There are rare exceptions of teacher who manage to feed any kid's natural curiosity, but they are so rare and are usually the ones victimizes by their own system for not 'following the program' 😭
@@KourageHD I used to like reading as a kid, then I had to do like British poetry and be forced to read and come to the anticipated conclusions about it for a semester in AP english, as well as the rest of school being forced to read certain novels and needless to say, I to this day I'm basically ruined when it comes to reading for entertainment, i just can't do it, I fall asleep.
This is 100% truth. I hated the medieval period, i found it so boring and dull, in history, art history and lit aswell. After school i became a fantasy fan and fell in love with all those things i hated. School puts things on a grading scale, you'll never understand the greatness in what you're studying if things are forced upon you.
As someone who is bi-lingual and taught German and English (as a language) for 30 years in public schools and college, of course, I didn't delude myself into thinking I would ever be able to teach teenagers to develop any real fluency in the language. Teaching immigrants English was a bit different, because there was an evident motivation involved, but not particularly with German to American students. A few were very good, but, as you say, they were committed to it and practiced outside of class, watching German films and TV, reading, etc. A few of my students went on to study German at University, one got her PhD in Germanics. Others moved to Germany and became fluent. A couple met and married Germans and became fluent. But, otherwise, at best, a school language class can teach a student the basics and give them a basis for further successful study if they're so inclined, but the most valuable thing they take away is a deeper understanding and appreciation for their own language, its morphology, syntax and phonology. That made it worthwhile for me as a teacher.
That very much sums up what my understanding after 13 years of school and way more years at university than I initially expected/intended became of what a "good" teacher is or what a teachers main tasks are. Of course as a teacher only teaches certain fields, e.g. English, German, Maths,... A teacher should be able to convey the basic principles in that field. In languages that is mainly vocabulary and grammar (which actually reduces it to the absolute bare minimum), in Maths it would be rules how our numbers are constructed, adding, subtracting, multiplying etc. Sadly it seems for many people this is exactly where their understanding of a teachers role ends. One, I would say even more important, other part from my point of view is instructing pupils/students on how to learn. Of course you can read and copy words over and over again to build up a vocabulary, but then you know words and how they are written and somewhat read, but not even always their contextual meaning. It seems many children no longer know how to learn. As this is what it takes to really learn something, working on understanding the topic, and at some point working out for yourself to understand the topic, instead of reading or bering told and memorizing. No tradesperson, e.g. a carpenter will learn a trade just by being shown. Such things can only be learned by trying yourself and consequently making mistakes on the way. For languages that means reading, listening and of course most of all speaking. And way more than time in school would ever allow for. Even more regularly. Can you learn English perfectly with learning or speaking three single hours a week? Possibly yes, but how long will it take? That is something I have seen quite a lot with the schools bering partially closed over the last year, mistakes when learning are regarded failing horribly so often, instead of taking them as an essential step in learning. Of course with learning those mistakes should get lesser and if someone makes the same mistake over and over still after months something is odd. And here I think comes what distinguishes a good from a bad teacher. A good teacher makes it easy to understand why one way is right and one way is wrong, or why certain things have to be done in a certain way. Maybe even somehow making it understand why the rules are how they are (which may be a bit much in the lower classes to be fair). And I think this may also be something that has two sides. One teacher may have a way to explain which one half of the. Class understands better, another teacher has a way to explain the other half understands better. So is now either one generally good or bad? Or should both just know multiple ways to explain to make something understood? Well I guess that would make a good teacher. That and someone who is able to kindle an interest in actually learning whatever it is. I guess no one will excell in any field of study that this person consideres boring.
As a German and English teacher, could you give some inside into why Germany or some EU countries have a higher proportion of its population able to speak English compared to Asain or latin American countries? Do u think it's more of a cultural thing? Or is it mainly based on a better English education system?
@@Nachicki Hello…I’m not an English teacher but I think because the English language stems from Germanic,it makes easier for the leaning process…a bit like Portuguese and Spanish,I imagine!Futhermore,the distance within European countries might facilitate the learning skills…Hope I could help with the answer…Have a nice day!🙏🏼x
Basically any language. If you don't proactively practice the language a lot outside of study time you won't learn it. This is a lot different from other subjects and I think that has to do with the degree of difficulty that is involved in learning a language. People take this for granted because we are just kind of given our native language for free, but all native speakers are incredibly skilled at their language. Even the people who seem like total idiots. Learning a language is not like math or science or a trade that you can learn a few things in a classroom and come out with some useful knowledge. Like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and things like percentages. You can learn that stuff in a few weeks as an adult and pretty much all of your math needs will be taken care off. However with language, having a simple conversation takes years of study. With Japanese, just to obtain basic fluency, you have to put the kind of work in that high level professionals put in to obtain their career goals. It's an insane amount of work. A 50 minute class a few times a week is not going to suffice.
You're sorta correct but I disagree somewhat. I think that although the study is important to have a refined understanding of the language, especially for languages written in foreign scripts, it doesn't give you fluency or perfection in the language. I've been studying Japanese actively for over a decade, not just through classroom activivity but through studious immersion, and my fluency is terrible. I have excellent grammar, phrasing, pronounciation, lexical understanding and kanji knowledge: but I can't carry a conversation for the life of me without a lot of preparation. The only way to learn that skill is to go and talk to native speakers frequently. This is the problem wth language education: there is no immersion and the classroom environment makes it impossible. This is the crux of why Japanese native speakers have such low English fluency: Japan is a closed country. There is very little untranslated English media that enters Japan, and their cultural sphere is restricted by this. This is likewise the case for English-speaking countries, as little foreign media enters their sphere untranslated. This is the same reason why English-speaking bilinguality is so low. Languages are socially learnt. You go to school and you learn the script, formalities and grammar as a child, otherwise you learn the language through interraction. The same concept applies to learning as an adult. I say this as a person who has been learning Japanese at an extensive study level for as long as I've had brain cells, and I still suck at it
"We study English for 6 years, but we can't speak it" Relatable af. Studied arabic in school for 9 years and I only remembered like 5 words even though I used to be one of the top scorer in the arabic tests
That's how it was with me and Spanish. In high school we had two foreign language classes: Spanish and French. I wanted to learn French but we weren't allowed to choose which language we took in case one language was favored over the other and there was an imbalance between the two so the school decided which student learned what language and I was forced to learn Spanish instead of what I wanted to study. I passed with top marks but I only know like 4 phrases in Spanish and later went on to minor in French once I got to college. If I learned French in high school I definitely feel like I would have really taken the time to learn how to speak it and not just memorizing enough information to pass the class.
They don't want to learn English. Period. They don't see the value in it. I've taught all ages in multiple cities around japan for years and I've decided that, Japanese people in general, just don't care about stuff outside of Japan. Plus, they spend so much time learning and forgetting their own language they just don't care.
It's ironic that English is seen as cool and is used for advertising and mixed into the Japanese language more and more, yet most of the people have no interest in actually learning it. It's cool for aesthetics only, kind of how anything with Asian character on it is automatically cool in the West, even if you aren't interested in the culture lol
Well, I'm also Japanese and while I do agree on some aspect of what Shun explained in the video I still believe JP English education itself is straight up shit and one dimentional. Imagine being "educated" by a Japanese English-teacher who can't even speak English fluently(Eng teachers like Shun is kinda rare), and the class is taught IN Japanese. Its such a nightmarish way to learn a new language and Ive been like "bruh, u really sure this gonna magically make us become fluent in English?" the whole time. Turns out it never was for us to become fluent but WAS for us to become good at exams. If you don't call this BS then Idk what is. Then, thanks to this crappy education system I ended up learning English from scratch all by myself, as Shun said we should. Hell, I couldn't even afford to study abroad like Shun tho. The point is, regardless of what people say the Japanese English education system needs some changes because it INDEED sucks.
Teaching solely to the test is a big issue with education in general. All people care about is what’s on the test, and they just forget about it all later. It’s not taught in a way where they can see how everything connects together because all they need to do is answer a bunch of discrete questions correctly. We have a lot of this in the US as well.
I taught as an ALT in elementary and middle school for 3 years and I completely agree. I had students who had my classes in Elementary school where we tried to make it fun, but also tried to make it all English. The class that I started with as 4th graders when I arrived went through 5th and 6th grade with an HRT who was passionate about English and even used English sometimes outside of English class. When I left, I was teaching their first year of English at the middle school, and the new JLT was passionate about English and she was very fluent and we both taught the whole class primarily in English together. That group of students could talk to me minimally outside of class in English and was one of the only classes that didn't always talk to me in Japanese. Another class when I started had an HRT who could only speak a little English, then they had 3 years of the JLT who taught almost entirely in Japanese and primarily used grammar translation method. They did very well on tests, but only a couple students who worked very hard outside of class at cram schools and the like could speak any English, and most of them couldn't remember basic English constructions from their first year by the time they were in third year once we'd moved on to a new chapter. So you are correct, a lot of it has to do with the system in general. Many teachers are 50 years behind on English teaching and the majority are about 20 years behind. The teachers who are passionate about English and motivate the students both inside and outside the classroom to learn and use English are rare, and those teachers are usually met with a lot of societal pressure to focus content toward the tests when they could be doing so much more. It made me sad that I had new first-years when I left who on average could read, write, and speak more and better unprompted English than the 3rd years who had just graduated.
he said both! he's really right on the motivation stuff. although the $ thing is huge; i wonder what it's like for ppl and the gap between private language school and the people who get to go to it. the US system of education is abysmal and all about rote memorization. it's getting better for gen zers hopefully (or the next gen after) and hopefully in japan too but a lot of us really missed out and esp if you're from a disadvantaged fgroup
This is so weird to me as an American because at least where i’m from the Japanese education system is said to be great 😂 I thought english was taught well there until this video
As a Japanese learner: some of your points have helped me realize that I need to work more outside of the classroom. My college professors aren’t going to make me fluent and get a 1 on the JLPT.
You can also look into the history of English, including the Latin/Greek roots of many words. Otherwise, it's like learning to write Japanese without knowing there are different kinds of Kanji...
But yes, as someone who lived and worked in rural Japan for 3 years and still would not be able to pass the JLPT N2, there's no way you can pass the N1 without an extreme amount of dedication, especially because the JLPT is about reading comprehension. I knew people who could communicate in spoken Japanese to such a high degree, Japanese speakers were treating them so naturally and I was entirely lost (I was "intermediate-conversational"). But those same speakers would not have been able to pass the N3 (which is where I was roughly at in terms of my reading comprehension and grammar). It takes a huge amount of kanji recognition and vocabulary knowledge that even many Japanese speakers are confused about why you know certain words. "I haven't heard that word since college, why on earth do they make you learn that?" So if you want a good JLPT N1 or N2 score, be prepared to do a *lot* of independent study and find a *lot* of ways to keep yourself motivated. This isn't meant to discourage you, just to reiterate that what I learned in college was barely helpful when I got to Japan, and what I learned in Japan was barely helpful for the JLPT! It's a lot of work, but I know many, many Americans and Brits who did it! がんばってください！
As a non native English speaker, I would recommend books. I learned English solely from books. After you read enough, sentences start to pop up in your mind and you don't have to think "ok, I'll put the subject first then the verb and then..". I never memorised any of the grammar rules and still score full marks in grammar tests. Books, people. Books.
Well-written books, if I may add. Having read John Banville and, particularly, James Joyce helped me to advance, enrich and even develop my own usage of English (my 4th language). Reading daily news or cartoons, listening to movie dialogues or talking with (most of the) colleagues has done considerably less so.
まずはHearing が出来なきゃいくら原語で本読めても会話は出来ません。 昔アメリカ人の知り合いで漢字はいくらでも書けるけれど日本語は全然できない 人に有った事が有りますよ。漢字はMathematicalなMethodがあるから理解できる が言葉は文法やなんだかんだまるで分らんと言ってました。 ちなみに僕は高校まで英語は通信簿で３（5段階）しかとった事無かったけど高卒後 4年目には通訳の真似事も出来るように成り1975年に米国移住してからは長年日英両語 を使う仕事特に通訳が大好きで生きてきました。今はリタイアしてます。 When there is a will there is a way.
I also don't speak english natively, and I can say, 85% of the english I learned was because of chatting online with native speakers, mostly through online videogames. I also dare to say that if I weren't interested on speaking english voluntarily, I would still be bad at it in school. Most language teachers will give you sht ton of formulas and will make you memorize time tenses that you will probably forget by name, and most of the time they try to make it look like a big deal, when it doesn't have to be that hard. My english teacher makes english classes look almost like math classes and it really sucks for the ones who struggle with english.
@@pgtm311 Dude, so relatable. I used to have similar shit at school when teachers say something like "remember this remember that" and ask about the sentence structure to which I replied "I have no idea how that shit works I just know how to speak". Furthermore, the teachers would often tell me that I did a mistake because "it is BrE we're learning here not Ame" because they thought that BrE is the original and AmE is different from it.
Any language needs to be applied, for mastery. Look at young children: Most children, if not all, were fluent in their first language, without ever having to step in a classroom!
@@looweegee252 Correct, but their understanding of it quickly surpasses that of someone taught in a classroom. Young kids don’t know how to speak or write perfectly because they are still growing, but they know exactly what their peers are saying to them most of the time.
I once watched a Korean guy and this is what he said, "The reason why most of the Filipinos speaks English well is because they" learn the language", and not just "study the language". There's a big difference ✨
Damn, that Korean guy nailed it on the head. He's exactly right. I actually didn't realize what he meant until I started teaching Japanese students (as a Filipino formerly teaching Asian students). Filipino students don't study all that linguistic lessons, like sound production ('schwa' sounds?), etc in elementary school, as opposed to the English lessons taught in Japan. Basic pronunciation and phonetic sounds were all we had. Filipino students weren't being trained to be linguists so I didn't understand why Japanese students were being taught like linguistic students. Filipinos have a more practical education - shove us out the classroom and apply the lessons in real life. Use the language in every day life. That's probably part of the problem with the East Asian education system. The fact that English isn't learned or used in a practical way (and not even used daily) does not help in improving students chance to succeed in mastering the language.
@@pincheputa3781 so much that we are becoming more skilled at english than our own goddamn language, it's like we traded off our mastery in our own language for english mastery instead, filipinos can't go a single day without speaking an english word I assure you, most of us have forgotten our own version of the english words we use Like we have our own words for different colors but filipino youths don't even know it
@@r3ll282 i think it would be helpful if deped considered the dialect of each province and integrate it with the lessons being taught on those provinces... mother tongue has few but it doesnt teach the local dialect... (like seriously, id love to get an actual dictionary with my province dialect coz there's a lot of terms i havent heard of or understood)
@@keito-kun6618 ya I also want our tagalog and other dialect to be taught in school more deeply because there's a lot of terms especially those deep ones I don't understand
I do want to say- my Spanish teacher did an amazing job teaching us Spanish by making it an immersion class. We debated in Spanish weekly, did half hour presentations in Spanish, worked 100% in Spanish daily. I came in knowing a lot already, but she churned out people who were pretty proficient and ready to do high level studies.
Right, if it worked, I'd have more than a stumbling reading comprehension of a few phrases and words that stick out in french from the 2 semesters in high school I took.
@@TheJadeFist yeah, there's no doubt that textbook learning is helpful for basics such as the alphabet or spellings but the real comprehension is acquired through experience by speaking and fixing mistakes while learning to natives.
I watched tons of American movies as a kid and was fluent in English after only a few years of learning it in school. I already knew the grammar and how to pronounce basically every word thanks to all those movies, so all I had to focus on was my vocabulary. So yeah, getting immersed in the language is key.
Same. I basically grew up on the internet 😅. I grew up on playing Roblox and Minecraft, growing up playing multiplayer games where I need to communicate with people through English when I started middle school I'm already-- i wouldn't say fluent like a native but somewhat fluent ig?
try be like me, at 3 years old I got exposed to Western media (mainly cartoons) and ended up being a bit more fluent at English (even though it's not my native language)
I played MS DOS videogames before I could write and read (let alone speak English). My favorite game could only be run via the command line, so when my dad wasnt around to start it, I memorized what to type in. Once I started learning to read, I tried to decypher the text to understand the story. I just looked at the pictures and tried to make sense of the few words that looked familiar. Sometimes I guessed the words right and puzzled things together. Years later, I learned English and gradually understood more of the story. After that, I just watched online videos like the angry videogame nerd, every day, or stuff like anime. Eventually I moved to a country where almost everything was in English, and I felt like I was forgetting my native tongue over a couple of months. That made a huge difference. Less than 0,1% of my time using English was spent in school.
In Malaysia, we often say “look at Japan, they dont speak english but still able to be successful” as means to justify not being able to speak english.
It's the same then in Indonesia, some people are glorifying the inability to speak english rather than embracing it or learn it. And they took example from Japan too lmao
I teach Japanese and ESL in high school in Australia, and I have to say, I feel the exact same way. I say to my students all the time, "learning a language - any language - takes time and effort and dedication. You can't get good at it by just sitting passively in the classroom, you have to work at it." Part of the issue with languages education in Australia (and I expect it might apply to Japan as well) is that the traditional "monolingual" approach to education limits students. A lot of schools in Australia are moving towards what we call "CLIL" - Content and Language Integrated Learning, which is kind of like an "immersion" course, where content of multiple subject areas (e.g. history, science, maths etc) is taught in the target language, so kids are exposed to the language in multiple contexts. It can be difficult to set up if you only have one languages teacher on staff and their specialty isn't in those other subjects, but if you can get other teachers on board, it can be a worthwhile experience.
@@TheRollingBacon it really is. I am always learning something new about how the languages work, and it's fascinating to see how students of different ages and backgrounds acquire/learn a language (and there *is* a difference!)
For example, most anime watchers learn some Japanese words and phrases through simply watching anime. What really matters is your interest in that other language and the dedication and time you put into learning it even outside a classroom.
when i used to heavily binge anime, i found that i could properly assume what the characters would say next (in japanese) even if i didn't even realize that i knew those words or phrases. Your subconscious definitely picks up on language easily when being exposed to it for long periods of time,, you just have to unlock that knowledge.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You cram before an exam, after the exam all you memorized is out the window. That's basically the educational system in the whole world.
As a bilingual speaker myself.. Everything you said is true. It's not enough to read a bunch of textbooks and practice verbatim regurgitation, you have to rewire your brain to think in the new language. You have to want to learn a new language. Forcing people to learn a new language when they don't want to learn it, is a waste of time for everyone involved.
I feel like something that helps with learning anything, at least for me, would be having fun. As an example, if I wanted to learn Japanese, of course I'd use standard methods of learning. But then I'd want to have fun with it. So I'd probably try to watch an episode of anime without subtitles. I feel like it would make it feel more rewarding, like "Ooh yay! I learned Japanese! Now I can do fun stuff like watch anime without subs. Cool!" And also, my attention span is very short. I can't really sit down and study for long periods of time. I'd rather just learn as I watch things and have fun. Also, I remember fun things better. It's mostly about your brain retaining what you pay more attention to I think. At least how it works for me. :)
What’s exasperating is that when you keep feeding yourself with new vocabulary, idioms , phrases and whatnot , but not been able to put them into practice because you are surrounded by all the native speakers who only talk in their own tongue(in my case , Hindi)
@@kyle_rabui Totally agree with you, probably the only reason why I didn't find learning english too exhausting (especially in high school) is because I would spend a lot of time on internet in english websites. Literly 80% or more of my recreation activities were in english. I would watch TV shows in english, watch various RUclips videos in english, read some fantasy books in english and so on... And I did all that because I liked the activity and not because I was trying to learn the language. Yes, basic understanding of english and the vocabulary I gained in school helped a lot but I also learned some words only based on the context I heard them used in. Now I rarely translate the words I don't know, I just look up the definition in english and know what it means. I think this environment where you no longer rely on your first language to understand the second one but rather use that second language to broaden your abilities is much more natural and a better way of learning english at a more advanced level.
Yes exactly, that’s what they did for my school and I know including me that we only learned a few things, if we don’t want to learn it I see no reason why
"Forcing people to learn a new language when they don't want to learn it is a waste of time for everybody involved" I know I wasn't the only one who thought/felt like this in highschool when they force you to take 2 years of a foreign language. 90% of students probably forgot everything the next year.
Good points, Shun! Makes me think about the 4 years of high school I took Spanish and how I still can't really understand the Spanish speakers in my community.
I think a big part of the disinterest in learning English comes from the fact that the students don't really find a use for it (not that its not the most useful language you could have in the world, but that they specifically don't have a use for it). I doubt the average Japanese student consumes a lot of English media, or has to talk in it for any extended periods of time outside of English class itself. Content with their own language in their day to day lives. Where I'm from we're taught English for almost a decade and yet a lot of kids don't really end up learning it. The only reason I ended up doing so is because video games weren't localized to my native language, so even in my off time I ended up learning bits and pieces from playing them.
Back when I was a high schooler in China we had a teacher who always lend us her copy of Friends season 1-10 DVDs and a little English-language class library. Worked like magic.
Wow so basically you learned english by watching Friends. I'm not an army but I know Namjoon from BTS who also watched Friends and became his means to speak english
@@ely4938 Well we did not really learn English all the way from the beginning by watching Friends or so. Before that we had 6~7 years of learning English as schoolkids. In my experience consuming a lot of media in the target language is a convenience way to trigger the leap from a "learner" to a "user".
And that’s literally the best way to learn a language because you don’t have the feeling to “work” while still learning a language inconsciously and consciously. But as you said, for English, you have to be at least A2 to use this kind of method in order for it to work.
In Canada we learn French for about 4-5 years, its a similar thing of taking a class every day for 30-45mins and at the end of it, you walk away not knowing anything. In most highschools now though you can choose what language you want to learn starting from Grade 9 I believe(at least it was when I was in High school.) Language studying is definitely something you have to have drive to learn, just being told to learn it isn't going to do much except maybe scratch at the surface level of a language.
i was literally just about to comment the same thing! all those years spent learning french and i still don’t know how to speak it fluently bc i never used it after high school (and i took french all the way up to grade 12 😭). it’s definitely difficult to master a language when you’re not actually putting it into practice
This is interesting to me. It’s hard for me to see the difficulty of learning a language in school, cause for French school in Ontario, you start English in 4th grade. But because pretty much everyone at the school already knows some if not a lot of English, in addition to decent to good French, learning is super easy compared to other schools.
@@Daniele.M42 we have French immersion schools, and the learning rate there is much higher. But the average student in a public school with general French will walk away with about as much practical French skills as a Japanese student who learns English given what was presented in this video. It is definitely a case by case basis as some people are more naturally driven and interested in language.
