The Latest News in ELT

November 2006

Japan Universities to Seek out More Indian Students?
Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Japan's Science Minister, noted on a recent trip to India that Japan was interested in expanding the number of university courses offered in English. According to the Minister, "I have suggested that at least 20 percent of courses being offered in University of Tokyo be taught in English so that more students from India and other countries can join them." His remarks were made to the Indo Asian News Service on Wednesday. At a time when most universities in Japan are facing struggles to lure enough students in the future, the idea of attracting young undergraduate minds from foreign countries may very well be growing in popularity.

Read the full article at DailyIndia.com
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(November 30, 2006 )

Korea Outspends Japan on English Education
A recent report from The Samsung Economic Research Institute pinpoints Korea's annual expenditures on English education. The report, entitled The Economics of English, estimates Korea's investment in English language lessons during this year 2005 to be 14.3 trillion won (1.8 trillion yen) and their investment in assessment was pegged at 700 billion won (87 billion yen). Japan, with three times the population of Korea, spent just 5 trillion won (625 billion yen), only one-third Korea's total. The difference is staggering, and not just the fact that per capita, Korea spent roughly 9 times as much as their neighbor on English. Korea's total expenditure amounts to nearly 2% of their GDP, and a full 47.5% of their annual education budget. The results however, according to the report, just aren't there, as the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), ranked Korea last out of 12 Asian countries in terms of the difficulty of communicating in English there.

Read the article at The Chosun Ilbo
Read the full report at KoreaEconomy.org (free membership required)
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(November 29, 2006 )

Terrie Lloyd on the Dec. 1st GABA IPO
With the GABA IPO looming on December 1st (previous story on ELT News here) speculation is growing as to how successful it will be. One question being asked is whether now is now the right time for a public offering. Only recently has the company been able to turn around its finances and show strong profits. GABA's highly successful "man-to-man eikaiwa" advertising campaign has certainly made the company a well-known commodity in Japan. The question is whether they'll be able to translate that success into a successful IPO, and a strong stock price for newly anointed shareholders.

In terms of the language education industry in general, 2006 has already seen one bankruptcy from a large eikaiwa school in Japan, and at least one other large school seems to constantly be suffering financially. Amidst intense competition for new customers, the language schools are battling it out for every square inch of a 700 billion yen market (280 billion of which is reportedly for adult language education).

Read the full Terrie Lloyd article at Japan Today
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(November 28, 2006 )

Teachers Average a 55 Hour Work Week
A recent poll by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has revealed that the average public school teacher in Japan works about 10 hours and 58 minutes per week on average. The MEXT poll, covering 50,000 teachers across Japan, revealed that middle school teachers had a longer day (11 hours and 16 minutes) than their counterparts at primary schools, who logged only 10 hours and 37 minutes per day on average.

One particularly interesting part of the poll was the amount of overtime done by teachers. For those teaching at middle school, a full 2 hours and 26 minutes of their working day mentioned above was overtime, while an additional 26 minutes were logged at home, grading exams or completing other such tasks. For primary school teachers, only 1 hour and 47 minutes of their aforementioned work day was overtime, while they spent almost an extra hour per day (53 minutes) completing work-related tasks at home.

Read the full article at the Daily Yomiuri Online
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(November 27, 2006 )

Survey: US Immigration the Worst
A survey by the Discover America Partnership, a travel and tourism business group, reveals that the USA ranks dead last in terms of providing a speedy and courteous welcome to visitors and business people traveling there. Over 2,000 travelers rated their experiences in 17 countries all over the world. The survey found that the entry process into the US was considered the worst, and furthermore, over half of travelers deemed their immigration officials to be rude.

On a somewhat related note, US immigration officials may soon be stationed at Narita Airport. If approved, they would be there in an advisory role, to help Japanese officials determine the authenticity of passports, and whether certain passengers would be able to enter the US, should that be their intended destination.

U.S. 'worst' in welcoming foreign visitors: survey (Japan Today)
U.S. immigration officers to be stationed at Narita airport (Japan Today)
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(November 24, 2006 )

Education Minister Pleads for End to Bullying
Japan's Education Minister released a public statement this past Friday aimed at both bullies as well as victims of bullying in the nation's schools. To the bullies, Minister Bunmei Ibuki said, "Rather than being embarrassed in the future by your own acts, stop the bullying you are currently doing immediately." To those being bullied, the Minister offered these words: "Do not suffer all by yourselves. Please have the courage to tell others that you are being bullied."

Japan's educational system has recently been under siege with a number of bullying-related suicides and a spate of mail sent to the Education Ministry threatening more.

