Why Japanese are Horrible at English
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ค. 2024
- There is data showing that the biggest complaint of foreign tourists who traveled to Japan was that they could not communicate in English.
Why do Japanese people have such poor English (despite them having compulsory education)?
1. Japanese and English are different language combinations
Studies have shown that Japanese and English are the most difficult combination to learn. It’s because they differ significantly in all aspects of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Some languages can be learned in about 600 hours, whereas English requires about 2200 to 3000 hours.
2. Insufficient English education
English education in Japan is solely for evaluating students with paper-based tests. Therefore, they only decipher sentences and hardly practice actual conversation.
And, students only have about 790 hours of study time in compulsory education in the first place.
3. Lack of an environment where English is required
Although Japan may have the image of being a small island nation, it actually has the 11th largest population in the world. Therefore, there was an environment in which people could survive as long as they engaged in business in their own country using Japanese.
However, with the continuing decline of the population and the weakening of the economy, lacking English skills will result in terrible consequences for future generations.
If you’d like to learn more about Japanese traditional culture, Kyoto, and social problems in Japan, please check out my channel & subscribe!
*The content is based on personal studies and experience
There is no intention of denying other theories and cultural aspects
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No English is just a difficult language in general and that complaint that people of a foreign country don’t speak English well, is a total joke imo. Like what did you expect, that posh English accent and the Queen’s English?
@@lucashenry6281 try learning hebrew
@@danielsgames8810 “Will Smith will smith Will Smith” is a grammatically correct sentence, so is “Will Will Smith smith Will Smith?”
Hebrew has nothing on English
@@lucashenry6281 you know something your absolutely right Hebrew existed for thousands of years before English was even spoken
Shogo-san, do you mind if I ask you a question?
How much do you consider it would take to learn Japanese? I think that it would have been a cool snippet of info that is somewhat missing on the short video, since you did speak about how much does it take to learn some languages vs English. Woulda been cool to know how much would it take with Japanese as well.
Cheers from south America, sorry if I had a bad English.
Him: Why Japanese are bad at English
Also him: Speaks great English
Wait, what?
How tf i didnt realize that
He lived in the US for a bit
If you just heard his voice speaking English you would think he is from America that's how native his English sounds
That’s because he lived in Michigan,USA for a few years
He partially grew up in the US, speaking both English and Japanese
Weebs when they go to Japan and the people aren’t dubbed:
💀
or subbed
subbed* only like 5 animes are better in dub than sub
@@sujiwujiyuji any anime is better as dub uses more natural english phrases where sub is closer to a literal translation (that sometimes makes no sense) but if ur used to it sub starts feeling normal
NANI?!
I learned english basically to not miss like 95% of the contents on the Internet
Same
Same, and I'm Brazil
How much of that content is actually worth it?
@@Kani8122 Very worth. You learning English = The ability to not miss out on anything in the Internet.
I got to learn English cause it is one of the 3 major subjects in school here in Germany. Later on when I started to use the internet I got better in it since many things I did online required me to use English for it.
Story I always tell: In Year 10 I went on exchange to a Japanese high school and we did one of those English paper tests. I was one of the only Australians who passed. There was a lot of obscure grammar like hither/whither or the difference between 'shan't' and other words that just don't come up unless you're reading literary classics. Because I was a big reader I could sort of puzzle through what 'felt' right. Not so much the other kids. Paper tests are... not great at assessing language skills.
Dang. Why was shan’t even in the test? Those stopped being used long ago aside from old classics so it wouldn’t even make sense for it to be used in a modern English test.
Words become outdated? Ie, chingurimasu
Imagine going to a foreign East Asian country and expecting them to speak English🤔🤔
😂
Yeah, it's a really selfish and self-centered expectation
Beat me to it
These days, I think most people do. It's pretty rare to have to memorize a bunch of touristy phrases before traveling.
Imagine living in a country that pours endless amount of time and money into foreign language education and not learning said foreign language.
I study Japanese and I teach English to professionals. The grammar structure is totally opposite that’s why it’s difficult to do English-Japanese alternately. Japan is adapting to change since companies now have English lessons for their staffs.
Opposite grammar structure is not a problem. In SEA such as Phillipines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Malay languange has also opposite grammar from English. Most countries that natively speaks Malay that languange also use English as their 2nd language.
@@mueffe1357 as I noted in my original response, the lack of opportunities to practice a new language is a HUGE hindrance to learning AND retaining the new language. You, yourself noted the countries you mentioned used English as a second language. Japan has no second language and with the older population being the largest demographic, with the most power and a tad xenophobic, there's not going to be one any time soon.
Why would it need a second language? European countries don't have second languages and yet the average European speaks 2.4 languages. You don't need to mandate something to make it happen, for something like that it should just come naturally with need. Clearly the average Japanese doesn't need English in his or her day to day life.
I am Italian and I don't have that many problems on Japanese and English and grammar is a lot different from them.
Native English speaker here. Not a great memory and picked up japanese grammar pretty quick. I think more to do with japanese temperament. Have to be perfect before say it. Won't let them selves make mistakes
Maybe they are interested in other languages?
I was pleasantly surprised when a Kyoto shopkeeper struck a fluent Spanish conversation with me.