@@Alstragon quick note: aside from french immersion schools, full french speaking schools (not private schools) are a thing cuz I go to one. But that aside, wouldn’t it be more practical for English to become an elective in countries like Japan or in public schools so that at least there’s more value to the teacher’s job, and students that are actually passionate about the subject won’t be brought down by poor teaching?
You are absolutely correct! Did you know there is an entire area of research focusing on how young people all over the world are learning a lot more English from music and tv shows in English than they are in classes (although they do get help with the grammar from the classes). And in fact, as you say, this is true for nearly everything. You CANNOT learn anything extremely well unless you put in the time on your own to learn it. Formal education only provides some basic structure for the real learning people need to do. And finally, let me say that it seems the Japanese government is also beginning to understand this, and that is why a big trend in Japanese higher ed. right now is to offer courses in many different academic areas in English, in which the focus is on the content rather than on English. Thank you for your insights!
I'm currently teaching English in Japan. I try to move away from textbooks for my students. We would listen to English songs, watch English movies and do online games in English. I try not to overload them with vocabularies to memorize and we try to make everyone comfortable with speaking English. I dreaded studying English when I was younger. However, I did find it more interesting when I started watching more English shows, I learnt more from watching as opposed to sitting in the classroom and memorizing words 😊
@@gladz2219 For helping to learn a new language like Japanese, would it be a good idea to watch something like anime without subtitles? Or should I try to watch anime with Japanese subtitles, that way I can read the words as they are saying it?
I was actually an English teacher in an Eikaiwa while living in Japan, after four years of Japanese in college, getting a Master's Degree in Religion (my thesis was on aspects of Shinto), which included translating passages out of books... and I never could speak Japanese for shit, and lost the ability to read and write it after moving back home and getting an unrelated job. I certainly had an interest in the culture and history. I still do to an extent. But I'm cripplingly introverted. I rarely went to department parties while in college, and never went to language exchanges. I don't know how I pulled an an Eikaiwa job, but I did. And there, after forcibly being animated and outgoing solely in basic English on basic topics for ten hours a day, I went home and drank beer and listened to Enka by myself every night, never practicing anything or interacting with anyone because my social battery was beyond empty. I really do wonder how introverted people get fluent in languages. Just going out and speaking with strangers in my own native language is hellish enough at times.
Learning languages is easy, all you need is motivation and that motivation does not even have to be other people. I'm an introvert and I fluently speak 4 languages and can do basic expressing in 3 others. My motivation? Books, movies computer games and travel. Since I am an introvert I also want to be self-reliant and not speaking the local language makes you very dependent on others...
Even if you're a super introverted person, it is still possible to make yourself more outgoing socially. You need to first find the willpower within yourself to take action and make the change(granted if that's what you actually want) and then practice improving your social skills, wording what comes out of your mouth in different ways and maybe having a shift in attitude. There are countless amounts of books, articles and youtube vids you can look at explaining how to become more comfortable in social settings, sound more charming, not come across as awkward, etc.
@@YuuSHiiiN Eh, probably could have used that 15 years ago when I was in grad school and then Japan. I ended up switching to a career path with a minimum of social interaction. Of course the big issue is that I don't really *like* being social. I can fake it extremely well, including such things as public speaking, which is difficult even for normal people. It's just utterly exhausting and I don't get much joy from it.
@@Eener1000 One question has to be asked though. How many of those 4 languages were learned as a kid vs learned as an adult? It's much easier to learn a language when you're young vs old.
I forged my mothers signature on notes to get out of P.E. 🤣🤣 I was a terribly naughty teenager. Mainly because our trampoline class was mixed and I ain't bouncin' in front of no hormone-fueled teenage boys. 😤🤣
As someone that speaks 5 languages, I can say confidently that you are right. It's all a question of motivation. You could not pay me enough to put in the hours it took me to become fluent in Korean to learn, say, Arabic or Hebrew. I'm an excellent teacher and many people have told me that I have a gift for explaining even difficult concepts in simple ways that anyone can understand, but teaching something to someone that doesn't want to learn it is the most frustrating and rage-inducing activity I can imagine.
I'm Asian myself. The way I improve my English language is by reading more english, listen to english songs, watching english movies and even change my phone and computer setting to english. I not saying I'm pros. I sometimes do make some mistakes in my english too. But if you have someone who can point out your mistake in english language be it speaking or writing helps a lot too. Don't be afraid to make mistakes because that is where people always give up when it comes to learn english. They afraid that people might laugh at them. Truth is people won't laugh at you if you still learning. You will learn a lot from that mistakes.
I’m not typically one to correct people’s spelling, but since you want to learn and improve on English I should let you know that “improve” should’ve been spelt “improved” as it is the participial adjective indicating a condition or quality resulting from the action of the verb
Your english is really good! Yes there are some minor mistakes but thats exactly how my german is haha it takes time and effort to learn a new language. Never have any fear when speaking!
Agree! I did all that when I was learning English and I'm doing it now for Japanese! I'ts good that plenty of people are into Anime and Japanese music these days so It wasn't hard to find someone to talk about things I'm interested in.. I enjoy learning very much so
Here are some corrections in your statements above: - I'm an asian myself - The way I improved my English - listening to English songs - even changing my phone and computer settings - I'm not saying that I'm a pro - They are afraid
Yes, immersion is everything. I had a friend who grew up in the Netherlands in the 1980s... he said he learned English from watching American TV shows with Dutch subtitles when he was a boy. Never took a class in English or studied English, you you would think it was his first language.
@@信者の男 I'm a teacher. I tell my students they should get as much input as possible outside of class, and then when they come to see me... Tell me what you read! They think I'll lecture the whole time (borrrrrrrring...) and they can sit there silently and take notes. I tell them this is like going to the gym and carefully watching people lift weights and exercise, while expecting their own muscles to grow. So get input from whichever source you enjoy and can understand (I recommend novels), then find a native speaker to discuss it with. Basically you can get input at home and then find a teacher to practice your output. So many of my students just want me to define vocabulary words and write example sentences... Uh... You have Google don't you? You need to pay ME for that? You're usually not with a native speaker, but for this hour and a half, you have one willing to talk about anything you want. Tell me about the book you read, ask me questions about something you saw while walking to school. Ask me different ways to talk about big boobs (slang or something you won't find in formal books). But using me as a dictionary..... Ugh... The worst part is that when I'm telling them what the words mean, they don't even listen to me because they're busy looking at their own dictionaries, in their own language... They pay money to read their own language while mostly ignoring a native speaker. Then, they wonder why they aren't improving...
I am currently learning Japanese and I hope to save up enough, so that in a few years I can actually go there and immerse myself in the language and the culture. Any advice?
One love! Now as an Engl teacher, when people tell me 'I've been studying so long and I don't speak well enough" I'll say 'well you'd been studying math/physics/chemistry for years, why haven't you become a specialist in science?' this is perfect! People want to get everything too fast
Totally agree! I worked with Early Years children doing private tutoring in Hong Kong for 4 years. The same realisation hit me also. I felt my sessions - as engaging as they were, still were regarded as just another task by a lot of students. It did seem pointless multiple times, and I felt like giving up. However, I shifted the sessions to more practical based learning, focusing more on experiences that required the use of the language in real situations. Making little missions in the community, shopping for items to make a cake etc. We worked more on values and building confidence in the child, as well as letting them see the practical application of having a second language.
I am a Japanese American from Hawaii and never attended Japanese school like my friends. I actually studied learning katakana, hiragana and simple kanji because I wanted to read fan magazines about my favorite Japanese actor! Because I wanted to learn, I remember more about the Japanese language than my friends who went to Japanese school. Unfortunately I stopped studying but never forgot what I learned. I am practicing again because of my love for Taka and One OK Rock and wanting to know what they are saying in interviews! LOL!
ahh see! you have a passion driving you to learn japanese, that's the difference you have from the japanese students. they're just trying to pass the class but you want to understand interviews that your favorite bands do and read fan magazines. good luck on your studies!
Thank you for making this video~ I'm from the Philippines and I think it's more imperative for us to learn the language because almost everything around us is in English, from our grade school text books (for Math, Science, etc.) to shampoo labels and whatnot. Not every Filipino is fluent, of course, but we actually use English every day versus only studying English like the Japanese do. I agree with you that it's not the fault of the teachers or the education system in Japan, because it's probably the thought "I'll get along just fine in life with just Nihongo" that makes Japanese students less inclined to learn the language outside the school.
Agree. As a English teacher here for toddlers, Parents expect too much after 1 hour per week and become easily frustrated when their 4 year old still can’t recite the weekdays in English (even though they also can’t recite it in Japanese 😂). And the public educational system put too much emphasis on “conversational English” but tell me teaching them to read is useless! If they can read, then they can learn outside of the classroom.. and they definitely don’t practice conversational English outside of the classroom. I fully understand this frustration. The kids who excel are those who’s parents obviously practice at home with them.
as a Spanish speaker I've noticed I can read/write and understand spoken (sort of) English just from being exposed to it on internet and not from school because when I finished highschool I only understood it at the level someone who watches anime would understand spoken Japanese, a few words here and there and nothing else
@Kyoko and Maki are my wives yup i learned french for three years, the only thing i knew was an introduction, but I have already forgot, the classes ended like one month ago
As an online english teacher, it is difficult that most Japanese tend to be shy or not opinionated. It is not in their character to be chatty. They need to develop their social skills too. Also, they tend to not ask questions to get the class over with. The most difficult thing is when Japanese choose pure free talk. They expect to learn a language without any topic to focus on.
I still learn English to be honest when I was in High school my score is really bad. Always got D or F in class because I don’t like study in general but especially with English I always lack behind other student so I decided myself to learn by reading a book or watch TV with English subtitles chat online with foreigners and the best is speaking with native speaker via Clubhouse and it help a lot. I still learning and i am not quite sure my grammar but this is the best I can do at least now I don’t have to shy to speak English.
In Hungary students learn foreign language for at least 12 years (8 years Elementary School + 4 years High School). It is mainly English or German. Yet the average English proficiency in Hungary is quite bad. Most people who can "speak" it, has broken English. I know very few who are fluent. I think the main reason is that an average Hungarian doesn't need English, because everything is translated here, all the movies are dubbed, even the movie titles are translated which is kinda funny.
Bojler eladó. It's the exact same reason why English suffers in Japan: most people have no interest in anything outside of their country. If people have no reason to learn English, and see no point in it, trying to force it on them won't help. Only those who have a use for the language will put up any real effort to learn it. It's kind of the same with everything else, not just languages. No matter great or awful the teachers or the education system are, all that is pretty much secondary. Those who *want* to learn a language, will find a way to do it, and those who don't, won't care even if they are furnished with the best teachers and materials.
Similar case in Canada. We are a bilingual country so outside of Quebec (for the most part), we learn French in school (probably varies by province how long). I can say with confidence that most of us Anglophones cannot speak French after going through the system. Most students do the bare minimum (nor is getting good grades difficult), but it bites us IF we want to advance career in the government or military. Other than that, pretty much move on our daily lives without French so no strong motivation for the average student to really put the effort and time. We see French labels often but there is also the English labels we can default to.
@Budgie Cat It could be the influence of colonialism under the British rule for India. I have a lot of colleagues from Africa and they are fluent in French before arriving to Canada (their countries were former French colonies). In Canada, the French gave up Quebec in 1763 to British rule and being a land of immigrants, people just learned the predominant language they lived in which was mainly English (immigrants would have difficulty picking up two languages at once). No strong incentives for the average kid to learn French and it's a shame the average anglo student to not see the value of learning their other official language.
As far as I know not all schools in Hungary start teaching the first foreign language in 1st grade? I started in 4th, that was about 13 years ago though, I don't know how the system changed since then. Starting a 2nd foreign language in 9th grade is super late in my opinion, there's no way you can get to a sufficient level with 4 years of 45 minutes 3 times a week - and even then, those who had German as a 1st FL, end up being better in English by the time they graduate high school.
That can’t be the main reason, in Germany we get even more dubs and translations then hungarian, after the original language English French and Spanish German is the next choice for translation In Europe most of the time. You DO NOT NEED English at all to consume all the Mainstream content you want. Still I would claim English fluency is pretty good here, ofc it varies from person to person but on average most people under 40 will easily hold their own in conversation I don’t know if it’s the Education system or the popularity of internet content and social media here but something is clearly causing this when compared to Hungary or Japan. Maybe it’s the openness to English cultural influence, it’s not seen as a bad thing here (or at least nothing is done about it) when in France for example a certain percentage of radio music needs to be in French and in contrast to something like that that English skill in Germany is highly valued and seen as opening up the world for you both in a career and a travel sense
"there is no real need to learn a language other than my native one" is the most first-world sentiment one can have. THAT's how you know your country is rich and powerful. when it can afford to be that isolated in this connected world. yes, it's possible that your country is just historically isolated, but nowadays? the reason is more likely hubris.
I totally agree, for people from The United States or Japan I don't think they need to learn any other language. But for people from third world countries like mine it is really necessary
I totally disagree learning a language gives so much more than you think... I could elaborate, but there is no point. Almost a year has passed, but for everyone that sees this message, please, learn a new language, it offers, as said, many advantages and possibilities.
@@san0manjir026 ??? The original comment said nothing about how people should exclusively learn their native language, in fact it openly criticizes about how certain groups of people have the privilege to only learn their native language without having the need to learn additional languages to further their goals. I don't understand why you disagree with an opinion that is conveying basically the same message as yours.
Yessss! As an ALT just finishing up in Japan, I cannot agree more! I've spent 4 years hearing everyone talk about this issue while also being surrounded with people, both teachers and students alike, who just don't give a care about English at all. Students who openly tell me they hate English before we begin class, and who never bother reading even the simplest materials I give them... Sure, the teacher has a responsibility to make something digestible, but every individual has a responsibility to seek out their own information, and to WANT to learn. Also, the traditional education system, anywhere you go in the world, is broken. But that's a story for another day, isn't it?
I have a frustrating experience. Not knowing where to begin or hitting a plateau can feel demoralizing and make it hard to hit the books and study like you know you should…Having friends from other cultures makes me more creative. In fresh ways about space and how people create their own world and environment. It is best way to connect between creative thinking and cross-cultural relationships.
The way you described "studying English for 6 years" reminds me of how we "studied" Spanish in the USA. Everyone has to studies it, but very few end up being able to do more than ask where the bathroom is. One reason I think we (Americans and Japanese) often "suck" at foreign languages is that most of us feel that learning a new language is not _really_ necessary for improving our chances of a good life, and therefore is not worth putting in the huge amount of effort needed to learn one. So unless you're super passionate about being able consume content/talk with people in that language, you'll probably not get that far before calling quits and finding an alternative for what you want. For example, many years ago I started learning Japanese because I wanted to enjoy anime and manga. Then, I started to just find translations for everything, and stopped studying the language. I started getting back into Japanese this February, this time because I'd like to be able to talk to people using it.
I study Japanese because I can't communicate with Japanese here in Japan and I have no choice but to learn the language. If I were not in Japan I have absolutely no interest in the language itself because I dont need to use it.
This is actually very true, in any language. I taught Spanish in The United States, and taught English in Mexico ( I am a native speaker of both). My wife taught English in France, and French in England, and we found exactly the same issues that you are describing. The exposure that students get to the language is directly proportional to the how well they manage to understand it and learn it. France, England, Mexico, The US, these are countries that have important numbers of foreign language speakers and have access to radio, TV and movies in those languages, but people prefer to consume these "cultural products" in their own languages. as you say 2-3 50 minute lessons a week for 6 years do not equal 6 years of language study. The counter point is The Netherlands, or Norway or Finland or Iceland. these guys speak languages that they known very few people will understand because they have small populations and although the cultural production of the country might be of high quality and fecund, they are dwarfed by the cultural production of other languages, mainly English, French and German (another country where second language learning is also an issue). There are several studies about the subject and if you want to get really hardcore into it, there is a whole philosophical field called structural semiotics, and also there is the philosophy of language, which is part of analytic philosophy, but I am getting too far off subject. great video keep the good work.
Makes a lot of sense, I’ve been a classroom situation trying to learn a language, French at school in England, and Dutch in Holland. Can’t speak French or Dutch. French, I had not interest in France, have no intention of ever going there, it was compulsory at school. Dutch, is my fault, I was too lazy. I did the class, but as soon as I walked out of the classroom, my immersion ceased.
This hit way too hard as someone who took 5 years of Spanish in middle and highschool to only feel like a beginner, I'm pretty comfortable with reading Latino and Chicano novels and poetry and so many other works as I personally love Spanish literature and I've always wanted to be able to speak fluent Spanish since there's a huge Latino presence in my state, but since I've only spoken or listened to Spanish on a minimal level that was required of the class, I can't even hold a conversation on the most basic level lol (although I can definetely curse someone out in Spanish with rapid fire ... don't ask why)
it's the same for us, i'm an argentinian, 39 years old, studying english in school for years, and can't hold a speaking conversation either, but i can understand movies or youtubers very well. maybe because your sounds are sooo dificult, to spanish native people Japanesse is WAY Easier, in five minutes you have almost perfect pronunciation. i'm learning japanese now.
Same here. In 10th grade my teacher was pretty shooked how bad most in my class here in Germany were in English and she was kinda surprised that I was the best student in class. Most of my ex. classmates still don't even really know most of the basics or act like if they don't even know them while I almost understand everyrthing and I'm able to write to people and talk to them. It's said in a study that was made across Europe that 56% of all people in Germany would say they speak English on a level to at least be able to talk to you and have a small conversation to even being fluently and that this would be at around 90% of all people in Norway, but I don't belive this study cause how did they even asked the people? Did they just asked them questions where you simply just say yes or no? Cause if it was just this type of question than I bet too many people would say yes even tho at the end most maybe don't even really understand you at the end. I mean most people who learn English in Germany can at the end say stuff like "I am hungry", "Can I use your toilet?", "Can you tell me where (name of something) is?" but I bet most people in Germany can't say stuff like "I need to find a screwdriver cause a screw in my chair is about to fall out" or "I had to take a taxi from the station cause the bus didn't came today" and so on. I once lived in a dorm and non of my the people I lived with spoke any English. One of my dormmates asked me for a simple conversation in English to practive for her exam in school and so I showed her an object and just said "This object's color is gray" and I asked her to translate it but she just looked at me for a few seconds and said "I don't understand you" I repeated a few times and she didn't understood a single world. So I went easier and said "Tell me in English what color this object got" and she had no idea and blantly guessed "black?" I asked her why she guessed black and her only response was "IDK that's the only English word I know for a color" and guess who failed their exam? - Right, it was her
yea conversational spanish you gotta speak with native speakers and friends who are patient with you.. It's the best way to learn how to be conversant in any language.
Everything he said is real. I took Japanese classes and didn’t learn anything and I had to know that it was because I didn’t put the effort in. I didn’t put the effort in because I felt like learning in class wasn’t for me. When it came down to it, I had to learn on my own, and I am doing better through my own hard work than I ever did in class.
In my case while I have basic grammars nailed down, I am having difficulty finding someone to converse with in Japanese for practice. I realised that words and sentences have started coming natural to me in my mind, but it doesn't come out well enough due lack of speaking
This is exactly what I'm struggling with. The classes are just way too teacher-centered for me. Now I've decided to just go back to a working visa while doing private lessons (hopefully) garnered towards speaking as I have requested.
@@o0...957 Then watch Japanese shows(variety/anime/drama, etc.) with Japanese subtitles. You have the grammar nailed down, so you know where a subject, verb and object is. Observe how they speak and also pick up the vocabulary there. You'll realise a lot of Japanese tend to omit certain vowels in speech as opposed to writing. Even ありがとうございます sounds different when a native speaks it. Honestly, I picked up more Japanese from consuming the media compared to from a textbook.
this video was illuminating, thank you for making it. you spoke truths about language learning, it's hard and sometimes lonely, and it takes time and dedication. thank you shun!
I think you're right about learning a language in a classroom. I also have a BA in linguistics, but I knew I never wanted to become a teacher unless it was a last resort thing. I remember I used to have an Italian teacher who told us: I'll show you the door but you have to go through it. And I guess that's how I see language classes, they are the base but you have to put the hard work. Especially for languages that are far away culture wise, like in my case Japanese to Spanish, I found it extremely hard to learn Japanese just by sitting down and studying. Ultimately: English teaching sucks, make yourself a translator and be equally as poor! Haha, great video, Shun.
I completely disagree with this. If you hate being a teacher then you will suck being a teacher. I went to one of the toughest schools in the UK. We had some awesome teachers and some shockingly bad teachers. No one respected the teacher that said "i can only show you the door" (this isnt an anime). The good teachers went by the mantra "there is no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher" and i think me going to a school that was as tough as mine really showed me that. No one paid attention to the teachers who didnt care, weren't enthusiastic or couldnt explain very well what they were teaching about. The good teachers made troubled kids, of which there were plenty, actually want to learn. I think the culture of teaching is dramatically different from where ever you are from because in the UK & USA as teacher you would be frowned upon.
@@edejor What you said and what I said is not mutually exclusive. I never said there aren't any good teachers, and I do think you need to love teaching and what you teach to be a good one. What I said is, specifically to teaching languages, that the student is the one who needs to make an effort. As Shun said, there is no magic formula/teaching method for a student to learn a language. It is the student who needs to put the effort to practice, practice, practice everyday. Have a good day!
@@msdaring8404 @msdaring what you said was "english teaching sucks", what i said is "if you hate teaching then you will suck as a teacher". It sounds to me that you and Shun suck at teaching. Both of you may suck at(which is why you both sound bitter about it) teaching and blame your student's lack of passion or effort for the subject of which you expressed with the mantra "i can only show you the door", and to which i responded with "there is no such thing as a bad student, only bad teachers". You realise teaching is more than spewing information? It's making your subject engaging and instilling a curiousity in your students. I remember what Shun said inspired him to learn english was because he fancied the teacher who was a westerner..... Like kinda shows a shocking lack of engagement if that was all thag inspired him. Personally i think Shun, did his students a favour by giving up teaching. If he had been good at it he would have found it rewarding, instead he is blaming the students and the system.
@@edejor If you read my comment, I said I never wanted to be a teacher. So no, I'm not one. I would suck at it because, as you said, I don't have the skills nor the passion for it. My invisible students shall be saved from my classes! Also, the door comment was made by one of my high school teachers, as I said, not by me personally. I don't know how the discussion turned to Shun's career choice, but that's up to him. I'm for one glad he realised teaching is not for him rather soon. :)
@@edejor As a Japanese/English teacher in a Spanish speaking country who loves teaching (and I feel am kinda good at it) both are true at the same time. I also live by "there are no bad students but only bad teachers" as a life motto HOWEVER it has been hard for me to accept that even in private settings you can only go as far as the student allows you to. Sometimes you hit a brick wall and there is NO way for you to continue until the student is ready to take the next step. At first I took it as a failure on my part but I've come to realize that I can only do so much. Also, teachers are very limited in what they can do. Maybe it changes school to school but a lot of us have to follow the school's methodology and make sure goals are met and then, only then, can you stray from the program. It's sad sometimes :/
I see language as an operating system, where all the other subjects "run" on that language. We understand science, history and even math with those subjects running through our native language. We can try to learn a second language through our first, constantly translating in our heads, but at best it's slow and clunky. To truly learn a second language we have to build a new operating system from scratch, and that just takes a lot of hours. Even with good methods there is no way of getting around it.
