Problems of English Education in Japan

[@howtofailcorrectly2474]

The fact that a lot of Japanese English teachers can't speak English that well makes me think that the entire English program in Japan is just one giant convoluted game of telephone.

[@kittycarnage]

I had a teacher who taught Japanese in America and despite only learning for 3 years, I seemingly had a better understanding than my teacher who lived in Japan for 13 years. And that doesn’t go into her other problems either. (Not knowing English well was one of them.)

[@jonathansantos6239]

Yeah, thought that as well. The governments' actions were too late. It really shows how they don't much pay attention on this.

[@chopper2478]

i think im gonna learn japanese, then move there and reform the English education there

[@Gaba_Ghoul]

@@chopper2478 Are you an anime protagonist by any chance?

[@WMDistraction]

Similar things happen in China. It's more for the appearance of having a foreign language program than actually having a foreign language program (cuz that would take time and money, y'know...). I was surprised to see that China's rated higher than Japan in its English education because, frankly, China's English proficiency overall is terrible, as well - but China may benefit from the fact that there's bank to be made in establishing international(ish) schools that hire lots of native English speakers.

[@michaeldepaor6844]

"Imagine teaching an entire country a foreign language" *stares in Irish*

[@piink_lace]

A fellow Irish omg hi 😭🇨🇮

[@elements1168]

Your neighbour was very aggressive back at that day

[@michaeldepaor6844]

@@piink_lace I love the ivory coast too 🇮🇪

[@milkandblue]

Same but in Welsh 😂

[@chikenjoehuwie3340]

@@milkandblue mae'n ddrwg gen i, nid yr wyf yn deall

[@juldor93]

"Hi how are you" "Good how are you" "My father works" "I know" "Do u have a father" "Have u heard about the high elfes" "Goodbye"

[@InsanityForce]

You studied in Bethesda ?

[@boyar1978]

what's the matter did someone steal your sweetrolls. I used to be an adventured like you then i took an arrow in the knee. I learned that this one refers to the guard getting married.

[@christianjehoshaphat7815]

oblivion language

[@arissyazwanaman3211]

Is this from oblivion reference?

[@JBROisUNDEAD]

Good evening citizen. If you have to travel, by the Nine, stay on the road. The forest just isn't safe anymore.

[@Gaba_Ghoul]

“Hello, everynyan!” “How are you?” “Fine, thank you!” “I wish I were a bird”

[@wolfgangoppenheimer2905]

Oh my gaawd

[@123GOHANZ]

This seems like a conversation between three friends where the last one just randomly points out how he/she wants to be a bird which sparks a conversation on which bird they’d want to be

[@janeplamo4076]

Hahahahaha azumanga daioh

[@rajamouryasimhareddy1478]

@@123GOHANZ it's from an anime called nichijiyo

[@123GOHANZ]

@@rajamouryasimhareddy1478 Never watched it

[@bamboozledan]

English people: Japanese is cool. Japanese people: English is cool.

[@fridz66]

The irony.

[@k3rc4]

grass always greener on the other side of the fence, u know :D

[@christiant.g.994]

Well you need Japanese to watch anime without subs, and then you need English to brag about your Japanese skills to all your inferior weebs.

[@kayakoto25]

Fuckin' sale

[@awesomewolf07]

Every foreign language is cool for native speaker

[@s.a.m1845]

I laughed so hard when there is a banner says "Fucking Sale"

[@violet-trash]

Japan: "We got them low prices and shit, fam!"

[@linyenchin6773]

Who doesn't like economic va-gee and wee wee 😂

[@vaz8254]

Timestamp?

[@kellz4563]

@@vaz8254 8:14

[@galaxynightowl3289]

xD

[@tulips7465]

"Imagine teaching a whole country a foreign language." It's not impossible. That's what the Philippines did. But for us it's more of a necessity because most of our textbooks in University and high school are in English. It's more than just a language for us. It's more like a tool to gain more knowledge. Wanna learn math, science, etc? Better learn English first. But in Japan's case, everything is already in Japanese. That's why there's not much motivation to learn it. For as long as English is not a necessity in Japan, I don't see it improving.

[@TheOutsider1115]

Also to add, considering the fact that Philippines already have a huge history with other countries especially Spain and America in terms of education.

[@fuzaru]

@@TheOutsider1115 Agree, basically the colonization of Americans, and Spaniards in the past became the foundations of the Philippines' most used language which is tagalog and english.

[@alexcarter8807]

English is a crazy mixed-up mess, but it's the world language of tech and science and commerce... it's the modern day "lingua franca" which literally means "French language" because French used to be in that role.

[@alexcarter8807]

@@TheOutsider1115 Also USA saved the Philippines in WWII and since then tons of Filipinos/Filipinas have been coming to the US to work and often as skilled workers like nurses as well as tons of less-skilled work

[@kawaiipotatoes7888]

Most people only need english to communicate with people in other countries, if they don't speak it then it's useless. I know filipinos who have perfect grammar but can't have conversation with a native. Foreign students in the philippines tend to be better at conversation with a native than your typical filipino students.

[@SuperJR1995]

- "Hello! My name is Jeff. Can we be friends?" - "That's amazing I love airplanes too" - "How old are you" - "I have a pet dog"

[@o.lyandzberg2784]

MY NAME IS JEFF

[@sovietbear1197]

Wait iz thiz ingliz

[@cutiebunnyamber3447]

わからない　ｗｗｗ

[@cockpenis4570]

@@cutiebunnyamber3447 grass grass grass

[@davidsilverfield835]

Lol

[@SaKura-il8op]

How I learned English as a non native: School: 20% Watching anime with English subtitles, listening to American music while learning the lyrics and getting into heated political discussions in social media comments in English: 80%

[@GermanLM]

Well, it works but is better to watch series that are actually recorded with english audio, as a non native that worked for me

[@SaKura-il8op]

@@GermanLM You’re right, but that was during my massive weeb phase and I didn’t really watch any native English stuff then. And I definitely would not have watched dubbed anime. Subbed is better. Also the joke kinda is I never did these things to actively better my English. I just liked doing those activities and learned English passively.

[@sediew]

This. My native is Spanish but I learned so much English by just watching YT videos and being connected with other people who speak English

[@spectra108]

@@SaKura-il8op Your English might be better than mine, even though I started learning English from kindergarten

[@sarasz.9674]

Oh, I had the same situation :D I learned English mainly thanks to games, anime and I reeeeaaaally wanted to read light novels as they have more "episodes" than anime. The best student in my class was actually a girl who loved watching English streams and gameplays + anime :D The only problem for me now is speaking - I've never had a chance to speak to anybody verbally, only by writing. My tongue twists and I can't pronounce things like I would like to and it's frustrating. In the other side - I've never studied Italian - but somehow I was forced to speak in it as almost the whole family didn't speak in my native language - so if I wanted to eat something, or do something I had to figure out how to tell it in Italian. Now I speak Italian quite fluently and fast despite understanding it less than English. So live practice is a key here.

[@aidanpettyjohn4654]

That is also how we learn Japanese in America as well

[@danshakuimo]

WaTAsHI wA BuRAIan-sAN dEsuuuu

[@supervideomaker9136]

@@danshakuimo As someone currently learning Japanese in college, I have never related to a comment so hard then this one.

[@aidanpettyjohn4654]

@elf twentyfive nah learning the language and what people will actually use is different u learn it the same way but r able to differ it from the way it is spoken in japn because of anime which is a good thing

[@danshakuimo]

@@supervideomaker9136 My college actually had a decent Japanese program and people casually chatted with each other in Japanese before class started... At my old school it was hilarious hearing valley girl Japanese though

[@chikipichi5280]

Except a lot of the textbooks are actually written by Japanese people

[@urphakeandgey6308]

Idk about you but "Fuckin' Sale" is amazing. I'd buy. They even got the apostrophe right.

[@magmamaster1801]

I would instantly walk into any store that says "fucking sale".

[@slayer-kz3wn]

Yeah

[@DianaProudmoore]

I'd buy there too~

[@rafirafchaines8316]

Same

[@ThePixel1983]

Just don't expect too many customers from the southern US 😉

[@edfallin6447]

"If your driving instructor... couldn't actually drive." Terrifying! Wonderful analogy. Although at least getting English wrong will not routinely kill you in thirty seconds or less.

[@LilSaint001100]

@@Greenforrest7342 thats unfortunate, philippine schools require us to pass to succeed school.

[@patrickfry1000]

That depends on how strict your teacher is!

[@paulwalther5237]

Yeah I think it’s essentially teaching them that English is so hard the teacher can’t even do it what chance do students have. In that sense schools are only hurting students.

[@cutiebunnyamber3447]

one thing, I didn't focused on my English teachers in highschool, i learnt nothing. i learnt proper grammar, (sometimes still not that good) punctuations, etc. in an Online game called.

[@facelesstrader1351]

@@LilSaint001100 PH situation is different since English is rooted in PH society already. Our constitution, books, even street signs are already in English so it is a necessity to learn it.

[@ClemAparia]

"English needs to be more about practicality and less about test" This apply to the whole school system, not just english/languages. The whole scholar system is flawed, and not just in Japan, it the case for nearly all countries. The countries who are good at english (or another language) are not good at it thanks to the school but thanks to their need of it throughout daily life (like untranslated series on TV, the internet, globalization...).

[@javonjames4573]

Your right about that!

[@CounterStriker013009]

ENG -> JP = O JP -> ENG = .......

[@UniqueliAnimationsSN]

Thats very true! In the Philippines, I started to learn a few english words as soon as I was in kindergarten. By gr 1 you're expected to know how to read tagalog. I remember in gr 4 or 3 where foreigners came into our school to give us free eye glasses (very thankful, my eyes was blurry since then). I was able to greet them (i was peer pressured lmao) and was able to converse with them although my english was broken. Also, tons of our academic literature are in english, especially math and other subjects that braches off science. Either you learn english or you stay a dumdum.

[@lordhermitt]

Agree. Like Philippines, we don’t take english exam seriously but we’re definitely better at speaking on a daily basis.

[@kaushiksaikadali7460]

@@UniqueliAnimationsSN comparing countries like the ones in South Asia and Philippines would not actually mean what he says, because let's all face it, you cannot make a better living without learning English here, as its the official language. They're speaking about countries like France, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, Korea, Taiwan who have less need but more want.

[@chrisrudling9795]

To sum it up; English in Japan is taught as a subject, NOT a language.

[@xRakanishu]

That's the same as "Spanish" classes in the US

[@SMCwasTaken]

​@@xRakanishuas a Native Spanish speaker who is forced to take Spanish in high school The way they teach it to you is really bad

[@anotherabeer4341]

I went to a Japanese dentist last year in Tokyo. He was extremely fluent in English so I first thought he had been raised in America. I was surprised when he told me he was raised and has lived in Tokyo all his life but had gone to a private International school instead of the typical Japanese public schools. His office is adjacent to Tokyo Tower and I noticed the other dental patients were English fluent foreigners.

[@TonymanCS]

It's all about how often you gotta use the language in daily conversation. For example I am able to speak English much better while talking with native speakers or talking along TV news commentaries than when I have to speak all by myself since I have tendency to imitate others' pronunciation.