Read the full article at Japan Today
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(November 22, 2006 )

Librarian Admits Faking Suicide Letter
Amidst a wave of highly public student suicides and a rash of letters threatening more, a 42-year old librarian in Nagano has admitted to mailing a bogus suicide letter. On the afternoon of November 15, the librarian sent an e-mail from her cell phone that read, "I was bullied in my fifth and sixth grade years, but the teachers didn't listen to me. I will kill myself in the evening of Nov 17." When asked why she had done such a thing, she noted that she "was frustrated".

Read the full article at Japan Today
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(November 21, 2006 )

Riverdeep to Purchase Houghton Mifflin?

It has been reported that Riverdeep, an Irish educational software publisher, is engaged in talks to purchase the much larger U.S. based Houghton Mifflin publishing company. The reverse takeover, if completed, would see the smaller Riverdeep, with a current market capitalization of about $1 billion, gain control of a much larger former rival, considering that Houghton Mifflin is currently valued in the $3-4 billion range. Prior to this news, there had been speculation that Houghton Mifflin might consider a stock market listing. The publishing giant was purchased by Vivendi Universal for $1.6 billion in 2001, and in 2002 was sold to Thomas H. Lee, Bain Capital, and Blackstone. Founded in 1995, Riverdeep offers web-based and CD-ROM software that is currently used in over twenty countries.

Read the full article at Reuters (UK Edition)
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(November 20, 2006 )

Thomson to Sell Education Businesses

The Thomson Corporation recently announced as part of a realignment that they intend to sell their Thomson Learning businesses, including those involved in higher education and e-testing.

The divestiture is to occur in three independent stages. First, NETg, a continuing corporate education and training provider, will be sold to Skillsoft PLC in early 2007. The higher education, careers and library reference sectors of the company will be sold via a competitive bidding process that will commence early next year. Finally, Prometric, an assessment service provider, will be sold off as a separate entity, also through a competitive bidding process. The Prometric sale is to be completed within the next year.

Prometric will presumably bring its purchaser strong ties with ETS (Educational Testing Service), a not-for-profit which administers the TOEFL exam, among others. Thomson Learning ELT is a leading provider of English language teaching materials in Japan, along with their flagship publisher, Heinle.

Read the Thomson Press Release
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(November 17, 2006 )

14-year old Niigata Boy Latest Suicide Victim
A 14 year-old junior high school student in Niigata apparently hung himself in a hut near his home after school this past Tuesday. Earlier that same day, classmates had pulled his pants down at school. On the way home, he told a friend that he wanted to die. The second-year student hung himself near his home. He didn't leave a suicide note.

Japan has been suffering through a series of suicides involving young students over the past week. The media has been quick to point out bullying, a long-standing social problem amongst youngsters in Japan, as the primary reason behind this recent spate of sad events.

Read the full article at Japan Today
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(November 16, 2006 )

Cell Phone Language Translation Coming Soon
New cell phones capable of translating Japanese to English are expected to be brought to market by major cell phone companies by the end of this year, according to a recent report. A private laboratory in Kyoto named Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International (ATR) has developed the translation software, which is said to be able to make translations at a level comparable to an 800 on the TOEIC exam. Translations will appear on the screen of the cell phone and in addition, an audio pronunciation will also be provided.

Software that will allow cell phones to translate from Chinese will be available by next spring, and furthermore, voice activated translation software is expected to be developed by 2008, according to the report.

Read the full article at the Daily Yomiuri
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(November 15, 2006 )

Principal Takes Own Life as Suicide Alerts Continue
Bullying has been a widespread problem at Japan's educational institutions for a long time, but has recently been forced to the top of the public's consciousness as a result of several news items involving suicides reportedly resulting from students being bullied by peers. The latest casualty involved a school administrator: the principal of a school in Kitakyushu hung himself after being accused of misreporting a case of bullying at his school. He reported the apparent extortion of 100,000 yen from a fifth grade student as merely being "financial trouble", rather than bullying.

Meanwhile, all 31 primary and secondary schools in the Toshima Ward of Tokyo remained on alert Monday for a possible suicide attempt by a student of one of the schools. The watch started after a suicide letter was mailed to Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki last week. The anonymous writer said that he or she would take his or her own life over the weekend as a result of bullying. A postmark on the envelope let investigators to believe the letter may have been sent from Toshima.

Read a related article at the Daily Yomiuri


Read a related article at JapanToday.com

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(November 14, 2006 )

LOL: 'Text-speak' OK on NZ Exams
New Zealand's Qualifications Authority (NZQA) recently announced that high school students in the country will be able to use 'text-speak' on national exams this year. This short form writing method, popularized by wide-spread cell phone usage, will be allowed in sentences on exams as long as the answer, "clearly shows the required understanding", according to the NZQA. Examples of text-speak include LOL (laughing out loud), txt (text), and CU (see you).