It was awesome
I speak Spanish and some Japanese. I don't know how to explain it, but Japanese and Spanish feel somewhat similar in how they utilize vowels
@@zake64 they're phonetic languages
@@zake64 yes facts they're Brothas!
Portuguese also is easier to learn Japanese, so I guess the problem is English
@@bboywolf Spanish is NOT phonetic
I joined a Japanese/ English learning discord where there were hundreds of Japanese people trying to learn English and hundreds of English speakers trying to learn Japanese. After speaking with a lot Japanese people, I found them having issues with grammar and pronunciation mostly. Them speaking with English speakers certainly helped a lot because they’re improvement was increasing the more they spoke.
Care to share how to join that discord?
How to use discord to learn linguage? I joined 2 days ago, but i don't know how use it, yet!
Man I'd love to be in that server
@@Eva_Reyes I wanna know what server they're in too
I wanna know this server too
In the Japanese peoples defense, it’s not their job to learn English for the tourists. If a person wants to visit a place it’s their job to learn about the culture and ethics of that place and the language. Not necessarily be fluent, but at least basic conversation
Edit: ya’ll I’m not saying that tourists should learn the whole language, but if you’re going to a place that has a different language then maybe try learning a few phrases that can be useful like “where’s is the bathroom?”, “thank you”, etc. not perfect, but at least show effort. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.
I’m also aware that due to rising tourism rates in Japan, it may not be a bad idea for them to teach more of it in school.
But if you’re going to vacation in a place, it is on you to learn their customs and be prepared. YOU’RE the visitor. You don’t have to know everything about the area, but be mindful.
I agree, it's very heartbreaking to see that most tourists mush be arrogant. If they don't want to spend time to learn a language it is understandable however they should not be be complaining. It's lazy and hypocritical 🤯
To be honest, for a two weeks holiday in a Land I wouldn't learn a different language than english. I don't have the time and it's not really interesting to learn a different language for a one time stay in a different country.
@@johanneswolfken8658 To be honest, you don’t need to vacation in a different country and, people in that country probably don’t feel like learning a different language just for your one time stay in a country.
Plus, English isn’t really required for japan, unless you work for a company that involves English. You can live in Japan just fine not knowing any English!
@@-Foof ya
I've always felt like talking like master Yoda when translating Japanese to english
Maybe Yoda is actually just a really old Japanese man.
That's how I feel about learning Spanish.
Actually, just about every language in the world BESIDES English speaks "backwards". So, it feels backwards to us because we have to unlearn the sentence stucture we've always known, and same for them speaking English. But it's easier for other countries to learn any other language because sentence structures are similar, just about all of them have the concept of conjugating verbs as well.
Regarding myself, name yoda it is hmmmmmm
And me speaking 4 languages is like speaking backward while also doing the exact same thing again.
Imagine going to a place and finding out they still speak their mother tongue . . . .
The problem is that English has now become a basic language, an international business and diplomatic language which allows people who do not speak the same mother tongue to communicate together, so the fact of not speaking a minimum of English can be problematic.
I say this as French
As we say here in Indonesia "English is the language of money" in other words, it's kind of a necessity to learn and know English in the modern world.
I always thought it was due to a lack of interest. Imagine being in high school and being forced to learn a language you know you won't ever use.
I mean it can be that to many. You don’t need English in day to day life as a normal Japanese citizen, I can understand the lack of interest especially if school teaches you a language that’ll never be used.
That is also a reason
My class in high school still thinks they will not need English in their lives, thus they don't know it
Even a guy who decides to go to the USA for some exchange program thingy didn't know it even close to well enough (I'm Italian if you're confused)
@@tuluppampam I've heard of students who had to end their exchange student program early because they never learned the language. That's really sad
Like most countries that host tourists, it would depend on if you're in a scenic, historic, or "tourist trap" area.
@@tuluppampam Do I spot a brother...
A FELLOW WORSHIPPER OF THE GREAT YORKSHIRE TEA?
The Supreme Tea....
Amen.
I dont think we study more english outside japan. I think the main reason people outside japan are better at english is because of the internet. Japanese people use the japanese internet while europeans use the english internet, even if they dont understand english, because there isn't a huge internet community in their own language. I have seen many 6 year olds that speak english pretty well in my non-english speaking country. That was unthinkable when I was a child, when I grew up without the internet. Children these day get access to the internet and videos in english at age 3, where they hear english for several hours every single day.
Which improved English speaking. Just watch Japanese animes in English. That's I improved my English speaking skills in these 2 years. I'm not from Japan though.
I mean, toy unboxings did help me learn better English as a kid
Mm, globalization! Has its benefits.
That is an excellent point. And that internet community is more real, engaging, and fun, than most classroom settings. That helps too I believe.
so true, when i was a kid i lived in indonesia, my parents spoke italian, but i started using the internet at the age of 3 where i only consumed english speaking media. can you guess which of those 3 languages became my first language? english. yeah, it's that powerful
The funniest part is that if you try to speak them in Japanese they would most likely not understand you either
Just like when they try to speak in broken bad pronounced English
@@furikakez CoNiSheWa BoQu GayjIn dEzU
If your main complaint when visiting a foreign country is that the people there don't speak English, you probably should not leave your hometown.
