i mean American clases are also bad at learning language the only language you could really learn in America is Spanish cause that the only one you can actually use

[@banaynayy]

Ain't no way we just got Pete lore drop??? Teaching Attarashi Gakko member english

[@400cabal]

He did mention teaching some prominent individuals during his podcast ep but I don't think he revealed any names in particular at the time.

[@Mundatorem]

I might be misremembering, but I actually think it was plural! I think he taught two of them, or one from another group.

[@evertime123]

Hes mentioned it before but didnt specify which member

[@WOWserz4deWIN]

the biggest reason is incentive, in other european(or scandinavian) countries the internet and media we consume is mostly in english which we adapt to, while in japan pretty much everything is japanese or japanese dubbed so they don’t have any incentive to force themselves to learn english like what i had to do for video games, teaching a japanese english is like teaching an american italian, they’d have to really be passionate to even look for italian material online

[@cantinadudes]

Well in germany everything is dubbed as well but learning english is still as important as learning math and german in school, so if you dont speak it you're kinda on the same level as someone who can't write or read properly

[@Lekirius]

Not just media and entertainment. The best way describe is that they're self-sufficient in their systems. All of their institutions are home-grown (despite learning from the Europeans in the 1800's). All electronics are native, computer systems, internet. There's not really a reason why they'd need to learn English.

[@TheSpeep]

You even see this difference play out inside Europe. In the Netherlands, apparently more than 90% of people can speak English to at least some degree, which is much higher than in Germany or France for example. Why? Well a lot of media that gets translated into German or French does not get a Dutch translation, so for Dutch speakers its learn English or get really quick at reading subs. I'm Flemish myself, I speak Dutch, I grew up playing Pokemon, those games get translated into English, French and German, but not Dutch. I spoke English before I'd ever taken my first English class. My French and German are a lot rougher though.

[@pumpkingamebox]

Then you see a Japanese wearing an off brand Nike shirt that says “NUKE iraq Just do it!”

[@blinkx1070]

As a Canadian, I can't really blame them. We learn French up to grade 6 and most people half-ass it and forget it by the time they graduate. Outside of places like Quebec it's fairly rare to know any French speakers and have a reason to keep learning or take it seriously.

[@cbrewitt]

I studied French for 11 years in school. All textbooks; no storybooks, no newspapers, no magazines, no radio, no TV, no movies. Couldn’t use French to save my life. Then we had a school trip to France and came back after two weeks chattering away in the language. We /had/ to use it and everything in the back of our brains finally came forward. Three weeks later we’d forgotten it all.

[@MrHammerofdoom]

I'd rather learn latin than frog french.

[@TauEnjoyer]

@@MrHammerofdoommanges dla marde esti d'tout croche

[@Mrcatwaffles]

Sounds like how Spanish classes go in the US.

[@TheTexasDice]

Communicating with the French is a net-negative on your life. At least Spanish speaking countries are FUN to hang around.

[@ariffy8300]

I'm 20 years old and Japanese, but I've recently started wanting to speak English, so I've been studying hard. It may be late, but I want to become fluent someday.

[@gtrhbrhtyjny2158]

Its never late brother, good luck

[@ariffy8300]

@ Thanks!! I'll do my best :3

[@Noelle668]

You can do it! Believe ☺️

[@ariffy8300]

@ Thaaanks!

[@isaacsalzman]

がんばて！ You can do it!

[@SAYTON2]

2:23 Pete just drop that like nothing

[@westside619]

Just like that! Huh!

[@bgill7475]

I wonder who it was…maybe Suzuka?

[@Flashchocobo]

Kanon has the best English so it was probably Mizyu

[@Clips_desu]

didn't know Pete taught one of the Atarashi Gakko member english 😯

[@breadboi420]

i wish he woudlve said who

[@Bloodworia]

Otona Blue makes much more sense now

[@Seeker-pu1lm]

@@Bloodworia how? I'm lost

[@Bloodworia]

@@Seeker-pu1lm Don't worry. If you don't get the joke, that is fine. Explaining jokes invalides them.

