Another Dubious Milestone

[setsuled]

Yesterday came the news that Japan has fallen even further from its already low ranking in English proficiency. It ranks 92 out of a list of 112 countries where English is not the primary language. Notably, it ranks far below South Korea, which is at number 50. Since the difficulty for Korean speakers in learning English is comparable for a

Comments

[deepseasiren]

I remember when my parents visited Japan ( their parents are from Japan) my dad never learned to speak it because his family was English only when they got here. My mom however spoke it fluently, and she was saying that so few people spoke decent English in Japan that my dad would have never been able to get around as easily if she wasn't there to speak it.

[setsuled]

I'd say I've met maybe two Japanese people who can really speak English. They're very rare.

[deepseasiren]

One thing that is constant with Asian languages, any dialect of Chinese as well as Vietnamese and Korean, Japanese...they do not have the sound distinguish between the letters of 'L' and 'R.' So a lot of times, they mispronounce the R in our language as L. Instead of airplane they say airprane.

[matrixmann]

Hm, that's interesting.
Although, it doesn't come as a surprise as Japanese people are said to be not very affectionate towards learning foreign languages in general.
Haven't ever been.

On the other hand... as much as I know about Japanese itself (which is not much, but more than nothing), it's also difficult at times to put the meaning of something into words of another language because of the peculiarities that languages with Europen origin don't have.

(I'm coming in here to this entry from a repost, btw.)

[setsuled]

The fundamental differences between the languages are certainly a factor.

[deepseasiren]

There is actually truth to that statement. The Japanese in particular are a very nationalistic and proud people, and while I was told they do learn English, it's limited, and they don't bother to practice it.

[matrixmann]

Already think about that they generally convert a popular English loanword into their writing system. - of course with word endings adapted to their language (they don't leave it the original way