That's a good analogy. I would go further and say that it's impossible to build a new OS. Learning a language to fluency would be akin to running a virtual machine on our existing operating system. If you have enough processing power, you are even able run cpu intensive programs on that virutal machine running on the OS. Would you agree? Or do you think we are capable of a dual boot setup with 2 different operating systems? If you grow up learning both at the same time, then i would think the latter is possible.
@@bushy9780 From everything I’ve learned about immersion learning and interviews from high level bilingual people we attribute too much to children being special in being able to learn a language. Picking up the language is less about the child’s mind and more about the tens of thousands of hours of immersion they receive. For example children in two parent households pick up their language faster because of the parents talking to each other in front of the child. Also there was a Romanian man that became fluent in English purely from cartoons on television. From those interviews it seems that the language becomes its own OS, mostly working subconsciously and tied directly to abstract meaning in the mind. We as adults can learn faster than a child from deliberate learning, but the big limitation is that as adults and even older children don’t have 10,000+ hours lying around and traditional methods don’t have the hours of immersion required
@@tredegar4163 yeah it seems really hard to get those 10k hours when you are trying to learn a language outside of your native country. It's only a matter of time before the world adopts a one for all operating system. But I speak english, so it only makes me sounds selfish LOL.
@@bushy9780 It’s great already having English, if English wasn’t my first language it would be my second; you can go nearly anywhere in the world with it. With the internet it’s easier than ever to get immersion with Netflix and a VPN, you can learn a language anywhere as long as there is content. Refold.la (website) has it laid out really well and Migaku.io has the best software tools
@@parkkimlee1760 As I said before age does matter, just not for the reasons we usually believe. Younger children tend to speak the language better, the operative word is tend as that's not guaranteed, as they have more time with the language and interacting with native speakers. What matters far more than age is willingness and motivation to learn the language once in the new country. Adults tend to avoid the discomfort of not being understood and often immigrants will stay in groups of their fellow first language speakers, only gaining just enough of the new language to get by and not trying to learn more. I would not say necessarily that the 4th grader would beat out the youtuber as you would need to know more of the other factors, like how many hours each person had to interact with the language, what kind of learning methods they both used etc. On the second point I completely disagree, yes you can learn a language just with comprehensible input like TV shows and output is not necessary to understand the language. Matt vs Japan ruclips.net/channel/UCpf4BknRWAjb_oYIHoMDGVg is an excellent example of using input immersion for a non-european language, I don't know I would go as far as him when it comes to a ban on all early output, but he does make a compelling case. On that channel there are several interviews, including a German man in his 20s that passed the Japanese JLPT N1 in a year and a half (I wish I had that kind of free time). Also infants give no output at all in the beginning but infant studies show they are learning just from listening to their parents. For the native to non-native languages you're right there is no guarantee of them speaking English well, but again it comes down more to time and motivation, if they speak to their children, friends and even their spouse in their first language they might just learn enough to get by and stop. For myself I have been learning Japanese with comprehensible input for a bit under an year, and yes absolutely it is far more difficult than a European language that would be closer to English, but with Japanese subtitles I can, at this point, follow along with shows that have more everyday language. It's a long road for sure, but it has been a slow, steady success over time.
As an English teacher from Russia, I can only thank you for such a video! I find it so therapeutic! I study in a pedagogical uni on 2nd course and I haven't heard much about students' responsibility for not learning. Instead, we are continuously taught how to maintain students' motivation and interest. That's why I used to take it as a personal failure, when my students didn't follow my instructions or didn't do the homework. But I'm starting to realize, that sometimes it is ok to just let them be. Even though I'm not intending to give up teaching, because I still love my profession, I will reassess my approach. Thank you for sparking this idea!
Learning languages is a lifetime journey. You never get there, you just get better. I didn't find my love for language until well into my bachelor's, but I never would've realized it if I didnt have amazing teachers that cared about their work. For all of you language teachers out there: you are making that difference, even if you don't see it yet.
I spend some of my spare time practising Japanese by googling things in hiragana. Most of the time I misspell it and end up finding the name of some えろ comic, but hey, it's fun and very rewarding when I type in something that looks like gibberish to most people and get results of exactly what I was thinking of
@@KRoc On PC I use microsoft IME, which allows you to select between kana. So when I start typing, it'll automatically start morphing the text into the kana you have selected (hiragana/katakana). On mobile I simply added japanese language and I can type easily by switching to japanese language set.
@@KRoc All operating systems (computer or mobile) allow you to type in romaji which are western spellings of hiragana and katakana. Japanese natives never use the romaji system or keyboards in mobiles. Also keep in mind that kanas are only half the story. Kanji’s are essential and you can’t type them in unless you know how to pronounce them.
I live in Luxembourg, and we learn 4 languages through out our school life here. While some might be weaker in 1-2 of them, 99% will come out with knowing how to cumunicate in all 4 of them. School education works if taught properly, though natural exposure is imo the biggest factor to learning new languages.
There are plenty of countries where people learn a second or third language as a matter of course. Somehow people forget that these countries and people exist when these conversations come up---it makes it easier to make excuses: "people just can't learn this stuff, so let's all give up!"
There's also the fact that the languages are likely fairly close to eachother in regards to pronounciations, cadence, grammatical rules etc. I'm Scandinavian, spent my time learning Swedish, English, French and German. All of those languages are related to eachother in some way and have a similar way of using them so learning them came fairly naturally. Japanese to English is VERY different, it would be like you deciding to learn Finnish. They share no common roots, the cadence is very different, grammar and pronounciations are also very different. While yes, I do agree that education can work well in regards to teaching languages, it highly depends on what language and what country said education is in. Some are far easier to learn than others due to having a shared or similar etymological ancestry.
@@Arcticun Finnish is totally unrelated to English, yet Finns who speak great English are a dime a dozen. In many parts of the world it's normal to be able speak unrelated languages. Some countries manage to do it---other countries manage to come up with excuses.
Having a teacher that loves his job and teaches with passion is so important. I felt so bad for myself when I had bad teachers teaching subjects that I love. And I also found myself in the position of studying a school subject efficiently despite me hating that school subject just because the teacher was awesome and had an awesome way of teaching.
I don't know much about S-Korea but I'm really interested in why (young) Koreans generally seem to be much better at speaking English than Japanese. You seem to be the perfect person to ask so I'm genuinely curious about your opinion ^^
@@7Lee7 it's way way WAY more competitive in Korea. English is not something that is taught once a week. It's taught every single day. It's especially prevalent during preschool and kindergarten. Parents pay crazy amounts of money to send their kids to the best English hagwons (academies). I worked at a prestigious all-english kindergarten for 3 years, and these little 5/6/7 year olds were incredibly conversational. I could speak in my normal speed and they could keep up about 80% of the time. Koreans just put English education way higher on their priority. I believe it's because a lot of parents want their children to become doctors and work in the states. If I'm not mistaken, when it comes to English teaching, Korea pays the most compared to any other country (on average). The majority of foreigners here don't bother learning that much Korean, since most people can understand basic English. It's pretty crazy.
@@Mongg Good points, another reason I think Koreans SEEM better at English than Japanese is based on social aspects of the culture. Japanese tend to be extremely shy, even with each other, more than likely they WILL not practice speaking English outside of a classroom ESPECIALLY with foreigners. And we all know that part of language study involves actually speaking and using the concepts you've (supposedly) learned. On the other hand, Koreans tend to be more socially open (albeit still less than westerners in general) and more apt to show their emotions publicly, they also don't mind talking to foreigners beyond the classroom and you will typically get at least one person a day trying to talk to you if you live in Seoul. If you teach kids, they also tend to be more talkative outside as well. Btw, spent some time in Japan and taught English in Korea for 7 years (just to let you know I'm not just speculating here).
@@Mongg Wow I had no idea of any of this. They clearly consider it very important and much more important than many Japanese. That's really fascinating, thanks for your elaborate answer! And yeah as @buttarain27 says, Japanese tend to be more shy which reflects in classes where there's no real conversation. Friends of mine that teach English in Japan are frustrated about kids pretending to not know answers as long as they don't have to speak English. And they got complaints from their parents for trying conversation...that's a stark contrast with Korean parents AND their kids.
@@7Lee7 Korean parents are crazy strict with English here (in Seoul). They take it to the extreme though, and get pissy and complain about why their 5 year old isn't 100% fluent in English after a few weeks. Obviously, not every single parent is like that, but a lot of them definitely expect their children to reach fluency in an insane amount of time.
Love that you said about learning language in a classroom being an illusion. I took two years of Spanish in high school (as a non-native Spanish speaker) and sure I learned the basics, but I achieved whatever level of mastery I have now because of working in a hospital where MANY patients are Spanish speakers. A classroom doesn't substitute real life immersion in a language.
As an American, I really want to learn Japanese because I find it interesting, but I do struggle with the focus on studying. I wish I had more native Japanese speakers in my area. As of now I only have Japanesepod101 YT, Duolingo, and subbed animes to learn from.
As an English tutor living in Japan myself, I always get asked by my students how they can improve their English. They often sound so frustrated when they ask me that. As if I know the one single answer to all their problems. And they want a quick solution, which is a bad idea, especially when they think they already know the basics. Not that I feel like quitting or anything, but I have to remind them all the time that they need to put in the work themselves.
I am not a language teacher myself but I have been self-studying languages that I am interested in to learn them. It would be a good advice to point your students to English media (songs, movies, documentaries,games) that has Japanese subtitles although I am not sure if there are readily available resources like these. They need also to train their ears to the language. And yeah, they really need to put the effort themselves and realize that things take time. I apologize if I sounded condescending. Best luck to you and your students!
@@mavisfelise3828 I teach adults. Basically seniors. There are a couple of obstacles to those ideas. First, they tend to stick to more traditional methods, and second, considering their age, training their ears can be quite a challenge. And since they're studying languages late in life, their tongues, you might say, are not as flexible than younger students.
@@filipjudar4781 Oh, I see. I assumed you were teaching younger people. Yeah, learning can be quite a challenge when you are old, specially with language.
I read that you are teaching adults, basically seniors. I loved doing that - they had something to SAY! Younger students may have nothing they want to say to people, particularly when faced with what can be said with the language in their textbooks. And the senior students all want either to learn English, or do something "cultural" competently for a few hours a week (which may seem lame, but it's not.. not any worse than train sets or painting landscapes.)
@@mavisfelise3828 There are papers showing that watching target language shows with native language subtitles has barely any impact on language learning. In contrast the science shows is watching shows in your target language with target language subtitles or no subtitles at all (a bit worse but still good) is a very effective method to learn your target language.
We have the same situation in Russia. As a child, I so wanted to learn English, but school only gave me some miserable basic knowledge for 7 years of study.
I can't help but see the similarity with learning Swedish in Finland. Every Finnish student (except the Finland-Swedish people, who learn Finnish) learns Swedish for about 9-15 years. Not from ages 9 to 15. 9-15 YEARS. Despite this, most people can barely introduce themselves. They hate Swedish with a passion. Interesting thing about this is that although Finland was under Sweden's rule for 600 years, that surprisingly isn't even a notable reason for this. The biggest reason is that it's mandatory, and definitely not necessary. Like seriously, many people in the eastern side of the country won't likely even be in contact with a Swedish speaking person in their lifetime(just like many Japanese people with English). Same goes for Finland-Swedish people, but with Finnish. I personally realised after 8 years, that Swedish might even be sort of useful, and have made the most progress during the last year. (For context: I reached C1-C2 level of English after 4 years of studying.) But much like English in Japan, Swedish isn't really used. Sure it's in every road sign next to Finnish since it's an official language, and there are areas in which Finland-Swedish people are the majority, but those areas are the clear minority. Media in Swedish pretty much stops at Astrid Lindgren's stories for kids. People need to understand that they have to commit if they want to actually improve. Study themselves. Immerse themselves with RUclips or subbed movies or something. There's a reason that nearly every person in Finland speaks English, it's a norm within the European countries we interact with, it's the language of the media we consume. Not Swedish. Not Swedish in Finland, and not English in Japan. I do appreciate learning it myself but I'm literally the 1% and it took me 8 years to start to enjoy it lol.
As a swede I definitely agree with you, though I’d like to point out that there’s much more beyond Astrid Lindgren out there! I could give you tips to start with if there’s anything in particular ur looking for :)
@@esther8840 I would appreciate some recommendations! Especially if they're on Viaplay. Also tbf I forgot to mention the shows YLE has been producing in Swedish. But they're not very good imho.
@@esther8840 A finn here too and I would appreciate it if you could give recommendations of swedish youtubers or shows ! I'm in high school and typically 99% if not all have a very negative point of view about learning swedish and honestly I never really hated the swedish language, but I just thought that it was kind of unnecessary to learn but now that I'm in high school I'm realising the importance of having a broad language skills and I personally see no harm in learning swedish :)
GOD THIS. i worked at a private kindergarten in south korea and it's the same thing there and i absolutely couldn't stand it. also the moms literally blame the teachers because their literal 6 year olds aren't fluent in english like their first week of school like that's my wrongdoing/bad teaching -- so i totally feel you when you said "i didn't wanna be in that industry and be part of the problem"
I feel this so much. This applies to being forced to "learn french" when I was in school for 6 years... I just learned enough to pass my tests and get the credit and moved on when I didn't have to anymore. If there's no desire to learn, then what's taught won't stick, regardless of how good the teacher is.
Same here. I am in spanish immersion and I have no will power to say I wanna stop being in spanish immersion either. Outside of class all I really do is goof off unless Im learning a different language that I actually wanna learn.
I totally agree with the idea of school being an introduction of sorts to different subjects. In fact, thinking about it, I don't think people should study before a certain age, certainly not before being introduced properly to a subject. I'd say that, up until high school, you should just enjoy learning out of sheer curiosity. Then, you can decide wich subject you want to specialize into and start the proper study. That being said, it should require the student to have a shorter time in school, and starting university sooner to compensate.
I was just thinking about this the other day, and I think that one of the biggest reasons that Japanese people are not as good at English as, say, South Koreans, is because there has historically been such an abundance of diverse media and mass communication that's already in Japanese, making it largely unnecessary to learn another language. It's the same reason why a lot of Americans, Brits, Germans, French, people in Spanish-speaking countries, etc. never end up successfully learning a second language, while people in countries like the Netherlands, or a lot of West African countries, typically speak two or three languages.
Necessity, YES! spot friggin on. In the German speaking world, we have incredible dubs of foreign and yes, also an abundance of media. Some countries don't have this luxury at all and end up with amazing foreign language skills, almost without trying (exposure exposure exposure). I'm in the process of learning Japanese and i have to say, it's insane how much media they have, you'll never run out in a lifetime.
Absolutely. The Finnish market for any entertainment is so small that it's just way more cost efficient to subtitle everything and only dub the media that's aimed towards elementary schoolers and younger. Nordic countries in general seem to do this, which then translates to a seemingly high amounts of "fluent" English speakers up here. I would personally think that the lower the population of a group sharing a language is, the higher the chance for them to be at least bilingual. English is taught here 'cause it's the de facto lingua franca and trade is important. I'm learning Japanese because it's unfair to expect everyone to understand English and way beyond mental to expect ANYONE to voluntarily learn Finnish. X)
It's also because they've been passing down a sense of superiority for centuries. Russia, France, Germany, The UK, the USA, Japan and China have all been or still are political and/or economical world powers. These countries don't feel the need to learn another language because they've never had to adapt to others; the smaller and less important nations adapted to them. Their pride and wealth allowed them to have an abundance of media and they don't like change. But at least France and Germany are starting to understand that bilingualism is actually a good thing.
??? all germans are required to rake english classes for at least 5 years and if you want to study anything you will most likely need to be able to read sintific papers in english. i myself had english leasons for 10 years in school. in addition i went to england for 10 months after school and now i am studying political science and economics which you literally cant study without good english knowledge eventhough its all taught in german (texts are often written in english though).
i thought about this too. japan medias translate and dub everything into japanese, not only games, cartoons or animations like disney, even in TV shows when they have an interview with foreigners they dub it instead of making subtitle, making it hard to give english or any language an exposure to japanese people.
Thanks for sharing your insights! It really comes down to motivation, though I don't mean motivation in the sense "finding enough determination to push through something hard" (that's also important ofc), but heaving some personal and urgent stake in learning the language. I learned English as a second language and I managed to get a pretty proficient at it because I wanted to play computer games that weren't yet (or would never be) localized to my native language or read the latest Harry Potter book before it got translated etc. Also, as someone living in Poland I had a strong sense that if I don't learn English I'm completely screwed in terms of my prospects of finding a job. Japan's "problem" is that it's a fairly wealthy country with a powerful and rich cultural output (which is a great problem to have xD). I think that most young people in Japan are perfectly happy consuming culture in Japanese (native or translated) and they don't feel like their missing out. And while I think they *are* missing out (since English gives you access to works of many different cultures, not just American or British) I can't really blame them for thinking that. And of course there is no pressure that you must consider finding work abroad (which is, again, a good thing). I guess I agree with your conclusion - not everyone needs to learn English - but at the same time I think it would be great if the Japanese students were presented more often with the idea that English is a gateway to all kinds of fun and interesting stuff and not a school subject.
Don't most international flights in Asia always have a native speaker of both countries? On my flight from Malaysia to Korea there were Korean and Malay flight attendants. The same with Malaysia-India and Qatar-Indonesia routes. My flight from Singapore to Indonesia had both Singaporean and Indonesian flight attendants even though Singaporeans can usually understand Indonesian.
@@imhalida the airline I work for only hires citizens of my country apart from our interpreters. Good for you, riding an airline with a diverse crew. 👍🏻
The best way to learn to speak English or any language is through immersion. Try to have a conversation with a native speaker of that language, and never be bothered by rules of grammars. Just speak it out. That is how I learned to speak one of the hundred dialects in the Philippines, Pangasinense. I just mastered it in a span of one year just by mimicking how they sound a word. If your try to learn any language by writing you tend to mixed it up with your native tongue by directly and literally translating each word. Try to speak it by heart.
i went to high school in japan and it was funny because the test had “hatsuon” or like a pronunciation section where they ask which ones have a different emphasis on how to say it eg. “trAvelling” vs “proNUNciation” (idk im making up this example) and even though the english speakers speak well we always fail this section lol
@@Nova_Jack yeah real stupid shit, right? Like who cares about that to this extent? Even if we are going to type it word, word has grammar check option enabled already.
When I was on my year abroad in Japan I was shocked by lack of motivation Japanese students had. I am lucky enough to speak good Japanese so I asked them about their reasons for learning English and majority of them said "Because it´s easier to get a job this way" or "I have to pass an exam" etc. Nobody said anything like "I´d love to travel to *English-speaking country*!" or "I like *English-speaking country* culture." or "I want to be able to communicate with foreigners.". As a passionate language learner I was so uncomfortable about the totall lack of curiosity and passion for other languages and cultures among young people in Japan. Of course I´ve met few people who weren´t like that but there weren´t many. What also striked me was a an incredibly stereotypical view of other cultures that was often so far away from reality and in some situations even offensive to people from said cultures. I actually saw those false stereotypes being perpetuated by teachers themselves. There is no attempt to bring Japanese students closer to the target culture and make them familiar with the language they are learning through understanding their own culture. I believe that this is one of the holes in Japanese education system, however, I totally agree that someone who does not want to learn a langauge and put effort in it is very unlikely to ever become profficient.
I agree, its how I feel about French. I took two years of french and three years of Spanish at school from middle school to high school and I don't remember anything. I'm sure if I practiced at home and spoke with people that are native speakers, I would've gotten better at it. I think the reason why alot of students don't remember anything from their language classes is because they have no interest in it. I often found myself asking "why do I need to learn French, I live in the US? " so I stopped caring and just did what I had to do to pass the class and get my credits. Like you said, learning a language requires more than 40-50 minutes of class time.
German here. At least I could practice Spanish amongst my neighbors. Hogh school me didn't think of that. Those three years of middle school German made my freshman year German easy. I struggled so hard in my sophomore year.
TL,DR: You need something that keeps you engaged to a language, or you'll lose it I sense that many students don't really have anything that keeps them engaged in a language, so they lose it. I had some particular experiences with French and Japanese that showed me how important it is: I've been studying French in middle-high school for 4 years, and although not perfect, I could fend for myself. I could read, write and even became able to speak to French people in their own language. I remember one particular trip that we made to Pau, France, (I live in San Sebastian, Northern Spain) in which we would visit the city's castle. The tour guide would explain us the castle's history from the Middle Ages all the way up to the Napoleonic Wars. I was able not only to understand his explanation, but also to casually chat with the guide. I would ask him about more details about the castle's history ,particularly during the Napoleonic Wars since I loved that period of history so much when I was a teenager. After the visit our French teacher asked us to investigate more about the city's landmarks (the town hall, famous parks, statues...) using our French skills. Me and a close friend of mine were able to fend for ourselves pretty nicely, speaking to the locals, asking in the tourism office... After high school, however, I didn't really have nothing that kept me engaged with French. No movies, music, books, RUclips channels... Nothing at all. This led me to stop using French as oftenly as I used to and as a result I can barely remember any French at all. Japanese, on the other hand, is a completely different story. I really liked anime as a teenager, and the day came when I'd decided to study Japanese. At first I tried to self learn it with whatever resources I could get my hands on: apps, a book,... even a couple of Steam games XD. Two years from that, I found a Japanese school in my city, so I joined in and began studying more seriously. The funny thing is, unlike French, I was engaged in Japanese since day one. At first it was mainly from anime and music (most of it anime openings), but even so that helped me to learn it way easier. As I kept studying, I noticed that I was starting to understand what anime characters were actually saying, and I wasn't really paying attention to the subtitles, so one day I came across an anime called 刀使ノ巫女 (Toji no Miko) and decided to watch it without subtitles. I amazed myself as I was able to keep track of the story, the character's conflicts and relationships... No subs, no dub, no translation of any kind. Just 100% raw Japanese. This time I wasn't reading a translation, I was LISTENING to people. I've never ever watched subbed anime ever since (God bless VPNs :D). Nowadays, I've far extended my horizons beyond anime as I've begun to consume manga, games, youtube channels, more kinds of music, and even non anime movies. I even watched John Wick in Japanese ('cause why not? XD). Thanks to my constant engagement, I feel like, even as crappy as it is, my Japanese is better than my French has ever been, even though the latter's closer to my mother tongue and I've spent a similar amount of (class) time in both.