[@breadboi420]

@@Bloodworia wtf dude

[@Kitsunary]

I think most major countries are finding out that teaching to a test sets them up for failure in the long term. If they don't use what they learn, they don't really learn anything and end up just memorizing everything long enough to throw it out the moment it's no longer needed. The reason a lot of the classes I took growing up taught the same stuff repeatedly was because everyone forgot it the moment they stopped using it, but they still had to teach to tests, so they just taught it again in hopes that it would stick. Even as someone who took the higher level classes available to me growing up, I probably could have learned a lot quicker and more things besides if instead of teaching the same lesson repeatedly they had reinforced by way of having things taught in a way that could be applied. Higher level math applies lower level math and makes it more understandable while memorizing the same Spanish vocab three years straight doesn't teach how to speak Spanish, only to vaguely understand basic phrases when hearing it.

[@danielnichols6024]

I don't disagree strongly but I do feel language has differences to other subjects like math. At the end of the day it's around 20,000 words to be fluent in a language. Brute force memorization isn't effective so students lose most of their words during summer break but your 8000th word probably doesn't reinforce your 2000th word. Some things build like root words in English (ex geological, geode, etc) but there's a lot of words like computer, car, or onion that are you know or you don't know words. Grammar, pronunciation, and cultural understanding build on themselves and reinforce other parts. Vocab you have to use a good memorization strategy and be committed to at least 100 words a week if not more if you want to learn a language in any reasonable time.

[@slinkywhippet]

I guarantee Pete was an excellent teacher whom the kids loved to bits! I'd love it if he chose to do some sort of lessons on his channel!

[@cbrewitt]

Immersion doesn’t work anymore. I teach English in Canada and have students who remain immersed in their native languages thanks to the internet and smart phones. It’s down to individual motivation even overseas. Social time? Chat and video calls with friends back home. Entertainment? KZbin and streaming in their native language. News? Internet. Local news? No. Reading signs? Google translate. Some of my students don’t even use English to buy lunch. The go to McDonald’s, press the pictures on the touch screen, hold their card to the machine to pay, and collect a bag from the counter. All without saying or reading a word. When I was travelling years ago, getting food was one of the major motivators for learning some of the local language. As was getting directions. Unnecessary with smartphone nav apps. Some of my students have travelled thousands of miles specifically to study English in an immersive environment and only use English in the classroom. An immersive environment gives you an opportunity, but no longer forces you to learn.

[@ktowniecity7269]

this! learned french only because i watched french tv, listened to french radio, read french newspapers n the 1980s,1990s also played french board and card games. the internet changed all that

[@leonmat26]

When I was learning English (I moved to the US at 13) getting food was THE big motivator for learning the language. Most of my friends did not speak it and to get anything at the local convenience stores you had to know to navigate whatever curve balls they would throw you. Especially cuz we were in between the Italian and Chinese neighborhoods in SF. So many new food choices that missing out just because we did not speak English would've been a shame.

[@2712animefreak]

@@leonmat26 I've worked as a cashier for a while and the thing that tripped most foreigners up is "Do you have a point card/app?"

[@blakceyedpeas]

I think it works even better now. Now you can immerse into a language without travelling to its country. At least that's what happened to me with English lol; It's just that immersion is different now

[@s70driver2005]

Right! I used to travel solo in Mexico after class and had to speak Spanish to people just to get around and order food and drinks. Pretty much every single person I ran into would understand I was trying and make it easier on me. Good times!

[@SonicRyan1992]

off topic: i love it when Chris looks 90s youth lol

[@Pandanubex]

he has sucha a cool father energy

[@yukiminsan]

If everyone switched from watching English media dubbed in Japanese to original English audio with Japanese subtitles I guarantee proficiency will increase more in ten years than the previous 100 years.

