Suzu

"Do Japanese people understand English?"

Ok, this is my first entry, and i decided to write about Japanese language. I'm often asked this question by English speakers when i play online games. The answer is ... "it depends how much they studied at schools and how much they liked it". Usually, japanese start learning English in their Jr.high schools when they are 13 years old. A lot of them keep learning it until they graduate from universities. but unfortunately, not so many of them can communicate with English speaking people. Why? I think that is because of the school programs. As far as I experianced, the English class was focusing on reading. The teachers let us read text books, but they didn't let us write English essays and did't let us speak in English. They never let us discuss something in English either. That's why Japanese can read English emails or English BBS, but they don't know how to reply in writing or speaking. however, i've heard many elementary schools have started providing English classes, so the situation might change in near future. anyway, there are still many Japanese who understand English. They just don't know how to reply quickly. and japanese are very shy and are afraid of making mistakes. So, it might take long to get reply from them. Please remember it and please be patient when you are talking to them :) Matane!

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