Thats way too long to read all of it but yes. I took German for "7 years" at school but I know a little bit because I also listen to German music so picked up some of the words in the lyrics. The same with Japanese, its no where near good to have a conversation but I can say a few works. Can't read it or write it though.. Thought some Japanese band magazines just to look at the pictures, those were some expensive attractive men. 🤣🤣🤣
@@bakumidokiriyoayaoyorozush6979 As long as you get a VPN and a Netflix account you're good to go :D I use Bandai Channel so I could access to a wider catalog (VPN and Japanese Google play account required), but it's quite a complicated process.
As an English teacher in an Eikaiwa I personally agree with a lot of what you said - I’m always trying to communicate the importance of doing things outwith the classroom, of finding study methods that work for you etc to my students. Coming to class & doing a wee bit of homework once a week is nowhere near enough if you want to learn a language.
first of all I love your channel! and I can totally relate! I used to teach English when I was in college and most of my Japanese students asked me for a short cut or secret of quick learning. the fact is there isn’t! you just have to invest your time learning it as simple as that
I have to say, this is an eye opener for me. I've always thought that english classes are pointless because students don't learn anything. English classes have laid the foundation for me to build on top of. I learned and polished my english speaking skills through exposure and being nitpicky, as well as some good time spent on the dictionary. As to why students don't learn anything, it's just like you said, most of them are unwilling to put the effort into learning the language. So basically, don't expect you can learn if your teacher just spoon feeds you everything and you don't put some effort of your own
That's how I learned english. I had a good foundation of more than 10 years of english classes, and then I started reading articles and interviews of subjects or people that I wanted to know. Of couse it was hard, and it took a lot of dicionary time. To improve my listening skills, I used RUclips videos, first with subtitles, later, without then. That is no other way, it takes a lot of time and effort, I guess it's like taking a full course at a University.
ah, this gives me a new perspective on foreign language study in the US. We always blame our education system too, but it is also VERY true that the students rarely have actual motivation to learn a foreign language - based on my memory it was always very obvious which students were there to pass and which really wanted to learn.
The Japanese and if it's anything like the UK language learning system, the US one too, are just really bad. I'd say that the Japanese system is set up in a way that actually makes it harder for the students to attain a high level in English, as it actively teaches wrong things, for example, they are taught pronunciation by people who cannot pronounce the words correctly, and they are taught to pronounce all the letters in words, even though native speakers often drop or soften inconvenient vowels and consonants. It is really different to how language is taught in the vast majority of the world. This isn't just a problem in language, but everything really. Japan's strength in education has been hard work and rote memorization rather than learning strong flexible base skills.
I've had french in school for 4 years and our teacher was amazing, yet when I hear French people talk I can't make anything out of it even though my French grades were good. That might be a good example.
Pure. FACTS. Depending solely on education to learn, not only languages but pretty much anything, is not meant to give you results. For instance, I had a poor English education (it's not my native language) during high school, but based on my interests I was able to learn things progressively and reach a decent proficiency over time. I just needed to connect the dots and make associations about how to say certain things while never stopping absorbing input in English. Not only was I actively using it constantly (sort of language acquisition), but there was also a factor I consider essential: *motivation* . In this sense, schools and English schools can only do so much for your level, as your practice and use of knowledge are entirely up to you. If you're mildly interested or just couldn't be bothered to be in contact with the language beyond the classroom, then proficiency is not going to magically manifest itself in your brain because you took classes. I work as an English teacher, and fortunately most students I've known have a certain degree of motivation. But sometimes it bothers me that, depending on a sudden project they may have involving an official exam, some of them want to be certified in English practically overnight. We do as much as we can, but committing to help them with that task is tough, especially for official tests. Too bad there are so many unrealistic expectations sold for getting students, but I guess that's how the business works. I just do what I can and try not to think about it too much. It keeps me employed and I barely have any other skills to exploit 😅😅😅
I completely agree. I learned English through consuming English media such as music, RUclips or TV and barely through school. A lot of the time I found myself already knowing terms, meanings or grammatical structures, but 2 very good english teachers I had definetly motivated me to get better. I'm planning on teaching German and English in Japan, though I know many of my future students will not care, I'll still try my hardest to make them interested and put in extra effort for the ones that do care and give them the education they want and need.
In Canada, we learn French because it is one of the official languages of the country. I studied French for 8 years and the only thing my skills are good for is the induce a fit of disappointment or laughter from the Francophone crowd when I travel to Quebec.
Okay, but the thing that you need to understand about quebecois francophones is that they are huge ******** about French. Sorry, Quebecois, but it's true. People from France, Morocco, Vietnam, and Côte d'Ivoire have all been much, much nicer to me. Or if you don't want to go as far as France, New Brunswick also has a sizable French-speaking population and a lot of music festivals. The Acadian accent is a bit different but pretty cool once you get used to it.
To be honest....so many french Canadians have one of the biggest superiority complex in canada out of anyone out there. They laugh at people for not knowing French when they don't even bother learning English to communicate with others (most of the time). They expect YOU to adjust and that's it.
@@Yanaaa_0312 same in Belgium. We have three official languages (Dutch, french and German). Se have three parts, Flanders (Dutch) and Walloon (french) and the German part. In Flanders you need to learn Dutch, French, German and English. In the french part you get to choose between Dutch or English and of course everyone takes English, I think the same for the German part. But it is really annoying
I grew up 30km north of Montreal in French town and most people can converse in English. The issue with Canada claim to be bilingual country is that Francophone English skill is way better then Anglophone French skill (in general). This is where our frustration as Quebecois comes from. in Montreal for example, way more French speaker know English then English speaker know French. Learning French is viewed as a waste of time. I hate when Anglophone pretend like they care or that "French is difficult to learn". I learned English in school also for 8 years but I was still awful because I only spoke French outside of class. I started learning English when I decided to read on the internet in English, play video game in English, watch movies subbed instead of dubbed, and traveling, not in class. Now I live in Thailand where I need to converse in English and Thai, zero French. I left Canada years ago because I didn't like where the country was heading. I don't have a TV now so i'm not getting bombarded by BS media everyday.
I definitely think teachers are part of the problem, but that is only because the system allows these teachers into their positions to begin with. As hugely beneficial as JET and other ALT programs are for getting foreigners over to and set up in Japan, you don't need any teaching experience at all and only need a BA of ANY degree. They hand ALT jobs out like candy to people with BAs and it's the most common way foreigners start out when moving over so it's only natural that the vast majority of these people will be terrible at teaching. Of course they try and aren't teaching alone, but they did not study teaching in school and are kind of just winging it. Some fail and some succeed, but the quality you get because of these extremely low requirements is a complete shot in the dark and definitely contributes to English illiteracy as opposed to being taught by someone who actually knows how to teach and is doing it as a passion and not a stepping stone for a VISA
I've never been one to learn a language in a classroom. For my English, I think 10% was school, just to learn the basics, but where I did a real improvement, was when I started reading books. I think, that this way, I was able to acquire the language more naturally, because I didn't force myself to memorize anything, I just read for the sake of reading, and that allowed me to have a more organic understanding of the language.
There is a bright side to this: if Japanese People didn't compare their english to other countries' English, we wouldn't get "Za Warudo" or "Godo Hando Kurasha"
nope, english's (despite its universal........) just one out of the many that ppl study enough to pass like any other school curriculum unless they'r gonna use it extensively within their day to day life until they'r no more.. as any skill takes dedication/time/patience/ unless /they do it just out of pure joy as its simply not practical in reality........... to be continued...
Immersing oneself in the culture is definitely one of the major incentives. As a Malaysian, Malay is thought for 12 years and used regularly with locals, but English and Chinese creeps in the dialogue as well - so the blend of cultures pushes an English speaker like myself to adopt multiple languages fast. Japan adopts monoculturalism so learning a second language hardly used within its borders probably isn't deemed worthwhile for locals unless they have innate interest in a different language or culture. I'm currently learning Japanese and French. I must admit French is easier to understand intuitively, while Japanese words and sentence structures can be difficult unless you learnt a similar system such as Mandarin or Korean. So it all comes down to personal interest, goals and lots of practice.
@@essy9104 It's difficult to explain, but similiar to English - except that everything has a masculine or feminine way to address. Pronunciation is a pain though lol.
Malaysian here . As a student , I learned english for 11 years straight while in school . Not to mention the pressure from surrounding . Having bad english means you're pretty much stup*d here . Some people hate this idea but it keep popping up in conversation across the nation . Subject in university is taught in english . All study material including lecture note and text book are in english as well . This is a challenge for those whom didnt have good command of english language. To wrap it all up , you're doom if you dont know english in Malaysia 🤔
i didn't know that, that really sucks. systemic discrimination probably left over from colonization, i'm assuming. that's really fucked up :( i'm sorry that it's like that. it shouldn't be.
one thing you forgot to mention is that English in Malaysia is A BENEFIT Malaysia is a multi-race country, with Indians Chinese and Malays, how are teachers suppose to teach something in minimum 3 different languages?
As someone whos from a country thats considered the best at speaking english without being an english speaking country (the netherlands) i can wholeheartedly say that the english curiculum is prolly just as shit as the japanese one. However, what we do have is a massive influx of english content and media. The Dutch always seem to look beyond their own country for social media and news, we also never dub our shows unlike our good neighbours the french and german, whos english proficiency is considered lower than the dutch, the reason being that we absorb the english words with dutch subtitles so we know whats being said when a word is spoken.
@@seneca983 yeah of course I know that. I am belgian, so I spoke dutch as my first language. I learned french after that and then english. English fo course went a lot faster but I can really use my english more to comprehend french then my dutch. a lot fo words are probably the same because of all the wars (one hundred year war and ...) between france and england. they started using words from the others language and kept using them. I know they aren't from the same family, but they have a lot of similar words
For me, it was easier to learn speaking English as a young kid because it's normal to consume western media in our country. All our books are in English except for our National Language and History. You're basically forced to adapt with the language earlier, unless you want to fail all your major and minor subjects.
@@joannaownseeet8663 Is it bad I guessed that you were living in my country? Filipino vocabulary has gone to shit by not enriching the actual Philippine languages and instead just keeps adopting whatever the Spanish or English language gives us. It's sad but it can't be helped since our country idolizes foreign countries more than itself.
You know what they say ”if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Apparently they aren’t learning the language because they do not require it as of now. Here in India , Those who can’t speak English should prepare themselves to face those condescending gazes . You will be patronised and might be regarded as an Illiterate. Crazy ,right ? But our country thrives on this language , hence we can’t afford to not learn it. I had terrible English teachers back in the days, however self-learning is the key. Anyway I regard Japan, Korea and China highly for keeping their language alive and respected among their countrymen. I find it fascinating that they make the westerners learn their language rather than them learning English , lol
At the same time, English is also everywhere around us. From the billboards, to movies, tv series, news, etc. So it could be likely that we at least understand basic English for conversation, if only because we are exposed to it a fair bit, at least in urban areas.
@@anirudhviswanathan3986 I agree . However one still has to struggle a lot to ace the language . People like us who never went to those fancy private schools , my English teachers had various kinds of thick Indian accents, thus you can easily anticipate the outcome of their teachings. I reckon that mostly Indians like me relied on American movies and tv shows to improve. I still can’t speak to any Indian in NEUTRAL accent . They expect you to speak in thick Indian accent , otherwise you will be mocked for being a fake or a show-off or a braggart. (For instance , look how Priyanka Chopra was trolled for her accent ) On the top of that , I literally have no one to practice my English with , lol . So whatever I feed to myself , gets lost into the thin air eventually.
I never really realized how exactly I learnt english, I always thought that it was from classroom teachings, I still do as I don't converse with anyone in english and sometimes get nervous and mess up my sentences when asked to speak. But I was exposed to english as early as kindergarten as most people are im english medium. In elementary school, we were made to talk only in english, it was fine if you didn't but if you did they would give you a green ribbon to pin on your shirts. So we tried naturally. And in middle and highschool, though we were still not fluent in speaking we had to talk to most of the teachers, especially english teachers, in english and there was no room for error or you'd get mocked by your classmates. I guess that naturally pushes you to get good at the language. Lastly, one of the things that has improved my spoken english a lot is just talking to myself in english, thinking up of scenarios and different characters and them acting them out by speaking. Just do it when you're free and it'll improve your spoken english a lot making you more confident. I never really actively tried to learn english except watching western shows, never had much interest, but the way the schools make you speak it and keeps you motivated from a young age is one of the keys i guess.
Same thing in canada, I've been taking mandatory french for 8 years and I dont remember anything at all. you have to be immersed in the language, its not about just studying or translating sentences.
I definitely think they should teach english so the students in school can speak/listen to the language a bit more. it makes a lot of sense why japan is quite behind in english proficiency compared to china/south korea; reading and writing doesn't really get you anywhere when learning a language if you're not constantly immersed in it, in my opinion
It feels to me that Japan teaches students to function in Japan, while many other countries try to teach students to me more adaptable. Teaching English is contrary to the method of teaching, as it is most useful in international or niche situations.
@@jp12x Very true. I always told my colleagues who asked how to improve English education in Japan that they needed partial immersion and content-based language learning. Teach math and science in English, then the students will learn English. They would nod and agree, but then come up with a hundred excuses why that isn't possible.
Look at Singapore we speak 3-5 totally different languages and it isn't even hard the main languages we speak are English Chinese Malay/Indonesian and Tamil 4 of the worlds most spoken languages
@@jonathanng138 that's not true though. Most people are terrible at their mother tongue (especially chinese people, I can't speak for the other races), and those who took third language often forget the language because of the lack of opportunities for immersions. Singaporeans are only bilingual/multi-lingual in name only. In fact many of my german friends can put Singaporeans to shame with their strong grasp of both english and german. (Yes, I'm Singaporean. There's no point in trying to brag about our country when it's not true that people comfortably use 3-5 languages. Most use 1.5. People don't all speak chinese + malay + tamil. There's plenty more to be said about how mother tongue isn't taught very well in Singapore schools, which leads to such poor use of mother tongue).
Immersion and studying outside the "classroom" will make you proficient. Everything you said is rock solid. I'm really surprised that you are basically saying that the Japanese students are kind of lazy when it comes to English. But They do work hard on so many aspects of their education that falling a little short on one aspect isn't really all that bad. You speak English very well and I hope you can find a career where you can still use your English skills. You have obviously worked very hard to achieve proficiency. Good luck!
Having taught in Japan and having taught college students from Japan at an immersion school here in the US, I totally get what he's saying. It isn't so much that they are "lazy" when it comes to English, but they are easily discouraged and become unmotivated to put effort into it because a) they don't plan to leave Japan, b) they don't have any friends who speak English that they need to communicate with, c) they don't need it for their future career plans, and d) they aren't interested in English-speaker cultures beyond some weird facts like "Oh, that Japanese word is actually English?" or "Oh, Halloween! That's fun!" It takes a lot more to motivate a student to learn English than sticking a grade on a subject for 6-8 years and telling them it's important because (insert weird nationalism-infused internationalization jargon from the Ministry here). Kids aren't stupid, they can see hundreds of successful Japanese adults daily that can't speak more than 10 phrases in English and they know they don't need it and are unlikely to put in more effort than is required to get them into whatever college they expect to get into.
That said, the students that I had *here* in the States got to learn that learning English wasn't just beneficial for communicating with native English speakers, but people from all over the world. They got to make friends with Taiwanese and Korean students, Arabic students, students from Latin America, and that motivated a lot of them to actually try a lot harder. Those who didn't much care about those connections and who were just doing it to fulfill a program component of their college only did the minimum effort. It's all about motivation, not laziness.
@Thundering Water the official language of the US is English. Because we are not a homogeneous culture and welcome immigrants from everywhere we accommodate many different languages officially.
@@gregoryheim9781 that’s incorrect; the US literally has no official language at the federal level. English is the de facto language. Some states have made English (along with other languages) official for their state.
Hey, English teacher here. I moved to Chile close to a decade ago with no Spanish experience and took literally 2 months of classes to learn just the very basics, y el resto aprendí de solo convercaciónes. You're right. Even Chileans complain that English classes here are horrible, but even though every year your teachers just focus on "to be" all the time, doesn't mean you can't learn, you just have to find a way to learn outside of the classroom. One of my best students learned primarily through TV and video games. I don't think it's controversial at all to say that you learn best when you immerse yourself outside of the classroom, because it's true. Also I don't know how it is in Japan, but since 2020, I just focused on giving one on one private classes, working for myself, and not through any school or institute. I feel much happier and feel like my job is more rewarding since now the people I work with come to me because they really want to learn.
lol! yo es aprendiendo español sola y entendí lo que escribiste. I half practice.. I watch shows (telenovelas) and sometimes use DROPS for vocabulary acquisition (when I'm not being lazy). It's a difficult process, especially when you're a busy adult.
Hey Shun! so what you said definitely rings a bell and i think you are absolutely right in your comparisons of learning languages vs other subjects in school. in high school i had classes in italian. but i remember learning most of my italian from manga on italian. it's because i actually paid attention to what was being said, and learned this, one step at the time. an even more dramatic comparison can be made with way i learned german. i learned it by basically watchin german satelite tv in my spare time during elementary school. this was what i did in my spare time for like 3-5 years. no friends, no outside activities, only watching anime in german. and guess what - i can speak german perfectly. we also had latin and greek in high school. unsurprisingly, i cant speak them. which is a shame, because we spent a LOT of time on doing the "dry grammar", declinations, blabla. but this was useless for talking because for most people, brains dont just work like that. looking back, how id have shaped the classes would be to beat the vocabulary into the students and them let them plow over texts to ingest the grammar themselves. yea, long runt, but i wanna say you are on point with your remarks.
Just realized that SHUNchan has made another video. Damn, why did I forgot to click the notification bell? Anyways, great video man! Hoping for more content in the future!
ShunChan, I been learning Japanese for about 2 or 3 years and I still say stuff wrong and have a hard time reading hiragana and katakana, so don’t be ashamed bro.
Hey, it's awesom that you've been learning Japanese for 2 or 3 years. But if you still can't read hiragana and katakana fluently, perhaps you're not using the right learning mediums?
Excellent analysis ! No excuses necessary for late uploading because this is quality. There is more effective use of your insight than on this channel.
When something is forced upon you at school, no one really cares about whatever it is you're learning. You just want to pass the class and move on.
There are rare exceptions of teacher who manage to feed any kid's natural curiosity, but they are so rare and are usually the ones victimizes by their own system for not 'following the program' 😭
So 99% of America's school education system
@@KourageHD Yeah the American education system is pure dog shit.
@@KourageHD I used to like reading as a kid, then I had to do like British poetry and be forced to read and come to the anticipated conclusions about it for a semester in AP english, as well as the rest of school being forced to read certain novels and needless to say, I to this day I'm basically ruined when it comes to reading for entertainment, i just can't do it, I fall asleep.
This is 100% truth. I hated the medieval period, i found it so boring and dull, in history, art history and lit aswell. After school i became a fantasy fan and fell in love with all those things i hated. School puts things on a grading scale, you'll never understand the greatness in what you're studying if things are forced upon you.
As someone who is bi-lingual and taught German and English (as a language) for 30 years in public schools and college, of course, I didn't delude myself into thinking I would ever be able to teach teenagers to develop any real fluency in the language. Teaching immigrants English was a bit different, because there was an evident motivation involved, but not particularly with German to American students. A few were very good, but, as you say, they were committed to it and practiced outside of class, watching German films and TV, reading, etc. A few of my students went on to study German at University, one got her PhD in Germanics. Others moved to Germany and became fluent. A couple met and married Germans and became fluent. But, otherwise, at best, a school language class can teach a student the basics and give them a basis for further successful study if they're so inclined, but the most valuable thing they take away is a deeper understanding and appreciation for their own language, its morphology, syntax and phonology. That made it worthwhile for me as a teacher.
Very wholesome and inspirational comment.
Well said
That very much sums up what my understanding after 13 years of school and way more years at university than I initially expected/intended became of what a "good" teacher is or what a teachers main tasks are.
Of course as a teacher only teaches certain fields, e.g. English, German, Maths,... A teacher should be able to convey the basic principles in that field.
In languages that is mainly vocabulary and grammar (which actually reduces it to the absolute bare minimum), in Maths it would be rules how our numbers are constructed, adding, subtracting, multiplying etc.
Sadly it seems for many people this is exactly where their understanding of a teachers role ends.
One, I would say even more important, other part from my point of view is instructing pupils/students on how to learn. Of course you can read and copy words over and over again to build up a vocabulary, but then you know words and how they are written and somewhat read, but not even always their contextual meaning. It seems many children no longer know how to learn.
As this is what it takes to really learn something, working on understanding the topic, and at some point working out for yourself to understand the topic, instead of reading or bering told and memorizing.
No tradesperson, e.g. a carpenter will learn a trade just by being shown. Such things can only be learned by trying yourself and consequently making mistakes on the way. For languages that means reading, listening and of course most of all speaking. And way more than time in school would ever allow for. Even more regularly. Can you learn English perfectly with learning or speaking three single hours a week? Possibly yes, but how long will it take?
That is something I have seen quite a lot with the schools bering partially closed over the last year, mistakes when learning are regarded failing horribly so often, instead of taking them as an essential step in learning. Of course with learning those mistakes should get lesser and if someone makes the same mistake over and over still after months something is odd. And here I think comes what distinguishes a good from a bad teacher. A good teacher makes it easy to understand why one way is right and one way is wrong, or why certain things have to be done in a certain way. Maybe even somehow making it understand why the rules are how they are (which may be a bit much in the lower classes to be fair).
And I think this may also be something that has two sides. One teacher may have a way to explain which one half of the. Class understands better, another teacher has a way to explain the other half understands better. So is now either one generally good or bad? Or should both just know multiple ways to explain to make something understood? Well I guess that would make a good teacher.
That and someone who is able to kindle an interest in actually learning whatever it is. I guess no one will excell in any field of study that this person consideres boring.
As a German and English teacher, could you give some inside into why Germany or some EU countries have a higher proportion of its population able to speak English compared to Asain or latin American countries? Do u think it's more of a cultural thing? Or is it mainly based on a better English education system?
@@Nachicki Hello…I’m not an English teacher but I think because the English language stems from Germanic,it makes easier for the leaning process…a bit like Portuguese and Spanish,I imagine!Futhermore,the distance within European countries might facilitate the learning skills…Hope I could help with the answer…Have a nice day!🙏🏼x
Basically any language. If you don't proactively practice the language a lot outside of study time you won't learn it. This is a lot different from other subjects and I think that has to do with the degree of difficulty that is involved in learning a language. People take this for granted because we are just kind of given our native language for free, but all native speakers are incredibly skilled at their language. Even the people who seem like total idiots.