[@7QWERTY13]

Japanese already argue over whether King of the Hill is better subbed or dubbed, what more do you want from them? /s

[@MrColdKnight]

@@7QWERTY13from what I’ve heard that was a myth

[@sdsddai]

In Japan, most Hollywood movies have English audio. Since most English sounds don't exist in Japanese, just watching movies won't never allow Japanese people to understand English. For Japanese people, English is one of the most difficult languages in the world.

[@7HFEstorque]

​@@7QWERTY13bruh no fking way lol

[@drnorse3243]

It doesn’t matter whether the media is dubbed or subbed, as long as Japanese is still there nothing will be learned. People will always take the path of least resistance when it comes to consuming media, meaning they’ll only pay attention to what they know and will block out what they don’t. If they were to watch content in English with zero dubbing or subbing, only raw English like the how the rest of the world acquires the language, then they might learn.

[@goukenslay7555]

Pete said it before sbout teaching one of the atarashi gakko members. There's probably more famous students he taught

[@infinitesession5439]

I was wondering why they spoke English pretty well. He did a good job.

[@captcha42]

Ok look, as a French lad that was taught english mainly thanks to KZbin, I can confidently say that Chris' channel is indeed very good practice to learn english thanks the wide array of topics and well written scripts. The others are good as well, don't get me wrong, video-games as a whole are great to learn english thanks to the fact that video-games can be about anything and everything thus using a lot of vocabulary. BUT because Chris puts so much effort into the script of his videos and use good grammar and vocabulary and doesn't speak in memes with intentionnal bad grammar it is a whole lot better for beginners, not to mention that he also articulates correctly. Out of these four I wouldn't be ashamed to show an Abroad in Japan in front of a class or to a student. The others are stricly for people into video-games.

[@InugamiTheHound]

man I wish I could learn japanese because seeing Pete, his story and the way he speaks japanese so well is inspirational

[@mousefire777]

Do it, Japanese is fun.

[@borkatapz6686]

Pete and Bulgaria lore?! 👀🔥

[@sdsddai]

One thing to say is that the difficulty for Japanese people to learn English is the same as for Americans or British people to learn Japanese. Japan's English education is bad, but it’s not as bad as people think. We must not forget that, for Japanese people, English has a hellish level of difficulty.

[@TheFunfighter]

How hard can it really be though? They are saved from learning 2 46 syllable alphabets and a massive system of thousands of characters, which makes the thing a million times easier. Sure, there is some degree of unfamiliarity, but people all over the world learn English just fine, even if their mothertongue has no relation to it at all. The problem is, that the average Japanese just does the equivalent of rolling over and waiting for death when you engage them in a conversation using English. The amount of times I had to order stuff by pointing at it, because the person I was talking to was just utterly lost, was unreal. I suppose a large part is also, that Japan is culturally very isolated. The cultural sphere demands no interaction with other languages, and so they get disregarded. TLDR: No I don't think there is a symmetry in learning difficulty. Japanese is an objectively harder language when including the writing system (and you kinda need to be able to read to learn).

[@sdsddai]

@@TheFunfighter You have a big misunderstanding: there is no such thing as an easy or difficult language. How hard a language is to learn depends on how different it is from your native language. For example, Korean speakers find Japanese one of the easiest languages in the world. This is because the grammar and honorific systems are similar. They just need to memorize new words to switch between the languages easily. (But still, it's further apart than English and Spanish.) Our brain automatically filters out sounds that don’t exist in our native language. In Japanese, there are no sounds like "th," "r," "l," "v," "f," and only five vowels. Because of this, most English words sound unfamiliar to Japanese speakers, making it very hard to learn. For example, "law," "low," "raw," and "row" all sound the same, like "rō." It's wrong to think, "You can get used to it, right?" Some people have lived in English-speaking countries for 50 years and still can’t tell the difference between "l" and "r." Our brains process sounds from our native language very strongly. For grammar, Chinese is close to English. It has an SVO word order and meaning depends on word order, which helps a lot with learning. Japanese is an agglutinative language, so people who speak similar languages like Turkish or Mongolian often find Japanese much easier than English. In fact, Japanese people often notice that Turkish, Mongolian, and Korean speakers learn Japanese very quickly, while English speakers struggle even after a long time. I understand that learning too much before starting can create a mental block, but once you begin, Japanese is actually simpler and more logical than English. There are very few grammar exceptions, the pronunciation is easy, and word order is flexible. If you memorize words, it's like solving a puzzle. Kanji also works like a puzzle. The more you learn, the easier it becomes because the pieces (radicals) start to repeat, making it simpler to remember.