Students are being encouraged to write using full English, however this new rule has some people wondering whether somehow the integrity of the language is being compromised.

Read the full article at CNN.com
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(November 13, 2006 )

Local Arcades to Offer English Lessons
Is there any part of mainstream Japanese media which does not offer the opportunity to study at least something about English? Coming soon, apparently video arcade games will also be cashing in on language education. The famed NOVA usagi (rabbit) has entered the Japanese market for educational software via Konami, and will be the star of a new video game entitled Nova Usagi no Game de Ryugaku (The Nova Rabbit's Study Abroad Game). The game begs one question: how is a player to score points?

Read the full article at Kotaku.com
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(November 10, 2006 )

Poll: Yahoo! Dictionary Most Popular
A recent survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research and reported by japan.internet.com revealed that the Yahoo! dictionary was the most commonly used amongst participating voters. 331 members of the online internet monitor completed the poll, and of the 206 (62.2%) that stated they did use online dictionaries, a full 121 of them (58.7%) had used the Yahoo! dictionary. Coming in second was the goo dictionary, with 83 votes (40.3%), and the excite dictionary came in at number three with 58 votes (28.2%). Sanseido's web offering rounded out the top five.

Read the full poll results at the What Japan Thinks blog
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(November 09, 2006 )

Test-Takers Forced to Come to Japan
Future takers of the TOEFL or the GRE in Japan may be surprised to know that they will be competing for seats with test takers from nearby countries. Many South Koreans, facing the same upcoming deadlines for submitting applications to undergraduate and graduate schools abroad, are being forced to travel to Japan in order to sit for the popular tests. With academic deadlines around the corner, people from all over the world are rushing to get a competitive score under their belt.

ETS, Educational Testing Service, the company that administers both exams, has recently cut back the availability of seats for either test in South Korea. As a result, the GRE is only offered twice annually, and TOEFL sessions have literally been booked out through the end of the year. The TOEFL is designed to measure a test takers ability to handle an English language academic environment. The GRE exam is for test-takers who wish to pursue graduate education, excluding business, law and medical school. South Korea has become the world's largest market for the TOEFL exam.

Read the full article at the Hankyoreh
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(November 08, 2006 )

Mandatory Disclosure of Foreign Hires on the Way?
A voluntary requirement for companies to report details on non-Japanese working for them may soon become mandatory, government officials reported towards the end of last week. The reason given for the new stance was a desire to prevent an increase in illegal employment. Companies will be required to include the names, nationalities, visa status and duration of employment. There will be a fine for non-compliance. An amendment to existing employment laws reflecting the new policy will be submitted to the Diet within the first half of 2007.

Read the full article at The Japan Times
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(November 07, 2006 )

Japanese Restaurants Abroad to be Certified
Beginning in 2007, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will begin work on a system to certify Japanese food served in restaurants outside the country. The step is aimed to help promote authentic Japanese food abroad. Currently, people in foreign cities have many Japanese food options available to them - several of which bare little or no resemblance to the real thing. Toshikatsu Matsuoka, the Farm Minister, was quoted as saying, " I hope that the new system will help promote export [sic] of Japanese farm and marine food products, disseminate correct knowledge about Japan's culinary art and facilitate Japanese food companies' push into foreign markets."

Read the full article at Yahoo! Asia News
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(November 06, 2006 )

70 Hours of Extra Study Per Student
In the aftermath of a growing scandal into the curriculum of many of Japan's high schools, the government has declared that about 80,000 students from 461 schools across the country will need to receive an additional 70 hours of classroom instruction by the end of March 2007 in order to be able to graduate. The scandal, which has been receiving an overwhelming amount of media attention recently, has been caused by schools who have been found to be teaching from a curriculum that doesn't meet government standards. Many schools have been cutting World History courses in favor of English and mathematics, subjects that are emphasized more on university entrance examinations.

Apparently, 70 hours of extra study will solve the problem for more than 75% of the affected high school students. Others will need to make up 140 hours of classroom instruction in order to be eligible for graduation, a figure government officials called "physically possible" to earn within the required amount of time.

Read the full article at The Japan Times
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(November 02, 2006 )

GABA to Launch IPO on December 1, 2006

GABA Corp., an operator of English conversation schools in Japan, received approval recently to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Mothers) market on December 1st, 2006. The company plans to make an IPO (initial public offering) at that time of 12,400 shares. Daiwa Securities SMBC will be acting as the lead underwriter of the offering.

GABA focuses on private language classes, and has become well known in Japan for its popular "man-to-man" advertisements. For the current year through December, GABA anticipates a pretax profit of 1.39 billion yen, up from 1.12 billion yen the previous year.

Read the full article at Nasdaq.com
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(November 01, 2006 )

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