Do You Have To Speak Japanese To Go To Japan

Check out tefl tesol about Easy TESOL Program and apply today to be certified to teach English abroad. You could also be interested in: This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned: K.B. - Japan said: Problems for learners in JapanIn Japan, there are some issues students face regarding learning english. Teaching here since 2000, I have seen many of these problems in the classroom, not to mention in my everyday interactions in english outside the classroom here in Japan. One problem that would become apparent to an EFL teacher in Japan is pronunciation. The japanese language consists of only five vowel sounds, a (“ah” as in “father”), i (“ee” as in “meet”), u (“oo” as in...  [Read more]

Japan can present the traveller with a bewildering combination of culture, manners, beauty, architecture and personalities. Whether one goes to Fuji San - mount Fuji, to admire it’s serene beauty, or one parties all night long in Roppongi - the nightclub district of Tokyo, one is constantly taken aback and presented with the unexpected. At times a shade frustrating, such as when you are on a train so crowded that you go three stops past the one you wanted because you cannot move. Hence, the ‘gaijin’, or foreigner learns to laugh about these things and accepts them as a part of life. A population of one-hundred and twenty seven millions is jammed into a landmass of one-hundred and forty five square miles. Indeed, the population density in the big cities is amazing. The official...  [Read more]

Problems for learners in a Country of your choice: Italy In this paper I will address the issues I face as a teacher from the context of living and working in Italy, as well as the common problems my students encounter while learning and speaking English. I also want to draw attention to the input culture and society has on language, and look at how these factors influence dynamics within the classroom. Of course, it is nearly impossible to view ones self outside your own given cultural perspective, so as a result of this I will also be discussing my own assumptions on how I "imagined" people might act, compared to the reality of the situation. Often I neglect to take into account these differences, simply because I was raised in America, where I am used to a different set of cultural...  [Read more]

English as a Global Language In the last few months that I have been traveling, it has become even more apparent to me how important it is to be able to speak English to interact in the world today. Many of the people that I have been talking with over the last few months have not been native English speakers. And it became very clear to me that if they had not learned English, I would not be able to communicate with them, they have to learn a second language to be able to broaden their opportunities for travel, work, and general communication with people from other countries. As a native English speaker, you take this for granted. And as a result, many native English speakers only speak the one language. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, the British economic predominance in the...  [Read more]