[@usefulchickens]

There's this guy who owns a pizza stand in my city, he lived in New York for a super short time but his English is absolutely incredible! I try to help my classmates with their English as much as I can by talking to them in English, I'm kind of like their tutor lol but I like what the guy said, English is a language where you are constantly expressing your opinions and emotions. By following a cookie-cutter textbook it's not going to get your very far..

[@LDLK]

normally they have native english teachers in private international schools

[@KeirThomas]

What's the name of the place? I'm looking for an English speaking dentist!

[@1000PlacesNYC]

@@KeirThomas I go to Hitomi she has two dentist offices in Tokyo and takes Japanese health insurance and speaks English :)

[@MykahCroom]

I think it's also the lack of culture studies in Japanese schools. I'm an English teacher here in Japan and I asked my students if they ever learned about any culture related topics. They all said no. I think that if they can't learn about the languages culture then it's hard to be interested in the language. When I was learning Japanese I learned about Japanese culture such as what Japanese people eat, all the different holidays ,and the manners that you should have when you are in Japan.. I think teaching culture along with the language will make japanese students more interested in English.

[@vincentslegacy3551]

Out of all the opinions here, I think this comment matters most when learning another language. We all have our own ethnic language and culture that we will keep until we die but I believe we should restrain our own so that it does not hinder us from absorbing a new language while learning the culture. There's a saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." I'm a Vietnamese-born American learning Korean. Although I would like to travel to Korea someday to maximize my learning experience, I absorb and accept their culture as if it's my native country so that I can maximize my Korean fluency (dramas, variety shows, kpop, food, fashion, etc). Although I'm not a pure breed Korean, I choose to think Korean, speak Korean, feel Korean, enjoy their culture, and have a very similar attitude without sacrificing my culture values of what I learned in America. It's the humility to absorb a culture as your very own. In my opinion, that's how you truly have mastery over any language.

[@MykahCroom]

@@vincentslegacy3551 exactly. We can't teach English like math with some formulas and expect them to just get it. It's more like a word problem, where you need context to make the numbers make sense. English is more than the language itself, as is any other language. English, is the people who speak it and their cultures, foods, and ideas.

[@MykahCroom]

@????? ¿¿¿¿¿ I teach my students about the norms of where I'm from and whenever I can include a video or picture of the topic or place we are talking about I try to use it. Also, if I have learned something new that I think my students will find interesting too I'll share it with them. Like last week I found out that astronauts don't do laundry while in space but they have to work out for 2 hours everyday which leads to really funky smelling clothes. So then my students and I discussed some other difficulties we might have if we lived in space.

[@nefas3904]

@@MykahCroom In Italian High Schools we practically don't study "English", but "English literature" using english language, because our educational system is very humanistic oriented. With all the good and bad points of the case.

[@yomikoreadman128]

@@MykahCroom that's quite a good way to teach. It's really important to make the students engage with the lessons and make them curious about it. Are you still teaching in Japan?

[@MewDenise]

Sweden is praised for their english. Swedes grow up with hearing it and reading it daily because all content is subbed. We listen to english songs, we watch english tv shows and movies, etc. If you don't surround yourself with it and speak it A LOT - you will struggle. I think every european country grows up learning 2 languages

[@ronmaximilian6953]

It also helps that English is a Germanic language, although a very bastardized one. There are cognates in common as well as Old Norse words that came into English. It's not as close as Frisian is,b but as far easier for a Swede to learn English then for someone from Poland. American Media also made a big difference. Younger swedes were much more fluent in English in the 1990s and later than they were in the 1980s.

[@pranshu6331]

Lol here in India Gen z's know English alongside with german/french and also sanskrit as an ancient language. (NOT COUNTING ALL OTHER LOCAL INDIC LANGUAGE )

[@justiceofbook]

The problem is that English and Japanese use extremely different alphabets, so it’s very hard

[@fridolfgranq]

@@ronmaximilian6953 Yeah well I think it's more of an alphabetical issue for the Japanese. The people here are right, if you don't surround yourself to a foreign language, you will struggle. Finns speak english better than swedish, even though swedish is our other official language. And keep in mind Finno-Ugric grammar is nothing like the rest of the world.

[@skye387]

You're right, I'm not that bad at English at least in text but speaking is a whole another level. I have no one to speak English with for me to be able to speak fluently nor do I have a need for it so it just never happen.

[@jamesfrance57]

The problem, in a nutshell, is this: *Japanese insist on doing things **_their_** way* . They tell native speakers how they should teach and they rarely listen to non-Japanese. From my many years teaching in Japan I saw lots of talk but little change.

[@skye387]

On an interesting but non-related note. I've heard that somewhere in my country, there's a place that's using Japanese text as their writing system for their local language that never had written format before.

[@jamesfrance57]

@@skye387 And your country is ...?

[@abandonedfragmentofhope5415]

@@Greenforrest7342 their life* not their lives.

[@ReikiMaulana]

I heard this from somewhere, correct me if i'm wrong.. You can't live in Japan without having a decent Japanese, right?

[@unknown4327]

@@skye387 probably the ainu people living in northern japan? They are a minority group.

[@mexicobasado8177]

I "learn" french at highschool, it is a school subject, however, I just pass the tests and deliver homeworks, but Im unable to communicate in french, I think same thing applies here Edit1: However, I actually did learned english at school, maybe because when I learned english I was like 5 years old and I just learned it, I didn't liked english but didn't disliked it either, while in french I was older and as now I have a "critical thinking", my brain rejects french because I don't like it Edit 2: I think think this is the most liked comment I have ever made

[@aqxbjc5879]

I eventually learned French at a conversational level, but this reminded me of those BS French classes I took in elementary and middle school. I think high school was where I actually started learning the language and those 6 years of middle/elementary school French made up less than one year of high school French

[@misterprickly]

I was just going to mention French classes in school. Many of my fellow classmate had no desire to learn, we were made to because of government mandate. As a result, many only learned enough to pass the tests and then never used any of it since. I see this happening now, in Japan and I can only see it getting worse as time goes on. The learning process is easier when it is a "want to" scenario and not a "have to" scenario.

[@arnofeldens6631]

School is crap for learning languages In real life one doesn't use a language in order to pass exams, but to communicate.

[@hardknockthuglife]

I had the same experience learning French in high school (5 years), Only 6 years later going to France helped my development of speaking the language 10 fold.

[@gaminglexiconwizard]

i learned Arabic language for 5 years, and got the highest score in high school, but I cant even speak Arabic langugae

[@Kadbros]

If a sign says "F**king Sale", I want to see what they're selling. EDITED Thanks to "Cake is yummy" Cake is yummy 3 weeks ago *they're

[@zacwoods]

Facts it was a pretty good marketing strategy lowkey

[@Pyxis10]

Went there, didn't get f****ed 0/10 worst sale ever.

[@cakeisyummy5755]

*they're

[@jamesroyce1845]

Hopefully, they're not selling what's actually on the sign - unless it's a love hotel I suppose.

[@Stolpskott100]

I saw the difficulty in teaching English in Japanese schools many years ago, while dating a Japanese woman, whose little sister was in high school, so both of them wanted to try speaking English with me, but were too embarrased to feel comfortable about their level of ability. I got over that by speaking Japanese, and making myself intentionally bad in comical/funny ways, so that they could laugh and feel better about their level of English because my spoken Japanese level was apparently worse. But after about 3 weeks of using the exercises in the sister's textbooks, I dedicated a week to writing a 200 page document of English language conversations that replaced the conversations in the book she already had. Through the wonders of photocopying, and the fact that my handwriting (no word-processing back in those days) was insanely neat, I later discovered that my document had been shared with the sister's entire class, and as far as I know became an unofficial part of the course material for later years. I received A LOT of giri choco that year, from most of the girls in the sister's school year and the English teacher as well. :)

[@youraveragemachine1013]

Weird flex but ok

[@dionabeepboop2343]

that sounds actually cool

[@Lex06by]

Ehi John, wanna help me practice my English?)

[@pokemasterx4244]

Lmao

[@frostyblade8842]

I love stories like this, it's awesome to be able to make a noticeable difference in people's lives

[@MrMuel1205]

I remember, while I was studying Japanese at university here in Australia, we had a regular conversation session with students from Hiroshima University. Half the time would be spent speaking English and half Japanese. I don’t know that most of us were very good at Japanese, but there was definitely a confidence gap - the Australians all seemed to be much more willing to bumble their way through speaking Japanese, than the Japanese students when it came to speaking English.

[@ゴリラ-w3h]

I was born and raised in Japan. From my experience, people here with the slightest bit of English knowledge treat everyone with less skill like a complete retard. No wonder nobody tries to speak, they wouldn't dare use it at the fear of being ridiculed.

[@Andytlp]

​@@ゴリラ-w3h Saving face is more important than trying and failing. Cant learn a language that way. No one learns without failing first. Rather no one improves without failing if only in part. Im kind of a hypocrite saying this because my only knowledge of japanese is from watching anime. It would be embarrassing to even try, so i kind of understand.

[@ajsuflena156]

@@ゴリラ-w3h so gatekeeping the language by non-natives hm I guess they like the idea of being able to do something others they think ‘can’t do as well’

[@cakeisyummy5755]

At least the Strayans would learn Japanese that way.

[@jobdylan5782]

@@ajsuflena156 no it's the natives, you dunce

[@lukecasey2830]

"Imagine trying to teach an entire country a foreign language" Me from Luxembourg: "Imagine trying to teach an entire country 3 foreign languages"

[@BronnBlackwater]

Dont you guys speak english, french, dutch, german and the luxembourg language?

[@lukecasey2830]

@@BronnBlackwater Yes, most people in our country who grew up in the Luxembourgish education system can speak between 4 and 5 languages. You learn French, German, English and Luxembourgish at school, and if your parents are immigrants that speak a different language (like Portuguese or Flemish), you gain an additional language as a mother tongue. My parents are from England and Ireland, so my mother tongue is English, so sadly I can only speak 4 languages

[@oosmanbeekawoo]

@@lukecasey2830 That's very cool mate!

[@alexwyne814]

Europeans gone insane. Ain't feel stressed?

[@lukecasey2830]

@@alexwyne814 Yup, it sucks. For luxembourgish kids whose parents can speak each language, its far easier, but for kids like me, whose parents aren't immigrants and can only speak english, it sucks. Teachers also don't help you if your parents are immigrants. But if you stick with it, in the end you will be able to speak 4 languages. Im 20 now, school sucked but I would definately say it was worth it.

[@spicyspicy11111]

The point that Kaho made on how students are too unconfident to practice english conversations with themselves, thus they don't progress or get comfortable is so true on my case. When I took Japanese Class in High School, I would always practice my speaking with my Japanese friends. I would make mistakes, or say a word weirdly, and they would correct me. Which in turn, made me more comfortable to speak Japanese ESPECIALLY in front of my friends who are native Japanese. Advice is to not be a afraid of seeming foolish when practicing speaking another language. Only way to improve is to keep trying.