[@Wazzen563]

​​​@@TheFunfighter​ You clearly have no idea what you're taking about. "How hard can it be?" is the universal calling card of ignorance. For starters, take a look at how horrifically inconsistent the rules of English actually are in practice, and how many variations there are of basic things. For all intents & purposes, the entire language needs to be learned on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, English contains multiple sounds that don't even exist in Japanese. For Japanese people, wrapping their heads around the sounds & learning to pronounce them are very challenging. When it comes to English speakers learning Japanese, yes, Kanji is an absolute dumpster fire of a writing system and a veritable fucking nightmare to learn, but every other aspect of the language is reasonable.

[@TheFunfighter]

@@Wazzen563 Looked it up, because I wanted numbers. Preface: The comparability is abhorrent. Yay global standardisation. non-Kanji-proficient (not Korean/Chinese) learning Japanese: 3000-4800 hours for N1 proficiency [Japan Language Education Center] Japanese learning English: 2500-5000 hours, with most sources claiming much closer to the low end. Some even say 2200 hours. For comparison, learning English as a speaker of a somewhat related language, it takes less than half. That said, one of my points was an asymmetry in exposure. Especially since English is taught in Japanese schools, and it permeated more into the Japanese sphere than vice versa. While the difficulty seems to be higher than I anticipated, I would still argue that it's reasonable that a random cashier should be able to understand me when I say "One Famichiki please" in my best Oxford English, instead of me having to point at it with my finger. I already went through the trouble of using their in-house product description, so come on. This is almost straight out of a textbook, which I hear they have a lot of experience with. Reminder that this is not a general issue applying to all Japanese, or that I particularly assign fault to the people themselves, but I encountered the extreme cases surprisingly commonly. (anecdotal evidence, I know)

[@Mrcatwaffles]

@@TheFunfighter In my experience, as soon as a Japanese person hears English, they panic and all knowledge goes out the window. I can kind of understand because my first time in Japanese i had only 2 semesters worth of Japanese and thought "I can handle the basics at least." But real spoken language is quite different than that in the classroom. The speed, intonation, pronunciation and so on can be quite difficult to hear clearly, combined with the fact that you're suddenly being spoken to by a REAL native speaker...i've definitely had my moments where I struggled over the cashier asking me if I'd like a bag.

[@paulovictor_]

Abroad in Japan really improved my vocabulary and pronouciation

[@znyo0217]

Ngl, I am very fortunate to learn EN from 1st grade.

[@Lysander45]

I'll criticise English teaching in Japan as much as the next guy, but where Chris is concerned it has been over half a decade since he was with the JET Programme, the most coddled and insulated of all the English teaching jobs in Japan that a foreigner can get. I doubt he has bothered to research any changes that are being made by the Ministry of Education to how English teaching is changing. His criticism about no conversation practice was outdated two years ago when conversation practice became a core part of new textbooks in junior high schools, but Chris won't know that because his frame of reference is an underfunded rural school from 2014 to 2016. He's right that the standard of English study in Japan sucks, but nonetheless, his specific criticisms are all outdated.

