Motivation: Japan’s confidence problem is a Katakana problem.
Japan has one of the lowest English levels in the world. It’s lower than Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and South Korea. And North Korea. This is a huge problem for Japanese business and potential global growth. Japan is becoming known as a “mute superpower”. By why is Japan’s English level so low?
Why?
1. Stringent immigration rules mean that there are very few English speakers living in Japan. Out of 2 million foreigners living in Japan, less than 100,000 are English speakers. Only 18,000 are British, like me. We’ve all heard someone say「最近、外国の人が多いな」(“recently there’s loads of foreigners around”). The truth is Westerners account for 0.01% of the population of Japan.
2. Lateness. Research shows that if a child becomes bilingual before he is 7 years old his pronunciation will be better and it will be easier to pick up other languages in the future. Japan’s children currently start learning English around the age of 12. By this time it is too late.
3. Katakana. This is the single biggest problem Japan faces. It hurts your writing, reading and speaking.
I will argue that katakana must be banned before Japan can make big improvements at English.
So, what the problem with katakana?
The first problem is immersion. Being surrounded by English. When most other nationalities study English, their textbooks and their lessons are 100% English. The secret is not 英語を勉強する (the study of English), the important thing is 英語で勉強する (study in English). If you have any text books with Japanese in them, you should throw them away today. They will hold you back.
Katakana hurts your writing
Kids in Japan have to learn two spellings of every English word.
The first one: フイードバック (fiidobakku)
The second one: feedback
The first one is unnecessary and creates TWO words. The Japanese meaning of フイードバック and the English meaning of feedback. They are not the same. Do you know the difference?
The first one: ペンション (penshon)
The second one: pension.
Again the first one is unnecessary and different to the English word. If katakana didn’t exist, kids would have half as much work to do.
Katakana hurts your reading
If kids in Japan learn katakana and rely on katakana, they never learn to read difficult English words smoothly. My young students regularly read romaji very slowly and once they have understood the word they quickly write katakana above them. As long as they rely on katakana they will not speed up:
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Spelling |
Sound |
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Rough |
UFF |
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Through |
OO |
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Though |
O |
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Thorough |
U |
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Plough |
OW |
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Thought |
OR |
Katakana hurts your speaking
The Japanese language has fewer sounds than English. In fact English has more than twice as many vowel sounds as Japanese:
|
Japanese |
|
|
Vowel sounds |
Consonants |
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5 |
13 |
|
English |
|
|
Vowel sounds |
Consonants |
|
12 |
24 |
If you learn and use katakana, you will always have half the number of sounds you need. You are therefore more likely to be misunderstood in other countries.
Here are some examples of sounds that are hard to distinguish for Japanese learners. If you can catch these in conversation, and say them clearly you are far more likely to be understood.
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Japanese sound |
Sound that Japanese lacks |
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Bus |
Bath |
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Cut |
Cat |
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Suss |
Thus |
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Gym |
Regime |
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Bot |
Boat |
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Hood |
Food |
The power of syllables: How do westerners understand spoken words?
The emphasis of an English word and the number of syllables are the two most important things. If these are correct you will probably be understood. A lot of western words end in consonants. Most katakana words don’t. This is a huge barrier to understanding.
Syllable Problem 1: In Japanese all the consonant sounds must be pronounced.
マルゲリータ
in English it’s rare to say all of the syllables:
“mar-GREE-ta”
When said in katakana pronunciation the word “comfortable” often looks like this:
コンフォータブル
When said in English it sounds like this:
KUMF-tu-bool
The vowel sounds in this word are very different to the katakana version. The English word is not difficult to learn, unless the child has been writing the word in katakana for several years.
Syllable problem 2: If you change the emphasis of an English word, you change its meaning
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Issue/Decision |
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Meaning 1 |
Meaning 2 |
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Record |
record |
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Compact |
Compact |
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Content |
Content |
Activity: Fill in the meanings of the following words:
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English |
Japanese |
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Record |
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Record |
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Compact |
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Compact |
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Content |
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Content |
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Syllable Problem 3: If the syllable isn’t the emphasis the vowel sound is (often) lost
All English words have, and need, an emphasis:
EMphasis
The parts of the word that are not the emphasis usually lose their vowel sound and become “U”:
EM – fu – sis
Here are some more examples for you to fill in. Remember that if the word starts with a vowel, that vowel is important and doesn’t change:
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Spelling |
Sound |
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Beautiful |
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Information |
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Content |
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Station |
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Photographer |
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Complete |
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Syllable Problem 3: If the word has the wrong number of syllables and English speaker probably won’t recognise it as English. Here are some examples using left, city, multimedia and McDonald’s:
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English |
Katakana |
|
Left (1) |
Lefuto (3) |
|
Si-tee (2) |
Shtee (1) |
|
Mul-tee-mee-ja (4) |
Ma-roo-chi-may-di-a (6) |
|
Muk-don-uldz (3) |
Ma-koo-do-na-roo-do (6) |
The last one in particular is unlikely to be understood by anyone who hasn’t lived in Japan or studied Japanese. Therefore katakana words should be considered a different language to English.