[@MyawMyaw01]

That is so true. It's also related to the Japanese trait of being timid/shy or afraid to make mistakes. Koreans are more active in learning and taking up the challenge in learning English which results in better proficiency.

[@SpaceCakeism]

Being an autodidact, I've been correcting other people for almost as long as I can remember, people used to be angry with me due to this; I think a lot of people misunderstood -why- I've corrected them, thinking I was trying to embarrass or bully them. Thus, with the intention of getting "revenge" on me, they'd be like: "Haha! Now I finally get to correct you! How does it feel? It's annoying right? Right?!" While my response would be something like: "Why should I get annoyed?" or "Thanks mate." My reason for correcting people, is just so that they can improve; if anything, I was trying to do them a favor. Then again, I might not always have been the best at expressing why I did it, so I guess I'm partly to blame for that.

[@LootFragg]

@@SpaceCakeism This is an important pillar of what I call Discussion Culture where mutual improvement and a beneficial outcome matter more than saving face.

[@jeffdaman6969]

Because Japanese students go to school and learn just the basics. Afterwards they don’t use it in conversations or everyday life. That’s why Japanese “suck” at English. We do the same thing here in the US. Some of us take Spanish or French in school but hardly ever use it outside of that environment, especially French, so we aren’t fluent when it comes to those languages.

[@kindlytoxic1472]

spanish can be used quite often though

[@alexcarter8807]

It's also how plastic the brain is .... if you're speaking the language when you're little you're going to have "native" skill while if you learn it as an adult it's an uphill struggle. Some can pull it off, most can't. An example is, Hawaiian Pidgin which is a 2nd language for me; I spoke upper-class American English at home and learned Hawaiian Pidgin on the schoolyard etc. Since I arrived in Hawaii just as I was turning age 6, this worked out fine. My oldest sister, who arrived at about age 12, can't speak Pidgin without it sounding fake.

[@jeffdaman6969]

@@Deetroiter 3:04

[@jeffdaman6969]

@@Deetroiter if Japanese students are shy to speak English with fellow Japanese students in a classroom environment what makes you even think they are going to go out into the real world and do it with complete strangers?

[@jeffdaman6969]

@@Deetroiter but they do

[@fullmetaltheorist]

"People in Japan don't speak English as their first language?" Me : **Pretends to be shocked**

[@KOEVBattleWorld]

Lol

[@ogueyratogeyrat7448]

Tell that to japan war general

[@bondrewdthelordofdawn3744]

I'm shocked

[@123nicanor]

Me: *Sees another retarded youtube comment* Also me: *Pretends to be shocked*

[@BQD_Central]

Compare it to the US for example, and you will be surprised to hear that NOT 99.8 speak English as their first language. It's still the majority, but not by this number.

[@bjornvonposel8246]

"universal bilingualism, obviously that's impossible" *stares from the Philippines*

[@kitariauthor5943]

*profusely sweating in stupid in tagalog and english*

[@aozora8181]

@@kitariauthor5943 I'm stupid in all the languages I know

[@aman-hl9re]

Hey, bilingual gang!

[@kawaiianme]

The Philippines goes into the extreme though: what’s up with the English-only kids growing up in the Philippines? I wouldn’t have raised the issue if I didn’t see it myself. I’m a balikbayan who went to the US in my very early teens and I’m struggling to remember my Tagalog now. How is Tagalog gonna survive in the Philippines in 2-3 generations?

[@kayakoto25]

I'm trilingual, I wanna learn japanese tho, this is a nice part of knowledge

[@Eemi_Seppala]

I think most people from European countries grinned at the "Imagine teaching an entire country a foreign language". Here I'm wondering if I should write my thesis in Finnish or English, while studying Swedish.

[@hopejohnson6347]

@@Greenforrest7342 It might be true that european languages share more similarities than english (a germanic language) and japanese, but the point he made is, that every student in Europe learns *more* than just one foreign language... I for example learned 4 additional languages to my native language in school and taught myself 2 more outside of school. And having many similarities can also be a burden... I can't even count the number of times anymore that I accidentally used a norwegian word when speaking french, because both had distinctly different vocabulary from my native language and I just got them mixed up.

[@RS-nw6pz]

@@Greenforrest7342 Finnish is not the only one like that in Europe. Estonian, Sami and Hungarian are all from the same language group as Finnish. Then there's Basque -- a language isolate. There'll be others I can't think of right now

[@Glavenuss]

@@RS-nw6pz Albanian and Greek are both on their own.

[@R4nGaL]

HEJ JAG GILLAR GRODOR

[@overtonwindowshopper]

Yeah, it was sad to hear somebody so enthusiastically defending monoculturalism in an ever connected world. I understand how he got a job at a university in Japan.

[@Troynjk]

I learned English watching Cartoon Network without subtitles as a kid. There’s your solution, let kids watch cartoons without any form of translation.

[@MustacheDLuffy]

Lol

[@4orinrin]

Immersion

[@michamarkowski2204]

Same here. There was one English channel in my cable tv (at first Sky One, then Cartoon Network/TNT/TCM) and that's exactly how I've learned English. After 3 years of watching cartoons in English I was able to have a decent conversation with kids from other countries when I was in Denmark for a week at the age of 10.

[@yaka169]

Yeah, that method are good. But for Japanese, beware of learning it from anime, as grammar on anime isn't same as usual Japanese people speak

[@mtndewisawesome3951]

@@michamarkowski2204 that’s pretty goddamn impressive

[@user-wn5pn7nm2y]

As a former English teacher in Japan, I can confirm my experience was much the same. I taught mostly elementary school, so I had more freedom to liven up the lessons with fun interactions. While I was certainly not the best, I took pride in seeing my students look forward to my classes. However, public middle/high schools taught English like their Japanese grammar classes, killing most students' interest/confidence. It was disappointing to say the least.

[@jgdooley2003]

What teachers have been doing since the dawn of recorded history. Two close family members are teachers and have suffered stress and mental illness due to their jobs. On one of them her colleagues remarked "the trouble is she cares too much". The other gent has been bullied by principals and has just about got to the end of his career. He hopes to retire soon.

[@Dean123123100]

"You can't speak a foreign language better than your native language" Uuuuhhm, I disagree. My english is far superior to my native language.

[@raisha99]

I'm with you. And now with quarantine life, since I spend less time conversing with people, I end up using english like 90% in daily life living mostly on the internet. I even think in english.....

[@Dean123123100]

70% of my day, I'm alone at home, the only person I talk to during those 70% isn't even a person, it's my dog and 60% it's in english and I also think in english like 80 of the time

[@AnuelleCheng]

True enough, because I spoke English before I spoke my "native language"

[@AllDaGoodUsernamesWereTaken]

Same

[@poqqery8950]

I think they're using "native language" to mean first language. Take me as an example: I live in Britain but I wasn't born here and i don't have ancestry or heritage in the UK. But, though English isn't technically my "native" language, because I've lived here from a young age, it's the language I'm by far and away the most fluent in. English isn't my native language, but it's absolutely my first language.

[@formerevolutionist]

I'm an American English teacher in Korea. Koreans are more dedicated to learning English that Japanese people are. They understand that English is the international language of trade and diplomacy, so they start teaching kids English in kindergarten. English fluency is also a huge bonus on any CV and many complain they can't get a good job because their English is not good. Koreans also have an easier time learning English because hangul (the Korean alphabet) is more versatile than katakana. Therefore, it's easier for Koreans to pronounce English words properly. When I was teaching at a kindergarten in Seoul, a Japanese university came to sit in on my classes and learn why Korean children at that age were doing so much better than Japanese children. One thing I told them was that the cost of living was much cheaper in Korea than Japan, so teachers had more spending money even if their salaries were lower.

[@ruemignon]

Hangul being more versatile like....in what? at least Japanese can pronounce words that start with the "f" sound ( family, fantasy, fan...etc.)

[@formerevolutionist]

@@ruemignon Have you even seen Hangul? Kana is syllabic, with most of its syllables ending in a vowel sound. Hangul is a combination of syllabic and phonetic, which means it can produce an exponentially greater amount of sounds per syllable than Kana can. Furthermore, Hangul has many consonants and vowels that cannot be made with Kana, and even some that cannot be made by the Latin alphabet.

[@ruemignon]

@@formerevolutionist I do not feel like talking about my life and upbringing too much, especially on the internet. However, I can at least say that I do speak Korean and Japanese. Which means I am also familiar with Hanja/Kanji. I appreciate you taking efforts in explaining all the mechanisms and theories about the two oriental languages and I also believe that you have made some really good points. However, the reality is a bit different, at least for mef. As a Korean speaker, I found it rather challenging for most native Korean people to pronounce certain words(in other languages). Like the lacking "F" sound, which exists in Japanese, is an example. Having said all that, I am not implying Japanese is any better, they are equally quite limited when it comes to pronounciation and I really don't find hangul more verstile. Maybe a little bit more efficient 'coz you are able to convey the same message faster in Korean. say, "約束(やくそく)" four syllables VS "약속" two syllables. That's my two cents.

[@OmniscientlyMe]

@@ruemignon Since Japanese is a syllabic language, native speakers think in those syllables and are unable to intuitively separate the sounds of individual consonants. So outside the hundred or so syllables in their native language, they have a tough time with pronunciation. English may only have a 26 character alphabet, but they can combine to produce over 15,000 syllables. People speak using syllables, so languages that have more overlap in total syllables are what will provide naturally better results in pronunciation. That's why missing a single letter sound like "f" isn't as important as missing nearly every possible syllable.

[@JinWooShin]

@@ruemignon Korean don't have distinguish between F and P, V and B, etc. but Japanese' lack of vowel is much bigger problem then Korean's lack of consonant. drive, ドライブ, 드라이브

[@desubysnusnu]

I lived in Japan during middle school years. On my first & second year I always got B at best in English despite being the only one who can speak the language. On third year we finally has a British teacher & the classes were more focused more on convo. The paper tests also got easier. Our Japanese teacher was dismissive about the exams being way too easy. But she didn't care how much we had improved our ability to literally speak... Many teachers are more concerned about the 入学試験 than our actual ability to... you know. Live life.

[@MrMeecles]

Not related to the video but I'm glad to meet another person in the pie squad

[@saw235]

@Deathbysugar entrance exam

[@Sammysapphira]

That's hilarious thinking about someone fluent in English getting terrible marks on a Japanese English exam. I can't imagine sitting there answering the questions correctly and then being insisted by teachers that it's wrong.

[@GaijinGoombah]

5:55 First of all, your pronunciation is just fine! Overall, I'm glad to see so many people from so many perspectives of this issue come together to talk about it. It was one thing for me to talk about this with you Nobita, but it's makes such a bigger impact to see so many other people talk about it.

[@norsemanshorn3988]

Not bad English at all. Consider it English with a Japanese accent. Every corner of the world has a unique way of speaking English. Imagine how embarrassing it is to have someone with an accent speaking more sophisticated English than anyone I know. Indians speak the Queen's English. It's so proper that it can make you laugh at yourself because it sounds almost Shakespearean. Ha ha ha! 🤣 And I can't do it!😆 Trust me, everyone loves when a foreigner takes the time to try. It's fun to help them learn by expanding their understanding. It gets really interesting the more you move about the U.S. some accents are so strong even we find it hard to understand. "Great video once again!"👍👍

[@ChadKingSigma]

hey your that dude who is attracted to those goombahs in Mario, sicko.

