The Latest News in ELT

May 2002

English Teachers In For Repairs?
Education Minister Atsuko Toyama is to propose a five-year retraining plan for the nation's 60,000 public junior and senior high school English teachers. Under the plan, teachers would undergo a two-week retraining program, and ALTs would be given teacher's status. The government currently offers English retraining in Japan to 2,000 teachers and overseas retraining to 150 teachers each year. (May 31, 2002 )

Blind JET Teacher Eye-Opener For Society
Today's Japan Times has an article on blind English teacher David Hathaway, who is in his third year on the JET program. Hathaway (26), from Chesterfield in the UK, teaches conversation and pronunciation at a high school in Nagano, and prints his own teaching material in braille. He has adapted well to his life in Japan, but finds that while there are many things that make life easier, such as the raised protrusions on the pavement, the "barriers" are in people's minds. The Japanese are not used to having a visually impaired person in a regular school, for one thing. After completing his three-year term in July, he plans to go to graduate school in Tokyo. (May 30, 2002 )

Red Card For Korean English
The Asahi.com site carried an article pointing out some English problems amidst Korea's otherwise well-organized World Cup efforts. Examples include the caption "An efforts to advance the preliminary match" under a photo of a local striker, and "Players are keen to catch ball during the match between Korea and Brazil teams" to describe two players in an aerial battle. Spelling mistakes abound too, such as Horoshima and the Epel Tower. At least they've stopped calling the world's most famous player Pepe. ()

Either Way, It's Still "Canal"
Business officials in Panama are pushing the government to make English an official language, on an equal footing with Spanish. While the country's most famous asset was run by the US, there was plenty of foreign investment, and with it came opportunities for using English. But since the canal was handed back in 1999, the country has suffered an economic slump and English use has declined. According to the education secretary, "English is taught starting in grade school, but it hasn't had the results hoped for." (May 29, 2002 )

England Fan = Hooligan?
The British Embassy in Japan has issued a leaflet to local shopkeepers in an effort to educate them on what to expect from visiting England supporters. Admitting that they might find their "large bodies" and pack behaviour a bit scary, it advises using simple words and expressions such as "You are very kind, but tipping is not necessary in Japan." and "England are a great team!" to make the fans feel at home. I've already heard several reports that indicate the police are being somewhat less welcoming. (May 28, 2002 )

Automatic E-Mail Translation Service
In a new service timed to coincide with the World Cup, Impulse Japan Inc. will offer a service that automatically translates e-mail messages between Japanese, Korean and English from May 29th. The company plans to expand the service to ten languages, including Chinese, French and Italian by next spring. Users of the service, which will cost ¥300 a month, write a message at the Impulse site and specify the language and recipients. The translated message is then sent. (May 27, 2002 )

Casio's New English-Speaking Dictionary
Casio look to have missed the boat as far as this summer's soccer World Cup is concerned. The electronics maker is set to release the XD-S8500, an electronic dictionary that pronounces English words, on June 20th. The device, with a list price of ¥45,000, includes four dictionaries - English, Japanese, E-J and J-E and has a database of 14,000 prerecorded words. The company is targeting English-language students, with a sales target of 5,000 units a month. (May 24, 2002 )

Written English Needs More Preparation
In a recent Daily Yomiuri article, ELT News contributor Curtis Kelly spoke about the need for Japanese students to learn basic English writing structures. "Even if (the students) know English grammar and words very well, they cannot write good English. They have to learn how to organize their writing," said the Heian Jogakuin University professor. He insisted that students should be taught the same principles of essay writing that native students learn, such as a topic sentence for each paragraph and transition words. He also spoke of the essential difference in writing style between English and East Asian languages. While the former is more direct, the latter tend to be more discursive and don't get to the main point until later in the essay. (May 23, 2002 )

Sightseeing Tours in English
Hato Bus, the company whose yellow tour busses can be seen in all the country's sightseeing spots, is to offer more tours in English. The company's "English Tour in Nikko", which provides guidance in junior high-school level English, was meant to be for Japanese people to study and sightsee at the same time. But the tour proved to be so popular with foreigners travelling with locals that it will be expanded this summer. It seems people would rather take visiting guests on the tour than do the interpreting themselves. (May 22, 2002 )

English Increasingly Important in Business
A recent Nikkei Weekly article reported on the boom in English study among businesspeople. Among the statistics quoted were the almost 5 million copies of books to accompany NHK's latest series of language programs; the number of people taking the TOEIC test in 2001 was 1.28 million, up 17% from the previous year, of which 90% were company employees. The Institute for International Busines Communication reported an increasing trend for companies to require employees to achieve a minimum TOEIC score, with over half the companies in a poll saying that they consider TOEIC scores when deciding promotions. Incidentally, the institute also reported that the average score for examinees in 2001 was 513 out of the maximum 990. (May 21, 2002 )

Japanese Don't Deserve Bad Language Rep
In a recent interview with the Nikkei Weekly, Sanno Institute of Management professor Kaoru Kobayashi claimed that Japanese managers are making a more concerted effort to study English, in order to be able to fully function in an increasingly global workplace. He insists that the low level of English ability even among university graduates is due to insufficient hours spent on language study over the course of their education, rather than an innate inability to master the language. With continued, intensive study, making full use of one's business experience, Kobayashi believes that Japanese managers could be fluent in English and playing an active role in international business in five years. (May 20, 2002 )

PM Criticizes Use of Loan Words
We all have ones that annoy us. Junichiro Koizumi is particularly annoyed by words like "back office" and "outsourcing". The embattled prime minister criticized the use of such words at a recent committee meeting, saying that they do not reflect Japan's unique issues and are hard for the layperson to understand. Personally, I'm not sure what a "back office" is! (May 17, 2002 )

NHK Meets The Variety Show
SMAP are by far the most popular group of young male stars in Japan. Their appeal to a huge a TV audience is being used not only to sell hair wax and flights to Okinawa but also to educate the public. While Tsuyoshi Kusanagi has been boning up on his Korean for the "Chonan Kan" show, junior member Shingo Katori has been busy memorizing reams of English vocabulary. Katori is the main attraction on Sma Station, a TV Asahi late-night show, that combines news, features, sports and the "Bera Bera Station" (Fluent Station) section. He pits his wits in an English translation duel against different guests each week. There have been a number of news readers and TV personalities who have shown themselves to be surprisingly competent in English. Hopefully, this is helping to get rid of the old escape route of "Of course I can't speak English, I'm Japanese!" The dubious results of Katori's rote memorization are clear for any teacher or native speaker to see - on a recent show that focussed on idioms using 'get', he couldn't see the connection with the phrase he uses almost every week, "Got it!". Still, while the show may not be aiming for the pedagogical high ground, its popularity can't do any harm as far as the nation's enthusiasm for English is concerned. The last month alone has seen sales of over half a million copies of the phrase books associated with the show. Sma Station airs on Saturday at 23:00 on TV Asahi (Channel 10). The TV Asahi web site lists the show as the fifth most-accessed but ironically the Bera Bera Station segment is in Japanese only. (May 13, 2002 )

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