English in High School
The Yomiuri reports on a survey which shows that South Korean high school students are both more confident and more proficient when it comes to using English in actual communication.
Prof. Kensaku Yoshida of Sophia University, who has also analyzed the survey, said he found the confidence shown by South Korean students very interesting.
“They have more opportunities to use English outside the classroom and this experience seems to boost their confidence,” he said.
The professor pointed out that increased confidence probably helps students feel more like using the language, creating a virtuous circle of progress.
“If South Korean students enjoy more and more opportunities to use the language spontaneously on a daily basis, I believe it’s much more likely that they’ll make further progress,” he said.
Yoshida is a member of the foreign-language education committee of the Central Council for Education, an advisory panel to the education, science and technology minister. The panel is looking into potential reform of English-language education in the nation.
“It is necessary (for Japanese students) to make greater use of opportunities to utilize English both in and outside the classroom,” he said.
I don’t have any statistics to prove that South Korean highschoolers would be more likely to bump into native speakers of English in their daily lives, so, if they are more likely to use English “outside the classroom,” my best guess is they’re using the Internet. As for what goes on in classrooms, the survey probably bears testimony to the fact that the Japanese language classrom, whatever its other merits may be, is not the most communicative learning environment ever devised.
For some strange reason, I’m also reminded of a conversation I recently had with a middle-aged Japanese lady. She was convinced that assistant language teachers, the foreign nationals employed in large numbers at Japanese schools, exert a bad influence on Japanese students because they’re not properly educated in the art of teaching. Moreover, she questioned the wisdom of teaching English as a mandatory subject; it would be far better if the students were instructed in Japanese culture rather than in the English language. In fact, those who felt they needed English for travel or business should study the language privately.
While I don’t know how widely held this opinion is, it does show a certain xenophobia, which strikes me as a strong undercurrent in Japanese society and, possibly, a hurdle to mastering foreign languages.
Comments
Good point.
I’ve read travel reports from China saying that the Chinese don’t have any inhibitions about using “broken English” either. I wonder, though, if there is in fact a “cultural difference” or if this inhibition is foisted on the Japanese by a testing system that focuses on an overblown notion of correctness.
>These are the very situations where many Japanese friends would simply stay quiet because they can’t say it perfectly.
I agree with Kevin. I also think many Japanese people including me are not confident to express our opinions. In addition, sometimes some Japanese can’t say anything because they can’t keep up with the conversation. But they are not even confident enough to say that they can’t understand what’s going on. Instead, they are just smiling as I was before. This is related to our Japanese national character to some extent, I think.
The Yomiuri report on the survey is actually part of a new series called The Language Connection. Today’s article, Online lessons feature Philippine teachers, reports on a new e-learning project that gives Japanese nationals access to foreign English teachers.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this business model managed to catch on and break into Japan’s language market precicely because it offers, at affordable rates, the the sort of face-to-face interaction students largely fail to experience at school.
In general, most Japanese are not used to express their own ideas. I think this is because of Japanese culture. We don’t want to cause any trouble. (We tend to think that aruguments are kind of trouble.)
My coworker from Scotland says that she uses ‘maybe’ more frequently in Japan than she did in Scotland and that she was influenced by Japanese culture. Japanese people dare not take the responsibility for what they say. That’s why we often use ‘maybe,’ ‘I think…’ or ‘I don’t know.’ This way of thinking is a big obstacle for the Japanese to communicate with people from other countries.
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I don’t know if South Koreans have more chance to speak English ourside the classroom, but, based on the Koreans I have known, they are much more confident. Not just about English though, about voicing their opinnion in general.
I think that having a strong opinion and being confident enough to voice it also goes a long way toward learning a language. The friends of mine will try anything to get their idea across, be it speaking broken English, or a mixture of Japanese and English. These are the very situations where many Japanese friends would simply stay quiet because they can’t say it perfectly.
I don’t know enough about Korean culture to delve into why this difference exists, or if it even does exist in the world outside of my own circle of friends, but it seems that this would have an effect on language aptitude.