[@hwari3725]

Uh huh whatever you say, bootlicker but the crux of the problem remains japanese people still can't speak proper English even no matter how many times they were to change the English teaching program

[@Mikketamakulo]

If what you say is true, Japanese people should be getting better at English, not worse. They are getting worse with time, so how do you explain that? It cannot be resources, as plenty of third-world countries have much higher proficiency in English. It must be something fundamental in their English education that inhibits language acquisition.

[@miutokunaga2824]

Yeah I agree that, I'm Japanese and I had English conversation class in high school, it was separated subject from English grammar, and English. But still it didn't help students to get fluent in English. Since university exam has no speaking tests, conversation class isn't treated seriously.

[@BeansEnjoyer911]

Even if things are changing now, his take is still valid, and probably is valid in a lot of the country. It takes time for these changes to make any noticeable effect

[@kirktown2046]

They're not at all outdated because his criticisms reflect the ~current~ state of American English in Japan, not the future state that these recent changes have yet to even make... It's going to be about a decade until we start seeing any impact form those reforms and, frankly, I don't think things will significantly change.

[@vansiar9573]

Pete taught an ATARASHI GAKKO MEMBER????!?!?! What has this man not done 😭

[@ragsdale710]

The big sheep up the hill cracked me up

[@Murto84]

Problem is a lot of factors, mostly economic unfortunately. With bad economy means people have less money to throw around at eikaiwa and juku. A lot of the companies that send foreigners to help at public schools keep cutting wages, increasing the workload and cutting corners. Also technology changing to the point where you can just talk in your phone and it translates it 99% accurately right there.

[@victorangeles655]

lud's thinking about his league of legends grind mr. air coots

[@cathykinn4516]

Most 'teachers' dont go to Japan to Teach English. As Sora the Troll asks - "Did Any of them want to teach English in their Own Countries?" No. So why in Japan. Most of them admit it was just the foot in the door to gaining residency in Japan. And the Japanese would not bother with English at all if the Americans did not speak it.

[@Qnio]

"Time to learn Chinese", huh? I remember reading a text about Mandarin possibly replacing English as the business language back when I was in highschool. In an English textbook no less. That was over a decade ago.

[@sleefy2343]

As a Chinese I don’t see it happening We never want foreigners to learn mandarin anyway unless your another Asian who’s interested than ye

[@sleefy2343]

Or interested in our culture other than that we don’t really force anyone to learn mandarin

[@cgigammez5749]

it will never happen, i am glad tho, its too complicated

[@cantinadudes]

​@@cgigammez5749not so sure about that... english is probably gonna stay as the main business language at least for a while but chinese dominance over everything seems to be something thats coming very soon

[@YasaiTsume]

Learning mandarin does help you pick up korean and japanese faster because they only have 1 set of characters to learn basics of then when you start on korean and japanese, their other character sets are easier to absorb. If you're keen on just Learning languages to read manhwa, manga and korean manhwa, I recommend starting from mandarin.

[@Big_Blue_Monkey]

It's nice to see the parents taking the kids (Connor & Chris) out for the day

[@infinitesession5439]

I can attest to Pete's teaching atarashii gakko English. They speak it pretty well.

[@StevenSmith-oi8ew]

It would be better for English to be an elective course in middle school rather than enforced. It's better to have a handful of fluent speakers than 100 that can only say a few words. Adult/ Professional learning centers should also be emphasized and funded.

[@stevelucky7579]

Or just focus on important phases / words. American English is usually fine as long as you know enough of the sequence and a few conjunctions.

[@leonmat26]

Basically eliminate the "No child left behind" mentality. It is holding some children back.

[@badgermanization]

Really random one, but I love Connor's Mario Kart jacket! Anyone know where I can get that from?

[@Lord_Hubner]

I came here due to the topic resonating with what i know about japanese people's english, but ended up realizing i may not know english myself.

[@Mwoods2272]

The reason is most teachers aren't teachers, they never majored in college to become teachers. In Japan, you can become an English teacher with any bachelors' degree, all you have to do is speak English as your native language.

