Teach English in MachAngying Zhen - Beijing

Problems for Learners in Japan I have had the privilege of teaching english in japan for the past three years. Even though English is taught in public schools in Japan, compared to other Asian countries the japanese don?t seem to understand English. I have identified some reasons why I think they have problems learning English. The first is grammar. Grammar in japanese is almost the complete opposite compared to English. In japanese the verb comes at the end of the sentence. Some people compare it to talking like Yoda. In English we say, ?I love you.? In japanese they would say, ?I you love.? Actually sometimes it really is like Yoda because they often use third person when they talk about themselves. This is often confusing for students and one common mistake is mix up the word order when they are speaking English. However, japanese grammar is not unique to Japan. korean has a similar sentence structure, yet they don?t seem to have as many problems with English as the japanese do. Let?s explore more options. japanese has three different writing systems, kanji (chinese characters) Hiragana (their phonetic language) and Katakana (for words that have gotten into the japanese language that are of foreign origin). Even though most Katakana words have English origin, Katakana actually hurts japanese learners of English. The main reason is because of pronunciation. With the exception of the ?n? sound, all of the consonants in japanese are followed by a vowel sound (which is probably another reason why learning English is so hard for the japanese). So even though many English words have gotten into japanese, the pronunciation can be quite different. It is very hard for a teacher to get their student away from Katakana pronunciation. The japanese language isn?t the only reason why learners of English have such a hard time in Japan, the culture is another. In Japan you are not supposed to be good at anything, and that takes the students confidence away when they are learning English. I have had so many japanese people who have told me their English isn?t good, even though it was pretty darn good. It?s a challenge for teachers to build the students confidence when they are not supposed to be too good at anything. Another reason why the culture gets in the way is just the fact that Japan is a wealthy nation. Up until last year Japan was the second largest economy in the world (china has now surpassed Japan). There really isn?t any economic benefit for a student to learn English compared to other parts of Asia. A japanese person can go through their whole life and become quite successful with out needing any English at all. There is no motivation for them. If you can be successful without English, why learn it? It can be really frustrating for a teacher coming over to Japan with high expectations and knowing they study at the very least six years of English at school, only to find out no one around you can speak English. If only I had been given the opportunity to study japanese for six years during my school years, I could have done so much more here. Things are starting to change. Before, japanese students started English during junior high school, but recently they have started teaching them in elementary schools and even some kindergartens. The japanese are facing many problems in the future, a population decline, losing their status as a world power, and more recently the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fallout disasters. Some people think they need to open up more to English to secure their future. As an English teacher I can?t agree more. I hope Japan can figure out what it needs to solve their problems.