{"id":32314,"date":"2013-10-07T20:44:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T00:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=32314"},"modified":"2013-10-07T20:44:52","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T00:44:52","slug":"japan-times-dont-blame-jet-for-japans-poor-english-by-debito-arudo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/07\/japan-times-dont-blame-jet-for-japans-poor-english-by-debito-arudo\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times: “Don’t blame JET for Japan’s poor English” by Debito Arudo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent\u00a0Japan Times<\/em> piece by long-time contributor Debito Arudo:<\/p>\n

\n

Don\u2019t blame JET for Japan\u2019s poor English<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/hgroup>\n
BY\u00a0DEBITO ARUDOU<\/a><\/h5>\n

http:\/\/awsadmin.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2010\/09\/07\/issues\/dont-blame-jet-for-japans-poor-english\/#.UlNUmmRATv0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, touted as the world\u2019s largest cultural exchange scheme, has brought thousands of non-Japanese into the country to teach at local boards of education. These days, with many government programs being told to justify their existence, a debate is raging over whether JET should be left as is, cut or abolished entirely.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the two main camps argue: a) keep JET, because it gives outback schools more contact with \u201cforeign culture\u201d (moreover, it gives Japan a means of projecting \u201csoft power\u201d abroad); versus b) cut or abolish JET \u2014 it\u2019s wasteful, bringing over generally untrained and sometimes unprofessional kids, and offers no measurable benefit (see Japan\u2019s bottom-feeding TOEFL test scores in Asia).<\/p>\n

The debate, however, needs to consider: 1) JET\u2019s misconstrued mandate, and 2) Japan\u2019s psychotic \u2014 yes, psychotic \u2014 system of language teaching.<\/p>\n

First, when critics point to Japan\u2019s bad English, bear in mind that ESL (English as a Second Language) instruction was not JET\u2019s foremost aim. According to JET\u2019s official goals in both English and Japanese:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme aims to promote grass roots internationalisation at the local level by inviting young overseas graduates to assist in international exchange and foreign language education in local governments, boards of education and elementary, junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. It seeks to foster ties between Japanese citizens (mainly youth) and JET participants at the person-to-person level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus the \u201cE\u201d in JET does not stand for \u201cEnglish\u201d; it stands for \u201cexchange.\u201d So when the goal is more \u201cfostering ties,\u201d we get into squidgy issues of \u201csoft power.\u201d Like \u201cart appreciation\u201d (view an artwork, exclaim \u201cI appreciate it\u201d and you pass the class), just putting people together \u2014 regardless of whether there is any measurable outcome (e.g., test scores, pen pals, babies) \u2014 is an \u201cexchange.\u201d Seat youths next to each other and watch them stare. Goal accomplished.<\/p>\n

Under a mandate this vague, what are JET teachers here to do? Teach a language? The majority of JETs aren\u2019t formally trained to be language teachers, and even if they were, it\u2019s unclear what they should be doing in class because \u2014 and I quote JET officials \u2014 \u201cevery situation is different.\u201d Exchange culture? Uhh . . . where to start?<\/p>\n

But the bigger point is that Japan\u2019s low English level is not the JET program\u2019s fault. So whose fault is it? Well, after more than two decades\u2019 experience in the industry, I posit that language teaching in Japan suffers from a severe case of group psychosis.<\/p>\n

Start with the typical Japanese\u00a0eigo<\/em>\u00a0classroom environment: Sensei clacks away at the chalkboard teaching English as if it were Latin. You get some pronunciation help, but mostly tutelage is in grammar, grammar, grammar \u2014 since that is the aspect most easily measurable through tests.<\/p>\n

Now add the back-beat of Japan\u2019s crappy social science: Sensei and textbooks reinforce an image that speaking to foreigners is like a) speaking to a separate breed of human or animal, where \u201ceverything is different from us\u201d and \u201cwe must study people as things,\u201d or b) attending an international summit, where both sides are cultural emissaries introducing allegedly unique aspects of their societies. This puts enormous pressure on students to represent something and perform as if on a stage (instead of seeing communication as a simple interaction like, say, passing the salt).<\/p>\n

Moreover, thanks to the tendency here towards rote-learning perfectionism, mistakes are greeted with ridicule and shame. Yet mistakes are inevitable. It hardly needs saying, but communication is not algebra, with people behaving like numbers generating correct answers. Languages are illogical, have dialects and embellishments, and evolve to the point where grammatical structures that were once incorrect (such as making \u201cgift\u201d and \u201cfriend\u201d into verbs) are no longer such. Just when, by George, you think you\u2019ve got it, up pop exceptions \u2014 and Charlie Brown gets laughed back to his desk.<\/p>\n

