“90% of Japanese people don’t need English”This is the title of a book written by Makoto Naruke, the former Microsoft president in Japan. The book attempts to capture the “essence of learning languages” but mostly talks about how meaningless English is and 90% of Japanese people don’t need it, but desperately “study” it.
He says the 10% of people who really need English are professions where English skills become a value.
-A businessmen and women working for a foreign company
-Hotel employees
-Customer services for foreign tourists.
-Researchers and doctors “for reading overseas papers”
The author also calls people who study English stupid. He says that people who are studying English “because they might need it in the future,” “think there is no harm in learning English”and “people who speak English are good” are stupid.
He goes on to write about how in the world, there are many countries that can’t study without learning English and other countries where you have economic reasons that you can’t get a job without studying English. He says that Japan is a “rare” country where Japanese people can learn advanced studies in Japanese due to the achievements of their predecessors.
He does say, If you really want to learn English, it is most efficient to go abroad and put yourself in an environment where you can get in touch with English on a daily basis. Basically, he asks “what is the payoff or endgame if people spends a lot of money for something they won’t use?” He compares it to buying a car and only driving it once a year.
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