Many Japanese people don’t speak English. English is not the official language in Japan, of course. But other Asian countries such as Taiwan, Korea speak English more. Japanese people start learning English from junior high school and continue learning until college. So usual Japanese people study English for 10 years. But most of them cannot speak English. Why?
I think there are 3 reasons for this.
First, the Japanese education system has a problem. School teachers want students not to make mistakes. So, students pursue perfection. If they make mistakes, they are considered as stupid. They worry about making mistakes. Then, they don’t want to speak English, because they don’t want to make mistakes.
Second, there are few opportunities to speak English in daily life. Because of geographical features in Japan, it is difficult to come to Japan from foreign countries historically. The number of foreign people is small in Japan as I explained in the past article.
Third, the features of the Japanese language and English are completely different. Both grammar and pronunciation of the two languages have nothing in common. That makes learning English difficult for Japanese people.
