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Japan should take English lessons from

Philippines
BY AMY CHAVEZ

ARTICLE HISTORY DEC 27, 2013

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Ive just come back from a two-week trip to the Philippines, where
English is an official language along with the local Filipino language.
English was brought to the Philippines during the 1896-1946 American
occupation and it still enjoys official status. This does not mean that
everyone understands or speaks English, but it does mean that exposure
to the language is so widespread that those who do speak it can
communicate quite fluently. I was also impressed that people who had
never stepped outside the Philippines were nevertheless fluent in
English.
How can a nation acquire a second language so proficiently despite some
claims that as many as 27.8 percent of Filipino school-age children either
dont attend, or never finish, elementary school?
Its all in the approach to learning English. The Philippines not only
teaches English in its schools but also provides its population with
another tool crucial to language acquisition: exposure.
In all parts of the country, English signs abound, and they are not there
for foreign tourists. Dont block the driveway, say signs on the roads in
Cebu. House for sale, informs a signboard in front of a dwelling in the
countryside. Company logos, road signs and advertisements are in
English. (Think about it: Are any of those things taught in a regular
textbook-based English-language class?) As a result, most Filipinos learn
English both inside and outside the classroom. It is not just about
teaching English in schools but learning it through life experience too.

When I stepped into a taxi in Manila, the driver was listening to a radio
program that featured two pundits discussing a recent bus accident in
both official languages. The discussion took place in Filipino, with the
commentator repeating the arguments and conclusions in English. This
not only encourages English acquisition; it also allows people like me, an
English-only speaker, to understand the conversations and issues in the
program. While the bus accident may have been newsworthy enough to
make it into the mainstream English news, I never could have hoped to
hear such in-depth analysis of the event from a local point of view in the
way this radio program allowed me to.
I should mention that the commentator used natural English, not the
slow, instructional English you often hear in Japan that is used
specifically for teaching. Rather than being an English language-learning
radio program, this was regular radio reporting in the Philippines.
The country also presents national and world news in English on TV.
These are not translations of Filipino-language news but news reported
in English by Filipino anchors. In Japan, if you dont speak or read
Japanese, you must rely on slow, painful interpretation into oftenunnatural English provided by Japans select TV news stations. This
means that the news media themselves decide what Japanese news
should be available in the English language.
If the government hopes to meet its goal of attracting 300,000
international students to Japanese universities by 2020, it should consider
how the Philippines has significantly increased its foreign student
enrollment: Top universities in the country teach all their classes in
English. As a result, the Philippines is attracting foreign students from
Iran, Libya, Brazil, Russia, China and yes, even Japan, to earn graduate
and postgraduate degrees.
The Philippines offers one more alternative for people who would
normally look at much more expensive schools in the United States,
Britain and Australia. For Japan, teaching university classes in English
would surely help attract more foreign students, as well as potentially
position more Japanese universities in the worlds top 100.
It is hard to overemphasize the role of exposure in learning a second
language. Not only does it allow people to experience the language
firsthand in real situations, but exposure provides reinforcement
something Japanese students rarely, if ever, get outside the classroom.

Perhaps this is why Japanese students often major in English at university

as if English were a career rather than choosing a profession such as
teaching, engineering or medicine, where a knowledge of English would
enhance their qualifications. As long as English is treated as a subject
rather than a method of communication, students will get little exposure
outside the classroom.
Some Japanese companies realize the importance of English for
communication. The Renault-Nissan alliance implemented an Englishonly policy for its global communications more than 10 years ago, while
other Japanese firms have done so more recently: Rakuten (2010), Fast
Retailing (2012), Bridgestone (2013) and, in November, Honda, have all
designated English as their global working language; Honda expects its
employees to learn English if they dont already speak it, or to use an
interpreter.
It takes a certain amount of determination to learn a second language,
and this is what the Japanese government lacks. Adding more English
classes earlier in elementary school and having some lessons taught in
the target language are all improvements, but the real problem is that
Japan doesnt treat English as a means of communication, nor as a vital
way to make Japan globally competitive. Japan should consider not just
better ways to teach English but better ways to learn it.
English is an official language in 60 countries. While making it an official
language in Japan might be going a bit far, it couldnt hurt to make
English the de facto language of education.
Comments: community@japantimes.co.jp
(mailto:community@japantimes.co.jp)
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