Honestly most Japanese people would be better off with reading, writing and grammar. Then they can access information in English, which is useful. Their ability to convey information in English orally to other people is less likely to be useful if they are living normal lives in Japan. Being able to communicate in writing also probably has broader application for most…
I agree that improving speaking skills for Japanese student is great, but isn’t it backwards to start by an entrance exam?
Yup. Any attempt to make progress on English communication gets met with this sort of stupid opposition from every sector- Parents, who don’t like the abstract nature of speaking test; teachers, who don’t feel comfortable teaching speaking/phonics; administrators, who don’t want to deal with the complaints from those mentioned above. It’s so damn disheartening. And, as is so often the case in Japanese decision-by-committee situations, the answer is never “Ok, we’ll make a few adjustments and go ahead,” it’s always “Now’s not a great time…” I hope this time the folks in charge hold strong. I’m tutoring an intelligent HS second grader with awful English skills now, and his preparation for the entrance exams is to memorize a torrent of highly specific grammar points while he’s personally unable to answer even basic questions in English without a couple repeats and a minute to think. He’s doing it to compete with the tens of thousands of other kids taking this exam, and the exam is made with intentionally convoluted grammar points just to stratify the kids based on how hard they study; the whole process is absolutely divorced from the fundamental utility and joy of learning a second language. I’m happy I can help the kid, but the whole thing is honestly gross to me at this point. He may well get an above-average score on this test, and it won’t change the fact that he is functionally monolingual by any reasonable measure, and hasn’t been incentivized at all to change that fact. Study for the sake of study. Whoops, sorry, this is a Wendy’s, isn’t it? I’ll take a couple of square burgers and a cyanide pill, please and thanks.
Got my English and French from TV and studying (blow average level) ,Japanese tough I had to work for it . They don’t need English anyway .
4 comments
Honestly most Japanese people would be better off with reading, writing and grammar. Then they can access information in English, which is useful. Their ability to convey information in English orally to other people is less likely to be useful if they are living normal lives in Japan. Being able to communicate in writing also probably has broader application for most…
I agree that improving speaking skills for Japanese student is great, but isn’t it backwards to start by an entrance exam?
Yup. Any attempt to make progress on English communication gets met with this sort of stupid opposition from every sector- Parents, who don’t like the abstract nature of speaking test; teachers, who don’t feel comfortable teaching speaking/phonics; administrators, who don’t want to deal with the complaints from those mentioned above. It’s so damn disheartening. And, as is so often the case in Japanese decision-by-committee situations, the answer is never “Ok, we’ll make a few adjustments and go ahead,” it’s always “Now’s not a great time…” I hope this time the folks in charge hold strong.
I’m tutoring an intelligent HS second grader with awful English skills now, and his preparation for the entrance exams is to memorize a torrent of highly specific grammar points while he’s personally unable to answer even basic questions in English without a couple repeats and a minute to think. He’s doing it to compete with the tens of thousands of other kids taking this exam, and the exam is made with intentionally convoluted grammar points just to stratify the kids based on how hard they study; the whole process is absolutely divorced from the fundamental utility and joy of learning a second language. I’m happy I can help the kid, but the whole thing is honestly gross to me at this point. He may well get an above-average score on this test, and it won’t change the fact that he is functionally monolingual by any reasonable measure, and hasn’t been incentivized at all to change that fact. Study for the sake of study.
Whoops, sorry, this is a Wendy’s, isn’t it? I’ll take a couple of square burgers and a cyanide pill, please and thanks.
Got my English and French from TV and studying (blow average level) ,Japanese tough I had to work for it .
They don’t need English anyway .