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Today we explain why many Japanese do not speak English and how they can learn to speak English.

Japan is an island nation. Why is it that so many people do not speak English despite being an international city?

Don't you all wonder?

One reason why Japanese people are not good at conversing in English is that they do not have many opportunities to practice. There are many other reasons.

Let me introduce some of those reasons in a two-part series.

Today is the second part!

Let me explain step by step.

Not grasping the phonetic changes in English
One reason why Japanese people are particularly poor at “speaking” English is that they do not understand the phonetic changes in English.

Look at the following example sentences.

Can you take a picture?

Pronounce this sentence “Can you take a picture?” would not be understood by English speakers.

First of all, “can” and “you” and “take” and “a” are pronounced attached to each other, so you need to pronounce them as “canew” and “takea”.

Also, in English, content words need to be pronounced strongly and function words weakly, so it is natural to pronounce “take” and “picture” clearly, while other words, especially “a,” are pronounced very weakly.

Failure to grasp the natural pronunciation of English, including phonetic changes, rather than the pronunciation of the letter surface, makes Japanese pronunciation difficult to understand.

Too strong a study mindset toward English
If you think “English = study” and your brain rejects it, you will not be able to continue learning English.

Especially for those who are not good at studying, the image of studying often makes them feel that they don't want to do it because of their brain mechanism.

I am not the type of person who likes to study, so when I was studying TOEIC vocabulary books and English, I felt very stressed and could not continue.

Therefore, in order to avoid feeling like I was studying, I experienced that it is easier to learn English by enjoying learning English through Youtube and easy-to-use vocabulary apps.

Have a habit of thinking in Japanese translation
In English classes, you are always required to translate English sentences into Japanese. This has led many people to have a habit of translating English sentences into Japanese.

This habit of thinking after translating into Japanese delays the opportunity to speak in English conversation, and leads to a situation where they cannot keep up in English conversation.

Fear of making mistakes
Not only in English, but in school education, “mistakes” are always pointed out. On the other hand, there are few opportunities to receive praise for “good work”.

Even in English tests, there are frequent opportunities to have “grammatical errors” pointed out. Therefore, Japanese people tend to be hypersensitive to grammatical errors, and the fear of making mistakes prevents them from speaking well.



What do you think?

Have you been able to get some idea of why Japanese people are not very good at English?

Regardless of nationality, it is common throughout the world that everyone has strengths and weaknesses in English!

Why are Japanese people so poor at speaking English? Let's put aside the stereotypical notion of “Why can't Japanese people speak English?

If we can lean on each other, help each other, and treat each other with a sense of camaraderie, I think the language barrier will thin out.

This is what it means to be Japanese! I would be happy if you could have a broad mindedness!


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