English in Japanese Games

[Octopod]

@rainny why is english taught in japanese schools?

I'm guessing for the same reason that it is taught in most first world countries: that it is seen as the predominant language for international communication.

That and the fact that the U.S. was instrumental in the rebuilding of Japan after WWII.

I've listened to a lot of bands from foreign countries(like Finland for example) and often wondered why many of them sang in English rather than their native language and I found out that English is indeed a commonly taught and commonly known language throughout the world. This was a bit of a surprise to me.

Interesting, given that there is, generally speaking, little interest among Americans in learning foreign languages. While our language is known by many people in a lot of other countries

Yeah, this is usually the case with hardcore punk/crust including Japanese bands. I do like when bands sing in their native language though.

[crux]

What's most astounding to me about languages in America in general (and I am an American, so I speak from experience), is the general unwillingness to learn another language despite the fact that we have no official language (only a de facto language) and despite the fact the even inaccurate statistics (the census currently struggles to account for illegal immigrants and many cannot read the census, for a variety of reasons) show that over 20% of our population speaks languages other than English, over 12% of which is Spanish.

I'm not sure how language education in America has changed in recent years, but when I was in high school in New York, only two years of foreign language education was required. The majority of students opted out of foreign language classes afterwards. The most common criticism I've heard from friends that live in non-English speaking countries is that American tourists don't even bother to learn the rudiments of the language of the country they're visiting. Entirely too many American speakers expect others to speak English. Part of that is due to the fact that English is the de facto language of business, but Americans would do well as a whole to immerse themselves in more languages than their own. (I also point the same finger at some immigrants in America who do far too good a job avoiding the English language entirely.)

[yomomma1]

Crux, Quite a few states have an official language.

[Ack]

I'm not sure how language education in America has changed in recent years, but when I was in high school in New York, only two years of foreign language education was required.

Alabama only required one, though in college I was required six credit hours of a foreign language. I took German in college, and I hardly remember any of it. I remember more Spanish, though I'm nowhere near fluent. I just understand more about sentence structure and a handful of words and phrases to help, such as "Mi Espanol es muy malo. Hablo Englais?" And no, I don't know the command for an upside down question mark(can't remember the official name) on my keyboard.

[aaron]

Interesting, given that there is, generally speaking, little interest among Americans in learning foreign languages. While our language is known by many people in a lot of other countries

That means we won the language war, right?

tower of babel, here we come!

[Limewater]

Alabama only required one, though in college I was required six credit hours of a foreign language. I took German in college, and I hardly remember any of it. I remember more Spanish, though I'm nowhere near fluent. I just understand more about sentence structure and a handful of words and phrases to help, such as "Mi Espanol es muy malo. Hablo Englais?" And no, I don't know the command for an upside down question mark(can't remember the official name) on my keyboard.

I'm not letting us Americans off the hook, but a big part of this really is geographic isolation. Most countries are a lot smaller than the United States, and most parts of the world have other countries, or even large, landed communities in close geographical proximity who speak different languages.

That doesn't lead to a lot of cultural imperative for learning other languages, and it makes it more difficult for those who are interested in learning.

[hashiriya1]

As someone who has lived in Japan for 7 years, I can attest that they do not know English, no matter how much they study. The only people who can speak English fairly well that I have met are the ones who lived in English-speaking countries for a period of time. Those high school English classes are barely enough to train someone to form a coherent sentence. Add that to the fact that 99% of the kids don't want to study English, they are FORCED to.

English is everywhere because English is "cool". That's it, plain and simple. It's like how some people have kanji tattooed on their body. They think it's 'cool' (it's not). They put English in games for pure aesthetics.

[jfrost]

Well, Americans I had contact with in the USA were interested in learning curse words in Portuguese at least.

[rainnyx4]

As someone who has lived in Japan for 7 years, I can attest that they do not know English, no matter how much they study. The only people who can speak English fairly well that I have met are the ones who lived in English-speaking countries for a period of time. Those high school English classes are barely enough to train someone to form a coherent sentence. Add that to the fact that 99% of the kids don't want to study English, they are FORCED to.

English is everywhere because English is "cool". That's it, plain and simple. It's like how some people have kanji tattooed on their body. They think it's 'cool' (it's not). They put English in games for pure aesthetics.

As someone who has lived here for less than a year, I'm having quite the opposite experience. Yes, they have a difficult time SPEAKING English due to reasons I've already stated. But their level of comprehension is very high.

As others have stated, in America you might only be required one year of a foreign language throughout your entire scholastic career. Contrast that with Japan which requires I think three years of English.

I've met people who never studied English beyond High School, never went to college, and haven't studied in years, and their English ability is FAR beyond my French ability.