[@jefftraboulsy8631]

PETE TAUGHT ONE OF THE ATARASHII GAKKO MEMBERS? WHICH ONE?

[@HansWurst1569]

Actually a lot of English words are french (norman / frankish) words originaly. Or latin. Example: beef = boeuf.

[@spandandasgupta5773]

Most of the vocabulary of English is french (I remember seeing some where that 30% of English words are french origin) however, the most commonly spoken words in English are, in fact, native English (mostly germanic + Celtic)

[@HansWurst1569]

@@spandandasgupta5773 oh yeah I know, thats why I said a lot and not all. Could you please reply to another dude on this video who believes that that isnt true? He has a top comment and things its impossible that english has any celtic words in it hahaha

[@ColorCodeWhite]

I feel like South Korea has the opposite problem where literally EVERY korean children learn english since its mandatory up until high school, then completely lose all of their skills right afterwards, due to lack of use or interest. And those who do retain knowledge are just proficient in grammar and vocabulary, but not at all when it comes to conversations where it actually matters, since they just study english.... But in korean. 😅

[@alvinip9128]

They joked about learning a language by watching anime/abroad in japan but it's the best method imo. Aside from the basic sentence structure, spelling and such literally all my english is learnt from reading and watching stuff.

[@ilovelimpfries]

Japan made a push English because of the Olympics. Now that's gone, there's little incentive to do so.

[@siuchaos2606]

That's how it is for most languages unless you have a parent who speaks a second language, the motivation is hard if there's no actual incentive for you to learn it. Living in Japan for example, I would see no incentive to learn English, everyone speaks Japanese, google translate exists, and western media is so well-spread that you can just watch it dubbed in Japanese, or subbed anyways. What teaches you a language these days is actively wanting to learn, and having the motivation to learn it, because if you don't use it you lose it. You can spend years learning English, but if you don't actually speak it to anyone (which japan doesn't have much opportunities for) there are not many opportunities.

[@amiralirashedi8614]

Huh, up to this point I just thought Chris and PremierTwo were the same person.

[@ncgallagher]

they ban anyone sticking out either with their hair being dyed or cut in a different way or with their clothing. hence uniforms. it's not about anything other than uniformity so students focus on studies more than cliques.

[@ES-qm5hr]

There is a simple reason why Asian countries have issues with improving English proficiency, and that is because they try to apply techniques used in the public school system for other subjects. I have been teaching English in Asia for a long time, and while I am very effective at it, I realize that because I take a more western approach to it that I am often perplexing to both students, and local teachers who cannot understand how you can learn using techniques not familiar to them. Generally, it is a struggle to get locals to buy into the idea that taking more long-term naturalistic approaches to language is going to pay off in the future. I assume that Japan fell off with English proficiency because they were not willing to take a longer term and creative approach. Basically, they think you can teach language in the same way you can cram for a mathematics exam.

[@LunaR34]

The problem is simple. It's katakana writing! Like how you learn other language if you pronounce it with your pronunciation? Just like english speaker pronounce ありがとう with english alphabet eraigeto 草

[@geocentricsense5287]

It’s a good thing; the world doesn’t revolve around you.

[@Hoppitot]

Locking eyes with the boys isnt a wakuwaku its a dokidoki

[@misterRDF]

Its more than a shame, its a large part of Japan's economic downfall.

[@soulz7209]

Love it

[@michaelatlas2341]

It's more of a shame that Connor can't respect the cultural norms of Japan.

[@おす-qz7kp]

So u tell me emglish mother tongue teachers cannot teach their own language😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@chinesemassproduction]

Ludwig is wrong. But what he is saying should give people pause. Even his lie has some truth to it.

[@Bloodworia]

Otona Blue makes much more sense now

[@xecoq]

3 personalities and ludwig, idk why they keep streaming with this guy

[@Hourvary]

holyyy f

[@Zombies8MDingo]

I used to like these guys and the "abroad universe", but the more I watch, the more I realise I'd hate spending any time with them.