Learning a language is not like math or science or a trade that you can learn a few things in a classroom and come out with some useful knowledge. Like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and things like percentages. You can learn that stuff in a few weeks as an adult and pretty much all of your math needs will be taken care off. However with language, having a simple conversation takes years of study. With Japanese, just to obtain basic fluency, you have to put the kind of work in that high level professionals put in to obtain their career goals. It's an insane amount of work. A 50 minute class a few times a week is not going to suffice.
Oh wow you're here!
@@FuikaMusic the videos he like show in our feed
@@heatherdeep8367 Oh okay, thank you
You're sorta correct but I disagree somewhat. I think that although the study is important to have a refined understanding of the language, especially for languages written in foreign scripts, it doesn't give you fluency or perfection in the language. I've been studying Japanese actively for over a decade, not just through classroom activivity but through studious immersion, and my fluency is terrible. I have excellent grammar, phrasing, pronounciation, lexical understanding and kanji knowledge: but I can't carry a conversation for the life of me without a lot of preparation.
The only way to learn that skill is to go and talk to native speakers frequently. This is the problem wth language education: there is no immersion and the classroom environment makes it impossible. This is the crux of why Japanese native speakers have such low English fluency: Japan is a closed country. There is very little untranslated English media that enters Japan, and their cultural sphere is restricted by this. This is likewise the case for English-speaking countries, as little foreign media enters their sphere untranslated. This is the same reason why English-speaking bilinguality is so low.
Languages are socially learnt. You go to school and you learn the script, formalities and grammar as a child, otherwise you learn the language through interraction. The same concept applies to learning as an adult. I say this as a person who has been learning Japanese at an extensive study level for as long as I've had brain cells, and I still suck at it
Fancy seeing you here!
"We study English for 6 years, but we can't speak it"
Relatable af. Studied arabic in school for 9 years and I only remembered like 5 words even though I used to be one of the top scorer in the arabic tests
Because in public school we are taught only how to read, write and speak. And most people do not use arabic for daily conversations.
@@ayina114 and too memorize things for test and after that you forget it anyway.
That's how it was with me and Spanish. In high school we had two foreign language classes: Spanish and French. I wanted to learn French but we weren't allowed to choose which language we took in case one language was favored over the other and there was an imbalance between the two so the school decided which student learned what language and I was forced to learn Spanish instead of what I wanted to study. I passed with top marks but I only know like 4 phrases in Spanish and later went on to minor in French once I got to college. If I learned French in high school I definitely feel like I would have really taken the time to learn how to speak it and not just memorizing enough information to pass the class.
True-ish for me in my private study of German and Japanese. I still know a decent bit but I basically never use it so it's nowhere near it's peak
Same but for french ليش!
They don't want to learn English. Period. They don't see the value in it. I've taught all ages in multiple cities around japan for years and I've decided that, Japanese people in general, just don't care about stuff outside of Japan. Plus, they spend so much time learning and forgetting their own language they just don't care.
Most, yes. There are always a few who really want to learn.
@@kyotoben610 yeah, many teachers who really enjoy teaching eventually find those students.
It's ironic that English is seen as cool and is used for advertising and mixed into the Japanese language more and more, yet most of the people have no interest in actually learning it. It's cool for aesthetics only, kind of how anything with Asian character on it is automatically cool in the West, even if you aren't interested in the culture lol
Facts
You could literally swap Japan/Japanese for Italy/Italian and get the same exact situation. It's a lost cause.
Well, I'm also Japanese and while I do agree on some aspect of what Shun explained in the video I still believe JP English education itself is straight up shit and one dimentional. Imagine being "educated" by a Japanese English-teacher who can't even speak English fluently(Eng teachers like Shun is kinda rare), and the class is taught IN Japanese. Its such a nightmarish way to learn a new language and Ive been like "bruh, u really sure this gonna magically make us become fluent in English?" the whole time. Turns out it never was for us to become fluent but WAS for us to become good at exams. If you don't call this BS then Idk what is. Then, thanks to this crappy education system I ended up learning English from scratch all by myself, as Shun said we should. Hell, I couldn't even afford to study abroad like Shun tho. The point is, regardless of what people say the Japanese English education system needs some changes because it INDEED sucks.
Teaching solely to the test is a big issue with education in general. All people care about is what’s on the test, and they just forget about it all later. It’s not taught in a way where they can see how everything connects together because all they need to do is answer a bunch of discrete questions correctly. We have a lot of this in the US as well.
I taught as an ALT in elementary and middle school for 3 years and I completely agree. I had students who had my classes in Elementary school where we tried to make it fun, but also tried to make it all English. The class that I started with as 4th graders when I arrived went through 5th and 6th grade with an HRT who was passionate about English and even used English sometimes outside of English class. When I left, I was teaching their first year of English at the middle school, and the new JLT was passionate about English and she was very fluent and we both taught the whole class primarily in English together. That group of students could talk to me minimally outside of class in English and was one of the only classes that didn't always talk to me in Japanese.
Another class when I started had an HRT who could only speak a little English, then they had 3 years of the JLT who taught almost entirely in Japanese and primarily used grammar translation method. They did very well on tests, but only a couple students who worked very hard outside of class at cram schools and the like could speak any English, and most of them couldn't remember basic English constructions from their first year by the time they were in third year once we'd moved on to a new chapter.
So you are correct, a lot of it has to do with the system in general. Many teachers are 50 years behind on English teaching and the majority are about 20 years behind. The teachers who are passionate about English and motivate the students both inside and outside the classroom to learn and use English are rare, and those teachers are usually met with a lot of societal pressure to focus content toward the tests when they could be doing so much more. It made me sad that I had new first-years when I left who on average could read, write, and speak more and better unprompted English than the 3rd years who had just graduated.
@@meowtherainbowx4163 literally just memorization
he said both! he's really right on the motivation stuff. although the $ thing is huge; i wonder what it's like for ppl and the gap between private language school and the people who get to go to it. the US system of education is abysmal and all about rote memorization. it's getting better for gen zers hopefully (or the next gen after) and hopefully in japan too but a lot of us really missed out and esp if you're from a disadvantaged fgroup
This is so weird to me as an American because at least where i’m from the Japanese education system is said to be great 😂 I thought english was taught well there until this video
As a Japanese learner: some of your points have helped me realize that I need to work more outside of the classroom. My college professors aren’t going to make me fluent and get a 1 on the JLPT.
You can also look into the history of English, including the Latin/Greek roots of many words. Otherwise, it's like learning to write Japanese without knowing there are different kinds of Kanji...
And, "silent" letters are BS. Different accents will pronounce or not pronounce almost any letter.
There's an internet full of English-speakers willing to help you. Don't hesitate to engage with us.
I love how every reply to this so far has been English speakers who lack basic English comprehension skills. They said they're learning JAPANESE. lol
But yes, as someone who lived and worked in rural Japan for 3 years and still would not be able to pass the JLPT N2, there's no way you can pass the N1 without an extreme amount of dedication, especially because the JLPT is about reading comprehension. I knew people who could communicate in spoken Japanese to such a high degree, Japanese speakers were treating them so naturally and I was entirely lost (I was "intermediate-conversational"). But those same speakers would not have been able to pass the N3 (which is where I was roughly at in terms of my reading comprehension and grammar). It takes a huge amount of kanji recognition and vocabulary knowledge that even many Japanese speakers are confused about why you know certain words. "I haven't heard that word since college, why on earth do they make you learn that?" So if you want a good JLPT N1 or N2 score, be prepared to do a *lot* of independent study and find a *lot* of ways to keep yourself motivated. This isn't meant to discourage you, just to reiterate that what I learned in college was barely helpful when I got to Japan, and what I learned in Japan was barely helpful for the JLPT! It's a lot of work, but I know many, many Americans and Brits who did it! がんばってください！
As a non native English speaker, I would recommend books. I learned English solely from books. After you read enough, sentences start to pop up in your mind and you don't have to think "ok, I'll put the subject first then the verb and then..". I never memorised any of the grammar rules and still score full marks in grammar tests. Books, people. Books.
Well-written books, if I may add. Having read John Banville and, particularly, James Joyce helped me to advance, enrich and even develop my own usage of English (my 4th language). Reading daily news or cartoons, listening to movie dialogues or talking with (most of the) colleagues has done considerably less so.
まずはHearing が出来なきゃいくら原語で本読めても会話は出来ません。
昔アメリカ人の知り合いで漢字はいくらでも書けるけれど日本語は全然できない
人に有った事が有りますよ。漢字はMathematicalなMethodがあるから理解できる
が言葉は文法やなんだかんだまるで分らんと言ってました。
ちなみに僕は高校まで英語は通信簿で３（5段階）しかとった事無かったけど高卒後
4年目には通訳の真似事も出来るように成り1975年に米国移住してからは長年日英両語
を使う仕事特に通訳が大好きで生きてきました。今はリタイアしてます。
When there is a will there is a way.
Listening and singing English songs as well, specifically the classics.
I also don't speak english natively, and I can say, 85% of the english I learned was because of chatting online with native speakers, mostly through online videogames. I also dare to say that if I weren't interested on speaking english voluntarily, I would still be bad at it in school. Most language teachers will give you sht ton of formulas and will make you memorize time tenses that you will probably forget by name, and most of the time they try to make it look like a big deal, when it doesn't have to be that hard. My english teacher makes english classes look almost like math classes and it really sucks for the ones who struggle with english.
@@pgtm311 Dude, so relatable. I used to have similar shit at school when teachers say something like "remember this remember that" and ask about the sentence structure to which I replied "I have no idea how that shit works I just know how to speak". Furthermore, the teachers would often tell me that I did a mistake because "it is BrE we're learning here not Ame" because they thought that BrE is the original and AmE is different from it.
Any language needs to be applied, for mastery. Look at young children: Most children, if not all, were fluent in their first language, without ever having to step in a classroom!
Shit man I’ll raise you one, I’d say the same applies for fluent mastery of ANY skill. Use it or lose it
tbh, you will do extremly good in anything you enjoy
Most children aren't even close to fluent in any language, they make constant errors and misuse terminology routinely.
Yeh, it's also better to start learning languages early. Also communication is key. If you're not communicating, it's gonna be harder to learn.
@@looweegee252 Correct, but their understanding of it quickly surpasses that of someone taught in a classroom. Young kids don’t know how to speak or write perfectly because they are still growing, but they know exactly what their peers are saying to them most of the time.
This is TRUTH, wrapped in FACTS, delivered on a hot plate of YES!!
Yup
Yes.
CAPS LOCK
I once watched a Korean guy and this is what he said, "The reason why most of the Filipinos speaks English well is because they" learn the language", and not just "study the language".
There's a big difference ✨
Damn, that Korean guy nailed it on the head. He's exactly right.
I actually didn't realize what he meant until I started teaching Japanese students (as a Filipino formerly teaching Asian students). Filipino students don't study all that linguistic lessons, like sound production ('schwa' sounds?), etc in elementary school, as opposed to the English lessons taught in Japan. Basic pronunciation and phonetic sounds were all we had. Filipino students weren't being trained to be linguists so I didn't understand why Japanese students were being taught like linguistic students. Filipinos have a more practical education - shove us out the classroom and apply the lessons in real life. Use the language in every day life. That's probably part of the problem with the East Asian education system. The fact that English isn't learned or used in a practical way (and not even used daily) does not help in improving students chance to succeed in mastering the language.
It's also the Philippines' second language, so naturally they'd be good at it.
@@pincheputa3781 so much that we are becoming more skilled at english than our own goddamn language, it's like we traded off our mastery in our own language for english mastery instead, filipinos can't go a single day without speaking an english word I assure you, most of us have forgotten our own version of the english words we use
Like we have our own words for different colors but filipino youths don't even know it
@@r3ll282 i think it would be helpful if deped considered the dialect of each province and integrate it with the lessons being taught on those provinces... mother tongue has few but it doesnt teach the local dialect...
(like seriously, id love to get an actual dictionary with my province dialect coz there's a lot of terms i havent heard of or understood)
@@keito-kun6618 ya I also want our tagalog and other dialect to be taught in school more deeply because there's a lot of terms especially those deep ones I don't understand
I do want to say- my Spanish teacher did an amazing job teaching us Spanish by making it an immersion class. We debated in Spanish weekly, did half hour presentations in Spanish, worked 100% in Spanish daily. I came in knowing a lot already, but she churned out people who were pretty proficient and ready to do high level studies.
"Learning language in a classroom is an illusion" - that made me subscribe.
Right, if it worked, I'd have more than a stumbling reading comprehension of a few phrases and words that stick out in french from the 2 semesters in high school I took.
@@TheJadeFist yeah, there's no doubt that textbook learning is helpful for basics such as the alphabet or spellings but the real comprehension is acquired through experience by speaking and fixing mistakes while learning to natives.
go play dota then you can learn some languages you dont even want to learn
@@TheJadeFist Same with my German except it was 5 years for me
@@wohnieosu If you had basic German still can try going for German tube vids, Once you can understand you can improve.
I watched tons of American movies as a kid and was fluent in English after only a few years of learning it in school. I already knew the grammar and how to pronounce basically every word thanks to all those movies, so all I had to focus on was my vocabulary.
So yeah, getting immersed in the language is key.
I do the same with you but the difference is I have to torture my sibling to learn english, it's a bit of eldritch magic.
True
Same. I basically grew up on the internet 😅. I grew up on playing Roblox and Minecraft, growing up playing multiplayer games where I need to communicate with people through English when I started middle school I'm already-- i wouldn't say fluent like a native but somewhat fluent ig?
try be like me, at 3 years old I got exposed to Western media (mainly cartoons) and ended up being a bit more fluent at English (even though it's not my native language)
I played MS DOS videogames before I could write and read (let alone speak English). My favorite game could only be run via the command line, so when my dad wasnt around to start it, I memorized what to type in. Once I started learning to read, I tried to decypher the text to understand the story. I just looked at the pictures and tried to make sense of the few words that looked familiar. Sometimes I guessed the words right and puzzled things together. Years later, I learned English and gradually understood more of the story.
After that, I just watched online videos like the angry videogame nerd, every day, or stuff like anime. Eventually I moved to a country where almost everything was in English, and I felt like I was forgetting my native tongue over a couple of months. That made a huge difference.
Less than 0,1% of my time using English was spent in school.
In Malaysia, we often say “look at Japan, they dont speak english but still able to be successful” as means to justify not being able to speak english.
But like, isn't it going to be a hindrance in the future since Malaysia is actually immersed in the English language? 😂
@@micahbalala8248 if youre in the city, it will be, but in most places they do speak malay haha
@@AmirulSyafi isn't that only really true of places like Kelatan and Pahang? I think us Sarawakian are proficient enough in English to get by.
@@ANTSEMUT1 yea i guess thats right too..
It's the same then in Indonesia, some people are glorifying the inability to speak english rather than embracing it or learn it. And they took example from Japan too lmao
I teach Japanese and ESL in high school in Australia, and I have to say, I feel the exact same way. I say to my students all the time, "learning a language - any language - takes time and effort and dedication. You can't get good at it by just sitting passively in the classroom, you have to work at it." Part of the issue with languages education in Australia (and I expect it might apply to Japan as well) is that the traditional "monolingual" approach to education limits students. A lot of schools in Australia are moving towards what we call "CLIL" - Content and Language Integrated Learning, which is kind of like an "immersion" course, where content of multiple subject areas (e.g. history, science, maths etc) is taught in the target language, so kids are exposed to the language in multiple contexts. It can be difficult to set up if you only have one languages teacher on staff and their specialty isn't in those other subjects, but if you can get other teachers on board, it can be a worthwhile experience.
Teaching both languages? That must be quite an interesting experience!
@@TheRollingBacon it really is. I am always learning something new about how the languages work, and it's fascinating to see how students of different ages and backgrounds acquire/learn a language (and there *is* a difference!)
For example, most anime watchers learn some Japanese words and phrases through simply watching anime. What really matters is your interest in that other language and the dedication and time you put into learning it even outside a classroom.
Nani?😂
neko means cat...
Sou da yo🤣
Agreed
when i used to heavily binge anime, i found that i could properly assume what the characters would say next (in japanese) even if i didn't even realize that i knew those words or phrases. Your subconscious definitely picks up on language easily when being exposed to it for long periods of time,, you just have to unlock that knowledge.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You cram before an exam, after the exam all you memorized is out the window. That's basically the educational system in the whole world.
Nah not familiar with that
Doesn't sound familiar, I only forget things after a few months, not a day '-'
yup. Then you realize this applies even to medical students. Yikes
@@zin4680 are you Bob Petrella?
Haha true, english education in my country never focuses on oral english.. pronunciations and tones are mostly learned from movies 🤦♂️
As a bilingual speaker myself.. Everything you said is true. It's not enough to read a bunch of textbooks and practice verbatim regurgitation, you have to rewire your brain to think in the new language. You have to want to learn a new language. Forcing people to learn a new language when they don't want to learn it, is a waste of time for everyone involved.
I feel like something that helps with learning anything, at least for me, would be having fun. As an example, if I wanted to learn Japanese, of course I'd use standard methods of learning. But then I'd want to have fun with it. So I'd probably try to watch an episode of anime without subtitles. I feel like it would make it feel more rewarding, like "Ooh yay! I learned Japanese! Now I can do fun stuff like watch anime without subs. Cool!" And also, my attention span is very short. I can't really sit down and study for long periods of time. I'd rather just learn as I watch things and have fun. Also, I remember fun things better. It's mostly about your brain retaining what you pay more attention to I think. At least how it works for me. :)
What’s exasperating is that when you keep feeding yourself with new vocabulary, idioms , phrases and whatnot , but not been able to put them into practice because you are surrounded by all the native speakers who only talk in their own tongue(in my case , Hindi)
@@kyle_rabui Totally agree with you, probably the only reason why I didn't find learning english too exhausting (especially in high school) is because I would spend a lot of time on internet in english websites. Literly 80% or more of my recreation activities were in english. I would watch TV shows in english, watch various RUclips videos in english, read some fantasy books in english and so on... And I did all that because I liked the activity and not because I was trying to learn the language. Yes, basic understanding of english and the vocabulary I gained in school helped a lot but I also learned some words only based on the context I heard them used in. Now I rarely translate the words I don't know, I just look up the definition in english and know what it means. I think this environment where you no longer rely on your first language to understand the second one but rather use that second language to broaden your abilities is much more natural and a better way of learning english at a more advanced level.
Yes exactly, that’s what they did for my school and I know including me that we only learned a few things, if we don’t want to learn it I see no reason why
"Forcing people to learn a new language when they don't want to learn it is a waste of time for everybody involved"
I know I wasn't the only one who thought/felt like this in highschool when they force you to take 2 years of a foreign language. 90% of students probably forgot everything the next year.
Good points, Shun! Makes me think about the 4 years of high school I took Spanish and how I still can't really understand the Spanish speakers in my community.
I think a big part of the disinterest in learning English comes from the fact that the students don't really find a use for it (not that its not the most useful language you could have in the world, but that they specifically don't have a use for it). I doubt the average Japanese student consumes a lot of English media, or has to talk in it for any extended periods of time outside of English class itself. Content with their own language in their day to day lives.
Where I'm from we're taught English for almost a decade and yet a lot of kids don't really end up learning it. The only reason I ended up doing so is because video games weren't localized to my native language, so even in my off time I ended up learning bits and pieces from playing them.
Back when I was a high schooler in China we had a teacher who always lend us her copy of Friends season 1-10 DVDs and a little English-language class library. Worked like magic.
That teacher is awesome
Wow so basically you learned english by watching Friends. I'm not an army but I know Namjoon from BTS who also watched Friends and became his means to speak english
@@ely4938 Well we did not really learn English all the way from the beginning by watching Friends or so. Before that we had 6~7 years of learning English as schoolkids. In my experience consuming a lot of media in the target language is a convenience way to trigger the leap from a "learner" to a "user".
@@ely4938 I'd say around A2~B1 is a good timing to start gorging on contents. Earlier than that can actually be a bit demotivating.
And that’s literally the best way to learn a language because you don’t have the feeling to “work” while still learning a language inconsciously and consciously. But as you said, for English, you have to be at least A2 to use this kind of method in order for it to work.
In Canada we learn French for about 4-5 years, its a similar thing of taking a class every day for 30-45mins and at the end of it, you walk away not knowing anything. In most highschools now though you can choose what language you want to learn starting from Grade 9 I believe(at least it was when I was in High school.) Language studying is definitely something you have to have drive to learn, just being told to learn it isn't going to do much except maybe scratch at the surface level of a language.
i was literally just about to comment the same thing! all those years spent learning french and i still don’t know how to speak it fluently bc i never used it after high school (and i took french all the way up to grade 12 😭). it’s definitely difficult to master a language when you’re not actually putting it into practice
Even French Teachers here in Toronto can't speak French outside the classroom. Real life usage is critical.
This is interesting to me. It’s hard for me to see the difficulty of learning a language in school, cause for French school in Ontario, you start English in 4th grade. But because pretty much everyone at the school already knows some if not a lot of English, in addition to decent to good French, learning is super easy compared to other schools.
@@Daniele.M42 we have French immersion schools, and the learning rate there is much higher. But the average student in a public school with general French will walk away with about as much practical French skills as a Japanese student who learns English given what was presented in this video. It is definitely a case by case basis as some people are more naturally driven and interested in language.
@@Alstragon quick note: aside from french immersion schools, full french speaking schools (not private schools) are a thing cuz I go to one. But that aside, wouldn’t it be more practical for English to become an elective in countries like Japan or in public schools so that at least there’s more value to the teacher’s job, and students that are actually passionate about the subject won’t be brought down by poor teaching?
You are absolutely correct! Did you know there is an entire area of research focusing on how young people all over the world are learning a lot more English from music and tv shows in English than they are in classes (although they do get help with the grammar from the classes). And in fact, as you say, this is true for nearly everything. You CANNOT learn anything extremely well unless you put in the time on your own to learn it. Formal education only provides some basic structure for the real learning people need to do. And finally, let me say that it seems the Japanese government is also beginning to understand this, and that is why a big trend in Japanese higher ed. right now is to offer courses in many different academic areas in English, in which the focus is on the content rather than on English. Thank you for your insights!
I'm currently teaching English in Japan. I try to move away from textbooks for my students.
We would listen to English songs, watch English movies and do online games in English. I try not to overload them with vocabularies to memorize and we try to make everyone comfortable with speaking English.
I dreaded studying English when I was younger. However, I did find it more interesting when I started watching more English shows, I learnt more from watching as opposed to sitting in the classroom and memorizing words 😊
You are actually a teacher of English language? Wow!