English is hard even for native speakers
If you sound fluent and casual enough you can make errors while talking and people won't care at all.
I'm german, but I sometimes see people making mistakes that are so easy to avoid! Like, their, thier and there.
English has differences depending on country and even within a country there can be a large disparity between what is taught in school. Not only that, but spoken English can be vastly different from written English.
@@kariissmol9172 But be honest, compared to your language, English isn't that difficult.
No it ain't
I’ve lived in Japan for over 6 years now and teach English as an ALT. From what I’ve seen, there has been a pretty significant change in the education system in recent years. English is now taught in a fun way starting from first grade and kids can have basic conversations by the time they graduate ES. This is very different from before where English was only started being taught from middle school, and the focus was English writing tests, not conversational English.
If 1 in 10 people in Somalia 🇸🇴 Al Qaeda warzone can speak it, then they can
The biggest mistake when teaching english is to try and force students to learn by writing. In written form english is extremely illogical because it is, in fact, a combination of 2 different Indo-European language groups- northern/germanic and western/romanic. This means that conversationaly , people speaking any germanic or romanic language can learn it naturally allmost without effort, only after that comes the reading, then spelling, then grammatical corrections. It's going to be slightly harder for nonIndo-European speakers but it's still the better option.
@@user-fb7or1wt3t Not just the written form - the entire language is an absolute clusterF for the reason you stated.
I'm glad to hear that, mate!
I have a colleague that uses Google translate for the most basic sentences, and he's an engineer...
The guys being pissed that they can't communicate with Japanese folks in English would be like a Japanese person being pissed Americans can't speak Japanese reliably
While I completely agree that this attitude is completely douche, it's not exactly comparable, English being the worldwide lingua franca.
Actually, from what I saw in interviews, they do expect you to know japanese 😂
Japanese is not an internationally spoken language unlike English.
@@verdiernoyama9681 naturally, they were not as expansionist during the era when all the European powers were colonizing the world. But I'm curious what your point is.
As an English person learning Japanese. I completely understand this and have a total new respect for anyone who is bilingual in both English and Japanese
When I was teaching English in Kobe, one thing that the Japanese English teacher told me was that some of the students would be pressured by the others to only use "Kata-English" (Speak English as if it were written in Katakana) and only do as well as the other students in English class. Therefore, the students, in that area at least, only let themselves improve so far as to not stand out.
Huh, that's disappointing
Wow. That’s sad, but it also sounds very Japanese from what I know of the overall culture (in the most general terms since I’ve never visited). It’s like when a kid is told over and over that they can’t do something, that kid never even tries!
The tallest blade of grass will be cut down
@@ciara7172 I haven't heard that one. Same idea as "The nail that sticks out gets the hammer" 😀
@@silivrengamer It's not necessarily all students, the teacher was talking about high school students. I also met a lot of college students in Osaka that spoke English very well.
Another element of that is English is often the required second language course, in much the same way I took Spanish for a semester in college. Most of the people in my Spanish class were not interested in Spanish but we needed the credits for our degree. The thing that really annoyed us was our teacher had the expectation that we were there to become fluent in Spanish. I suspect that Japanese students have a similar feeling to English, they need to take it and only want to do enough to pass. So it's not cool to be enthusiastic about the class but there are still some students who don't mind not being cool.
I went from Spanish to English and now trying Japanese. Am definitely struggling a lot ✋😭
Same here. I'm a native Spanish speaker and I'm trying to learn Japanese as my third language and it's been hard.
My third language is arabic and thing aint going too well it seems
I'd suggest getting a tutor if you can afford it. I'm on the same boat as you.
@@officialmai I’m minoring it in college and my school doesn’t offer a tutoring system for Japanese. Last year I had a Japanese roommate and she actually helped a lot clarifying and giving me tips. Sadly she’s back in Japan and is too busy to tutor me. So I guess I just need to make another Japanese friend 💀💀
@@elisanoro Get a tutor outside of your school...
My husband and I visited Japan several years ago. We brought our smartphones with Google translate loaded. I appreciated when the Japanese people tried to talk to us in English and I tried to learn some Japanese while we were there. Our favorite memory of the trip was when a group of students approached us to practice their English. We still talk about that. We hope to be able to visit again and see other cities besides Tokyo and Kyoko.
When I went to Japan in 2015, I had taken 2 years of Japanese in highschool. It really helped me getting around and as a teen I was fairly confident going around the city by myself. Most of the Japanese there knew enough English to help me out if I was confused. It was amazing! I can't wait to go back!
There is data showing that the biggest complaint of foreign tourists who traveled to Japan was that they could not communicate in English.
Why do Japanese people have such poor English (despite them having compulsory education)?
1. Japanese and English are different language combinations
Studies have shown that Japanese and English are the most difficult combination to learn. It’s because they differ significantly in all aspects of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Some languages can be learned in about 600 hours, whereas English requires about 2200 to 3000 hours.
2. Insufficient English education
English education in Japan is solely for evaluating students with paper-based tests. Therefore, they only decipher sentences and hardly practice actual conversation.
And, students only have about 790 hours of study time in compulsory education in the first place.
3. Lack of an environment where English is required
Although Japan may have the image of being a small island nation, it actually has the 11th largest population in the world. Therefore, there was an environment in which people could survive as long as they engaged in business in their own country using Japanese.