[@TheKrostiman]

Fun fact there are almost no British words in modern English, because the Ancient Britons got wiped the fuck out on that Island.

[@magus727]

Some survived... As the Welsh

[@HansWurst1569]

Bro there is plenty still there?? I guess you dont know history as well as tou think you do.

[@RF1702]

​@@HansWurst1569I think he's talking about the Brittonic peoples who spoke various Celtic languages rather than the Angalo Saxons which followed that spoke Germanic languages. The base of English is Germanic and the most common words are Germanic (although interestingly we have more French origin words). But yeah, there are very few Celtic origin words in English and most that are here have come in later on as loan words from Welsh or Irish ect. (Or at least this is my understanding of all of this).

[@TheKrostiman]

@@HansWurst1569 its common knowledge that English is a Germanic language both Angles and Saxons and Jutes were germanic peoples and they took over the british isles. Overtime 'Angle-land', changed into England. Basic historical knowledge with which you are apparently unfamiliar. But sure embarrass yourself more.

[@HansWurst1569]

@@TheKrostiman english is based on germanic but has many latin and french words. Examples: castle, beef. Also you severely misunderstand how the migratory era influenced England. The brittons didnt just dissapear… germanics assimilated into the islands population.

[@Secret_Takodachi]

Japan only cares about Japan, learning other languages is only a self-interested affair there (aka business opportunities abroud and the like) Sad to see the country returning to their navel-gazing roots. But hey, you can't help someone who doesn't want help.

[@Chevalier_knight]

Maybe the english would be better if it wasnt all Canadians teaching them english

[@ktowniecity7269]

eh wut u talking aboot

[@Chevalier_knight]

@@ktowniecity7269 Canadians take English jobs to visit Japan vs teach good English plus Canadians speak pretty poor English

[@WGGplant]

I think it's pretty imperialistic to think a country should make its citizens learn a language outside of their or their neighboring countries. And especially since American cultural imperialism is already such a strain on non US countries' culture. If a person wants to learn a language more power to them. But shaming a people for not working hard enough towards something you and your mostly white culture cares about is pretty scummy.

[@stoneyyy19]

Sorry, it's not about white culture, it's about having a global lingua franca which allows people to communicate with everybody else in the world. For example India. Not exactly a white culture, but because such a large amount of Indian people are able to speak it I'm able to interact with Indian internet content. The issue with Japan is the same as the one with Hungary. The people in those countries just don't care to interact directly with people of other languages and much rather wait for translations. Look up maps regarding the average number of languages spoken per country. P.S.: Btw., would we be having this conversation right now if there wasn't a global lingua franca? P.P.S.: What I completely frogot to mention was also the huge amount studying material. Even at university some subjects are only taught in english, not my native tongue, crystallography for instance. I like to review maths examples/topics that I haven't seen/used in quite a while too. (the most material being in english today)

[@BioMatic2]

@@stoneyyy19 i second this guy. Its really convinient for people to have a common language to rely on, there are simply to many fucking languages in the world. Thats also why everyone else shames Americans about the metric system. i wouldnt personally be here, if i hadnt taken the effort to learn english. Ultimately what decides the language people will learn is cultural exportation. Im trying to learn japanese because anime, video games and vtubers pushed me towards that direction. My father who has 69 years, has only known spanish for all his life and has no practical necesity for english, started learning english because he wanted to understand some youtubers he found. Now im going to be a little extreme, to me people that have the spare time to learn something new and dont even bother learning at least one language (im including native english speakers also) are both lazy and close minded.

[@serg823]

@@BioMatic2 I'm sure you don't mean ill, but even if it may be convenient for you, if it's not for Japanese people, then there is no good reason to shame them for not speaking english other than what your ego leads you to believe. The reason why Japanese don't know english is because they don't need it, and it's correct that way. I always found it weird that anglophones seem to take it for granted that people wants to learn their language. They don't. No thanks. A lot of the time, they're just kinda forced to. And finaly, implying that other people should learn english because you made the effort to, is not making your argument sound noble, it just makes it weird

[@jonodate]

Ludwig sure seems to keep coming back to Japan a lot... just saying... 😏

[@imafraidjumitebeinagang]

Native english speakers need to humble themselves a little. Why would the japanese need to learn english? They're doing just fine without english.