Motivation is Hurt by Embarassment
Embarrassment 1
If you use katakana instead of English the letters are different, the word is different and the meaning is different. This is often embarrassing…
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Intended word |
Word heard |
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City |
Shitty (クソ) |
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Cook |
Cock (チンポ) |
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Earth |
Ass (ケツ) |
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Can’t |
Cunt (マンコ) |
Please be careful when making the sentence “Earth cities can’t cook”…
Embarrassment 2
If you read and speak in Japanese sounds, you will hear Japanese sounds too. You may not even realise you’ve made a mistake. This is a conversation I had with a Japanese student:
- “Can you ski”
- “Yes, I love huge breasts. Why?”
Embarrassment 3
Japanese products and marketing are famous around the world for misusing English. There are websites devoted to English mistakes made on Japanese products. If you are going into marketing after university I advise you to be very careful when you name your product.
Here are some examples of products that are well known for their amusing names:
Nintendo Wii = ニンテンドおしっこ
“Would you like to come over and play with my wee?”
Homo Sausage = ゲイソーセージ
Calpis (cow piss) = 牛の小便
ピネス = Penis (pronounced “Peeness” in English) = 陰茎
I can assure you that a product name like this will affect sales.
Barfout = 吐く
This does not sound cool in English.
Exercise: this is a list of common mistakes that Japanese students make. Can you correct them?
Excuse, could you tell me where the pension is?
Answer:
I went on a jet coaster
Answer:
I want to level-up
Answer:
I heard he’s a bit of a playboy
Answer:
I have to lose my weight
(English speakers hear = 私の体重をゼロまで無くしてしまわなければ)
Answer:
I’d like the cookie
Answer:
I was waiting by 3pm.
(this is an example of how to use “by” =「レポートを来週水曜日までに仕上げ なさい」)
(this is an example of how to use “until” = あの店は8時まで開いてる)
Answer:
I don’t decide yet
Answer:
I can’t find my keys somewhere
Answer:
I’ve met you around here before
Answer:
I look at TV every day
(this means = 私はテレビの本体を、毎日チラッと見てます)
Answer:
He drank all of his soup
Answer:
I make my face
(this means = 顔をつくるね)
Answer:
He is high tension
Answer:
My brother is a cameraman
Answer:
Do you have any tobacco?
Answer:
The sandwich, the drink and the chocolate bar. That’s set
(“set” means = 決定です)
Answer:
I want to buy a new one-piece
Answer:
Teach me the way to your house
(English speakers hear = 学習させてください)
Answer:
He presented me
Answer:
Please borrow me your pen
(English speakers hear = 私はあなたのペンです。私を借りてください)
Answer:
How many families do you have?
(English speakers imagine = 東京には妻がいて、名古屋にもいて、イギリスに妻と子供3人がいるから…)
Answer:
I played with my friends yesterday
Answer:
It’s first time
Answer:
I got it service
Answer:
She is new face
Answer:
Price down?
Answer:
Let’s challenge!
Answer:
How many members should I invite?
Answer:
I like American coffee
(English speakers hear = アメリカ屋のコーヒーが好きだ)
Answer:
He’s so interesting, I laughed a lot
Answer:
I went to shopping
Answer:
My friend lives in a mansion
Answer:
I have many boyfriends
Answer:
The new office is very wide
Answer:
My room is very narrow
Answer:
Is there a consent?
Answer:
I want some pierce
Answer:
She is a TV talent
Answer:
When you drive you have to turn the handle
Answer:
I got this skirt from bargain
Answer:
My sister is an office lady
Answer:
I enjoyed very much
Answer:
Can you wear a kimono?
Answer:
I’m boring
Answer:
That TV show is tired
Answer:
Almost Japanese like rice
Answer:
Let’s enjoy the holiday
Answer:
He has an attractive face and body, so I think he’s cool.
Answer:
Japan to take extra English lessons
* Jonathan Watts in Tokyo
* The Guardian, Saturday 4 December 1999 02.13 GMT
* Article history
Japan is considering a dramatic increase in the number of teachers it recruits from English-speaking countries in an effort to head off a growing crisis in its foreign language education system. Critics of the government say that Japan has become a “mute superpower” because its population is so poor at communicating in the global language of English.
The Japanese education ministry is keen to address this problem. It plans to introduce English conversation classes for six- to 12-year-olds from April as part of a revamped national curriculum that will be phased in by 2002. Last year 5,241 overseas graduates were hired to work at secondary schools under the Japan exchange and teaching (Jet) programme. Offering an annual salary of about £20,000, these positions have been popular among young Britons, who account for more than a fifth of all Jet recruits.
The ministry is considering ways of improving the Jet programme so that native English speakers can teach at least once every two weeks at each of Japan’s 24,295 elementary schools. “We are aiming for a very significant expansion,” says a deputy director at the ministry, Shigeyuki Shimoda. Schools devote considerable resources to teaching English, but they focus on grammar and reading. After seven years of secondary school, many students can phrase a sentence better than native speakers – but very few are confident enough to speak the language.
Millions continue studying English at universities, colleges or private conversation schools. But communication standards are weak compared to those of other countries in the region. In the latest ranking of scores in tests of English as a foreign language in Asia, only North Korea fared as badly as Japan. This prompted fresh demands for education reform from business, academic and political leaders. But critics say that the government’s reforms – which will mean a few thousand more Jet participants at the most – do not go far enough. They point out that since university entrance exams still focus on grammar and vocabulary, pupils will still lack incentive to improve their speaking and listening skills.
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