However, with the continuing decline of the population and the weakening of the economy, lacking English skills will result in terrible consequences for future generations.
If you’d like to learn more about Japanese traditional culture, Kyoto, and social problems in Japan, please check out my channel & subscribe!
*The content is based on personal studies and experience
There is no intention of denying other theories and cultural aspects
So... maybe tourists should learn some Japanese... or at least buy a cheat-sheet phrase booklet.
@@mundusvultdecepi1599 already on it, i can already ask where i can find the toilet and ai can order food.
I believe why English language is so hard to learn for most people is because there is so many different words that are spelled the same or sound the same, but have so many meaning depending on how it is used in a sentence. For example there, their, and they're. They sound the same, but just with their spelling can mean something totally different.
I am from Texas and I deal with folks from Mexico and South America. They tell me that English is hard for them to learn much less understand. Just because the English words have so many meaning.
If you're going from a romance language to English, it's easy. But Japanese to English is hard. But I do think that English to Japanese may be harder. You can learn very basic grammatically incorrect English and be basically understood but not as much the other way around.
I tried Japanese a while ago. And admittedly I didn't get too far, in one sense Japanese is way simpler than English. It starts to become more difficult when you reach kanji, where I kind of stopped. But because it's a phonetic language, when dealing with just hiragana/katakana it's way simpler than English in that regard.
I think Japanese would be easy to speak than read/write, while English is the opposite. At least that's how I feel personally. The only problem with Japanese is you have different forms of Japanese when speaking to people, like who do you speak to more formally or informally.
I do consider English at least a little easier than Japanese, you can be pretty fluent with simple English but to be “fluent” in Japanese you’d have to know many meanings of different kanji and stuff..
Not just romance languages, all Indo-European languages have fairly similar structures whereas Japanese is from an entirely different language group.
"it's actually easier for this random japanese fast food employee to learn english than it is for me to use google translate when I go to tokyo to gawk at the asian women"
@@harrylane4 who are you even talking to
I still can’t believe English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Obviously Ive spoken it fluently since I could talk but still, I be looking at Japanese writing like 😓 none of the characters look like what they sound!
A Japanese kindergartener speaks better English than most adults in my city.
A Russian Army conscript still speak clearer English than your typical Karen in the US.
I've lived in Japan for 3 years, now. I'm an English teacher for kindergarten-aged kids. My Japanese wife speaks barely any English. Our 4 month old son will probably be our translator when he gets older 😂
Are you saying that you managed to marry a woman that you can barely even speak to?
@@SpawnedInTheHades that's right. About a year and a half, now. We worked at the same company when I first moved here and lived in the same share house (common in Japan). We learned a lot from each other through actions and nonverbal communication. If we really need to communicate, we use Google Translate. It's pretty awesome. It's like learning a little about someone every day and there are rarely challenging "surprises" . Believe it or not, you can learn a LOT about people beyond words.
@@iandavis1706 wait BOTH of you are too lazy to learn a second language WHILE LIVING TOGETHER?!?!
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se not necessarily lazy. Like the video said the two languages don’t exactly mix very cleanly. And if you have ways of communicating beyond spoken languages, all the better. These two have dedication to each other that most monolingual relationships will never have, it’s rather admirable really.
@@iandavis1706 Google translate? Hahahaha
People should learn some needed words from the place that they are going to travel.
Agreed in principle, but in practice it’s just not possible. Maybe in the Americas where there is only really English, Spanish and Portuguese, but Asia and Europe have hundreds of languages. Heck, India has so many languages that they use English as a lingua franca internally.
@@BlastedRodent Most countries only have 1 main/official language, including places like India (Hindi) and most of Latin America (Spanish). It is by no means impractical to try to learn the main language of the land to communicate with people, rather than expecting them to know your language as a foreigner.
Agreed
@@jpnpod8277 but there's a difference between "expecting natives to speak your language" and "expecting natives to know basic communication in the language you learned so you can travel easier" .. some would say that's the point of picking universal language
Yes, but spoken language is very different from textbook language. If you threw a Japanese man in the middle of the Bronx with a couple of standard English words to get by, I think he would die of culture shock.
“All your bases are belong to us”
-Some game programmer from the 80’s
Imagine going to a foreign country and having the audacity to be upset that they don’t speak your language
Just moved to Japan to teach English in High School, it's crazy that they can have classes teaching it for 7 years and have no experience with actually speaking or using it.
I always thought Japanese students who study English is only taught to prestige student with high grade or for only who is studying abroad 🤔
@@somecallmeelvis everyone is taught English for at least 9 years :)
Okay, but who travels to a country and expects the locals to speak the tourist's language fluently? :P
People who went to north Europe and spoke in English and everyone understood them perfectly and now assumed that’s the default for all the foreign nations
English isn't my language either. However, it is the most used language for international exchanges, hence why it is so important to learn it unless you plan on being stuck in your own little bubble for the rest of your life. That's how I see it, at least.
@@federicamottadelli9333 agreed, I'm not even native English speaker yet I know that English is very important. It's not about tourists demanding japanese to speak English, English is beyond that. It's used everywhere in the world
@@muhammadyasha895 I totally agree that learning English is important.