Then consider all the pressure on the Japanese teacher, who\u2019s grown from scared student to scarred Sensei. The obvious problem with him teaching English like Latin comes when an actual Roman shows up (in this case thanks to JET) and speaks at variance with Sensei, giving students a snickering revenge as a defensive Sensei flubs his lines. So the incentive becomes \u201cmake sure native speakers only work within the qualification (and comfort) level of Sensei\u201d \u2014 meaning that instead of teaching content,\u00a0genki<\/em>\u00a0JETs provide comic relief and make the class \u201cfun.\u201d Once the fun is over, however, we wheel the human tape recorder out of the classroom and get back to passing tests.<\/p>\n

Ah, well. Sensei went through the eigo boot camp of belittlement and embarrassment. So did his sensei. So that\u2019s what gets used on the next crop of\u00a0gakusei.<\/em>\u00a0Then the system becomes generational.<\/p>\n

And pathological. What kind of school subject involves hectoring its students? Obviously one improperly taught. If you teach adults, take a survey of your own class (I do every year) and you\u2019ll find that a majority of students fear, if not loathe, English. Many would be perfectly happy never again dealing with the language \u2014 or the people who might speak it. Thus eigo as an educational practice is actually fostering antisocial behavior.<\/p>\n

Now bring in the vicious circle: \u201cWe Japanese can\u2019t speak English.\u201d Many Japanese do survive eigo boot camp, enjoy English, and get good at it. They pop up occasionally as NHK anchors doing overseas interviews, or as celebrities with overseas experience. Yet where are the mentors, the templates, who can make English proficiency look possible? Stifled. Ever notice how the Japanese media keeps voicing over Japanese when they speak English proficiently, or picking apart their performance for comic value? Because eigo is not supposed to be easy \u2014 so throw up some hurdles if there\u2019s any threat of it appearing so.<\/p>\n

Conclusion: Better to remain shy and meekly say that learning a foreign language is too difficult, so everyone feels less inadequate. The\u00a0eikaiwa<\/em>schools love it, making a mint out of the unconfident who, convinced they\u2019ll never overcome the barriers, settle for being \u201cpermanent beginners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The point is, JET cannot fix \u2014 in fact, was never entrusted with fixing \u2014 Japan\u2019s fundamental mindset toward language study: the dysfunctional dynamic that forces people to hate learning a language, then exonerates them by saying nobody can learn it anyway. Untangling that would be a tall order even for trained professionals. But force that upon a JET, who comes here with an unclear mandate, has no control over class, and has a contract of only a few years before experience deepens? TOEFL scores will not budge.<\/p>\n

For the record, this columnist (who was never a JET) is still a fan of the program. For all its flaws, JET has indeed done something important: helped Japanese \u201cget used to\u201d foreigners. (This shouldn\u2019t be necessary, but again, given the state of social science in Japan, blatantly fueled by stereotypes, it was probably inevitable.)<\/p>\n

Compared to 25 years ago \u2014 and I know this because I have lived the duration in backwater Japan \u2014 there are significantly fewer stares and fingers pointed at foreigners than before. Good. Get rid of JET, however, and the eigo psychosis will force things back to the way it was, with cries of \u201cGaijin da!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0from behind garden fences.<\/p>\n

In sum, keep the JET program, even if it involves some cuts and tweaks. Calling for its abolition is counterproductive. Demanding that it work magic \u2014 by making Japanese enjoy learning English \u2014 is sadly beyond anyone\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n

***************************<\/p>\n

Debito Arudou<\/strong> coauthored the \u201cHandbook for Newcomers, Migrants and Immigrants.\u201d<\/strong> Twitter<\/strong> arudoudebito. Just Be Cause<\/strong> appears on the first Community Page of the month. Send comments on this issue to\u00a0community@japantimes.co.jp<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent\u00a0Japan Times piece by long-time contributor Debito Arudo: Don\u2019t blame JET for Japan\u2019s poor English BY\u00a0DEBITO ARUDOU http:\/\/awsadmin.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2010\/09\/07\/issues\/dont-blame-jet-for-japans-poor-english\/#.UlNUmmRATv0 The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, touted as the world\u2019s largest cultural exchange scheme, has brought thousands of non-Japanese into the country to teach at local boards of education. These days, with many government programs being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jet-roi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-8pc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32318,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32314\/revisions\/32318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}