Talk like a gaijin

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ITS buses and trains arrive on the dot. Its engineers are famously precise. But when it comes to English, Japan is uncharacteristically sloppy. Signs are often misspelled. Taxi drivers point at phrasebooks to communicate with foreigners. Shops that take an English name to be trendy often get it horribly wrong: witness “Poopdick”, a second-hand cosmetics outlet.

English-speakers are much less common in Japan than in most rich, globalised countries. In 2015 Japan’s average score in the TOEFL, a popular test of proficiency for non-native speakers, was 71 out of 120, lower than in all East Asian countries except Laos and Cambodia. Companies seeking English-speakers tend to look for people who studied or grew up abroad, on the assumption that locally schooled candidates will not cut the mustard.

The government wants to change this. Earlier this month it announced plans to overhaul the teaching of English. Children may soon start learning the language two years earlier, when they are eight instead of ten. Lessons will emphasise communication over reading, writing and grammar.

All this, it is hoped,...Continue reading

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