[@jacobedwards4747]

Are you serious? His pronunciation is pretty bad. It's almost as if he's reading phonetically, let's not lie to the guy.

[@dbmdrums1105]

@@norsemanshorn3988 Howdy to that son ! Sorry for the cowboy reference . I am Indian and over here the political scenario is to hell bent on going backwards (education in native tongue). I am not saying every Indian should not know his native tongue (given that we are quite diverse linguistically) but as sad and irritating it sounds the modern world has attuned to English as a "Global Language". Indians have fetishized their languages too much . Way to much past validation. That being said I can bet a Indian (preferably a Right Winger/Sons of Soil) who will definitely get triggered with the last sentence 😂😂☝️. Just wait and watch folks.

[@AniRayn]

@@jacobedwards4747 Yeah, he basically sounds like Engrish, but he can express himself eloquently and has enough vocabulary, which makes up for the pronunciation. So you just have to tune your ears and you can have unimpeded conversations. Also let's not forget there are English accents which are almost unintelligible to non-native speakers of English.

[@aerialpunk]

I took 2 semesters of Japanese in uni, in both Australia and in Canada, and it was the same thing. Lots of vocab and grammar, not a lot of practical focus. I felt more confident speaking Japanese after listening to a few 30-min language tapes for travellers than I did after studying Japanese at a uni level for a year. Also, judging by reactions from native Japanese speakers, the tapes were the clear winner. It's pretty sad. On the upside, at least my teachers were both native Japanese speakers. It was just the course structure that sucked.

[@somewhereright3160]

Same here

[@boyar1978]

I probably learned more Portuguese, Spanish, Khmer, Tagalog, Mandarin, Thai, and Vietnamese after living in Brazil, Peru, Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam then I would had i taken classes.

[@gayusschwulius8490]

I took Mandarin in University. Same bullshit.

[@Not_Soundwave]

There's something endearing about the fact that both cultures find each other's written language interesting. English speakers: Japanese kanji looks so cool Japanese people: English lettering looks so cool Edit epilogue: Thanks for the information, everyone. But I'm not changing the original comment. You all understand what I mean without the specifics.

[@yusukerizuno9442]

Yeah, even between languages of the same alphabet. I think english sounds better than portuguese, yet i hear foreigners saying portuguese sounds so good.

[@Dragonofshame]

@@yusukerizuno9442 As a spanish speaker, I think that portuguese sounds like someone got really, really drunk and started speaking spanish.

[@yusukerizuno9442]

@@Dragonofshame lol, that's an interesting perspective. From mine is just spanish speaking countries talking in spanish. yeah, boring perspective Though from mine i hardly see any spanish speaker, mostly from Argentina, go a day without saying the word "Boludo" to a Brazilian. Yet i still have no Idea why.

@@Dragonofshame To me as a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker, Spanish used to sound like a flat, weird, almost robotic Portuguese accent at 1.5 the speed and with a twist on words. Now that I have lived in Colombia for six months not long ago, it became to me a language with its own particularities. So that impression is gone.

[@mikeyaboii8210]

The grass is always greener

[@zach101202]

The real issue is that people stop. The one and only reason I can't speak Spanish today is that I wasn't inspired enough to keep learning it after I left high school. Even if the Japanese school system taught English perfectly, the kids would forget it all if they didn't continue after school ends. Use it or lose it.

[@ASHERUISE]

Agreed. I studied Spanish throughout middle and high school and a for a semester in college and went to Costa Rica for vacation, didn't have much of a problem communicating (it helped that people seemed to understand how to slow down their speech for my benefit and understand what I was trying to get across even if I made mistakes, which is not the case everywhere). Now, I haven't used Spanish for like 8 years and I can't even remember how to form a simple sentence.

[@Gnidel]

I think you stopped because the language didn't "click", which is a result of learning method. I can type this comment only because I played video games in English. I'm Polish.

[@zach101202]

@@Gnidel Well. That's the solution isn't it. I have been studying Japanese for 2 years using immersion from the time I wake up to when I go to bed. I love it. I read books, watch tv, and listen to podcasts. All in Japanese. When people talk to me about language learning I tell them how I "study" and they often respond with "You are just a natural language learner." Which is Ironic since I have struggled not to fail every language class I have taken.....

[@dragondaniel0574]

I don't think they will forget it all, if they try relearning it, it will be much easier and way faster anyway. If they did forget it because of not using it, then they probably didn't need to use it anyway. If they do need to use it and or are exposed to english in social media, they wont forget it. I've seen adults help kids with highschool math after not using it for 30 years..

[@ElJags]

What i do is just kinda force myself to watch/read entertaintment material in the language i want to learn, this keeps me on a familiar level with the language and even learn how to express more when using it, like learning what slangs and street words mean, wich is the hardest part to understand while traveling.

[@sarakowalska5301]

Having watched this, I got even more respect towards my Japanese colleagues from work, who speak perfect English. They must have been so determined!

[@eoinh]

After watching this, I realized that English in Japan is treated very similar as Irish is in Ireland. Focus is placed on vocab and basic grammar, and very little on contextual/oral skills to allow students to actually use what they learned after graduating. Though English isn't suffering from the Japanese not speaking it, the same can't be said for the Irish case..

[@108wee]

Alot of native languages are dying because of this mass communication era. There isnt much we can do to stop it but it would be nice to preserve it somewhere. Perhaps giving dying languages a specific role in society? Who knows...

[@DaihatsuCharade1993]

This is basically what learning Spanish in America is like, unless you talk it in collage, no American will ever reach conversational fluency.

[@HAJIMEDJ]

Why would you need to talk Spanish in an Arts & Crafts class?

[@zacwoods]

@@HAJIMEDJ because there are certain art styles or technical words that may not be able to be translated. If you’re pursing ANY of the arts its a huge benefit to learn a second language.

[@nobleradical2158]

If we actually required Spanish in elementary and middle school, I think we’d all be bilingual by now since Mexico is right there, and we have a lot of immigrants.

[@somerandomdude712]

true, had hard time with Spanish during elementary school when i was trying to deal with my own native language called English and my only language.

[@3thalluing339]

The difference is Spanish isn’t taught for 10 repetitive years. :/ I do feel for Americans who aren’t raised in Spanish speaking households because the “learning” classes are shit. Teaches you colors, the body parts, the parts of rooms in a house…. It’s no different from ‘learning’ a language only using Duolingo.

[@ttttillermand]

"Imagine trying to teach an entire country a foreign language" That's what most countries worldwide do with english. I know that European countries at least all learn english as a second language, and for a lot of them it's also mandatory to learn a third language that is one of their neighboring countries' first language. Universal bilingualism is already present in Europe. It can be done, the way the language is taught, as well as the teacher's qualifications and the student's motivations, just have to be changed.

[@jgdooley2003]

The Dutch town of Maastricht is on a border with Germany and Belgium so that the people speak Dutch, Flemish , German and French routinely. There is also a Portuguese emigrant community so that gets thrown into the mix as well. The people do not make any fuss about being practical polyglots but just get on with it. Grammar rules are not fussed about and precise things like numbers will be written down to avoid misunderstanding.

[@nothereanymore3941]

Yeah I really don’t follow that guy’s point. “Imagine teaching a foreign language to an entire country”. Oh, you mean LIKE THE VAST MAJORITY OF OTHER COUNTRIES DO?!?

[@essie23la]

@@jgdooley2003 flemish is dutch tho, it's a dialect of it and not something you learn in school. When talking to a belgian person you don't start imitating their accent, you just speak dutch and they just speak flemish and that's that (I grew up 20 mins from the belgian border so I've met plenty of flemish ppl, we understand eachother just fine save for a few phrases here and there). Nitpicky, but I just found it odd that you listed it with completely different languages like french

[@jgdooley2003]

​@@essie23la I come from a remote western Island where language is an acute and divisive political issue and this can lead to lack of knowledge in the state of mainland European languages and their effects on European politics. I did not realise that Belgian Flemish, Dutch language and western german dialect were very similar. I realise that French and Portuguese are totally different. I am barely able to speak one language, English, and find it very difficult to acquire any other language. This has made my educational life difficult as teachers of Irish, French and Latin have found it difficult to understand my complete bafflement at languages in school.

[@landerdepoorter2824]

@@essie23la thats right, for english speakers just compare it to british english and american english: even tho they are different we just say english.

[@shershahdrimighdelih]

"universal bilingualism is impossible" I am from India and most people are at least bilingual and almost half the country is at least trilingual

[@aneeshukidve]

Can confirm, am Indian

[@user-gd7nk4re6u]

true.

[@thetoyyya6890]

Even here in Sweden (where I'm from) 86% of the country speaks English and if you just look at younger people that number would go up to nearly 100% It is most certainly possible but it's also highly dependant on a country's situation. For India I imagine (correct me if I'm wrong tho) it has a lot to do with the very large amount of diversity in the country as well as having been under English rule for some time. In Sweden, it's because Swedish is not at all useful outside of the Scandinavian countries and our focus has been to be connected to the rest of the world for some time now so we have had to get good at English. It also helps that although our education system is far from perfect it's much less about memorizing and taking tests and more about actually learning the subjects through actively engaging with them, especially when it comes to languages. Grammar and vocabulary are important but they should never be everything and instead it's more important to practise the language through speaking it, as well as writing it of course, but speaking it is by far the most important. With Japan I can imagine it is changing more and more as the country is getting more connected with the rest of the world especially through the internet (although even online a lot of Japanese people seem to keep to themselves) but it's a slow process.

[@aneeshukidve]

@@thetoyyya6890 yea, you hit the nail on it's head, due to colonial rule, most of the schools (at least where I live) don't just have English as a subject, but rather they are entirely English-medium schools all conversations happening in the school especially with teachers are English. We used to talk within ourselves in our native tongue but majorly, everyone spoke English.

[@jgdooley2003]

Very true. I have worked with Indians and they sometimes speak English amongst themselves and at other times they will talk in their native tongues. I asked why and was told that there are at least 15 - 20 different languages in the Union of India and they vary a lot. Sometimes the people might only have English as their common language, one might be Tamil and another from Kerala and so forth. They also have different alphabets some of which are 5,000 years old. Tamil language is one of the oldest languages on the planet with a poetry tradition thousands of years old.

[@aldi_the_flash2496]

How Japanese people learn English: Expensive Text Books, Cram School, Exercise/Quiz How I learn English: KZbin, Memes, other platform that does not involved books in them...

[@aldi_the_flash2496]

@Esteb5n Caballero lol, that's the point

[@kiyuu1638]

dude I literally learned english more than the native language in here and I'm good at english more 😭 I sometimes doesn't understand what it means in that language but understand in english 😭

[@aldi_the_flash2496]

@@kiyuu1638 can relate

[@dhanajon5528]

haha i learned English first from roblox, then youtube then whatever tf i do online. funnily enough, i speak so much english that i dont even know if i can consider my actual native language to be "native" anymore, if that makes sense.

