Asking how fluent your average American gets in Spanish from high school compared to your average Japanese in English is a much more valid comparison than comparing people who have studied a foreign language with those who haven’t.

That was the point I was trying to make, but didn’t express clearly enough

This isn’t fair – you should compare the Japanese with, say, those Americans who learn Spanish in high school, or Brits who learn French. Asking how fluent your average American gets in Spanish from high school compared to your average Japanese in English is a much more valid comparison than comparing people who have studied a foreign language with those who haven’t.

Unless of course you just want to make the point that a lot of Americans are so monolingual they need subtitles to watch the Australian news….

Because despite the fact that English is a mandatory subject in K-through-12 schools there, almost none of them get even the least bit good at it.

The idea was to provide the name of a country identified by a number. I doubt the lack of English ability had much to do with the test results. You don’t need English to figure out the problem.

I would bet that the number of Japanese fluent in English as a result of their studies is far greater than the number of Americans fluent in a foreign language who grew up in an English-speaking household.

I continue to be surprised today at how many Japanese are good at English, even in this so-called inaka town where I live.

Just this morning, I was in an office listening to a woman who has never lived overseas handling, with no problem, a telephone call with a native English speaker in Japan who didn’t know Japanese.

As anyone who has tried to become fluent in a foreign language knows, telephone conversations present special problems for comprehension.

I see stuff like this all the time. But that’s just me. Unlike some others, I give the Japanese the benefit of the doubt.

Because despite the fact that English is a mandatory subject in K-through-12 schools there, almost none of them get even the least bit good at it. Even the teachers there are Japanese people who aren’t exactly fluent. I remember Peter Payne’s story about seeing a teacher at an elementary school basically teaching students that something along the lines of “Let’s positive thinking!” was correct English.

The Japanese mistake UC Berkeley for UCLA. Worse yet, some think Berkeley is UCLA Berkeley, not UC Berkeley. I have no idea why this happened. I suspect LA conspiracy.

This is also interesting, and very true: “”And tonight, their package tour has reserved tables for them at the Japanese restaurant in the town.”"
Seems like pretty much every Japanese package tour features Japanese (or at least Chinese) food at some stage on the tour, just because these people can’t survive without rice and miso. That I find hard to fathom. Even when I saw an American bite into a McDonalds’ cheeseburger after less than a week in Japan, I still don’t get it….

““There’s nothing between Fukuoka and Nagasaki Prefectures.” You can imagine how that story went over here.”

Hmmmmm… Having driven through Saga on my way from Fukuoka pref to Nagasaki pref, I am tempted to agree, but then I don’t doubt that I passed through a very drab part of the place. Just one long road lined with car dealerships and a decentish-sized You-Me shopping centre. And a truly arse ramen place that was at least dirt cheap (and tasted the same). But the prize for least-interesting place in Kyushu goes to Miyazaki – both my tour guidebooks gave it the least amount of room (in one, the Mapple one I think, half the space was about SeaGaia anyway).