[@c.k.1933]

For better trading, better business.

[@imafraidjumitebeinagang]

@@c.k.1933 But that only applies to poorer countries that have to absolutely learn English as a skill? Japan is already a world power.

[@ArdanaMI]

In the long term, Japan themselves would be humbled. Their economy is stagnant since the 90's and has been passed by S.Korea in terms of GDP per capita.

[@reon3581]

@@ArdanaMI Did South Korea's economy develop because people could speak English? I don't think it matters much.

[@ArdanaMI]

@@reon3581 although it does not correlate directly, it actually matters. In terms of trade and business, it’s easier to communicate, which means easier to expand and grow as a business.

[@maxnova9763]

Man, look at Lud when he is third wheeling in a conversation he can‘t add anything to. So awkward.

[@ZeroXSEED]

Bro was making Greater China jokes and everyone just became silent lmao. (He should be thankful vast majority of Japanese didn't understand English)

[@GamerKatz_1971]

Lud is good at pretending he knows what he is talking about. He has two teachers to one side and in a desperate attempt to insert himself he makes a joke that is about as funny as dried mud. They don't laugh, he looks down.

[@eatdaaaa9984]

Fellas its not that deep, very parasocial of you

[@Mrbluefire95]

Why would Connor know anymore than Ludwig lmao He was not a teacher like the other two living in Japan doesn’t mean much.

[@UrBoiPika]

He's just hanging out man, it's not that serious

[@rzt430]

In all honesty this is not entirely a bad thing. The language barrier has made it difficult for the trashy parts(i.e. 70%) of american "culture" to penetrate into japan

[@syzLETMEREGISTERGOD]

Japanese to English is extremely difficult. The phonetic gap is actually quite large, with English having among the highest phoneme count of any language. Studies also show that our brains' ability to emulate phonemes (as in, learning how to physically position our mouth/teeth/tongue/throat to produce specific sounds) starts to decline by the time we're like 8 or 9 years old, so if your native language has a limited phoneme count (or a very different phonetic base than the language you're trying to learn) then some people can be looking at an extremely up hill journey by the time they're an adult who wishes they knew another language. Taking some English classes or lessons in school isn't going to make up that gap for most people--even if you start in elementary school, have nothing but great teachers teaching a great curriculum, and actually pay attention. You'd probably need to have "English immersion" divisions in schools, similar to what Canada does with French, but those would be hard to justify imo.

[@taikonomiko1869]

😂It is not about how difficult English or other language is. It is their culture reject English for as communication in the system. All paper work in Japanese, how can they improve

[@mousefire777]

Lmao yeah it’s called having an accent, it’s fine. You learn the phonemes you can, you approximate the ones you can’t. I’ve heard many marvelously confident, comprehensible English speakers with horrible accents, even Japanese accents. Phonemes aren’t the main problem here

[@syzLETMEREGISTERGOD]

@@mousefire777 Not saying there's anything wrong with accents. I'm saying the level of commitment that would be required to get most people to "knows English but with an accent" (or even in that ballpark) would take, imo, more than we should be willing to ask or expect out of a sovereign, largely uncolonized nation where the majority of the population likely doesn't give a shit anyways, especially at the ages where it would matter most. Realistically I think the case with learning any language you aren't adequately exposed to as a kid is... you find some resources and throw yourself into the fire and move to a foreign country once you're an adult.

[@criisjooy7805]

4:44 duration. 4handsome gentlemen. jhin would orgasm

[@Oh_the_humanity]

mista would weep

[@Haunt888]

>handsome >3 fatsos and 1 gay man