I have been teaching in Japan for a year and I have noticed some significant differences with the Japanese students compared to those of other countries. I think the biggest difference is the culture. The Japanese people do not feel comfortable touching and making eye contact. (1) It is difficult to get them to look at each other when asking a question. When I am teaching class and I make eye contact with a student they normally look away. At first this mannerism comes across as shyness, but in actuality it is just their culture.

The students are taught to memorize what the teacher says and not ask questions or think for themselves. This causes problems because they tend not to admit when they don’t understand a topic. They are also taught to complete the assignment they are given. (1) If they do not understand the assignment they will copy off the person next to them instead of getting help. Another cultural problem is the students are not allowed to talk in class. (1) When I ask a question no one raises their hand to answer. The classrooms are for the teacher to teach and not for the student to speak.

The Japanese also have problems with recognizing and speaking different sounds. The most common is [l] and [r]. In the Japanese language there is no [l] sound, only [r] but they pronounce the [r] like the English [l]. This creates difficulty because they believe they are pronouncing the [r] properly. I have to constantly teach my students to keep their tongue down when they say the [r] sound. Another difficult sound to make is [th]. This sound is rare in most other languages. (2) The act of putting their tongue forward to make a sound is new for the Japanese. My students also have a hard time with [b] and [v] and [f]. They find it difficult to use their lips to make a sound.

Japanese students force vowels between constantans. (2) An example would be milk. The students try to pronounce it as miruku. In Japanese no word ends in a constant. The student will try to add vowels at the end of the word. For example, redo instead of red. Another problem is word stress on the foreign words they use. The word margarine is pronounced ma-ga-rine. They have a hard time pronouncing clusters of sounds. (2)

The Japanese students take English in junior high and high school. (2) Most Japanese people know English but cannot use it. The English in school focuses on grammar and reading therefore the students do not learn how to listen and speak. I feel this is extremely pointless. Most students go to school all day and then have English test classes after school. In the test class the students spends several hours taking a mock test. No English is spoken in the class. I cannot see the point in learning English if you will never use it. This method also makes the students unwilling to practice. They may know the right way to say it but they have never been given the opportunity to practice in a safe environment and do not want to embarrass themselves.

In conclusion, there are some cultural differences to teaching in Japan as there are in any country. They all can be overcome with a little time and patience. No country is perfect and they do have some things to learn about the methods they use. The Japanese government is starting to change. They have begun programs like JET, which puts a native English speaker in the class with the students. There are Japanese people who speak English perfectly. It can be done, it just takes time.

Katrina Raymond