@@predrag-peterilich900 Tutor. Our main focus are listening and speaking.
We have room for mistakes in our class. We correct them constructively 😊
@@gladz2219 For helping to learn a new language like Japanese, would it be a good idea to watch something like anime without subtitles? Or should I try to watch anime with Japanese subtitles, that way I can read the words as they are saying it?
@@notben4140 if you're familiar with the Japanese writing system, Japanese subtitles will be good. 😊
@@notben4140 Just keep in mind the way how people often speak in Anime vs how people really speak ;)
I was actually an English teacher in an Eikaiwa while living in Japan, after four years of Japanese in college, getting a Master's Degree in Religion (my thesis was on aspects of Shinto), which included translating passages out of books... and I never could speak Japanese for shit, and lost the ability to read and write it after moving back home and getting an unrelated job.
I certainly had an interest in the culture and history. I still do to an extent. But I'm cripplingly introverted. I rarely went to department parties while in college, and never went to language exchanges. I don't know how I pulled an an Eikaiwa job, but I did. And there, after forcibly being animated and outgoing solely in basic English on basic topics for ten hours a day, I went home and drank beer and listened to Enka by myself every night, never practicing anything or interacting with anyone because my social battery was beyond empty.
I really do wonder how introverted people get fluent in languages. Just going out and speaking with strangers in my own native language is hellish enough at times.
TV and self talk. Which, come to think of it, is basically what babies do. Well done, us.
Learning languages is easy, all you need is motivation and that motivation does not even have to be other people. I'm an introvert and I fluently speak 4 languages and can do basic expressing in 3 others. My motivation? Books, movies computer games and travel. Since I am an introvert I also want to be self-reliant and not speaking the local language makes you very dependent on others...
Even if you're a super introverted person, it is still possible to make yourself more outgoing socially. You need to first find the willpower within yourself to take action and make the change(granted if that's what you actually want) and then practice improving your social skills, wording what comes out of your mouth in different ways and maybe having a shift in attitude. There are countless amounts of books, articles and youtube vids you can look at explaining how to become more comfortable in social settings, sound more charming, not come across as awkward, etc.
@@YuuSHiiiN Eh, probably could have used that 15 years ago when I was in grad school and then Japan. I ended up switching to a career path with a minimum of social interaction. Of course the big issue is that I don't really *like* being social. I can fake it extremely well, including such things as public speaking, which is difficult even for normal people. It's just utterly exhausting and I don't get much joy from it.
@@Eener1000 One question has to be asked though. How many of those 4 languages were learned as a kid vs learned as an adult? It's much easier to learn a language when you're young vs old.
"I took PE classes for 13 years, yet I'm not an athlete."
Haha... nice!
I forged my mothers signature on notes to get out of P.E. 🤣🤣 I was a terribly naughty teenager.
Mainly because our trampoline class was mixed and I ain't bouncin' in front of no hormone-fueled teenage boys. 😤🤣
That's a good analogy
@@Kat-mu8wq what? trampoline class? wth i never had anything like that, that sounds fun as hell
@@lucifugerofocale5847 I think the activities in PE are vastly different in different countries.
As someone that speaks 5 languages, I can say confidently that you are right. It's all a question of motivation. You could not pay me enough to put in the hours it took me to become fluent in Korean to learn, say, Arabic or Hebrew. I'm an excellent teacher and many people have told me that I have a gift for explaining even difficult concepts in simple ways that anyone can understand, but teaching something to someone that doesn't want to learn it is the most frustrating and rage-inducing activity I can imagine.
I'm Asian myself. The way I improve my English language is by reading more english, listen to english songs, watching english movies and even change my phone and computer setting to english. I not saying I'm pros. I sometimes do make some mistakes in my english too. But if you have someone who can point out your mistake in english language be it speaking or writing helps a lot too. Don't be afraid to make mistakes because that is where people always give up when it comes to learn english. They afraid that people might laugh at them. Truth is people won't laugh at you if you still learning. You will learn a lot from that mistakes.
I’m not typically one to correct people’s spelling, but since you want to learn and improve on English I should let you know that “improve” should’ve been spelt “improved” as it is the participial adjective indicating a condition or quality resulting from the action of the verb
@@pitbull3868 Thanks for the correction, man. 👍
Your english is really good! Yes there are some minor mistakes but thats exactly how my german is haha it takes time and effort to learn a new language. Never have any fear when speaking!
Agree! I did all that when I was learning English and I'm doing it now for Japanese! I'ts good that plenty of people are into Anime and Japanese music these days so It wasn't hard to find someone to talk about things I'm interested in.. I enjoy learning very much so
Here are some corrections in your statements above:
- I'm an asian myself
- The way I improved my English
- listening to English songs
- even changing my phone and computer settings
- I'm not saying that I'm a pro
- They are afraid
The point about learning languages in a classroom environment is so true. Immersion is what makes one learn the language.
i couldn't agree more. :)
so what's the point of learning a foreign language at school if you finish it without knowing how to listen, speak, read or write in that language?
Yes, immersion is everything. I had a friend who grew up in the Netherlands in the 1980s... he said he learned English from watching American TV shows with Dutch subtitles when he was a boy. Never took a class in English or studied English, you you would think it was his first language.
@@信者の男 I'm a teacher. I tell my students they should get as much input as possible outside of class, and then when they come to see me... Tell me what you read! They think I'll lecture the whole time (borrrrrrrring...) and they can sit there silently and take notes.
I tell them this is like going to the gym and carefully watching people lift weights and exercise, while expecting their own muscles to grow.
So get input from whichever source you enjoy and can understand (I recommend novels), then find a native speaker to discuss it with.
Basically you can get input at home and then find a teacher to practice your output.
So many of my students just want me to define vocabulary words and write example sentences... Uh... You have Google don't you? You need to pay ME for that? You're usually not with a native speaker, but for this hour and a half, you have one willing to talk about anything you want. Tell me about the book you read, ask me questions about something you saw while walking to school. Ask me different ways to talk about big boobs (slang or something you won't find in formal books).
But using me as a dictionary..... Ugh... The worst part is that when I'm telling them what the words mean, they don't even listen to me because they're busy looking at their own dictionaries, in their own language... They pay money to read their own language while mostly ignoring a native speaker.
Then, they wonder why they aren't improving...
I am currently learning Japanese and I hope to save up enough, so that in a few years I can actually go there and immerse myself in the language and the culture. Any advice?
One love! Now as an Engl teacher, when people tell me 'I've been studying so long and I don't speak well enough" I'll say 'well you'd been studying math/physics/chemistry for years, why haven't you become a specialist in science?' this is perfect! People want to get everything too fast
Totally agree! I worked with Early Years children doing private tutoring in Hong Kong for 4 years. The same realisation hit me also. I felt my sessions - as engaging as they were, still were regarded as just another task by a lot of students. It did seem pointless multiple times, and I felt like giving up. However, I shifted the sessions to more practical based learning, focusing more on experiences that required the use of the language in real situations. Making little missions in the community, shopping for items to make a cake etc. We worked more on values and building confidence in the child, as well as letting them see the practical application of having a second language.
I am a Japanese American from Hawaii and never attended Japanese school like my friends. I actually studied learning katakana, hiragana and simple kanji because I wanted to read fan magazines about my favorite Japanese actor! Because I wanted to learn, I remember more about the Japanese language than my friends who went to Japanese school. Unfortunately I stopped studying but never forgot what I learned. I am practicing again because of my love for Taka and One OK Rock and wanting to know what they are saying in interviews! LOL!
OMG I LOVE ONE OK ROCK
One Ok Rocker!!! 🤟
And there is your valid reason to learn. Wanting to. XD
ahh see! you have a passion driving you to learn japanese, that's the difference you have from the japanese students. they're just trying to pass the class but you want to understand interviews that your favorite bands do and read fan magazines.
good luck on your studies!
Lol Hawaii and Japanese. Sorry but lol .
Thank you for making this video~ I'm from the Philippines and I think it's more imperative for us to learn the language because almost everything around us is in English, from our grade school text books (for Math, Science, etc.) to shampoo labels and whatnot. Not every Filipino is fluent, of course, but we actually use English every day versus only studying English like the Japanese do. I agree with you that it's not the fault of the teachers or the education system in Japan, because it's probably the thought "I'll get along just fine in life with just Nihongo" that makes Japanese students less inclined to learn the language outside the school.
I ‘studied’ french in school for 10 years and I think I learned how to say hola.
Oh wait nevermind that’s Spanish and I learned it from Dora.
Good Joke.. Fiora.
Not gonna lie you had us in the first half
Agree. As a English teacher here for toddlers, Parents expect too much after 1 hour per week and become easily frustrated when their 4 year old still can’t recite the weekdays in English (even though they also can’t recite it in Japanese 😂). And the public educational system put too much emphasis on “conversational English” but tell me teaching them to read is useless! If they can read, then they can learn outside of the classroom.. and they definitely don’t practice conversational English outside of the classroom. I fully understand this frustration. The kids who excel are those who’s parents obviously practice at home with them.
as a Spanish speaker I've noticed I can read/write and understand spoken (sort of) English just from being exposed to it on internet and not from school because when I finished highschool I only understood it at the level someone who watches anime would understand spoken Japanese, a few words here and there and nothing else
@Kyoko and Maki are my wives yup i learned french for three years, the only thing i knew was an introduction, but I have already forgot, the classes ended like one month ago
As an online english teacher, it is difficult that most Japanese tend to be shy or not opinionated. It is not in their character to be chatty. They need to develop their social skills too. Also, they tend to not ask questions to get the class over with. The most difficult thing is when Japanese choose pure free talk. They expect to learn a language without any topic to focus on.
True, same with Chinese I taught.
Rarejob ka ba? Haha
Their parents just force them lol
Japanese people is full of introvert Japan is beautiful country but the people is boring
I still learn English to be honest when I was in High school my score is really bad. Always got D or F in class because I don’t like study in general but especially with English I always lack behind other student so I decided myself to learn by reading a book or watch TV with English subtitles chat online with foreigners and the best is speaking with native speaker via Clubhouse and it help a lot. I still learning and i am not quite sure my grammar but this is the best I can do at least now I don’t have to shy to speak English.
In Hungary students learn foreign language for at least 12 years (8 years Elementary School + 4 years High School). It is mainly English or German. Yet the average English proficiency in Hungary is quite bad. Most people who can "speak" it, has broken English. I know very few who are fluent. I think the main reason is that an average Hungarian doesn't need English, because everything is translated here, all the movies are dubbed, even the movie titles are translated which is kinda funny.
Bojler eladó.
It's the exact same reason why English suffers in Japan: most people have no interest in anything outside of their country. If people have no reason to learn English, and see no point in it, trying to force it on them won't help. Only those who have a use for the language will put up any real effort to learn it. It's kind of the same with everything else, not just languages. No matter great or awful the teachers or the education system are, all that is pretty much secondary. Those who *want* to learn a language, will find a way to do it, and those who don't, won't care even if they are furnished with the best teachers and materials.
Similar case in Canada. We are a bilingual country so outside of Quebec (for the most part), we learn French in school (probably varies by province how long). I can say with confidence that most of us Anglophones cannot speak French after going through the system. Most students do the bare minimum (nor is getting good grades difficult), but it bites us IF we want to advance career in the government or military. Other than that, pretty much move on our daily lives without French so no strong motivation for the average student to really put the effort and time. We see French labels often but there is also the English labels we can default to.
@Budgie Cat It could be the influence of colonialism under the British rule for India. I have a lot of colleagues from Africa and they are fluent in French before arriving to Canada (their countries were former French colonies). In Canada, the French gave up Quebec in 1763 to British rule and being a land of immigrants, people just learned the predominant language they lived in which was mainly English (immigrants would have difficulty picking up two languages at once). No strong incentives for the average kid to learn French and it's a shame the average anglo student to not see the value of learning their other official language.
As far as I know not all schools in Hungary start teaching the first foreign language in 1st grade? I started in 4th, that was about 13 years ago though, I don't know how the system changed since then. Starting a 2nd foreign language in 9th grade is super late in my opinion, there's no way you can get to a sufficient level with 4 years of 45 minutes 3 times a week - and even then, those who had German as a 1st FL, end up being better in English by the time they graduate high school.
That can’t be the main reason, in Germany we get even more dubs and translations then hungarian, after the original language English French and Spanish German is the next choice for translation In Europe most of the time. You DO NOT NEED English at all to consume all the Mainstream content you want. Still I would claim English fluency is pretty good here, ofc it varies from person to person but on average most people under 40 will easily hold their own in conversation
I don’t know if it’s the Education system or the popularity of internet content and social media here but something is clearly causing this when compared to Hungary or Japan.
Maybe it’s the openness to English cultural influence, it’s not seen as a bad thing here (or at least nothing is done about it) when in France for example a certain percentage of radio music needs to be in French and in contrast to something like that that English skill in Germany is highly valued and seen as opening up the world for you both in a career and a travel sense
"there is no real need to learn a language other than my native one" is the most first-world sentiment one can have. THAT's how you know your country is rich and powerful. when it can afford to be that isolated in this connected world. yes, it's possible that your country is just historically isolated, but nowadays? the reason is more likely hubris.
I totally agree, for people from The United States or Japan I don't think they need to learn any other language. But for people from third world countries like mine it is really necessary
I totally disagree learning a language gives so much more than you think... I could elaborate, but there is no point. Almost a year has passed, but for everyone that sees this message, please, learn a new language, it offers, as said, many advantages and possibilities.
@@san0manjir026 ??? The original comment said nothing about how people should exclusively learn their native language, in fact it openly criticizes about how certain groups of people have the privilege to only learn their native language without having the need to learn additional languages to further their goals. I don't understand why you disagree with an opinion that is conveying basically the same message as yours.
Yessss! As an ALT just finishing up in Japan, I cannot agree more! I've spent 4 years hearing everyone talk about this issue while also being surrounded with people, both teachers and students alike, who just don't give a care about English at all. Students who openly tell me they hate English before we begin class, and who never bother reading even the simplest materials I give them... Sure, the teacher has a responsibility to make something digestible, but every individual has a responsibility to seek out their own information, and to WANT to learn.
Also, the traditional education system, anywhere you go in the world, is broken. But that's a story for another day, isn't it?
I have a frustrating experience. Not knowing where to begin or hitting a plateau can feel demoralizing and make it hard to hit the books and study like you know you should…Having friends from other cultures makes me more creative. In fresh ways about space and how people create their own world and environment. It is best way to connect between creative thinking and cross-cultural relationships.
“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.” - Albert Einstein
That's not necessarily the case
"I didn't say half the shit people on the Internet say I did" - Einstein
@@arpitdas4263 Sounds more like the sh!t house poet to me😉
The way you described "studying English for 6 years" reminds me of how we "studied" Spanish in the USA. Everyone has to studies it, but very few end up being able to do more than ask where the bathroom is.
One reason I think we (Americans and Japanese) often "suck" at foreign languages is that most of us feel that learning a new language is not _really_ necessary for improving our chances of a good life, and therefore is not worth putting in the huge amount of effort needed to learn one. So unless you're super passionate about being able consume content/talk with people in that language, you'll probably not get that far before calling quits and finding an alternative for what you want. For example, many years ago I started learning Japanese because I wanted to enjoy anime and manga. Then, I started to just find translations for everything, and stopped studying the language. I started getting back into Japanese this February, this time because I'd like to be able to talk to people using it.
I study Japanese because I can't communicate with Japanese here in Japan and I have no choice but to learn the language. If I were not in Japan I have absolutely no interest in the language itself because I dont need to use it.
you got the point man, it is True period
This is actually very true, in any language. I taught Spanish in The United States, and taught English in Mexico ( I am a native speaker of both). My wife taught English in France, and French in England, and we found exactly the same issues that you are describing. The exposure that students get to the language is directly proportional to the how well they manage to understand it and learn it. France, England, Mexico, The US, these are countries that have important numbers of foreign language speakers and have access to radio, TV and movies in those languages, but people prefer to consume these "cultural products" in their own languages. as you say 2-3 50 minute lessons a week for 6 years do not equal 6 years of language study. The counter point is The Netherlands, or Norway or Finland or Iceland. these guys speak languages that they known very few people will understand because they have small populations and although the cultural production of the country might be of high quality and fecund, they are dwarfed by the cultural production of other languages, mainly English, French and German (another country where second language learning is also an issue). There are several studies about the subject and if you want to get really hardcore into it, there is a whole philosophical field called structural semiotics, and also there is the philosophy of language, which is part of analytic philosophy, but I am getting too far off subject. great video keep the good work.
Makes a lot of sense, I’ve been a classroom situation trying to learn a language, French at school in England, and Dutch in Holland. Can’t speak French or Dutch. French, I had not interest in France, have no intention of ever going there, it was compulsory at school. Dutch, is my fault, I was too lazy. I did the class, but as soon as I walked out of the classroom, my immersion ceased.
This hit way too hard as someone who took 5 years of Spanish in middle and highschool to only feel like a beginner, I'm pretty comfortable with reading Latino and Chicano novels and poetry and so many other works as I personally love Spanish literature and I've always wanted to be able to speak fluent Spanish since there's a huge Latino presence in my state, but since I've only spoken or listened to Spanish on a minimal level that was required of the class, I can't even hold a conversation on the most basic level lol (although I can definetely curse someone out in Spanish with rapid fire ... don't ask why)
Curses always stick wtih you
it's the same for us, i'm an argentinian, 39 years old, studying english in school for years, and can't hold a speaking conversation either, but i can understand movies or youtubers very well. maybe because your sounds are sooo dificult, to spanish native people Japanesse is WAY Easier, in five minutes you have almost perfect pronunciation. i'm learning japanese now.
If you come to live to a latinamerican country you will impprove
Same here. In 10th grade my teacher was pretty shooked how bad most in my class here in Germany were in English and she was kinda surprised that I was the best student in class. Most of my ex. classmates still don't even really know most of the basics or act like if they don't even know them while I almost understand everyrthing and I'm able to write to people and talk to them. It's said in a study that was made across Europe that 56% of all people in Germany would say they speak English on a level to at least be able to talk to you and have a small conversation to even being fluently and that this would be at around 90% of all people in Norway, but I don't belive this study cause how did they even asked the people? Did they just asked them questions where you simply just say yes or no? Cause if it was just this type of question than I bet too many people would say yes even tho at the end most maybe don't even really understand you at the end. I mean most people who learn English in Germany can at the end say stuff like "I am hungry", "Can I use your toilet?", "Can you tell me where (name of something) is?" but I bet most people in Germany can't say stuff like "I need to find a screwdriver cause a screw in my chair is about to fall out" or "I had to take a taxi from the station cause the bus didn't came today" and so on. I once lived in a dorm and non of my the people I lived with spoke any English. One of my dormmates asked me for a simple conversation in English to practive for her exam in school and so I showed her an object and just said "This object's color is gray" and I asked her to translate it but she just looked at me for a few seconds and said "I don't understand you" I repeated a few times and she didn't understood a single world. So I went easier and said "Tell me in English what color this object got" and she had no idea and blantly guessed "black?" I asked her why she guessed black and her only response was "IDK that's the only English word I know for a color" and guess who failed their exam? - Right, it was her
yea conversational spanish you gotta speak with native speakers and friends who are patient with you.. It's the best way to learn how to be conversant in any language.
Everything he said is real. I took Japanese classes and didn’t learn anything and I had to know that it was because I didn’t put the effort in. I didn’t put the effort in because I felt like learning in class wasn’t for me. When it came down to it, I had to learn on my own, and I am doing better through my own hard work than I ever did in class.
In my case while I have basic grammars nailed down, I am having difficulty finding someone to converse with in Japanese for practice. I realised that words and sentences have started coming natural to me in my mind, but it doesn't come out well enough due lack of speaking
@@o0...957 I’m fortunate enough that a coworker of mine was raised in Yokohama.
This is exactly what I'm struggling with. The classes are just way too teacher-centered for me. Now I've decided to just go back to a working visa while doing private lessons (hopefully) garnered towards speaking as I have requested.
@@o0...957 Then watch Japanese shows(variety/anime/drama, etc.) with Japanese subtitles. You have the grammar nailed down, so you know where a subject, verb and object is. Observe how they speak and also pick up the vocabulary there. You'll realise a lot of Japanese tend to omit certain vowels in speech as opposed to writing. Even ありがとうございます sounds different when a native speaks it.
Honestly, I picked up more Japanese from consuming the media compared to from a textbook.
@@playmakersmusic Nah I already watch plenty of them. Just what I have in my mind doesn't exactly come out like I want when speaking
this video was illuminating, thank you for making it. you spoke truths about language learning, it's hard and sometimes lonely, and it takes time and dedication. thank you shun!
5:49 "I'm not talking about my company in particular" lol nice save
Ngl, he looks exactly like a RUclipsr called Aidyl HR
ruclips.net/video/5vGzMr-ueQg/видео.html
I think you're right about learning a language in a classroom. I also have a BA in linguistics, but I knew I never wanted to become a teacher unless it was a last resort thing. I remember I used to have an Italian teacher who told us: I'll show you the door but you have to go through it. And I guess that's how I see language classes, they are the base but you have to put the hard work. Especially for languages that are far away culture wise, like in my case Japanese to Spanish, I found it extremely hard to learn Japanese just by sitting down and studying.
Ultimately: English teaching sucks, make yourself a translator and be equally as poor! Haha, great video, Shun.
I completely disagree with this. If you hate being a teacher then you will suck being a teacher. I went to one of the toughest schools in the UK. We had some awesome teachers and some shockingly bad teachers. No one respected the teacher that said "i can only show you the door" (this isnt an anime). The good teachers went by the mantra "there is no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher" and i think me going to a school that was as tough as mine really showed me that. No one paid attention to the teachers who didnt care, weren't enthusiastic or couldnt explain very well what they were teaching about. The good teachers made troubled kids, of which there were plenty, actually want to learn. I think the culture of teaching is dramatically different from where ever you are from because in the UK & USA as teacher you would be frowned upon.
@@edejor What you said and what I said is not mutually exclusive. I never said there aren't any good teachers, and I do think you need to love teaching and what you teach to be a good one. What I said is, specifically to teaching languages, that the student is the one who needs to make an effort. As Shun said, there is no magic formula/teaching method for a student to learn a language. It is the student who needs to put the effort to practice, practice, practice everyday. Have a good day!
@@msdaring8404 @msdaring what you said was "english teaching sucks", what i said is "if you hate teaching then you will suck as a teacher". It sounds to me that you and Shun suck at teaching. Both of you may suck at(which is why you both sound bitter about it) teaching and blame your student's lack of passion or effort for the subject of which you expressed with the mantra "i can only show you the door", and to which i responded with "there is no such thing as a bad student, only bad teachers". You realise teaching is more than spewing information? It's making your subject engaging and instilling a curiousity in your students. I remember what Shun said inspired him to learn english was because he fancied the teacher who was a westerner..... Like kinda shows a shocking lack of engagement if that was all thag inspired him. Personally i think Shun, did his students a favour by giving up teaching. If he had been good at it he would have found it rewarding, instead he is blaming the students and the system.
