1st Post:
Hi ==
> Why is English proficiency so low among Japanese?
I think that it is primarily because there is a scarce necessity for the overall Japanese people to be good at it.
It is said that the group of people more than approximately 70 million physically gathered with a sole language in common have a little interest in learning foreign languages because they feel almost no need for the secondary language.
Let’s take a look at Russia and a portion of China. Most of the people there, even including local business persons and local public servants, do not speak English as far as I know. (Germany and France are not good samples to examine, as their population sizes are barely on the edge.) I assume that they can finish their higher education in their own languages. Obviously they don’t have to learn and speak any foreign language in their daily life.
In comparison with other similar groups, the Japanese as a whole is a good learners of English, I think. The Japanese culture is referred to as marginal or peripheral (Henkyo Bunka), in which the Japanese people, in its long history, have been in a high demand for the products of the other cultures and civilizations. This is why English education in Japan tends to focus on reading skills (and a little focus on writing only to ensure what is mastered by the students).
Many say that the English education system in Japan puts too much focus on reading skills and writing skills. But if one can read and write English, it could be fairly easy for him to express his thought in an acceptable level of verbal English , when a steady demand for the verbal communication arises to him. So I do not see major problem in the overall English education in Japan.
Many people both inside and outside of Japan emphasize the importance of mastering foreign languages. These people usually see the situation of the groups of people less than 70 million somewhere in the world and contend that Japanese people should act like the groups. However the majority of Japanese people do not find necessity for mastering foreign languages. For the majority, even learning English is either an option to enlighten themselves like some other subjects they learn at schools such as math etc., or an alternative to enrich their lives like some other hobbies such as flower arrangement etc
2nd Post:
M==
Very interesting comment that I assume is in response to mine.
Yes. The large-scaled Monodukuri does continue to recede. However, small-scaled Monodukuri doesn’t as far as I have seen so-called SMEs for 13 years. And the SMEs are about 80% of the companies in number in Japan.
Mere line workers are rather harder to exist in Japan than before as you pointed out. And SMEs are often changing them either into Cell-Production high skill workers or into workers of minute and precise handworks at the model manufacturing sites for whole world.
Mere truck drivers are rather harder to exist in Japan than before as you also pointed out. So the SMEs in the Logistic sector are often training the truck drivers to materialize the precise delivery sometimes with a high level of hospitality to the receiving customers.
So far I can remember only several employees altogether who are more fluent in English than I, in all of the SMEs I have encountered in the last 13 years. To win over the global peers, the SMEs usually find their competitve edge in the quality of their operations rather than finding it in enhancing their English communication skills.
When they face the need for the English communication, they either hire just one or two full-time experts in English, hire a temporary interpreter, or find an outsourcer in the field, as far as their major business revenue is generated in the domestic business. So here again, the need for the English proficiency is just for the special people.
Well, M==. I am not saying that this situation is the ideal. I am simply depicting what I have seen. I myself have experienced absolutely no need for using English until I opened my LinkedIn account last May.
I do admit the drastic expansion of business opportunities after I started LinkedIn. But the majority of Japanese do have many other opportunities in domestic markets so far. There are enormous number of people they can communicate and do business with, with absolutely no effort of mastering a secondary language.