Argument: English Education is still Needed in Japan

In Japan, the common language is Japanese, and not so many people are using English in their daily lives that Namekata (2014) attributes Japanese people’s low scores on TOEIC tests to this situation, where English is not used so widely, comparing Japan with South Korea, where the fierce competition of entrance examination of the universities exists, one requirement of which is concerned about English ability. Amid this situation, some have reconsidered the necessity of English education in Japan. However, English education does not only meant to allow children to acquire language skills, but to allow them to do much more things, including logical thinking, which is of use in order to make their lives richer and is often necessary for an academic field. In addition, current technology have yet to be ready to serve as a translator. This essay claims that it is still necessary and useful for children to study English and that therefore English classes should not be eliminated from our current curriculum.

One major advantage of studying English is that it could allow learners to enhance their ability with regard to their mother language, or Japanese for this case, and logical thinking. According to Murahata (2018), studying English allowed learners whose mother language is Japanese to interpret generic nouns more accurately even in their mother language, which suggests that studying English has a positive effect on the ability to use Japanese as well as English. This has become more important when it comes to using the language more accurately. Since Japanese is said to be a topic prominent language since it makes frequent topicalization (Kishimoto, 2020), it is quite likely that the speaker fails to pay attention to the sentence’s subject and predicate. Although this is not a significant problem, this comes to matter when they are required to write a formal paper, especially an academic paper, which requires accuracy. Meanwhile, English has grammatical rules with regard to subject-verb agreement, while Japanese does not, which allows Japanese students who study English to pay attention to the sentences’ subjects, leading them to read more accurately as well as logically. This does not mean that English-based logical thinking is needed, but that studying another language whose structure is completely different helps students interpret things more accurately, or logically. What is more, considering the fact that each language has its own recognition of things, studying English or any other language is of use to widen their perspectives, which is necessary to think logically. For instance, since the expressions of colors are differ greatly depending on the languages (Trafton, 2017), when a language other than the mother language is studied, if not always, the students are “able to perceive the world around us from a different perspective” (Murahata et al., 2017, p.11). The more ways to perceive the world we acquire, the more accurate the interpretation will be and the more possible it is to think logically. In this sense, it is still of use for students to study English.

Another reason for the necessity of English education amid the time of the rapidly-improving technology comes as electronic translators, such as Google Translate and DeepL, have yet to be ready to play a role as an interpreter, much less as a translator. Tokunaga (2020) has reported that they miss the interpretation of negation, inversion and some more expressions. These are concerned with the subtle differences due to the expressions. That is to say, if such things are ignored, what the speaker or author truly wants to tell could be missed, in which sense this can be said to be a problem that hinders us from relying on electronic translators. Even if the details can be ignored, just prioritizing telling a message in a foreign language, it is not possible to ignore that an electronic translator cannot interpret the context, which causes the misinterpretation of the antecedents of pronouns. Needless to say, these services and technologies are handy and would help us communicate more easily. In light of this, it is not wise to stop using such services. However, given that they can make mistakes grammatically as well as fail to interpret the sentences given incorrectly, at least the ability to realize the mistakes electronic translators make, is required, and such ability can be acquired only by studying steadily spending a certain amount of time. In short, despite current rapid developments in technology, it is still impossible for a time being to use them without studying to a certain degree, which is why we cannot eliminate English classes from our current curriculum.

However, Kubota (2016) cast doubt on the necessity of English education in Japan, where she claims Japanese, rather than English, is dominated as a common language. In other words, when it comes to the situation within Japan, English is not necessary to communicate with others. This could be true considering the emergence of “Yasashii Nihongo” as a response to more and more foreign people in Japan (The Ministry of Justice, 2020). However, it can be said that English classes in Japan are all the more important because of this situation, where more and more foreigners come into Japan, and because of “Yasashii Nihongo.” As it has been mentioned, Japanese is a topic prominent language (Kishimoto, 2020), making it difficult for those whose literacy skills are not enough to make plain sentences, where a clear subject and predicate are required, even in Japanese, due to lack of the opportunity to think about the structures of sentences. Studying English, which requires subject-verb agreement, provides this opportunity. What is more, it goes without saying that considering the fact that English is still used in the international community, even though English itself is not used in Japan, this cannot be the case beyond Japan. In other words, without English classes, those likely to go abroad or play some role beyond Japan could lose such opportunities. Needless to say, it is totally impossible either to select such students or for the students to acquire the language skills for the short period. Hence, even though Japan is a country where there are fewer opportunities to use English, it does not mean that English education itself is not needed.

In conclusion, English classes are still demanded by our society in Japan, not only because of their short-term benefits, that is being able to communicate in English, but also because of long-term benefits, such as possible improvement of logical thinking as well as the imperfection of electronic translators. This can be another answer to the question that is often cast by society: English classes should teach what they call practical to the students. If it were done, the long-term benefits that are mentioned would be gone. From this perspective, anyone should reconsider the purpose of public education.

 

References

Kishimoto, H. (2020). Analyzing Japanese Syntax. Hituzi Syobo.

Kubota, R. (2016). Paradoxes of Learning English in Multilingual Japan:Envisioning Education for Border-Crossing Communication. Languages and identities in a transitional Japan: From internationalization to globalization. 59-77. Routledge

Murahata, G., Murahata, K & Murahata, Y (2017). Effects of English Learning and Use on Color Imagery in Japanese L2 Users of English. Miyazaki Kokusai Daigaku Kyoiku Gakubu Kiyo Kyoiku Gakuron Shu (Bulletin of Miyazaki International College School of Education), 89, 1-12. https://miyazaki-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=5269&item_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21

Murahata, Y. (2018). Eigo Gakushu ga Nihongo Bogowasha no Ninchi ni Ataeru Eikyo: Body Parts no Kiritori Kata wo Megutte (The Effects caused on Japanese learners of English by studying English: with the Focus on How to See the Body Parts). Miyazaki Kokusai Daigaku Kyoiku Gakubu Kiyo Kyoiku Gakuron Shu (Bulletin of Miyazaki International College School of Education), 5, 1-12. https://meilib.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=721&item_no=1&page_id=24&block_id=45

Namekata, A. (2014). Eikaiwa Fuyo Ron (Argument against English Conversations). Bungei Shunju.

The Ministry of Justice. (2020). Zairyu Shien no Tameno Yasashii Nihongo Guideline (The Guideline to Support for Foreigners to Stay and Live in Japan). Immigration Service Agency of Japan. https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/support/portal/plainjapanese_guideline.html

Tokunaga, K. (2020). Which Grammatical Items can be Problematic in Machine Translation?. Ritsumeikan University Gengo Bunka Kenkyu (Ritsumeikan University’s Study on Language and Culture). 32(2), 45-63. https://ritsumei.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=13847&item_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21

Trafton, A. (2017). Analyzing the Language of Color. MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2017/analyzing-language-color-0918