@@edejor If you read my comment, I said I never wanted to be a teacher. So no, I'm not one. I would suck at it because, as you said, I don't have the skills nor the passion for it. My invisible students shall be saved from my classes! Also, the door comment was made by one of my high school teachers, as I said, not by me personally. I don't know how the discussion turned to Shun's career choice, but that's up to him. I'm for one glad he realised teaching is not for him rather soon. :)
@@edejor As a Japanese/English teacher in a Spanish speaking country who loves teaching (and I feel am kinda good at it) both are true at the same time. I also live by "there are no bad students but only bad teachers" as a life motto HOWEVER it has been hard for me to accept that even in private settings you can only go as far as the student allows you to. Sometimes you hit a brick wall and there is NO way for you to continue until the student is ready to take the next step. At first I took it as a failure on my part but I've come to realize that I can only do so much.
Also, teachers are very limited in what they can do. Maybe it changes school to school but a lot of us have to follow the school's methodology and make sure goals are met and then, only then, can you stray from the program. It's sad sometimes :/
I see language as an operating system, where all the other subjects "run" on that language. We understand science, history and even math with those subjects running through our native language. We can try to learn a second language through our first, constantly translating in our heads, but at best it's slow and clunky. To truly learn a second language we have to build a new operating system from scratch, and that just takes a lot of hours. Even with good methods there is no way of getting around it.
That's a good analogy. I would go further and say that it's impossible to build a new OS. Learning a language to fluency would be akin to running a virtual machine on our existing operating system. If you have enough processing power, you are even able run cpu intensive programs on that virutal machine running on the OS. Would you agree? Or do you think we are capable of a dual boot setup with 2 different operating systems? If you grow up learning both at the same time, then i would think the latter is possible.
@@bushy9780 From everything I’ve learned about immersion learning and interviews from high level bilingual people we attribute too much to children being special in being able to learn a language. Picking up the language is less about the child’s mind and more about the tens of thousands of hours of immersion they receive. For example children in two parent households pick up their language faster because of the parents talking to each other in front of the child. Also there was a Romanian man that became fluent in English purely from cartoons on television. From those interviews it seems that the language becomes its own OS, mostly working subconsciously and tied directly to abstract meaning in the mind. We as adults can learn faster than a child from deliberate learning, but the big limitation is that as adults and even older children don’t have 10,000+ hours lying around and traditional methods don’t have the hours of immersion required
@@tredegar4163 yeah it seems really hard to get those 10k hours when you are trying to learn a language outside of your native country. It's only a matter of time before the world adopts a one for all operating system. But I speak english, so it only makes me sounds selfish LOL.
@@bushy9780 It’s great already having English, if English wasn’t my first language it would be my second; you can go nearly anywhere in the world with it. With the internet it’s easier than ever to get immersion with Netflix and a VPN, you can learn a language anywhere as long as there is content. Refold.la (website) has it laid out really well and Migaku.io has the best software tools
@@parkkimlee1760 As I said before age does matter, just not for the reasons we usually believe. Younger children tend to speak the language better, the operative word is tend as that's not guaranteed, as they have more time with the language and interacting with native speakers. What matters far more than age is willingness and motivation to learn the language once in the new country. Adults tend to avoid the discomfort of not being understood and often immigrants will stay in groups of their fellow first language speakers, only gaining just enough of the new language to get by and not trying to learn more. I would not say necessarily that the 4th grader would beat out the youtuber as you would need to know more of the other factors, like how many hours each person had to interact with the language, what kind of learning methods they both used etc. On the second point I completely disagree, yes you can learn a language just with comprehensible input like TV shows and output is not necessary to understand the language. Matt vs Japan ruclips.net/channel/UCpf4BknRWAjb_oYIHoMDGVg is an excellent example of using input immersion for a non-european language, I don't know I would go as far as him when it comes to a ban on all early output, but he does make a compelling case. On that channel there are several interviews, including a German man in his 20s that passed the Japanese JLPT N1 in a year and a half (I wish I had that kind of free time). Also infants give no output at all in the beginning but infant studies show they are learning just from listening to their parents. For the native to non-native languages you're right there is no guarantee of them speaking English well, but again it comes down more to time and motivation, if they speak to their children, friends and even their spouse in their first language they might just learn enough to get by and stop. For myself I have been learning Japanese with comprehensible input for a bit under an year, and yes absolutely it is far more difficult than a European language that would be closer to English, but with Japanese subtitles I can, at this point, follow along with shows that have more everyday language. It's a long road for sure, but it has been a slow, steady success over time.
As an English teacher from Russia, I can only thank you for such a video! I find it so therapeutic!
I study in a pedagogical uni on 2nd course and I haven't heard much about students' responsibility for not learning. Instead, we are continuously taught how to maintain students' motivation and interest. That's why I used to take it as a personal failure, when my students didn't follow my instructions or didn't do the homework. But I'm starting to realize, that sometimes it is ok to just let them be. Even though I'm not intending to give up teaching, because I still love my profession, I will reassess my approach. Thank you for sparking this idea!
Learning languages is a lifetime journey. You never get there, you just get better. I didn't find my love for language until well into my bachelor's, but I never would've realized it if I didnt have amazing teachers that cared about their work. For all of you language teachers out there: you are making that difference, even if you don't see it yet.
Even ur native tongue can be lifelong journey if it's a hallway established and diversified one.
Don't care as long as I can communicate decently. I am not going to be a teacher lmao
I spend some of my spare time practising Japanese by googling things in hiragana. Most of the time I misspell it and end up finding the name of some えろ comic, but hey, it's fun and very rewarding when I type in something that looks like gibberish to most people and get results of exactly what I was thinking of
I was only able to read 0.9% Kanjis
How do you type in hiragana? Do you have to use a keyboard app?
@@KRoc On PC I use microsoft IME, which allows you to select between kana. So when I start typing, it'll automatically start morphing the text into the kana you have selected (hiragana/katakana). On mobile I simply added japanese language and I can type easily by switching to japanese language set.
@@Esvald thanks
@@KRoc All operating systems (computer or mobile) allow you to type in romaji which are western spellings of hiragana and katakana. Japanese natives never use the romaji system or keyboards in mobiles. Also keep in mind that kanas are only half the story. Kanji’s are essential and you can’t type them in unless you know how to pronounce them.
I live in Luxembourg, and we learn 4 languages through out our school life here. While some might be weaker in 1-2 of them, 99% will come out with knowing how to cumunicate in all 4 of them. School education works if taught properly, though natural exposure is imo the biggest factor to learning new languages.
There are plenty of countries where people learn a second or third language as a matter of course. Somehow people forget that these countries and people exist when these conversations come up---it makes it easier to make excuses: "people just can't learn this stuff, so let's all give up!"
Would those languages be Luxembourgish, German, French and English?
@@citizenz4640 Yeah, that's the 4
There's also the fact that the languages are likely fairly close to eachother in regards to pronounciations, cadence, grammatical rules etc.
I'm Scandinavian, spent my time learning Swedish, English, French and German. All of those languages are related to eachother in some way and have a similar way of using them so learning them came fairly naturally.
Japanese to English is VERY different, it would be like you deciding to learn Finnish. They share no common roots, the cadence is very different, grammar and pronounciations are also very different.
While yes, I do agree that education can work well in regards to teaching languages, it highly depends on what language and what country said education is in. Some are far easier to learn than others due to having a shared or similar etymological ancestry.
@@Arcticun Finnish is totally unrelated to English, yet Finns who speak great English are a dime a dozen. In many parts of the world it's normal to be able speak unrelated languages. Some countries manage to do it---other countries manage to come up with excuses.
Having a teacher that loves his job and teaches with passion is so important. I felt so bad for myself when I had bad teachers teaching subjects that I love. And I also found myself in the position of studying a school subject efficiently despite me hating that school subject just because the teacher was awesome and had an awesome way of teaching.
I've been teaching English in South Korea for over 5 years now, and this video put a smile on my face. :)
I don't know much about S-Korea but I'm really interested in why (young) Koreans generally seem to be much better at speaking English than Japanese. You seem to be the perfect person to ask so I'm genuinely curious about your opinion ^^
@@7Lee7 it's way way WAY more competitive in Korea. English is not something that is taught once a week. It's taught every single day. It's especially prevalent during preschool and kindergarten. Parents pay crazy amounts of money to send their kids to the best English hagwons (academies). I worked at a prestigious all-english kindergarten for 3 years, and these little 5/6/7 year olds were incredibly conversational. I could speak in my normal speed and they could keep up about 80% of the time. Koreans just put English education way higher on their priority. I believe it's because a lot of parents want their children to become doctors and work in the states.
If I'm not mistaken, when it comes to English teaching, Korea pays the most compared to any other country (on average). The majority of foreigners here don't bother learning that much Korean, since most people can understand basic English. It's pretty crazy.
@@Mongg Good points, another reason I think Koreans SEEM better at English than Japanese is based on social aspects of the culture. Japanese tend to be extremely shy, even with each other, more than likely they WILL not practice speaking English outside of a classroom ESPECIALLY with foreigners. And we all know that part of language study involves actually speaking and using the concepts you've (supposedly) learned. On the other hand, Koreans tend to be more socially open (albeit still less than westerners in general) and more apt to show their emotions publicly, they also don't mind talking to foreigners beyond the classroom and you will typically get at least one person a day trying to talk to you if you live in Seoul. If you teach kids, they also tend to be more talkative outside as well. Btw, spent some time in Japan and taught English in Korea for 7 years (just to let you know I'm not just speculating here).
@@Mongg Wow I had no idea of any of this. They clearly consider it very important and much more important than many Japanese. That's really fascinating, thanks for your elaborate answer!
And yeah as @buttarain27 says, Japanese tend to be more shy which reflects in classes where there's no real conversation. Friends of mine that teach English in Japan are frustrated about kids pretending to not know answers as long as they don't have to speak English. And they got complaints from their parents for trying conversation...that's a stark contrast with Korean parents AND their kids.
@@7Lee7 Korean parents are crazy strict with English here (in Seoul). They take it to the extreme though, and get pissy and complain about why their 5 year old isn't 100% fluent in English after a few weeks. Obviously, not every single parent is like that, but a lot of them definitely expect their children to reach fluency in an insane amount of time.
Love that you said about learning language in a classroom being an illusion. I took two years of Spanish in high school (as a non-native Spanish speaker) and sure I learned the basics, but I achieved whatever level of mastery I have now because of working in a hospital where MANY patients are Spanish speakers. A classroom doesn't substitute real life immersion in a language.
Dude just casually come in, self-loathe, open his jacket and redpill everyone on education.
Absolute Chad
Why are you talking like a incel
As an American, I really want to learn Japanese because I find it interesting, but I do struggle with the focus on studying. I wish I had more native Japanese speakers in my area. As of now I only have Japanesepod101 YT, Duolingo, and subbed animes to learn from.
As an English tutor living in Japan myself, I always get asked by my students how they can improve their English. They often sound so frustrated when they ask me that. As if I know the one single answer to all their problems. And they want a quick solution, which is a bad idea, especially when they think they already know the basics. Not that I feel like quitting or anything, but I have to remind them all the time that they need to put in the work themselves.
I am not a language teacher myself but I have been self-studying languages that I am interested in to learn them. It would be a good advice to point your students to English media (songs, movies, documentaries,games) that has Japanese subtitles although I am not sure if there are readily available resources like these. They need also to train their ears to the language.
And yeah, they really need to put the effort themselves and realize that things take time.
I apologize if I sounded condescending. Best luck to you and your students!
@@mavisfelise3828 I teach adults. Basically seniors. There are a couple of obstacles to those ideas. First, they tend to stick to more traditional methods, and second, considering their age, training their ears can be quite a challenge. And since they're studying languages late in life, their tongues, you might say, are not as flexible than younger students.
@@filipjudar4781 Oh, I see. I assumed you were teaching younger people.
Yeah, learning can be quite a challenge when you are old, specially with language.
I read that you are teaching adults, basically seniors. I loved doing that - they had something to SAY! Younger students may have nothing they want to say to people, particularly when faced with what can be said with the language in their textbooks. And the senior students all want either to learn English, or do something "cultural" competently for a few hours a week (which may seem lame, but it's not.. not any worse than train sets or painting landscapes.)
@@mavisfelise3828 There are papers showing that watching target language shows with native language subtitles has barely any impact on language learning. In contrast the science shows is watching shows in your target language with target language subtitles or no subtitles at all (a bit worse but still good) is a very effective method to learn your target language.
We have the same situation in Russia. As a child, I so wanted to learn English, but school only gave me some miserable basic knowledge for 7 years of study.
заметно)
Same here. I learned a lot more English from social media.
I can't help but see the similarity with learning Swedish in Finland. Every Finnish student (except the Finland-Swedish people, who learn Finnish) learns Swedish for about 9-15 years. Not from ages 9 to 15. 9-15 YEARS. Despite this, most people can barely introduce themselves. They hate Swedish with a passion. Interesting thing about this is that although Finland was under Sweden's rule for 600 years, that surprisingly isn't even a notable reason for this. The biggest reason is that it's mandatory, and definitely not necessary. Like seriously, many people in the eastern side of the country won't likely even be in contact with a Swedish speaking person in their lifetime(just like many Japanese people with English). Same goes for Finland-Swedish people, but with Finnish.
I personally realised after 8 years, that Swedish might even be sort of useful, and have made the most progress during the last year. (For context: I reached C1-C2 level of English after 4 years of studying.) But much like English in Japan, Swedish isn't really used. Sure it's in every road sign next to Finnish since it's an official language, and there are areas in which Finland-Swedish people are the majority, but those areas are the clear minority. Media in Swedish pretty much stops at Astrid Lindgren's stories for kids.
People need to understand that they have to commit if they want to actually improve. Study themselves. Immerse themselves with RUclips or subbed movies or something. There's a reason that nearly every person in Finland speaks English, it's a norm within the European countries we interact with, it's the language of the media we consume. Not Swedish.
Not Swedish in Finland, and not English in Japan.
I do appreciate learning it myself but I'm literally the 1% and it took me 8 years to start to enjoy it lol.
As a swede I definitely agree with you, though I’d like to point out that there’s much more beyond Astrid Lindgren out there! I could give you tips to start with if there’s anything in particular ur looking for :)
@@esther8840 I would appreciate some recommendations! Especially if they're on Viaplay.
Also tbf I forgot to mention the shows YLE has been producing in Swedish. But they're not very good imho.
Thanks for that
@@esther8840 A finn here too and I would appreciate it if you could give recommendations of swedish youtubers or shows ! I'm in high school and typically 99% if not all have a very negative point of view about learning swedish and honestly I never really hated the swedish language, but I just thought that it was kind of unnecessary to learn but now that I'm in high school I'm realising the importance of having a broad language skills and I personally see no harm in learning swedish :)
GOD THIS. i worked at a private kindergarten in south korea and it's the same thing there and i absolutely couldn't stand it. also the moms literally blame the teachers because their literal 6 year olds aren't fluent in english like their first week of school like that's my wrongdoing/bad teaching -- so i totally feel you when you said "i didn't wanna be in that industry and be part of the problem"
I feel this so much. This applies to being forced to "learn french" when I was in school for 6 years... I just learned enough to pass my tests and get the credit and moved on when I didn't have to anymore. If there's no desire to learn, then what's taught won't stick, regardless of how good the teacher is.
Same here. I am in spanish immersion and I have no will power to say I wanna stop being in spanish immersion either. Outside of class all I really do is goof off unless Im learning a different language that I actually wanna learn.
I totally agree with the idea of school being an introduction of sorts to different subjects. In fact, thinking about it, I don't think people should study before a certain age, certainly not before being introduced properly to a subject. I'd say that, up until high school, you should just enjoy learning out of sheer curiosity. Then, you can decide wich subject you want to specialize into and start the proper study. That being said, it should require the student to have a shorter time in school, and starting university sooner to compensate.
I'd agree with the caveat that basics should still be taught, math and reading and writing and critical thinking skills, from a young age
I was just thinking about this the other day, and I think that one of the biggest reasons that Japanese people are not as good at English as, say, South Koreans, is because there has historically been such an abundance of diverse media and mass communication that's already in Japanese, making it largely unnecessary to learn another language. It's the same reason why a lot of Americans, Brits, Germans, French, people in Spanish-speaking countries, etc. never end up successfully learning a second language, while people in countries like the Netherlands, or a lot of West African countries, typically speak two or three languages.
Necessity, YES! spot friggin on. In the German speaking world, we have incredible dubs of foreign and yes, also an abundance of media. Some countries don't have this luxury at all and end up with amazing foreign language skills, almost without trying (exposure exposure exposure). I'm in the process of learning Japanese and i have to say, it's insane how much media they have, you'll never run out in a lifetime.
Absolutely. The Finnish market for any entertainment is so small that it's just way more cost efficient to subtitle everything and only dub the media that's aimed towards elementary schoolers and younger. Nordic countries in general seem to do this, which then translates to a seemingly high amounts of "fluent" English speakers up here.
I would personally think that the lower the population of a group sharing a language is, the higher the chance for them to be at least bilingual. English is taught here 'cause it's the de facto lingua franca and trade is important. I'm learning Japanese because it's unfair to expect everyone to understand English and way beyond mental to expect ANYONE to voluntarily learn Finnish. X)
It's also because they've been passing down a sense of superiority for centuries. Russia, France, Germany, The UK, the USA, Japan and China have all been or still are political and/or economical world powers. These countries don't feel the need to learn another language because they've never had to adapt to others; the smaller and less important nations adapted to them. Their pride and wealth allowed them to have an abundance of media and they don't like change. But at least France and Germany are starting to understand that bilingualism is actually a good thing.
??? all germans are required to rake english classes for at least 5 years and if you want to study anything you will most likely need to be able to read sintific papers in english. i myself had english leasons for 10 years in school. in addition i went to england for 10 months after school and now i am studying political science and economics which you literally cant study without good english knowledge eventhough its all taught in german (texts are often written in english though).
i thought about this too. japan medias translate and dub everything into japanese, not only games, cartoons or animations like disney, even in TV shows when they have an interview with foreigners they dub it instead of making subtitle, making it hard to give english or any language an exposure to japanese people.
Thanks for sharing your insights! It really comes down to motivation, though I don't mean motivation in the sense "finding enough determination to push through something hard" (that's also important ofc), but heaving some personal and urgent stake in learning the language. I learned English as a second language and I managed to get a pretty proficient at it because I wanted to play computer games that weren't yet (or would never be) localized to my native language or read the latest Harry Potter book before it got translated etc. Also, as someone living in Poland I had a strong sense that if I don't learn English I'm completely screwed in terms of my prospects of finding a job.
Japan's "problem" is that it's a fairly wealthy country with a powerful and rich cultural output (which is a great problem to have xD). I think that most young people in Japan are perfectly happy consuming culture in Japanese (native or translated) and they don't feel like their missing out. And while I think they *are* missing out (since English gives you access to works of many different cultures, not just American or British) I can't really blame them for thinking that. And of course there is no pressure that you must consider finding work abroad (which is, again, a good thing).
I guess I agree with your conclusion - not everyone needs to learn English - but at the same time I think it would be great if the Japanese students were presented more often with the idea that English is a gateway to all kinds of fun and interesting stuff and not a school subject.
I’m a flight attendant and on flights to Japan we have an inflight interpreter. I’m friends with some of them and this is exactly their dilemma.
Well, companies could start actually employing people who can actually speak both languages instead of accepting people who are pretending.
Don't most international flights in Asia always have a native speaker of both countries? On my flight from Malaysia to Korea there were Korean and Malay flight attendants. The same with Malaysia-India and Qatar-Indonesia routes. My flight from Singapore to Indonesia had both Singaporean and Indonesian flight attendants even though Singaporeans can usually understand Indonesian.
@@imhalida the airline I work for only hires citizens of my country apart from our interpreters.
Good for you, riding an airline with a diverse crew. 👍🏻
The best way to learn to speak English or any language is through immersion. Try to have a conversation with a native speaker of that language, and never be bothered by rules of grammars. Just speak it out. That is how I learned to speak one of the hundred dialects in the Philippines, Pangasinense. I just mastered it in a span of one year just by mimicking how they sound a word. If your try to learn any language by writing you tend to mixed it up with your native tongue by directly and literally translating each word. Try to speak it by heart.
Or do what I wanted, watch cartoons till you forget your actual native language
@@V_0717 not gonna lie, sometimes I feel that I'm forgetting my native language lol
@@dralakba-dusk31 I've gotten to the point where my conciousness speaks in English.... so yay?
Meaningful input per Stephen Krashen.
@@V_0717 that's exactly how i learned english.
i went to high school in japan and it was funny because the test had “hatsuon” or like a pronunciation section where they ask which ones have a different emphasis on how to say it eg. “trAvelling” vs “proNUNciation” (idk im making up this example) and even though the english speakers speak well we always fail this section lol
Bruh this happens in my country too
@@huy4512 That's right bro, and moreover we have a prounciation section with "ed" and "s/es".
@@Nova_Jack yeah real stupid shit, right? Like who cares about that to this extent? Even if we are going to type it word, word has grammar check option enabled already.
lmao yeah that part of the test is really useless
the perceived of the correct english in japan also skewed it seems ruclips.net/video/sLK7DP8-B-I/видео.html
When I was on my year abroad in Japan I was shocked by lack of motivation Japanese students had. I am lucky enough to speak good Japanese so I asked them about their reasons for learning English and majority of them said "Because it´s easier to get a job this way" or "I have to pass an exam" etc. Nobody said anything like "I´d love to travel to *English-speaking country*!" or "I like *English-speaking country* culture." or "I want to be able to communicate with foreigners.".
As a passionate language learner I was so uncomfortable about the totall lack of curiosity and passion for other languages and cultures among young people in Japan. Of course I´ve met few people who weren´t like that but there weren´t many. What also striked me was a an incredibly stereotypical view of other cultures that was often so far away from reality and in some situations even offensive to people from said cultures. I actually saw those false stereotypes being perpetuated by teachers themselves. There is no attempt to bring Japanese students closer to the target culture and make them familiar with the language they are learning through understanding their own culture. I believe that this is one of the holes in Japanese education system, however, I totally agree that someone who does not want to learn a langauge and put effort in it is very unlikely to ever become profficient.
