The phrase 'Japanese English' refers to expressions in English which can only be heard in Japan. Some examples: a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan 'Buy Socks'; or two very popular soft drinks with the names 'Pocari Sweat' and 'Calpis'; or questions such as 'Do you have a time? Let's enjoy a challenge to English conversation.' For more gems of Japanese English, and a very funny although quite superficial introduction to Japan, I highly recommend comedian Dave Barry's book titled "Dave Barry Does Japan." You won't come away with a particularly deep understanding of Japanese culture, but you will surely laugh a lot as you learn about his two week vacation in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Now for some more serious facts about the English Language in Japan:

-Every year nearly 150,000 Japanese people take a world-wide administered test called TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). This figures compares to 85,000 test takers in S. Korea and nearly 60,000 in The People's Republic of China. Now when you consider that the population of Japanese is 120 million versus 60 million in Korea, the number of TOEFL takers in Japan doesn't seem quite so staggering, but it still is clearly rather high. However, very surprisingly the average score for Japanese ranks 149th in the world!

-At schools in Japan, English is considered as fundamental as math or science. In the U.S., students have choices. First, students in the States choose whether or not to take a foreign language at all, and second they choose which foreign language to take. Not so in Japan. Every student at a public school and nearly all students at private schools, must take a foreign language, and the foreign language must be English. This requirement holds not for, say two years of English, nor for four years of English, but in fact for a full six years of English! Every year of Junior High and High School features English as a staple course.

-On college and university campuses across Japan, English language clubs abound. Most focus on improving conversational English, although some are for reading and discussing literature or academic works in English. There are even a fair number of English language debating clubs, some of which are famous for producing national politicians. This phenomenon is quite interesting given the fact that, apart from these English language debate clubs, there are no comparable Japanese language debate societies to be found at schools in Japan.

-English has spawned an entire multi-million dollar industry in Japan. Language schools can be found all over the place, at every major gathering center in Tokyo. There are huge nationwide mega-chains with hundreds of branches peppered throughout every major city in the country. From high schoolers preparing for university entrance exams to twentysomething office workers climbing the corporate ladder to middle-aged housewives learning English as a hobby, all types of people attend these language schools which generally charge over $20/hour for lessons.

With so much energy going into learning English, I'm sure you expect that most Japanese can speak it quite well. Unfortunately, the sad truth is exactly the opposite. The hours and money poured into learning are bearing little fruit. Most Japanese have a very hard time expressing themselves in English. And listening skills are generally quite low too. Writing is marginally better, but still falls short of what one would expect given the effort expended. The one area in which achievement matches expectation is reading. Most Japanese can understand written English fairly well, which is especially helpful now in the internet age where most global communication is conducted in written English.

What caused Japanese English to reach its present state? This is a question many in Japan are asking. Some blame the students, first for a lack of true will and desire to master the language, and second for being too afraid of making mistakes to really go for it. However, increasingly there are those who point to structural problems in a school system which places nearly all its effort on preparing students for college entrance exams to the exclusion of teaching how to communicate. Colleges write exams which test little more than grammar and reading comprehension, because it is easiest to grade these types of question, I imagine. Hopefully the system will begin to change as more people strive to put life back into the English language in Japan. Until then, I'll be busy explaining the difference between 'who' and 'whom' rather than talking with my students about the more important things in life.

Until next month, may peace be with you. -Daniel Heller