English Lesson in Elementary School of Japan


I started learning English at school when I was 12.

My major was English Literature in my college days.

I’ve studied English in England and America for quite a long time.

These seem to be good steps in mastering English.

I must be a good speaker of English.

However, this is not true. I still feel somewhat out of place with English and  I cannot speak it freely.  Why?

What I learned at school was not English as communication, transmission, message, or conveyance but it was a tool of observing the countries where English is spoken. Teachers taught me intellectual sentences and logical grammar. I never had listening comprehension or conversation tests during my school days.  The Japanese government in those days forgot that practice is more important than theory.

Most Japanese are like me. People who learned English especially in an old curriculum cannot speak English. So they have inferiority complex about oral education of English.

When it was advocated that English lesson will start in elementary school in 2008, almost 90% of parents approved of this proposal, according to the 2005 survey by the Ministry of Education and Science. Parents say unless they had jobs or experience using English, Japanese wouldn’t be able to speak English. Internationalization is spread all over the world, which means English is an obligatory tool of communication, because there are international conferences, trade businesses, scientific institutions, medical congresses, information from computers and so on. These are achieved by using English.

On the other hand, some people worry about the future of Japanese as a Mother Language. Such people insist that Japanese isn’t easy to master. That’s why it takes many years for children or students to acquire Japanese language. It is natural that the Japanese should master their native language as a citizen. English is incompatible with Japanese lesson, and it may cause a lack of patriotism.

I understand these people, however, there are some examples, such as people in African and Asian countries that had been occupied by European countries can speak French, English or Spanish besides their own languages. I know some Taiwanese acquaintances who can speak Japanese and Chinese very well.

I am sure it is unnecessary for some negative Japanese adults to worry about the process and effect regarding the lack of children’s Japanese ability of Japanese.

Children are better and quicker than adults in learning a foreign language.

They will answer to the present problems in the future.

As for the problem of patriotism, I don’t think deficiency love of one’s country comes from an English lesson.
                                                        Satomi Oka








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