[@ni4843]

same i learn through movie and song

[@dukenukem3dgaming]

Personally my life was strictly chinese exclusive because my environment is basically chinese only, but since i got in touch with my international friends i got exponential good at English the longer i spend time with them shitposting and shit talking lmao

[@hello-gx6oi]

Lmao

[@samuelfvalim7418]

Shitposting saves lives!

[@SMCwasTaken]

Join us in the Spanish Community

[@panzerschiff9805]

I learned English by simply opening Netflix, switching the language and subtitles to English and then just watching whatever I saw. Now my English is acceptable with a German accent and slight lisp.

[@seouljah760]

lol why a lisp

[@3thalluing339]

Good job! The lisp part is funny but you’re self taught so it doesn’t really matter. As long as it’s understandable, it should be okay lol

[@MeAMoose]

That's actually really impressive.

[@takecareyoself5379]

I did the same thing with my SpongeBob movie DVD. Thanks to that I knew the context of every grammar

[@knpark2025]

I learned English watching Big Bang Theory. Now I sound like a nerd. Not that I am not a nerd but...

[@zioming]

I once saw this billboard ad for a Polish language school in a subway cart in Berlin, with two people sitting in armchairs in the middle of a bricked square, having a conversation, which went something like "I like to watch movies" "Yes, you're right. My father does own a cinema"...

[@imp2389]

That's the most awkward thing i've read today. Thanks for making me laugh.

[@meimeilei]

His ojciec was just bragging haha

[@otesunki]

11:40 "You can't speak a foreign language better than you can speak your native language" Me, an arabian that is an English grammar nazi but can't speak Arabic to save his life: *profusely sweating*

[@PannkakaMedSylt]

Hahaha 😂 I feel this! I’m no grammar nazi at all, I mean... I’m dyslexic, But I know english grammer better then my native language Swedish! (Writing that is, I can speak swedish well) But then again, Swedish and English are still rather similar compared to Arabic or Japanese! I watched this video a few days ago on how Turkish and Japanese sentence structure is almost the same! And very different from Germamic or Latin based languages (those 2 also have differences but closer)

[@manamaster6]

Same here, I'm Mexican, my Spanish is not that bad, but I doubt I would be able to get a C2 in it, unlike English.

[@sruthinotshruthi2493]

me, an Indian, writing whole essays in English for fun but unable to string together a sentance in Tamil, my native language: *ahahah yeah*

[@guycross493]

Hello, fellow disappointments of your native tongue.

[@Hapetiitti]

Based on what I've heard, I wouldn't be too hard on myself if my native language was Arabic :D Can you confirm this? I've been told that "the Arabic language" is quite a mess, since there are a bunch of different languages in the region that all use the exact same written language (based on the Quran), but the spoken languages are completely different. So 1 writing system and a bunch of different interpretations on how to vocalize those written words :D It's like how Chinese and Japanese share the same characters, but the readings are completely different, since Japanese was a spoken language before they got the writing system from China and had to make it fit

[@victorvila1056]

From my experience, to learn a language you MUST use it, you can't expect students to know how to speak a language by just making them learn its rules, you gotta make them talk and listen to stuff in english and that's what I think that the main issue is on some foreign countries. Btw I'm a 16 years old spanish student (guess I'm like an equivalent to a 高校生 in japan or a high school student in USA) who can speak spanish, catalan and romanian(don't think I can write well tho) as mother languages, obviously also speaks english and is learning japanese :)

[@metroplexprime9901]

I would like to think I'm a prime example of the "usage" downfall. I have been learning German in school for 4 years, I'm still shit at it. I can pronounce things fine, so that's not a problem. I'm pretty average at learning vocab, so I don't think that's the problem. I even had a strict "no english unless entirely necessary" policy in class. And yet? I can't really have a spoken conversation with someone entirely in German. Text is just fine, but speaking? It's just atrocious. I sound like a dumbass because I have to stop for a very short, but still noticeable, period of time between every single word unless it's something simple like "Wie geht's" (How are you), "letzte Woche" (last week), "Ich möchte ein _" (I would like a _), or other short phrases. Even if I want to say a short paragraph, I stumble over my words so damn much. All of this because I never really had opportunities to speak it outside of class. I didn't really make any friends in that class, so no one to speak with there. I don't live in a German-speaking area. I don't have some kind of German-speaking community that I interact with. All of this is just the perfect storm. Sorry for the vent, I don't get to complain about this much.

[@sarawinardi6745]

I agree with that. In Canada, we learn French as a second language during school. The thing is after you leave school, unless you use it, you’re going to forget it.

[@K000H]

@@metroplexprime9901 I feel you. When I was in school I would get As and Bs when speaking, a little lower at spelling but still good. And now, years after school, my english pronounce is worse than ever as I'm never in a vocal english setting no more. I write and read most things in english just fine, but i rarely speak it anymore. When i do speak english with friends i notice how bad we all have gotten x) It's a big oof

[@aNsWeRkEy02]

agree, speaking the language is also a big part of learning..its also a good practice..

[@Euphoryaaa]

Trust me Nobita, our schools have the same unnatural & impractical teaching when it comes to Spanish classes and others as well. The best Spanish and French teachers I’ve had in school were the ones who spoke to us in the language and made us watch Spanish or French tv shows in class with subtitles. Middle school Spanish was horrible though. I learned many words for inanimate objects but not how to have a conversation

[@alwaysyouramanda]

2 years of French and I can barely order a cheese omelet (dexters lab is probably to credit for that-!)

[@MustacheDLuffy]

It depends on the teacher, some good/some bad

[@Euphoryaaa]

@@alwaysyouramanda 2 years of French and all I can ask is “May I go to the restroom”? (Our teacher made us have to ask in French in order to go) And “Je voudrais une pomme de terre” (my French friends find this absolutely hilarious)

[@TheLeftyGamer]

I feel for you. I wasn’t taught about things like shortening phrases for example. In a casual conversation, you don’t really hear tu es but t’es, nor do you hear the ne negation.

[@drzerogi]

I had a middle school French teacher who taught us ZERO French. Instead, we watched American TV and had parties.

[@Kanal7Indonesia]

"I have a bad case of diarrhea"

[@sak-superagentkaboom5968]

Dude don't ! just don't.

[@aseles6202]

💀💀💀

[@hayley4032]

Lmao the video-

[@fridz66]

Omg

[@Zerogata]

It's your fault that this happened!

[@ericsurf6]

Excellent video Nobita senpai & wonderful selection of multi cultural guests w/valuable first hand experiences. I'll share this video around.

[@wellthatworked6986]

@Hawt_Sauce You never know...

[@imsotraumatized4079]

Is it better to say san than senpai?

[@1003Alfred]

Ericsurf6 is the OG senpai here lol

[@MrCmagik]

I lived in Japan for over a year and I actually talked about that to some of my roomate. One of which was decently fluent at english (thanks to his parents who hired an english speaking caretaker for when he was a child) I remember we talked about how our english class were and yeah... it was really different. For instance, I remember that I had *many* oral exams at my school. Like almost once a month. And they looked like this, the teach would say that next week there is an oral examination and the topic would be "what I did last week-end". We could ofc lie if nothing happened last week-end obviously. But basically, he would put a desk in the corridor with 2 chairs. We sit and here we go "'So tell me, what did you do this week end?" "Well, I went to see my friend and we played some video games" "Okay, what video game did you play?" " We played Super Smash Bros melee" "what do you do in that game?" "it is a battle game. We play with the hero of nintendo and we fight together" "Together? As in a team?" "mmm, no, not in a team. We fight... ... against ... others? " "alright, so you fight against eachothers. So tell me more, what character do you like playing" etc etc etc so you talk for 3-5min depending on your speed. After that we switch back to our normal language (french there), the teacher would then point a few of the mistakes that were made. If some were redundant he'd ask us to redo some exercice. I think that was a great way to make student more prone to talking because, first what they will practice will automatically be mundain stuff that actually can come up in a conversation. "What did you do this week end? what is your favorite food? what country do you want to visit?" The fact that you're in private with the teacher also makes it easier to speak freely without the fear of making mistakes in front of the others. You also simply can't prepare yourself the same way you would prepare for a regular oral presentation where you learn by heart your text. You cannot prepare a text. All you can do is prepare vocabulary. But since you do not know what the teacher will ask, you cannot just vomit a text you've learned by heart. You *have to be able to speak* Ah and finally, in case we were making too many prononciation mistakes. The teacher would actually tell us what to improve and that improving that particular point would make up most of the mark for the next oral. For instance, as a french speaker, I wasn't used to the sound h. To me, hate and ate were the exact and same word. I was basically never putting a h while speaking in english. I was told once that for the next examination, me properly using the "h" sound would be important and the rest wouldn't. Next exam comes, I totally forgot and I actually got a bad mark. After I went to see my teacher I asked why? did i make that many mistakes? he was like "no no, your grammar was fine, rate of speech too. Overall it was good. But you failed every single h. From now on if you fail prononcing those h you'll loose point". The next exam i was litterally emptying my lungs on every h because i still wasn't able to pronounce them properly. Like instead of si "hi" you would sound more like "HHHi" and over the course of a few test, i was actually able to pronounce that god damn h.

[@zomfgroflmao1337]

2 things I remember about English class that really helped in the long run: 1. From the start, if you talked in English class you had to speak English, no matter if you asked to go to the restroom or answering a question. That was super annoying, but it helped familiarize everyone speaking and pronouncing a foreign language. 2. While the first 2-3 years are a lot of grammar and vocabulary, at some point we started reading English literature (children or youth books at first, classics later) and watching English movies (documentaries about history, or dialogue heavy stories) in class. That gives you examples of how the language works and how it sounds. These seems to be very easy steps to make English way more approachable and natural. The problem I see with people not learning English, Spanish or Chinese is that it leads to isolation in any global discussion and even hinders your own countries progress because you have no easy way to look at your own country from the outside. An example of this problem was France in the 90s, they were so proud of their language that they didn't teach much English at school if any, and it leads to French people getting ostracized in the more connected European community. French people traveling outside their own borders (which is quite common in Europe) ran out of options very fast and the internet just sped up these problems even more.

[@jame254]

YESSSSSSS this method works. goes against learnign a languages but if works. though thing is that people is always in the learning mindset but instead should be in that acquiring state,

[@리주민]

Isnt quebec like that too? Worse, they think they're their own country. They're part of a bilingual canada, not monolingual french...

[@tehchonka5031]

true, most french people can't speak english as well as other large european countries

[@kidaria1333]

The judgement about the french it too one-sided. They have always known basic school english for travelling and never worse as the germans expect maybe the very old who hadn't ever foreign languages in school. Also calling them ostracized from the european community is a bit much. Higher educated people always spoke english.

