The language of opportunity: Bilingual education is on the rise in Japan

8 comments

1. >_Just 13% of Japanese speak multiple languages, compared to 40% of Thai and French, 57% of Australians…_

   That large percentage of Aussies represented in the article didn’t learn their multiple languages at school. I’d wager that most are from bilingual households.

2. I noticed a few Japanese kids on the train in Tokyo jokingly trying to speak English, using phrases like “oh my god” and “nice to meet you”. I wonder if this is due to the educational system or the surge of tourists in the area.

3. The one thing I learned from this article is that [thejapantimes.com](http://thejapantimes.com) wants 30$ a month to read the rest of the article! Interestingly they only want 3000 yen and not 4700 as it would be with the current exchange rate.

4. Giving hope to thousands of English-speaking neckbeards.

5. Unfortunately I have to say this — Places like Shanghai have more people using English (even though some menus have been translated to very hilarious results) than the ones in Tokyo.
   And Tokyo was exposed to the US longer than China. Back to the time when Red China was busy deciding if it wanted to come out of isolation or not back then…

6. It was crazy switching from teaching kids in Tokyo to Hong Kong. My 5 year olds were fluent in 3 languages. Zero accent while speaking English, understood nuance etc.

   Difference several hours of learning a new language a week through ages 2-5 can make.

7. Good, honestly it was about time. This isn’t the 1700s anymore.

8. “Just 13% of Japanese speak multiple languages, compared to 40% of Thai and French, 57% of Australians, and more than 75% of people from countries like Switzerland, Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden.”

   Where are they getting these stats from? There is no way even 25% of Irish people speak more than just English, and the same goes for Australia….

   Sources:

   [rte](https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2018/0116/932477-speaking-your-language-irelands-72-different-languages/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%202016%20Census,500%20speakers%20living%20in%20Ireland)
   “According to the 2016 Census, there are presently 612,018 people in Ireland, or 13 percent of the overall population, who are multilingual, speaking a language other than Irish or English at home. “