But most comments actually are about tourists and learning it for tourists is the worst reason ever.
English also has several phonetic sounds that aren't directly reproducible with Japanese kana, such as "L" and "V" sounds. The kana substitutions made to say English words can make them hard to understand for people who don't speak Japanese.
Particularly when it comes to ESL, I've always been thoroughly impressed with speakers of East Asian languages including Japanese who are able to communicate so fluidly in English with or without an accent. The two languages couldn't be more distinct yet there is someone communicating with even relative confidence between the two.
I remember watching an NHK documentary about a Japanese soybean farmer. To research the protein content and therefore the proper cooking time for turning soybeans into tofu he had to go onto English language websites to do his research. I was surprised that there wasn't more authoritative sources in Asia on this topic, and I wondered what his level of English mastery was that he was able to do this.
The official scientific language is English, thus it makes sense to not find many sources in other languages
Some English teachers become assistants/translators for doctors after their teaching contracts run out.
@@tuluppampam My aunt is a college professor of material sciences, and I can say that the majority of her articles have been translated to English from our native language.
Reading and speaking are 2 different skills. A person might be able to read a language but not speak it. Keep in mind, the language used in journals is standard English (i. E the English taught in schools, not informal, everyday language) .
Also, Google translate.
My thing is, if you’re traveling to another country for vacation/work/living, maybe learn some of the language, or bring a dictionary with you. English may be a dominant language, but that doesn’t mean everyone speaks it. I’ve studied Japanese for half my life, but I’m not fluent. I love going to Japan and speaking to them.
Definitely might take. I’m going to learn some Japanese, so that if I ever get to Japan as I wish, perhaps with my lousy Japanese and locals with horrible English, we could effectively bridge the language gap.
I learned some German when visiting and when they heard it, they presumed I spoke fluently and I couldn’t carry the conversation 🤣
I have a question for you. Why is there this fascination with Japanese? I haven't seen many foreign tourists visiting India try to learn any Indian language. Most Indians speak better English than any Japanese (I live in Japan, I know). I haven't seen foreign tourists visiting other countries in SEA try to learn those languages. Why is there this Japanese superiority? I wonder.
@@parvathychandran4615 interesting
for work or studying or living I agree, but for vacation it is not neccesary.
*goes to other country*
"Why don't they speak MY language????"
Whenever I hear someone from Japan speaking English (usually from hololive just being honest) I try my best to be as supportive as possible because I cannot fathom how difficult it is for them I've tried to learn Japanese and other than stray words and phrases I've picked up I can't speak really any Japanese for the life of me without quoting something
Also as someone who's native language is English it's 3 languages in a trench coat that's pretending to be a single language
I learned English through movies,cartoons, and the Internet.
Its not their job to speak english just so tourists can go there and understand them... Tourists should learn japanese
Also, there are no real-time subtitles when you visit Japan and try to speak to the locals there.
Really, that depends on the job. Businesses that cater to tourists, or get a lot of business from tourists, often prioritize hiring people who speak multiple languages.
Considering it takes at least 2200 hours to learn Japanese, you mean to say that unless you can dedicate 2200 study hours to pick up the language, you shouldn't be allowed to visit Japan??
that's why i study japanese language from basic speech, reading and written
btw, written is my worst but i can read and speak
@@Figgy5119 no one expects from a tourist to speak perfect japanese.Just know A1 level that is more than enough
Proud to say one of my nieces, who is already bilingual because her mother is French, gained a first class degree in Japanese. She also lived in Japan for a year and did lots of travelling. She says everyone was amazed when a young European could speak their language.
I was told in the 80’s that if I didn’t learn Spanish, I would be left behind. 42 years later, I’ve never had to use Spanish a single day in my life. I’ve traveled all over the world too.
All Indian languages: « Allow us to introduce ourselves. »
Most North Indian languages actually share a common root with English. Both of English and Hindi for example are Indo-European languages. They descend from a language spoken in modern-day Ukraine 5000 years ago. So it's actually easier for a Northern Indian to learn English than Tibetan for example.
@@bobing1752 The relationship between English and North Indian languages is like the relation between an aircraft body and an aluminum foil. Sure you had to dig out the same bauxite to make them but the finished products are as different as a river and a tree.
There are more English speakers in India than there are in the United States
I learned Japanese because now I don’t have to waste energy awakening the rinnegan to read the subtitles and eat at the same time
"learned"? So your third eye is opened. Great.
Eating, looking at the art, and listening is such a skill 🙏🏼🙏🏼
For that reason, I usually watch the more "intense" animes in dub, so I never have to restart/rewind any thing😅
Foreign Tourists have no right to complain about the native population not understanding them. They should learn at least basic communication in their destination’s native language(s)
U can't travel to another country and demand that they speak English. Also Japanese sounds very different than English. One example is the R sound.
"Japanese and English are terrible language combinations"
Waseigo looks to the sides with suspicion
Still quite impressive given how little Americans know Spanish even when classes for it are required
Since when is Spanish class required? Everyone at my school who *chose* Spanish as an elective managed to learn it. I took German class, and I speak that instead.