[@zomfgroflmao1337]

@@kidaria1333 I speak from experience, so I doubt my experience is suddenly wrong. When online gaming first became a thing there were two groups of people that couldn't communicate (in Europe). For the eastern states it made sense, they learned Russian in school and were slowly switching to English at that time, and they could communicate with each other (but their internet was also really bad, so they weren't a large group). The other group were the French, and they had no excuse. Imagine this, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, British, Italian, German etc all had no issue communicating with each other, but they all dreaded the French players because they couldn't communicate with anyone outside of other French players. And yes, that was a real thing in the early 2000s.

[@zanizone3617]

Kaho Shibuya: "I was so shy, but I overcame it." Yep. She definitely did.

[@CounterStriker013009]

+1, but I was lucky born in former British HK, so still can handle the English

[@armaanrao1030]

I see you are a man of culture

[@owenSHOK]

I scan SEE that she definitely did overcame this

[@picapica201]

I know what you guys mean, but she was talking about her "English shyness", which is interesting because that means you can have separate areas in which you are shy or not, even when you deal with it in another.

[@ThePixel1983]

@@owenSHOK did overcome 😉

[@literallylia03]

I love how fluent he is when speaking but still has japanese accent

[@akmazaary9197]

the muscle memory cause him have weird pronounce

[@kungking191]

@@Greenforrest7342 he is fluent it's about accent like some India people can understand and speak fast but got India accent

[@keyboyice1976]

He's technically fluent, but definitely not native-like, which is somewhat hard to resolve in general.

[@christianhagenswold597]

Kaho Shibuya's English pronunciation is amazing

[@diperf]

Not being creepy but Kaho is an absolutely adorable, and yes her English is exceptional

[@suchitbajracharya5088]

Nobita from Japan: *speak about educational things* Doraemon:*sobs* nobita has grown up.

[@redsalmon9966]

:)

[@mainecp9]

The inside joke that would never die😁🤭🤣

[@ReikiMaulana]

Someone's cultured

[@5ryans]

The best way to learn languages is to engage in casual conversation. We never use the sentences shown in textbooks unless we are in a meeting or some other formal event. If you understand the flow and pronunciations then you can build on it.

[@Euphoryaaa]

True, my Japanese improved significantly when I lived in Japan

[@lawd.8354]

That's right. There it is a good advice.

[@chefpeealdo]

I wouldn't necessarily say best, since I know many people with good conversational skills but terrible (or questionable at best) grammar. They have a tendency to speak in shorter phrases or standalone words, being unable to really articulate much. It works in casual talk with friends etc, where it's fine as long as the general point gets across. Don't get me wrong though, I think casual conversation is a pivotal part of becoming fluent. Especially with flow and pronunciation, like you said.

[@pokemasterx4244]

Textbooks provide the foundations.

[@xEnjoyTheMoment]

"universal billigualism is impossible" /laughs in european/ german school plans literally say "needs to be fluent in at least two foreign languages by the end of school" lmao

[@bruh1704]

Yeah Scandinavian school systems are definitely the gold standard for education

[@PannkakaMedSylt]

Yeah, Europe in general are pretty good with speaking multiple fluent languages, from sweden here, and we’r expected to talk semi fluently in 2 foreign languages aswell, english + one of 3 basic ones (french, spanish, German) but you often can chose a more ”exotic” one if you like aswell, like chinese, but not all schools offer it.

[@artmadebyRed]

damn, my school must've slept on that one. We had Latin as a second language (which of course absolutely no one can speak, so that was a giant waste of time), and our school was barely able to teach us English (we got the basics and what we needed to pass tests, but becoming conversation or even fluid was pretty much on us). Remember that our English teacher didn't know how to order a cone of icecream

[@GoogelyeyesSaysHej]

@@PannkakaMedSylt I’m swedish as well and we’re not expected to be “semi-fluent” in english, we’re expected to be fluent. To graduate from high school you need to pass “english 6” ie the eleventh or twelfth year of english classes. We spend as many years learning english as we spend in swedish class. The english classes focus heavily on creative writing, speaking and interpretation of text. You simply can’t graduate without being fluent enough for conversational level english. The same cannot be said for our third language skills

[@PannkakaMedSylt]

@@GoogelyeyesSaysHej hence why I said semi fluently in 2, more focus on fluent in english and less in 3rd language, But you’r still expected to be able to hold a simple conversation in a 3rd language unless you already struggle with example english and talked with a School counselor. Also it depend on what you mean with fluent, Beeing fluent in a language can mean many different things, Like holding a simple conversation about the weather / time and location, or it can mean beeing able to hold complex conversations about anything from politics to science. Sometimes it’s also thought of as beeing able to speak ”cleanly” without too much of an foreign Accent.

[@Ixaglet]

I'm an ESL teacher in Spain. To boost interest among my adolescent and teenaged students, I teach them some basic phrases to communicate in English when they're playing online games. (I teach them some good insults too lol) Pretty soon, they start speaking English during their free time cause they're gaming, and my job becomes a whole lot easier. I don't give homework, EVER, but I'll "challenge" them three or four times a year, to watch an episode of their favourite TV show in English for example, or play on an English speaking lobby, or look up the lyrics to their favourite English songs and translate them. It usually surprises them just how much they can understand, which boosts their confidence :)

[@SMCwasTaken]

El idioma del mundo debe ser Español El Inglés suena muy feo

[@vtheory7531]

"Why do Japanese forget their English?" Well why do I forget my Japanese? Because I don't use it! My Japanese is rusty as hell, I want to make time to practise it more!

[@jame254]

頑張りましょウブロ

[@catzor4795]

@@jame254 Hentai.

[@Manie230]

I would also forget my English if I wouldn’t watch so many English speaking content in KZbin. So I guess you my friend need to expose yourself to more Japanese content on KZbin. I don’t know what you like but what ever your hobby is find a Japanese KZbinr about it if possible and watch his content. That way you will have a native speaker that you can listen to and that will keep you using your Japanese skills.

[@kitsunkurumo6377]

@@Manie230 i recommend vtubers :D

[@Kunsb]

English is one of the easiest launguage in the world

[@hhero4841]

lmao that "fucking sale" tho it's fucking hilarious.

[@casualweekday-ytshadowbang2469]

Plot twist: at Kabukicho

[@Nokyyyyy]

French people : man, I suck at speaking english!! Writing is easier, tho Japanese people : wait, you guys can speak english ??

[@o.lyandzberg2784]

at least japanese people pronounce "h" at the right places :D

[@Nokyyyyy]

@@o.lyandzberg2784 but they mispronounce R, L, add random vowels to the word, etc

[@fila1445]

I literally know more french people that can speak Polish than English :p

[@meimeilei]

@@fila1445 Knowing Polish is a skill. Still more English there than in Japan :)

[@jordinagel1184]

@@fila1445 I think that’s mostly because many French people don’t want to (admit that they can) speak English, especially the older generations and in rural areas (and some parts of Paris, but no one likes Parisians, not even the French)

[@mochipii]

I learn my English mostly from movies and songs. I once saw us tv drama being dubbed into Japanese. Maybe that's also another stumbling block in English acceptance in Japan. Being accustomed to the sounds of English is important i think.

[@pedrovilasgomes9144]

That's definitely one of the most important things, and you can see they aren't accustomed with the sounds by watching something dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles when the character says something in english

[@gagliardivex9218]

As a Kenyan I learnt my English as a kid mostly from the great cartoon network cartoons of the 2000s and I also had multiple animated films on our home computer. Plus I watched a lot of movies as well. I won a vocabulary award at the age of 5

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

I think that is an advantage that English has over many languages. There's a tremendous amount of English Language media, and English isn't usually THAT stylized in the average book or movie.

[@X808ShadowFox]

I feel sad for my fellow asians yet so proud of them. I understand that most of the asian countries are trying their best to speak English and it's a part of their government system to learn it. In America, it's kind of the same system, except taking up a different language is just a secondary thing that's not really needed, On the other hand, the other asian countries implement it for the sake of English speakers. That's why when I hear people from an Asian country speak English, I'm genuinely happy all the time because I know they're trying their best. I wouldn't care if their English isn't that good, just seeing them try to speak it fills my heart enough to say "They're trying and that's all that matters". I'm saying this as a Filipino born in America (Hawaii), Keep up the amazing content! :)

[@jame254]

agreed though with the amount of spanish speaking people we have Spanish has become an unoffical de factor language, mandarin is getting too, along with Arabic and all its dialects.. though we really do not have an official languages in the states

[@ladynoluck]

And secondary language learning in America being elective also can help with motivation. If your school has multiple languages to choose from or secondary language learning is not required but available, then you are *choosing* to learn a language or even a specific language, which means you probably already want to learn it. You are already motivated going into the class. Yet, in places like Japan, secondary language learning is a required part of the curriculum. It becomes just like any other required class that you have no choice but to get through. That’s not exactly motivating, especially when they don’t see any use for it in their real life. Many students probably feel like it’s like learning a fantasy language (like from Lord of the Rings) that only has meaning in school. ☹️

[@ZambonieDude]

In America you need a 2nd language to get into college.

[@X808ShadowFox]

@@ZambonieDude In our case we don't necessarily need another language to actually get into a college (from what I grew up with, so I can't say for all ages/generation). That's why I mentioned that although its part of our government system to learn it (I didn't need to learn another language to get into college). Its not as mandatory as the other countries (like Japan, Philippines, etc.). It's kind of like saying, if the Japanese or Filipino language was the international language, then from the time we enter school in America, we'll be taught Japanese or Filipino because those languages are the international language and its mandatory to learn. Its basically, putting yourself in their shoes.

[@TheHekateris]

I'm impressed by any non-native person speaking English!

[@Seele2015au]

When a schooling system - I would not call it "education system" - is geared towards passing exams rather than mastering the subject, it is not going to work terribly well.

[@crazysilly2914]

Same way in America with...pretty much all school subjects...

[@vari1535]

COUGH COUGH AMERICA

[@skye387]

I feel like it's pretty much impossible to make school as a way to master subjects considering how many students there are amd how different each ones are so it makes sense to me how high scores and exam passing ended up becoming the sign they used to mark students already "mastering" the subjects. That's why there are optional subjects and college/university majors. The problem is the way students with bad marks are treated and how so many teachers be like their subjects are the most important in the world.

[@crazysilly2914]

@@skye387 The desire to learn something has to come from within, it can't be from a bunch of people trying to force you to care about a subject... Thats why I'm in favor of letting kids drop out of school if they feel like their talents lie elsewhere...

[@skye387]

@@crazysilly2914 That's exactly what I meant. Each person have different interest so a school, which is intended to educate as many people as possible wouldn't be able to keep up with each individual interests. I wouldn't deny that they put too much weight on the scores though. I still think they need to stay at school at least for minimum educations, as school is also used so children can get used to more social situations.

[@tijnjansen858]

"Kaha Shibuya - went through Japan's English education." Good save, Nobita ;)

[@iatsd]

Two aspects limit Japan in terms of spoken English performance: student motivation and institutional goals. 1. Student motivation is the *single* most important factor in student success. EOS. There's no fvcking argument about this. The literature and research is patently clear about this. But the important point for this conversation is that the great majority of Japanese people *simply don't need to learn English*. They will never use it in their lives. They have little to no motivation to learn because they *know* they won't use it. And that's perfectly fine if you stop and think about it. After all, Japan doesn't *need* widespread English ability among the general population. 2. The goal from MEXT is not to have everyone learn English as a practical language ability. English is an *academic* subject only. The balance between practical/academic has been shifting over the years, with a move more towards practical, but it is still, overall, slanted towards academic. This is why there are still relatively few resources devoted towards practical application learning, and why MEXT set up the "Super English Schools" pilot programme in the early 2000's.