I agree, its how I feel about French. I took two years of french and three years of Spanish at school from middle school to high school and I don't remember anything. I'm sure if I practiced at home and spoke with people that are native speakers, I would've gotten better at it. I think the reason why alot of students don't remember anything from their language classes is because they have no interest in it. I often found myself asking "why do I need to learn French, I live in the US? " so I stopped caring and just did what I had to do to pass the class and get my credits. Like you said, learning a language requires more than 40-50 minutes of class time.
I took French from middle school through my senior year. Since I never had a chance to practice outside school, I was never fluent.
German here. At least I could practice Spanish amongst my neighbors. Hogh school me didn't think of that. Those three years of middle school German made my freshman year German easy. I struggled so hard in my sophomore year.
literalllyyyy
@@Clearlyclynn my exact experience. I can remember the basics but I'm far from fluent
TL,DR: You need something that keeps you engaged to a language, or you'll lose it
I sense that many students don't really have anything that keeps them engaged in a language, so they lose it. I had some particular experiences with French and Japanese that showed me how important it is:
I've been studying French in middle-high school for 4 years, and although not perfect, I could fend for myself. I could read, write and even became able to speak to French people in their own language. I remember one particular trip that we made to Pau, France, (I live in San Sebastian, Northern Spain) in which we would visit the city's castle. The tour guide would explain us the castle's history from the Middle Ages all the way up to the Napoleonic Wars. I was able not only to understand his explanation, but also to casually chat with the guide. I would ask him about more details about the castle's history ,particularly during the Napoleonic Wars since I loved that period of history so much when I was a teenager. After the visit our French teacher asked us to investigate more about the city's landmarks (the town hall, famous parks, statues...) using our French skills. Me and a close friend of mine were able to fend for ourselves pretty nicely, speaking to the locals, asking in the tourism office...
After high school, however, I didn't really have nothing that kept me engaged with French. No movies, music, books, RUclips channels... Nothing at all. This led me to stop using French as oftenly as I used to and as a result I can barely remember any French at all.
Japanese, on the other hand, is a completely different story. I really liked anime as a teenager, and the day came when I'd decided to study Japanese. At first I tried to self learn it with whatever resources I could get my hands on: apps, a book,... even a couple of Steam games XD. Two years from that, I found a Japanese school in my city, so I joined in and began studying more seriously. The funny thing is, unlike French, I was engaged in Japanese since day one. At first it was mainly from anime and music (most of it anime openings), but even so that helped me to learn it way easier. As I kept studying, I noticed that I was starting to understand what anime characters were actually saying, and I wasn't really paying attention to the subtitles, so one day I came across an anime called 刀使ノ巫女 (Toji no Miko) and decided to watch it without subtitles. I amazed myself as I was able to keep track of the story, the character's conflicts and relationships... No subs, no dub, no translation of any kind. Just 100% raw Japanese. This time I wasn't reading a translation, I was LISTENING to people. I've never ever watched subbed anime ever since (God bless VPNs :D). Nowadays, I've far extended my horizons beyond anime as I've begun to consume manga, games, youtube channels, more kinds of music, and even non anime movies. I even watched John Wick in Japanese ('cause why not? XD).
Thanks to my constant engagement, I feel like, even as crappy as it is, my Japanese is better than my French has ever been, even though the latter's closer to my mother tongue and I've spent a similar amount of (class) time in both.
Thats way too long to read all of it but yes. I took German for "7 years" at school but I know a little bit because I also listen to German music so picked up some of the words in the lyrics. The same with Japanese, its no where near good to have a conversation but I can say a few works. Can't read it or write it though.. Thought some Japanese band magazines just to look at the pictures, those were some expensive attractive men. 🤣🤣🤣
Amazing. Btw where do you watch unsubbed animes? What sites?
@@bakumidokiriyoayaoyorozush6979 animefever or download episodes to your computer through torrents.
@@bakumidokiriyoayaoyorozush6979
As long as you get a VPN and a Netflix account you're good to go :D
I use Bandai Channel so I could access to a wider catalog (VPN and Japanese Google play account required), but it's quite a complicated process.
As an English teacher in an Eikaiwa I personally agree with a lot of what you said - I’m always trying to communicate the importance of doing things outwith the classroom, of finding study methods that work for you etc to my students. Coming to class & doing a wee bit of homework once a week is nowhere near enough if you want to learn a language.
first of all I love your channel!
and I can totally relate! I used to teach English when I was in college and most of my Japanese students asked me for a short cut or secret of quick learning. the fact is there isn’t! you just have to invest your time learning it as simple as that
I have to say, this is an eye opener for me. I've always thought that english classes are pointless because students don't learn anything.
English classes have laid the foundation for me to build on top of. I learned and polished my english speaking skills through exposure and being nitpicky, as well as some good time spent on the dictionary.
As to why students don't learn anything, it's just like you said, most of them are unwilling to put the effort into learning the language.
So basically, don't expect you can learn if your teacher just spoon feeds you everything and you don't put some effort of your own
That's how I learned english. I had a good foundation of more than 10 years of english classes, and then I started reading articles and interviews of subjects or people that I wanted to know. Of couse it was hard, and it took a lot of dicionary time. To improve my listening skills, I used RUclips videos, first with subtitles, later, without then. That is no other way, it takes a lot of time and effort, I guess it's like taking a full course at a University.
ah, this gives me a new perspective on foreign language study in the US. We always blame our education system too, but it is also VERY true that the students rarely have actual motivation to learn a foreign language - based on my memory it was always very obvious which students were there to pass and which really wanted to learn.
The Japanese and if it's anything like the UK language learning system, the US one too, are just really bad. I'd say that the Japanese system is set up in a way that actually makes it harder for the students to attain a high level in English, as it actively teaches wrong things, for example, they are taught pronunciation by people who cannot pronounce the words correctly, and they are taught to pronounce all the letters in words, even though native speakers often drop or soften inconvenient vowels and consonants. It is really different to how language is taught in the vast majority of the world. This isn't just a problem in language, but everything really. Japan's strength in education has been hard work and rote memorization rather than learning strong flexible base skills.
I've had french in school for 4 years and our teacher was amazing, yet when I hear French people talk I can't make anything out of it even though my French grades were good. That might be a good example.
Pure. FACTS.
Depending solely on education to learn, not only languages but pretty much anything, is not meant to give you results. For instance, I had a poor English education (it's not my native language) during high school, but based on my interests I was able to learn things progressively and reach a decent proficiency over time. I just needed to connect the dots and make associations about how to say certain things while never stopping absorbing input in English. Not only was I actively using it constantly (sort of language acquisition), but there was also a factor I consider essential: *motivation* . In this sense, schools and English schools can only do so much for your level, as your practice and use of knowledge are entirely up to you. If you're mildly interested or just couldn't be bothered to be in contact with the language beyond the classroom, then proficiency is not going to magically manifest itself in your brain because you took classes.
I work as an English teacher, and fortunately most students I've known have a certain degree of motivation. But sometimes it bothers me that, depending on a sudden project they may have involving an official exam, some of them want to be certified in English practically overnight. We do as much as we can, but committing to help them with that task is tough, especially for official tests.
Too bad there are so many unrealistic expectations sold for getting students, but I guess that's how the business works. I just do what I can and try not to think about it too much. It keeps me employed and I barely have any other skills to exploit 😅😅😅
I completely agree. I learned English through consuming English media such as music, RUclips or TV and barely through school. A lot of the time I found myself already knowing terms, meanings or grammatical structures, but 2 very good english teachers I had definetly motivated me to get better. I'm planning on teaching German and English in Japan, though I know many of my future students will not care, I'll still try my hardest to make them interested and put in extra effort for the ones that do care and give them the education they want and need.
In Canada, we learn French because it is one of the official languages of the country. I studied French for 8 years and the only thing my skills are good for is the induce a fit of disappointment or laughter from the Francophone crowd when I travel to Quebec.
Okay, but the thing that you need to understand about quebecois francophones is that they are huge ******** about French. Sorry, Quebecois, but it's true. People from France, Morocco, Vietnam, and Côte d'Ivoire have all been much, much nicer to me. Or if you don't want to go as far as France, New Brunswick also has a sizable French-speaking population and a lot of music festivals. The Acadian accent is a bit different but pretty cool once you get used to it.
To be honest....so many french Canadians have one of the biggest superiority complex in canada out of anyone out there. They laugh at people for not knowing French when they don't even bother learning English to communicate with others (most of the time). They expect YOU to adjust and that's it.
@@Yanaaa_0312 same in Belgium. We have three official languages (Dutch, french and German). Se have three parts, Flanders (Dutch) and Walloon (french) and the German part. In Flanders you need to learn Dutch, French, German and English. In the french part you get to choose between Dutch or English and of course everyone takes English, I think the same for the German part. But it is really annoying
I grew up 30km north of Montreal in French town and most people can converse in English. The issue with Canada claim to be bilingual country is that Francophone English skill is way better then Anglophone French skill (in general). This is where our frustration as Quebecois comes from. in Montreal for example, way more French speaker know English then English speaker know French. Learning French is viewed as a waste of time. I hate when Anglophone pretend like they care or that "French is difficult to learn". I learned English in school also for 8 years but I was still awful because I only spoke French outside of class. I started learning English when I decided to read on the internet in English, play video game in English, watch movies subbed instead of dubbed, and traveling, not in class. Now I live in Thailand where I need to converse in English and Thai, zero French. I left Canada years ago because I didn't like where the country was heading. I don't have a TV now so i'm not getting bombarded by BS media everyday.
I definitely think teachers are part of the problem, but that is only because the system allows these teachers into their positions to begin with. As hugely beneficial as JET and other ALT programs are for getting foreigners over to and set up in Japan, you don't need any teaching experience at all and only need a BA of ANY degree. They hand ALT jobs out like candy to people with BAs and it's the most common way foreigners start out when moving over so it's only natural that the vast majority of these people will be terrible at teaching. Of course they try and aren't teaching alone, but they did not study teaching in school and are kind of just winging it. Some fail and some succeed, but the quality you get because of these extremely low requirements is a complete shot in the dark and definitely contributes to English illiteracy as opposed to being taught by someone who actually knows how to teach and is doing it as a passion and not a stepping stone for a VISA
I'm a certified elementary and middle school teacher. I agree!
@Budgie Cat probably some Japanese: What do you mean you speak English fluently? That's impossible, you look just like us.
I've never been one to learn a language in a classroom. For my English, I think 10% was school, just to learn the basics, but where I did a real improvement, was when I started reading books. I think, that this way, I was able to acquire the language more naturally, because I didn't force myself to memorize anything, I just read for the sake of reading, and that allowed me to have a more organic understanding of the language.
There is a bright side to this: if Japanese People didn't compare their english to other countries' English, we wouldn't get "Za Warudo" or "Godo Hando Kurasha"
Oh yes I'll be forever grateful for ZA WARUDOOOOOO
That's why learning must go beyond on four corners of the classroom. 😊
nope, english's (despite its universal........) just one out of the many that ppl study enough to pass like any other school curriculum unless they'r gonna use it extensively within their day to day life until they'r no more.. as any skill takes dedication/time/patience/ unless /they do it just out of pure joy as its simply not practical in reality...........
to be continued...
Immersing oneself in the culture is definitely one of the major incentives. As a Malaysian, Malay is thought for 12 years and used regularly with locals, but English and Chinese creeps in the dialogue as well - so the blend of cultures pushes an English speaker like myself to adopt multiple languages fast. Japan adopts monoculturalism so learning a second language hardly used within its borders probably isn't deemed worthwhile for locals unless they have innate interest in a different language or culture.
I'm currently learning Japanese and French. I must admit French is easier to understand intuitively, while Japanese words and sentence structures can be difficult unless you learnt a similar system such as Mandarin or Korean.
So it all comes down to personal interest, goals and lots of practice.
What's french like😯
@@essy9104 It's difficult to explain, but similiar to English - except that everything has a masculine or feminine way to address. Pronunciation is a pain though lol.
Malaysian here . As a student , I learned english for 11 years straight while in school .
Not to mention the pressure from surrounding . Having bad english means you're pretty much stup*d here .
Some people hate this idea but it keep popping up in conversation across the nation .
Subject in university is taught in english . All study material including lecture note and text book are in english as well . This is a challenge for those whom didnt have good command of english language.
To wrap it all up , you're doom if you dont know english in Malaysia 🤔
i didn't know that, that really sucks. systemic discrimination probably left over from colonization, i'm assuming. that's really fucked up :( i'm sorry that it's like that. it shouldn't be.
one thing you forgot to mention is that English in Malaysia is A BENEFIT
Malaysia is a multi-race country, with Indians Chinese and Malays, how are teachers suppose to teach something in minimum 3 different languages?
As someone whos from a country thats considered the best at speaking english without being an english speaking country (the netherlands) i can wholeheartedly say that the english curiculum is prolly just as shit as the japanese one. However, what we do have is a massive influx of english content and media. The Dutch always seem to look beyond their own country for social media and news, we also never dub our shows unlike our good neighbours the french and german, whos english proficiency is considered lower than the dutch, the reason being that we absorb the english words with dutch subtitles so we know whats being said when a word is spoken.
Dutch and English are also very closely related. Only Frisian is closer to English afaik.
@@Longlius french and English are also pretty close, a lot of words are the same
@@never5618 they're not from the same language family though
@@never5618 In a genetic classification French is a lot further away. English and Dutch are Germanic languages whereas French is not.
@@seneca983 yeah of course I know that. I am belgian, so I spoke dutch as my first language. I learned french after that and then english. English fo course went a lot faster but I can really use my english more to comprehend french then my dutch. a lot fo words are probably the same because of all the wars (one hundred year war and ...) between france and england. they started using words from the others language and kept using them. I know they aren't from the same family, but they have a lot of similar words
For me, it was easier to learn speaking English as a young kid because it's normal to consume western media in our country. All our books are in English except for our National Language and History. You're basically forced to adapt with the language earlier, unless you want to fail all your major and minor subjects.
which country are u from?
@@nawaladawe1640 Hi. It's Philippines.
@@joannaownseeet8663
Is it bad I guessed that you were living in my country? Filipino vocabulary has gone to shit by not enriching the actual Philippine languages and instead just keeps adopting whatever the Spanish or English language gives us. It's sad but it can't be helped since our country idolizes foreign countries more than itself.
@@junkyyard2273 it's more sad that filipinos take pride in it, when they shouldn't. It's downright pathetic.
I laughed
You know what they say ”if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Apparently they aren’t learning the language because they do not require it as of now.
Here in India , Those who can’t speak English should prepare themselves to face those condescending gazes . You will be patronised and might be regarded as an Illiterate. Crazy ,right ? But our country thrives on this language , hence we can’t afford to not learn it.
I had terrible English teachers back in the days, however self-learning is the key.
Anyway I regard Japan, Korea and China highly for keeping their language alive and respected among their countrymen. I find it fascinating that they make the westerners learn their language rather than them learning English , lol
Basically the commonwealth.
No english: No job, No money, No respect, No life
@@irix5093 I know right 🤦♀️
At the same time, English is also everywhere around us. From the billboards, to movies, tv series, news, etc. So it could be likely that we at least understand basic English for conversation, if only because we are exposed to it a fair bit, at least in urban areas.
@@anirudhviswanathan3986 I agree . However one still has to struggle a lot to ace the language . People like us who never went to those fancy private schools , my English teachers had various kinds of thick Indian accents, thus you can easily anticipate the outcome of their teachings.
I reckon that mostly Indians like me relied on American movies and tv shows to improve.
I still can’t speak to any Indian in NEUTRAL accent . They expect you to speak in thick Indian accent , otherwise you will be mocked for being a fake or a show-off or a braggart. (For instance , look how Priyanka Chopra was trolled for her accent )
On the top of that , I literally have no one to practice my English with , lol . So whatever I feed to myself , gets lost into the thin air eventually.
I never really realized how exactly I learnt english, I always thought that it was from classroom teachings, I still do as I don't converse with anyone in english and sometimes get nervous and mess up my sentences when asked to speak. But I was exposed to english as early as kindergarten as most people are im english medium. In elementary school, we were made to talk only in english, it was fine if you didn't but if you did they would give you a green ribbon to pin on your shirts. So we tried naturally. And in middle and highschool, though we were still not fluent in speaking we had to talk to most of the teachers, especially english teachers, in english and there was no room for error or you'd get mocked by your classmates. I guess that naturally pushes you to get good at the language.
Lastly, one of the things that has improved my spoken english a lot is just talking to myself in english, thinking up of scenarios and different characters and them acting them out by speaking. Just do it when you're free and it'll improve your spoken english a lot making you more confident.
I never really actively tried to learn english except watching western shows, never had much interest, but the way the schools make you speak it and keeps you motivated from a young age is one of the keys i guess.
Same thing in canada, I've been taking mandatory french for 8 years and I dont remember anything at all. you have to be immersed in the language, its not about just studying or translating sentences.
Salut du Québec
Bonjour du Québec. You've got this :)
I definitely think they should teach english so the students in school can speak/listen to the language a bit more. it makes a lot of sense why japan is quite behind in english proficiency compared to china/south korea; reading and writing doesn't really get you anywhere when learning a language if you're not constantly immersed in it, in my opinion
It feels to me that Japan teaches students to function in Japan, while many other countries try to teach students to me more adaptable. Teaching English is contrary to the method of teaching, as it is most useful in international or niche situations.
@@jp12x Very true. I always told my colleagues who asked how to improve English education in Japan that they needed partial immersion and content-based language learning. Teach math and science in English, then the students will learn English. They would nod and agree, but then come up with a hundred excuses why that isn't possible.
@@TheWesterlyWarlock That would mean "change." Not a Japanese skill set.
Look at Singapore we speak 3-5 totally different languages and it isn't even hard the main languages we speak are English Chinese Malay/Indonesian and Tamil 4 of the worlds most spoken languages
@@jonathanng138 that's not true though. Most people are terrible at their mother tongue (especially chinese people, I can't speak for the other races), and those who took third language often forget the language because of the lack of opportunities for immersions. Singaporeans are only bilingual/multi-lingual in name only. In fact many of my german friends can put Singaporeans to shame with their strong grasp of both english and german.
(Yes, I'm Singaporean. There's no point in trying to brag about our country when it's not true that people comfortably use 3-5 languages. Most use 1.5. People don't all speak chinese + malay + tamil. There's plenty more to be said about how mother tongue isn't taught very well in Singapore schools, which leads to such poor use of mother tongue).
Immersion and studying outside the "classroom" will make you proficient. Everything you said is rock solid. I'm really surprised that you are basically saying that the Japanese students are kind of lazy when it comes to English.
But
They do work hard on so many aspects of their education that falling a little short on one aspect isn't really all that bad.
You speak English very well and I hope you can find a career where you can still use your English skills. You have obviously worked very hard to achieve proficiency. Good luck!
Hearing local pronunciation and idioms helps people move smoother into conversations.
Having taught in Japan and having taught college students from Japan at an immersion school here in the US, I totally get what he's saying. It isn't so much that they are "lazy" when it comes to English, but they are easily discouraged and become unmotivated to put effort into it because a) they don't plan to leave Japan, b) they don't have any friends who speak English that they need to communicate with, c) they don't need it for their future career plans, and d) they aren't interested in English-speaker cultures beyond some weird facts like "Oh, that Japanese word is actually English?" or "Oh, Halloween! That's fun!" It takes a lot more to motivate a student to learn English than sticking a grade on a subject for 6-8 years and telling them it's important because (insert weird nationalism-infused internationalization jargon from the Ministry here). Kids aren't stupid, they can see hundreds of successful Japanese adults daily that can't speak more than 10 phrases in English and they know they don't need it and are unlikely to put in more effort than is required to get them into whatever college they expect to get into.
That said, the students that I had *here* in the States got to learn that learning English wasn't just beneficial for communicating with native English speakers, but people from all over the world. They got to make friends with Taiwanese and Korean students, Arabic students, students from Latin America, and that motivated a lot of them to actually try a lot harder. Those who didn't much care about those connections and who were just doing it to fulfill a program component of their college only did the minimum effort. It's all about motivation, not laziness.
@Thundering Water the official language of the US is English. Because we are not a homogeneous culture and welcome immigrants from everywhere we accommodate many different languages officially.
@@gregoryheim9781 that’s incorrect; the US literally has no official language at the federal level. English is the de facto language. Some states have made English (along with other languages) official for their state.
Hey, English teacher here. I moved to Chile close to a decade ago with no Spanish experience and took literally 2 months of classes to learn just the very basics, y el resto aprendí de solo convercaciónes. You're right. Even Chileans complain that English classes here are horrible, but even though every year your teachers just focus on "to be" all the time, doesn't mean you can't learn, you just have to find a way to learn outside of the classroom. One of my best students learned primarily through TV and video games.
I don't think it's controversial at all to say that you learn best when you immerse yourself outside of the classroom, because it's true. Also I don't know how it is in Japan, but since 2020, I just focused on giving one on one private classes, working for myself, and not through any school or institute. I feel much happier and feel like my job is more rewarding since now the people I work with come to me because they really want to learn.
lol! yo es aprendiendo español sola y entendí lo que escribiste. I half practice.. I watch shows (telenovelas) and sometimes use DROPS for vocabulary acquisition (when I'm not being lazy). It's a difficult process, especially when you're a busy adult.
Hey Shun! so what you said definitely rings a bell and i think you are absolutely right in your comparisons of learning languages vs other subjects in school.
in high school i had classes in italian. but i remember learning most of my italian from manga on italian. it's because i actually paid attention to what was being said, and learned this, one step at the time.
an even more dramatic comparison can be made with way i learned german. i learned it by basically watchin german satelite tv in my spare time during elementary school. this was what i did in my spare time for like 3-5 years. no friends, no outside activities, only watching anime in german. and guess what - i can speak german perfectly.
we also had latin and greek in high school. unsurprisingly, i cant speak them. which is a shame, because we spent a LOT of time on doing the "dry grammar", declinations, blabla. but this was useless for talking because for most people, brains dont just work like that. looking back, how id have shaped the classes would be to beat the vocabulary into the students and them let them plow over texts to ingest the grammar themselves.
yea, long runt, but i wanna say you are on point with your remarks.
It's kinda like taking a Spanish course for 5 years and not being fluent in Spanish because you just needed to pass the class
Just realized that SHUNchan has made another video. Damn, why did I forgot to click the notification bell?
Anyways, great video man! Hoping for more content in the future!
ShunChan, I been learning Japanese for about 2 or 3 years and I still say stuff wrong and have a hard time reading hiragana and katakana, so don’t be ashamed bro.
Hey, it's awesom that you've been learning Japanese for 2 or 3 years. But if you still can't read hiragana and katakana fluently, perhaps you're not using the right learning mediums?
I think he should relearn that to remember it permanently, I guess? 🤔
Excellent analysis !
No excuses necessary for late uploading because this is quality.
There is more effective use of your insight than on this channel.