@@Figgy5119 now that i think about it you are required to take a language class of some sort but the majority of people choose spanish, at least at my school I really don't think anyone is fluent or even close; i certainly am not and I took four years
It's not "impressive" at all actually. Language can never truly be learned in a class setting, because that's just not how language works. Language is a tool for communicating, not facts you find in a textbook. If you're not constantly around a language and actually using it for what it's for (i e. communicating), then doesn't matter how many classes you take or years you spend studying, you'll never acquire it. It's the same reason that so many Japanese people are so inept in English, despite most being required to take English classes for 7+ years.
My problem with Spanish is the same one, most of my learning was from books and by writing. I have four years of Spanish, including studying at the university level, and I can’t really speak it confidently.
I live in a country where
one language is mandatory, in the Gymnasium/High school even two.
what i want to know is why people went to a foreign country and expected them to speak in english 😭
Imagine going to a country and asking why they don’t speak your countries language ☠️
If you go to a country with a different language you are required to learn their language not the other way around
If you're a tourist, do you learn the language of every single country you are visiting? Or are you saying you're only allowed to visit the countries that share your native language?
@@Figgy5119 I'm saying that why would you go to a foreign country and expect them to speak your language, if you want to be understood and talk to people in their home country you should learn their language before visiting or have a text translator to translate from your language to theirs
@@Figgy5119 you're the type of person that would tell immigrants they need to learn English but yet won't learn another country's language.
@@PokemonFreak6298 it's also not a case of expecting someone to speak *your* language (meaning English), the survey wasn't solely made for native speakers of English. English is the language used for cross cultural communication. A tourist from Denmark isn't coming here and saying they are shocked there aren't enough Danish speakers here in their dealings with the tourism industry.
No one is going to dedicate the 2200 hours it takes to study Japanese for their one week trip to Japan. That is insanely unrealistic.
@@nevaehonrefni pft exactly seems like an entitled white supremacist Karen
I love that you actually know how many hours it takes to learn a language!
Australian people largely only speak English and it’s a pity that we haven’t the same problem because we are an island nation but unlike Japan have a significantly smaller population. (Not enough fresh water) Indigenous languages are coming to the fore now which is great, I love the sound.
I heard somewhere else that also a lot of the English teachers are not native or fluent English speakers so they end up teaching them things incorrectly
I can agree as a native English speaker learning Japanese, it is very hard, I’ve been learning for 5 years, yet my biggest feat is knowing how to read and write all hirogana symbols and knowing how to say father, mother, older brother, older sister, younger brother and younger sister
My cousin was an ESL teacher for years in Japan for rich families. He said that their kids were poorly mannered, even bratty. Maybe it was because of its difficulty.
That's just rich kids though, they're like that everywhere.
@@user-le8zv8hs8x not like this dude. 💀🤣
I can definitely understand. It’s probably because of something like lack of interest, or knowing that it’s useless to learn English. Many factors play in this!
People go to a foreign country and complain about not being able to communicate in a language that is not spoken in said country...
cuz engilsh is the most spoke and japna is learing engilsh
Going by native speakers, Mandarin would be the most spoken language in the world... The second would be Spanish.
Either way, the language spoken in Japan is, as I believe, still Japanese.
So complaining about having to speak Japanese in Japan is, mildly said, ridiculous.
But of course I also admire the fact that Japanese people are trying very hard to educate themselves in other languages to ease communication and accommodate to foreigners "needs".
@@chikiexx6587 With grammar like that you have no reason to act like this
I deserve to complain because I was taught to learn English so I can communicate with people around the world. English is not my native language therefore other people should learn English too so we can communicate.
@@Mulukan57 those people who sold you that preposterous idea have obviously not been speaking for the whole world...
As you have probably already guessed, English is also not my first language. And I too learned English to have some sort of basis to fall back on in case I need to...
And I still would never dream of making someone feel guilty for speaking their native language in their own country...
I am of the opinion that you should make an effort to be able to speak the language of the country you want to go to.
Which is why I am trying very hard to learn Japanese.
My goal is to become a fluent bilingual so I can communicate with Japanese people and better appreciate their culture and traditions.
Our group went to Japan years ago and we found more citizens in Osaka were willing to talk to us in English compared to Hiroshima or Tokyo. We had taken classes for a year, trying our best to grasp the basics but they all went out the window as soon as we would talk to a citizen and they went into full dialect 😅 Thank goodness there's a lot of signage and internet to fill in the gaps.
It's just telling about US tourists that they complain about people in their country not speaking English. I wouldn't expect people to accommodate to me if I am the foreigner. That's what they say about immigrants.
Exactly!! Like I'm trying to learn Japanese before I go next year. How else would I be able to get by? It's a lot different in the U.S because they cater to Spanish speakers but I do think everyone should learn the language of the land that they plan to visit/live in. Not because you need to "conform" but it just helps you personally in the long run because there isn't always going to be translators or translations readily available ❤️
Who said it was US tourists? Sounds like someone made assumptions based on their own prejudices.
@@Figgy5119 because most of the time he talks about US citizens -
@@nevaehonrefni did he say the survey was taken specifically by US citizens? No? Ok, then y'all are leaping to conclusions.
