# Teaching English in Japan



## Editor

The Japanese forum is one which seems to get a lot less attention than areas such as Dubai and Spain for example but there are some very interesting posts in the expat forum. This particular post covers an Australian university student who is looking to take some time out before finishing his degree and looking [...]

Click to read the full news article: Teaching English in Japan...
Please come back to discuss the story here in this thread.


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## JAiNE

Yeh i agreed as English is a universal language and easiest way of communicating to any person belongs to any country or region.


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## knightjam

Yes, it's very important to learn English. So that we can connect with people around the globe.


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## larabell

Editor said:


> Please come back to discuss the story here in this thread.


I found I have a number of factual issues with the article's contents.

First, the article fails to mention that the working holiday visa is only available to those from a limited number of countries. For anyone not holding a passport from one of those countries, the working holiday visa is not an option.

Second, a real working visa is technically not "a shortcut to the employment market" since you have to already have a job lined up in Japan just to qualify for the visa.

Third, the demand for English teachers in Japan is not increasing. In fact, the recent failure of the two largest English schools in Japan suggests exactly the opposite.

And it's hard to see how the fact that Japanese is generally not allowed in English classrooms could possibly illustrate the power of the English language -- pretty much any decent foreign language curriculum, regardless of the country or the language requires that students use the target language exclusively, as opposed to relying on their native language. In fact, Japanese public school students use far more Japanese in their English classes than most foreign language students from other countries -- which is probably why many younger Japanese cannot speak English to save their lives... despite having "studied" the language for several years.


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