[@Dandandandandandandandandanda1]

I agree and disagree with your first statement. I agree that motivation is the most important factor in learning. But I disagree to the statement that Japanese will never use English. English is internationally recognized as lingua france, meaning that it is the language used to communicate between people who speaks different languages. Japanese will need English when they want to communicate with people who don't speak Japanese. Especially, in the current age where widely available internet makes communication between people from different countries easier. This is true not only for Japan but also for the rest of the world.

[@iatsd]

@@Dandandandandandandandandanda1 You're missing what I said. "The great majority" don't need to learn English. I think the argument for online communication is spurious; the great majority aren't going to gain anything from taking to a wider range of people. Those that want to learn, will learn. Those that need to learn, will learn. But it remains the case that a great majority of Japanese people neither need or particularly want to learn English. And that's perfectly fine.

[@gloomy9728]

@@Dandandandandandandandandanda1 This video clearly explains that the amount of people in Japan that would actually use or need English in their life is in the minority. The majority of people will not need English since they're not an English-speaking country. Your reasonings for them needing English are optional and not mandatory. Japanese people generally don't need to talk to people outside of their country. For those that do need or want to, then they're free to learn English on their own.

[@veduci22]

@JustToTest&Learn In the future the importance of Mandarin language will rise more than importance of English language.

[@bigboi0147]

yeah man, most people's go to just to get credits even without learning anything at all

[@My2ndAngelic]

Nobita somehow always find interesting people in his videos. Props to this.

[@bigtimbolim]

You're talking about Miss Kaho aren't you

[@linyenchin6773]

Yup, that chick~guest is a cutie.

[@woodypvf1]

@@linyenchin6773 one of my favourite jav stars.

[@My2ndAngelic]

@@bigtimbolim I mean, you have gaijin goomba too

[@teddybear127pow]

As an English teacher, raised by English teacher parents in Japan, this video says everything that we have been trying to say for years! It means so much to me that you made this, as it voiced everything that frustrates me about my job. I do my best to make English fun as an ALT but the entire system and even my jpn coteachers are constantly working against me and it hurts to watch my students’ English suffer bc of it.

[@capitalb5889]

35 years of the JET Programme shows that it has almost zero impact. Pretty much everyone under 50 had ALTs in class and it has made also no difference. I had a great time on the Programme, though.

[@justanomorifan3059]

soon you will find the beauty of wikipedia.

[@capitalb5889]

@@Greenforrest7342 - Suzuki san, i don't think that Gina wants to run away from a problem simply because it is hard or frustrating. While she alone cannot change the system, she is helping to improve her students' English. You seem to be encouraging her to give up. Your written English is excellent, by the way. Are you an English teacher?

[@capitalb5889]

@@Greenforrest7342 - you have a skill in English

[@capitalb5889]

@@Greenforrest7342 - really? Online translators between Japanese and English were always terrible, so they must have improved. But now that I know that your English is not very strong, it changes how I read your comment.

[@peabrain6377]

i was considering teaching english in japan as a native speaker, but i thought that english teachers weren't really needed as i'd met so many near fluent english speakers. so this video is actually motivating me to become a teacher!

[@georgiamaguire692]

Don’t do it!! I’m in Japan now. DO NOT DO IT lol.

[@peabrain6377]

@@georgiamaguire692 Is it awful?

[@TheGOLDENGODZILLA]

Don’t do it. Pay is crazy low, and management can be hell in earth sometimes.

[@bangkokadventures298]

I didn't realize English teachers had their salaries reset after a contract was complete. That's kind of depressing

[@PabbyPabbles]

A lot of contract work is setup in a way so that you work juuuuust under a full 365 day year, and juuuuust a few hours under full time per week (at least on paper), and "renewing" the contract means entering a new contract that's technically not related to the previous one

[@arcamaru1242]

...

[@pokemasterx4244]

Yep. Japan is depressing

[@_ikako_]

@@PabbyPabbles that happens in the US as well. Companies will say "this job isn't full time!" But it will be 1-2 hours under full time so they don't have to pay for benefits or full time salary.

[@Notius]

@@_ikako_ Yep, I worked a lot of jobs like that during high school and college, I'd be working 35-38 hours a week but because it wasn't 40 I got none of the benefits full time workers would get.

[@IKEMENOsakaman]

But overall, I think the Japanese English speaking population has increased a lot over these 20 years. I mean, compared to 20 years ago, people are less shy talking to foreigners in English.

[@AlecLeigh]

as an english teacher for japanese teens, i've always discovered the one essential problem they all have in common. they have never learned the english phonetic alphabet orally. in the English language there are approximately 44 unique sounds, also known as phonemes, and often (not just the japanese) these are completely ignored in foreign schools.

[@kori228]

phonetics and phonology tend to be ignored or downplayed when learning languages in an academic setting unfortunately granted, sounding right won't help if you can't form sentences or remember any vocab

[@AlecLeigh]

@@kori228 on the contrary, if they can't articulate properly, their self esteemed drops. so out of experience, with what I explained, it legitimately works. once they have phonetically mastered the English sounds and alphabet, they become very competent in reading and understanding words more easily and quickly.

[@jame254]

@@AlecLeigh that should be the only thing learned in my opinion everything else should be acquired.

[@supremeseoljeong6921]

Now that you mentioned it, I don't remember ever learning them. My pronounciation suffers quite a bit because of that

[@openlink9958]

does that even exist? (Im hispanic in highschool, I just learned english through brute strength then, lol)

[@MaoRatto]

I thought it was because of how different the languages. Japanese is phoneticly simple, but written complex.

[@haldir108]

"how would you feel if your music teacher couldn't play any instrument?" My 3 different music teachers all played the CD player really well, so i never had any issues with this. /s

[@jame254]

i had a teacher for music theory whom did even theory lol so i know how that hindered me.

[@theparrot6516]

My music teacher just used music class to teach us about feminism :/

[@Sunbeargirl-]

That's so unfortunate! Music teachers really have to be good at many kinds of music in order to do their job well. I'm a music teacher myself, and it's not an easy job, to say the least.

[@theoutcast9215]

More like my music teachers never wanted to teach me so I had to teach myself how to play which made me behind all the others in my grade lol but yeah a teacher who can’t or doesn’t teach really hinders you. The only *real* music teacher I had was a tutor outside of class. She was really good.

[@superking5586]

@@theparrot6516 bruh did you report her to the principal?

[@jaskarvinmakal9174]

It's funny the English language proficiency test sounds exactly like the JLPT, a lot of reading, and listening but not a lot of writing or talking. It almost seems like the scholastic standards across the board is an issue.

[@3v068]

Just a side note joke: oh how the tables turn in my own life! I have to wait for japanese manga translations, they have to wait for english media translations.

[@bencegergohocz5988]

The very reason i managed to learn english was to read more manga... Hungarian anime translations covered everything even a decade ago but we only realy got translations for big shounen mangas like one piece or naruto.

[@achuchin]

The girl speaking almost perfect English accent and suddenly dropping that "ironicary" was so cute

[@gregcarter8656]

Along with taking English "crasses".

[@jeromeamoah131]

The power of Katakana

[@PolBearr12]

I remember I used to call customer care service and Spend tons of time speaking with them About a problem with my Network which didn't existed . Gradually My English improved

[@HaxHaunter]

oh, so THAT explains why i got a written warning at work for spending too much time speaking with a customer! (joking lol)

[@TiMonsor]

sneaky! creative! Great idea)

[@hydroaegis6658]

This is true for almost every foreign language taught in any school system. From my memory of Spanish and French in high school (US), we were force fed vocabulary and grammar to the point where I couldn't even fully understand full sentences.

[@Rosebakker5242]

@@Greenforrest7342 No? There are more languages than English which are benefitial. In America, that could be French and Spanish. In Europe, that could be even more of a clusterfuck. Apart from your native one (for me Dutch). You either learn French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian or even maybe even modern Greek. I know for a fact, there has been recent concern about the proficiency of French under our population, because it is used in the tourism sector, trade and pan-european and international diplomacy. The Dutch educational system is also focused on WHY a language is helpful in daily life. I would like to quote my German teacher "When you are on a camping place, with a toilet roll under your arm going to do your arm, and you see a hot girl/ guy/ whatever. You go ask for her name and she answers with "Guten Tag, ich heiße ...., was ist dein Name?", then you are douting your decisions you made in German class." (Translation: Goodday, My name is ...., what is your name?

[@akeem2983]

Russians: afraid of sounds "th", "w", short and long "i", and thought that their pronunciation is very bad Japanese: well, sh*t

[@boyar1978]

When i first heads Russian words such as Ito, Khorasho or Yuri I thought they were Japanese words. Kurasho is Good, Ito is it and Yuri is a Russian name. I have to admit I love Russian names. Especially Svetlana, Natalya, Tatyana, Yulia. I especially love Russian accents and how the words sound. Ya Lyublu Russky

[@PixelKun]

@@boyar1978 If you want to find an English man, just ask him to say Russian names. For Russian this sounds very funny.

[@PixelKun]

@ Akeem29 This is like a difference between "Ш" and "Щ" in Russan for English.

[@boyar1978]

@@PixelKun they both have a sh sound, I think one is a strong accent and the other is a weak.

[@PixelKun]

@@boyar1978 Nope. they both strong XD For a weak/strong in Russian we use the sings "ь" and "ъ"

[@kristinenepomuceno9926]

I work as an ALT here in Japan, the problem is that most japanese english teachers are not flexible and you give them advices to make the students learn english easier they dont like it they even get mad. One time I corrected an essay the JET got mad bc she was using the same word for years and I know it was wrong. She said "YOUR ONLY FILIPINO AND YOU CORRECTED THIS WORD"

[@maeveotis9686]

Japanese thinks that Filipinos are below them. Felt this during a 4 day vacation in Osaka.

[@ingridbmangubat]

That's the the thing. They hire ALTs but the curriculum and materials are all still made by Japanese who are not fluent in English. And they are not open to changes because it's 面倒くさい or a hassle. Add the mindset that gaijin don't get to have a voice because "they don't know the system", etc. It's really frustrating as a teacher. And sad for the students that they're wasting time and effort doing fruitless work

[@EtamirTheDemiDeer]

One of my discord friends said that interacting and befriending people in our server made them much more proficient in English and that made me happy

[@DianaProudmoore]

Yep, my english literacy got better when I started watching english videos back in 2006~

[@jonhu4127]

Having taken a Japanese class with a teacher who taught her class based on vocabulary and pronunciation instead of practical use, I can attest that this is true in reverse as well, at least part of the time. I became the class representative and notified her that the style of class didn't work. She didn't believe me until most of the class failed the midterm.