@@Figgy5119 anyone who says "y'all" immediately loses my respect. Everything you say now is irrelevant- not like it already wasn't though 💅🏻✨
imagine going to a foreign country and complaining that they don’t speak your language😂 the entitlement of people will nvr cease to amaze me
It doesn't have to be "your" (e.g. native) language. Most Europeans for example speak English as a second language, it's so common nowadays we genuinely find it surprising if you can't use it abroad, especially if it's with staff in hotels or tourist attractions.
@@fikujez for real tho, we need a universal communcation language for international buisness/travel
@@kariissmol9172 From what I know, Esperanto was created to be a universal language, a totally new language for a sense of unity and people from various nations can communicate easily in international settings, but the number of speaker is not that many.
@@kariissmol9172 or u could just…learn another countries language 😃
International and business, how is than unreasonable. This will save time and increase efficiency instead on learning multiple languages.
You really cant expect a foreign country to know your language
If you learn any language in school, you'll probably end up going nowhere with it, despite years of taking tests. Self-study is the key, my friend. Always.
so wait... tourists go to japan and then complain that not enough japanese speak english?!
Literally! I see everywhere in japan has English translations, they’re just doing what they can and they still complain.
@@-Foof very sorry to hear that. Japan seems like the very best place on earth, and I'm so impressed with the Japanese culture and it's people. Doesn't surprise me at all that ultra polite people wouldn't really like people who are not as nice. I don't blame japanese at all for feeling that way.
My oldest friend is Japanese and her English is great. Probably helps that she was born and raised in Australia.
🗿
Does she speak Japanese
This is a video about why most Japanese nationals are bad at English, not about people who are ethnically Japanese.
My mom is Japanese and speaks fluent English because she was born and raised in America. I have a friend who is Brazilian but born and raised in Japan, and she only speaks Japanese and Portuguese.
That’s great! But he’s talking about Japanese citizens living in japan, and don’t have much exposure to other languages. Nationality and DNA doesn’t affect your learning, learning a language after you already learnt another is the difficult thing.
@@-Foof I think one of the reasons is also Japan has very few sounds so English has way more different sounds that you make differently in your mouth and it is hard to learn
I can't imagine going to a foreign country and complaining that they don't speak English.
Me neither
Your English is amazing (I love your videos)
I for one had hard time learning english in school.
but when Im forced to use it online then I sure pick up something too.
so one option to learn it would be to just even changing language settings to english.
I even prefer that my self because translations on programs are always all over the place for some reason.
Man, that’s so typical of tourists, “why doesn’t this country on the other side of the planet not speak our language?” Us English speakers are so entitled
That's still such a native-speakery point of view though. English has been the number 1 international language for decades now. In Europe knowing English as a second language is extremely common, and yeah people will expect to be able to use it abroad, especially when interacting with people who work in the tourism sector. It's not even entitlement, we had to learn it too, we just expect others to also put in an effort to learn it in the interconnected world that we live in.
@@fikujez I get that, but us native English speakers have the luxury of most of the world catering to us, and it just feels very rude to then be annoyed when people in a different country don’t speak our language
Even if English is the most spoken language internationally, everyone should know not everyone speaks/learns it. It’s very sad that people come to a foreign country and expect them to know English.
@@-Foof Japan is part of the first world, they should know english. I think its even sadder when you go to a restaurant or a hotel and no one can help you cuz they don’t know english.
@@brandonhughes4076 Don't blame yourself English has become an International language due to the fact that so many people already know, understand, and can speak them trying to make a new language to replace it would be inefficient
I haven’t visited but I have tried learning some Japanese. Pronunciations are the easy part, and I know I’m messing up a lot of fine points, but… it’s the writing systems that get me.
The existence of English in Japanese media intrigues me. Even if, for example, you watch anime entirely in Japanese, you'll still come across English catchphrases. Some city pop albums have English catchphrases in their choruses (sometimes in the verses as well) and have their song titles and sometimes even the album titles written in English as well!
Some of it is surely because the Japanese are notoriously perfectionist. When learning another language it helps to be happy about just speak a lot, even (or especially) if it means speaking badly.
And I dunno if this is accurate or not but in anime, English subjects are always learned on Middle and/or High school unlike any other countries who have English subjects even during kindergarten.
You learn very simple English in elementary school (not even enough to hold a decent conversation), I haven’t been to a normal middle/high school I so maybe they do teach better English!
I personally had English lessons in kindergarten in a mall.
I've heard of some complaints by foreigners who had taught English in Japan saying that the schools prefer sticking with the broken English of textbooks than letting the teacher teach more natural English. Thus fostering an environment for broken English.
Not Japanese nor having read those text books so can't evaluate this.
Any nah complaining about not being able to use your own language in another country is wild
If you visit Japan you should speak Japanese, it's easy as that. Problem solved.
I say you should know enough to get around. Some places in Europe even if you learned a decent amount of the language they will still speak to you in English even if you want to practice their language. Japanese and English are far apart linguistically speaking so it be difficult to master the language as an adult.
P.S they’re saying you should learn simple enough phrases to get around! Don’t expect Japanese to learn English just for you because you probably didn’t learn Japanese for them!
you don't even need to speak japanese. Google translate can do short, simple sentences ("where is ____," "I would like to order _____") just fine. It's when you get to more complex phrases and sentences that you're going to see it struggle. If you're intending to go to a nation where you don't speak the language, you shouldn't expect the average person to accommodate you.
I studied abroad in Japan for a few months. I still remember one time riding the train from Kyoto I sat next to a university student we ended up having a conversation where he spoke only English and I spoke only Japanese to try and work on our language skills. It was an interesting trip.
Tourists are great.
"Hey, let's travel to experience other cultures!"
"Wait, why don't these people speak MY language?!"
foreigner: goes to different country without learning their language
also foreigner: gets mad when natives don’t know their language
jesus christ, americans and other english speakers are so self centered and entitled.
exactly that's what I said too...
Except many of the tourists trying to communicate in English are in fact not English primary language speakers. It’s one thing to learn a few key phrases. It’s another to learn an entire language for a one week vacation so you can have complete conversations. English has become the common tourist language because of the internet. I don’t think it’s what most people, including English speakers, would have picked but it is what it is and I for one am glad that more people every day share at least one language in which they can converse reasonably well.
My family is primarily of a culture whose language and ways were systematically wiped out by English speakers. Trust when I say I don’t love it, but I’d rather as many people as possible be able to communicate effectively across the world than bring back dominance of my ancestors’ language in my home country just for the sake of it.
what about India? why do the Japanese always get a pass?
The fact that you assume that it's only native English speakers who use English to communicate in other countries shows how globally minded you aren't.
@@Figgy5119 mfs forget English is the most common language on the planet
"White way is not the right way" first of all
So I don't think that for giving tourist a better experience Japanese PPL don't need to learn English
But for the future better English education will come handy
I am an Indian and my English got better through social media and stuff
For learning languages I don't think that school education helps that much but for entertainment reason I started watching show and stuff and become better before COVID 19 my English was broken and now I personally think that Its better now 🙂
Japanese don't need any other entertainment mediums they got anime and all sort of stuff right 😅
Maybe thats the reason...
English is known for being a difficult language to learn. Especially since it's actually three languages in a trenchcoat, sneaking about and pocketing any vocabulary that looks unattended.
Im an Asian who have 3 local language on my family but none of them are English, I don't even know how I manage to speak English without learning. Even English lessons on my school is started at 5th grade, at that time I was shocked how's everyone can't speak English at all when I could speak almost perfectly.
Maybe because I like to watch English movie since I was a baby? But I really never learn English at all before that.
Americans #1 complaint of going to another country that does not speak English because they are a foreign country: "why don't these people speak English for me? 🤡"
This comment is generalization at its finest. 🤡
I love how Korea was way ahead of things and does quite well in teaching its young people English.
From what I understood watching Chris Broad's video on teaching English in Japan, reason #3 prevails because the current English teaching system in Japan doesn't provide students with a safe zone to speak English.
From my own experience living in a country with English as a second language, the tendency of being ridiculed by peers when making mistakes while speaking English also contributes to the lack of a conducive environment to speak English.
I spoke English without needing the English subject 😭
Imagine going to a foreign country and complaining that they don't speak YOUR language
I get all this stuff but what was the thought process of I'm going to a different country with their own language and I'm gonna be disappointed I can't communicate in my own language
Why "your own"? Do only native English speakers visit Japan?
Its the same reason we have poor spanish/french/irish education in ireland, the system is created to push achieving a grade based on past exams, not overall language learning. Not having close access to fluent speakers probably exacerbates the problem.
The willingness to learn another language is appreciated though.
'Biggest complain of foreign tourist is that locals speak the local language' Sounds all right to me
"Japanese takes 2200 to 3000 hours to learn"
Takanashi Kiara: teaches it her in less than a month in her early teens
I feel like a lack of English speaking/written entertainment content is a problem as well. One of the main ways I learned English as a Dane was not in school, but through non localized movies, tv shows and video games.
"My biggest complaint is that they dont speak english to me when im on a foreign country"🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
There's also the aspect that languages and their orthography encourage certain assumptions of guarantee about language that aren't necessarily universal, and Japanese has a chunk of them that are mostly specific to Japanese. (e.g. that consonant sounds [other than n/m] must be followed by vowels and can't be arbitrarily combined [even if the vowel sound is barely voiced or implied, like how "u" in "Satsuke" can be pronounced])
Between any given two languages, there are usually a handful of these mismatched assumptions either way that make an "A" speaker learning language "B" have about as much of a hard time as a "B" speaker learning language "A". But Japanese makes far more guarantees about phonology than most other languages, leading to its phonology being a subset of the phonologies of most other languages. This makes it very easy for people learning Japanese to literally say the words (regardless of learning any of the lexicon or grammar) but is a hurdle for native Japanese speakers to overcome learning other languages - they have to learn new sounds, new ways of producing sounds, and new ways of combining and distinguishing sounds, where native speakers of other languages learning Japanese generally don't.
Their biggest complaint is that they don't speak english? Why not go to Australia then?
I want to see what the one piece is, thank you.
@@kariissmol9172 got some bad news for you, whitebeard lied
Japanese people have the cutest english accents fr.
To be fair, I'm also bad at English as a native English speaker.
I have a few Japanese friends, some of their reasons are in this video but the main one, according to them, is that they're afraid to make mistakes, so they don't speak it/practice it. I know it does not apply to everyone but still, this image of "perfection" can really make a difference in actually learning something