[@AuroraKaymin]

I learned how to speak in english for only four years. The reason is because I was born in Philippines. And education here is so great that almost all Filipinos can speak English almost fluently.

[@AnuelleCheng]

It starts at home though, I remember speaking only English from my first words until I was 6, which is honestly where I first learned how to speak in Filipino. I could speak Tagalog and English fairly fluently now though.

[@xamantra3201]

fellow Filipino here. I can say our primary language is actually English not Filipino. look at our documents, licenses, school/work papers, road signs, business names, school names, even local stores says "no credits" meaning "bawal utang" it's in english haha.. EVERYTHING is in English in Philippines.

[@jgdooley2003]

@@xamantra3201 In Ireland we have a lot of Filipino people working here and their English and attitude to life is excellent. 90% of my workplace ( nursing home) are Filipino and they share the Irish love for music and dance which makes my job ( entertainer) so easy. Great people.

[@melchorvincentagot1002]

@@xamantra3201 We don't use enough of our own language but I'm okay with it. As long as Tagalog and native dialects don't die.

[@kevinclydeeguia2543]

@@melchorvincentagot1002 Yeah we should still conserve our native languages... But the problem is to what extent? In the next generation, children might be fluent in english but horrible in their own regional dialects just like what happened to me personally... I think I know 60% of english but 15% of tagalog and 25% of bisaya

[@plzleavemealone9660]

I remember in my juku that my friend was going to too, the thing the teacher was teaching my friend was wrong. So I told my friend it was wrong, and the teacher just said ''That was what was written in the textbook''. I also never got 100 points on my english tests because I didn't write EXACTLY what was written in the textbook.

[@K000H]

I had something similar happen. I was going through my test results with a teacher some years back, and they asked me about a word i had used a couple of times in my written essay. I don't remember the word, but I explained the word as they had never heard of it before. They ended up taking a few point off my test as they couldn't find the word in their old dictionary. I just assumed they were right and i had somehow mixed a word up and used and spelled it wrong, but I later kept seeing the word in books and tv shows and i searched it up at one point and yea. There it was. It's really a shame when people's grades have to suffer because teachers and school textbooks aren't up to date.

[@Vaennylla]

Getting a perfect score in an english test won't necessarily make you fluent in english. Unfortunately, scores mean more than practical application in the institutions in Japan. Being a student myself, I saw how impractical our textbooks were. I hope they fix this problem soon.

[@SophiaAstatine]

Considering how Japanese channels have been booming in my feed lately, I guess either Japan is starting to reach into the English heavy youtube sphere, or my recommendations are being weird. Let's hope it's the former.

[@noriwatanabe9254]

For teaching strategy, technology as well as school environments, I've seen more improvements than problems for English education. It has more to do with social psychological things. In many other non-English speaking countries, people are motivated/urged to master it for real survival; going out of poverty, for the sake of upward mobility, money and power! In Japan where most people survive and live well without English, their learning motivation tends to remain low (aside from high exam scores).

[@dbmdrums1105]

Yeah you make a good point. I guess Indians and Filipinos(Middle /Urban class) are more attuned to speaking English and their mother tongue thus their assimilation into Anglo communities is easier. I see it as a good thing but ...some folks wish to look it backwards .

[@parazitul1986]

I disagree with you point here. Firstly it's because there are plenty nations as developed as Japan or even more developed with just better english scores overall. Second it's because people from developing non-english countries are not necessarly to learn english. In fact i come from such a country, and the % of people that worked outside and learned english is low, mostly because they worked in other non-speaking countries.

[@parazitul1986]

@Jotaro97 If you only look at the top you will only get half of the picture. Look at asian countries. They have a similar situation to Japan. Yes, they are not at the top, but they are well above japan in this matter.

[@metalheadcomicbookfan797]

@Jotaro97 well it makes sense cause English is a Germanic language so the Germanic countries have an easier time learning them. I think learning English should be mandatory in every country cause u can communicate with most of the world just by speaking it. The real reason why my country has really good English speakers cause most textbooks are already in English so u need to learn English first before learning the subject.

[@salvatorescaletta7490]

I agree. "Needing" a language is essential to learn it properly. Here in Italy for example most people I know do not speak English very well because they thought they would not need it. Many of them regret that now as they "can't" visit the UK and other countries on their own because they would have trouble communicating.

[@cabri358]

ironically, I learned English playing videogames such as pokémon or final fantasy (which are Japanese). I'm a native spanish speaker from South America, and when I was a kid, not all games were available on their Spanish translation since most of our games came from North America instead from Europe(European version of games had Spanish because of Spain).

[@kittyacedira5014]

Unpopular opinion : Everyone's room decoration were so dope.

[@lsvensson8256]

Guy: "Imagine trying to teach an entire country a foreign language..." "with the idea of universal bilingualism. Obviously that's impossible." Me: Well since 90% of our adult population knows how to speak English, because we've had English as a compulsory subject in schools for 70 years, it's clearly not impossible. I mean odds are they'd see similar development eventually. I guess I just can't see how teaching your people the largest global language is ever going to be a detriment. While neglecting to give your people the opportunity to learn the English, regardless of whether they're interested in pursuing a career path in conection to English, will probably just serve to isolate regular Japanese people from the rest of the world.

[@ClareAndAlec]

Right? The guy's accent is American and it seems that he forgot his home country's northern neighbor 🇨🇦 🤔

[@xXdnerstxleXx]

As a german I can tell you have of my friends in school can‘t do shit in english. I learned english as a kid because I played games in english since the gaming industry is dead, 99% of games are foreign, but like Japan, Germany is a big and rich country in stagnation so both have extremely large consumer markets. Its big enough to make translations worth. So everything is dubbed or translated by professionals. German and English are germanic langauges with the same alphabet so the barrier is much smaller and we learn English earlier so the issues aren‘t as big. At the end of the day learning english via school is gargabe. People who are proficient learn it in their freetime. Nowhere else this is as problematic as in Japan.

[@capitalb5889]

@@xXdnerstxleXx - the level of English in Germany is way above what you get in Japan. Of course, English is a Germanic language, so it is much easier to learn for Germans, but I guess only one in five hundred Japanese can speak English conversationally.

[@Laetu]

@@capitalb5889 plus: foreigners are treated really bad in Japan. There aren’t many instances where you will have a constant connection with a foreigner. In Europe, you are literally surrounded by different languages which often have the same root language. In America, you will frequently hear Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese etc (although we can’t really speak anything beyond Spanish bc our entire education system is horrible)

[@capitalb5889]

@@Laetu - but in America, and most countries, it is assumed that the foreigner will speak the local language. In Japan, it assumed that you speak English and cannot communicate in Japanese.

[@badhabitz69]

Every teacher needs to watch the show GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka. Then they will understand how to teach!!!

[@minatoaudiph7883]

And every aspiring Japanese, English teacher needs to watch Dead Poets Society or some other English educational movie....

[@alexcarter8807]

@@minatoaudiph7883 Why Dead Poets particularly? I'd say just watch good movies that are in English, anything from the Criterion Collection really just buy that collection and have the DVDs available for your students to sign out and watch or watch as a class.

[@lawd.8354]

Nice one! GTO is a great anime. I do recommend it!

[@pokemasterx4244]

I disagree. He is a good teacher is a sense but he's a criminal

[@Hrishtam]

@@pokemasterx4244 anyone with at least one brain cell would understand that the criminal part is only for the humour

[@nguyentho6768]

A bit interesting perspective from Vietnam here. I felt like Vietnamese English had (and is probably somehow still having) just the same problems listed by you here. The English textbooks used to be pretty damn awful until it got a slightly bit better written in the last few years. The vast majority of the dynamic in English education scene used to come from the 'schools for the gifted' where they pit talented students and some of the best teachers in the country against each other. I think there are a few things that helped to drive the results (not necessary the process) of Vietnamese English education upward. One is the demand for IELTS and TOEIC certificate for studying abroad and, recently, for job better higher education and job prospects. Even though not everyone can absorb them, these systems (IELTS and TOEIC) did brought in some native English that the compulsory education system doesn't have to offer and that's not confined within the schools for the gifted, and some learner managed to thrive from that. And some of these advanced learners actually came back with some really innovative ideas about English education to help other learners and set up on their own a system of non-standard, private English education and it worked quite well. The second is probably because we really enjoy the influx of western culture here, their music, their products, their movies, even their political views, etc. Our relatively worse creativity (than Japan) also tends to drive us to just copy the fabrics of western culture (instead of converting it into something entirely different and local like Japaneses did) and it actually helped with our English a lot.

[@Prismaticmind]

The sad thing, to me, is how many native English speakers would be willing to fix/correct the "engrish" to English even for free in many cases for these publishers.

[@Deetroiter]

I would

[@linyenchin6773]

Yes but many native speakers have faulty foundation~bias and thus; a wrong~slightly wrong sense of their own language. "People" of england and other non-American places believe "tube" is pronounced as "chew-b." Homophones still stump the lay person. Such people,often, can't tell you the difference between "then" and "than."

[@zenrythebard5587]

​@@linyenchin6773 I don't understand the problem of pronouncing tube like 'chewb'. You're speaking as if England wasn't the birthplace of the language and that their pronunciation is wrong. In the case of the Japanese, it may be easier for them to pronounce it that way as they have Chu but not Tu. Also, obviously people with a below average reading comprehension shouldn't be editing anything, especially if they're getting stumped with simple homophones like "then" and "than" or "they're", "there", and "their".

[@ASHERUISE]

@@linyenchin6773 I mean, I agree with you that British English isn't the end-all-be-all "correct/superior" form of English as a few Britons seem to think it is, but English learners need to be able to understand non-textbook-standard pronunciations too.

[@moksha8473]

@@linyenchin6773 Pronunciation is down to dialect/accent. Their is no 'correct' way to pronounce 'tube' in this case. This is half the problem; learners come away sounding like Microsoft Sam, because they obsess over the technicalities.

[@Prem-j9l3s]

*In life, you must learn to become comfortable with something in order to be able to learn it. This applies to anything -math, science, social studies, history, morals- and applies to even things you do in real life. You must learn to get comfortable and get used to being wrong. Being incorrect isn’t bad, it just means you’re trying.*

[@jame254]

also ask. i have people when practicing there English. usually Japanese say 合っていませんか？あ、はい合っています。if they are right in the pronunciation and intonation stress. 違います。if they are complete wrong correct them.　　Then ill ask if what I said is correct. if the y the latter. they will give the right way to say.

[@yayothejowen2541]

Meanwhile learning japanese outside japan: "tHiS iS a SeA uRcHiN"

[@islouie1795]

Ah, I see what you did there, filthyyy

[@hyperion8382]

I don't get it? Someone explain pls haha.

[@onlionfire40]

Animes?

[@FlowUrbanFlow]

ニガスインパリス

[@yayothejowen2541]

@@FlowUrbanFlow words I live by everyday...

[@loveisinportant5570]

I'm not even halfway through the video and I'm supremely impressed. Great job getting in so many perspectives from people who have actually lived this, it's so helpful to learn about the difficulties of English in Japan.