hello !

How does it come that ONLY a few Japanese can speak English ? don't they learn the language at school ?
I mean, here in France, for instance, we start to learn English in High School at age 12 . Isn't it the same in Japan ?

Helene wrote:

hello ! How does it come that ONLY a few Japanese can speak English ? don't they learn the language at school ? I mean, here in France, for instance, we start to learn English in High School at age 12 . Isn't it the same in Japan ?

i don't think it's part of their curriculum

here in Phil. we have an english class right we start going in school such as preparatory....

but i saw in NHK news that some Toudai studs. are starting teaching some grade 1 or 2 studs. w/ some english words.

zchendevlemh wrote:

i don't think it's part of their curriculum

I do believe it's part of their curriculum but from what I heard, English is rarely used there and also it seems that the way their English textbooks themselves was not accurate or sth. (though i maybe wrong) I know friends who have been learning it for years but when it comes to watching English shows and listening to English songs, they can't make out a single thing of what the speaker / singer is saying / singing.
Also it may have to do with the Japanese sentence structure for example, in Japanese, I am going to the airport would be something like I am airport going. Not to mention that some of them have difficulty pronouncing the 'r' sounds. Overall added together, it may seem that their English is bad i guess.

eien Bussan wrote:

I don't think Kuraki Mai can speak fluent English (although she must really want to)...not only does the pronunciation in her songs suck, but she sings things like "love, day after 'morrow, i miss you"...I doubt anyone with passable knowledge of the English language would be caught dead saying things like that...hehe

Though I agree about Kuraki Mai's fluency in English, I think where lyrics are concerned, many singers who actually have passable knowledge of English may still sing songs with broken English especially if the lyrics are not written by them or if it rhymes with the tune / song. An example would be Sowelu. I'm quite sure her English is passable as I have read that she has conducted interviews in English before as well as the fact that her grandfather is half Irish, half English and her having relatives in the States. (though i admit that may not make her a very good English speaker) Yet she still sings lyrics like "I'm dressed up just right now. I do. I will." which sounds abit weird to me.

Just my two cents...

bmwracer wrote:

A better question would be outside of TOKIO and SMAP, what artistes speak English with any fluency??

Shiina Ringo and the lead singer for Dreams Come True just to name a few.

In regards to why Japanese speakers are so bad with English, is because most of their English study is done with reading / writing and not speaking / listening comprehension.

To add onto the English education system in Japan information:

Most students (this is within the past 20 years discussion, of course) who go to general schools begin to study English at around age 8 (or 10) it seems. However, the first things that children learn besides forming sentences are greetings and random nouns. This pattern continues for quite awhile because grammar of the English language is secondary. A lot of it involves memorization of set phrases. This explains why a lot of Japanese people who continue on into high school English classes only remember nouns or set phrases. In addition to that, I am not sure about the French academic curriculum, but Japanese--from the very beginning--are in a grind to complete as many courses as possible and pass with high scores in order to enroll themselves into an outstanding high school. However, it is almost 90% impossible to enter into a good high school, or enter high school and get all of the required knowledge to pass high school/college examinations. For this reason, Japanese students from the ages of 10+ go to cram schools, "juku." These are held after school and teach the vital basics that are required to succeed. It is for this reason that English education in Japan resembles other subjects such as Mathematics. Rotary memorization and "formulas." Students are taught the answers to set questions rather than various grammatical patterns that enable coherent writing and speech. Speech in English class is not considered a necessary learning tool. This leads to a boom in English Language Schools or Conversation Schools which boast their "native speaker" teachers.
Furthermore, while recognizing that English has become one of the world's most important languages of Business communication, for the average person in a country that has relatively no use of English besides foreign business, or tourist pamphlets, it would seem ridiculous to look down on Japanese levels of English comprehension. Japan, unlike its neighbors like China, Taiwan or even Korea, that have a direct history with English speaking nations that at some time required fluency or conversion to Christianity brought by an English-speaking population, has managed--despite WWII--to remain fairly Japanese language oriented.
For someone who is from Asia, for example Singapore, China (particularly Hong Kong) or Malaysia, I guess not being able to speak English with some coherency is shameful or even unbelievable. But comparing the academic background, the actural NEED of English, and the cultural make-up and neighbors of Japan, it just doesn't apply.
As for the accent, any speaker of English speaks with an "accent." Things that are clearly not correct pronunciations of original words do exist, however, a variation of one word that is coherent to others with different accents is, I think, acceptable. India, Uganda, Wales, the Philippines and North America all have English-speaking populations. Grammar and pronunciation differ, but the English spoken is recognizable because we're used to hearing those accents or grammatical forms.
Anyway, yeah.
I'd also like to mention the fact that Japanese people in the entertainment industry have barely enough time to sleep, so expecting them to check over the grammar in the English lyrics written by someone else is pushing it possibly, hahaha. The popular singers, comedians or actors/actresses in Japan will air on TV at least 6 times a day!--either commercials or television programs. If you look at members of SMAP, it's no wonder that 4/5 of them have horrible bags under their eyes. Nakai hosts over four television shows at given times. The hour-long program usually took fours of shooting, at that. If you look at Domoto Tsuyoshi, it's a wonder he hasn't suffered more mental breakdowns from doing his music, his commercials, his two television shows, photo shoots, occasional dramas, interviews, occasional apperances on other televisions shows...you get the point. Where does a famous person in Japan have time to practice or touch-up on their English???

ancientpc wrote:

Shiina Ringo and the lead singer for Dreams Come True just to name a few.

agree...
ringo-chan speaks English pretty well

Here's some jrockers that are pretty fluent in English

Yoshiki - He's pretty fluent. He's always going to LA and working in studios there. A lot of X Japan songs feature quite a bit of english. ie. Crucify My Love is entirely in english. It's pretty impressive how eloquent he can be in writing lyrics. I saw him playing X-Box with Bill Gates from some convention, you can check it out, I saw it in those entertainment photos in Yahoo somewhere... I know he's got a grasp of Korean and Mandarin too I think. He also worked with Roger Taylor, Drummer in Queen, to do an orchestral version of a Queen song. I think there's a video of them together on the Morning Torrent site

hide - Like Yoshiki hide san went to the states a lot and collaborated with English artists. He had projects like Zilch, formed with American artists, which he did English vocals for. He was also buddies with Marilyn Manson at some point. Some ppl say that Manson copied hide's style and used it as his own; apparently Manson won't talk about hide if he's asked about him..

Sugizo - He can hold his own too. Memorable line: "No more machineguns, play the guitar" thats pretty awesome haha~ LIke Yoshiki Sugi incorporates quite a bit of english into his songs. I think most of his songs from his C:lear album had english translations in the cd booklet, so I guess he's trying to expand his audience. Remember the 'Spank Your Juice', Sugizo's last project before The Flare? Well he had the talented Lori Fine (wrote the music for 'Find The Way' sung by Mika Nakashima)singing vocals for him. I think she knows some Japanese too because during the member introductions in a concert, she was reacting to Sugizo saying stuff about her Japanese.

J - another Luna Sea member with some English skills. J wrote a lot of songs for Luna Sea and you can tell its J when you read some of the English lyrics. Tons of energy thats all I can say about J. Well J has two American members in his band, one of which played guitar for the Foo Fighters. So obviously J has a decent English ability as they can work and make music together. I think Slash from Guns and Roses played guitar for J on a track called "But you Said I'm useless". So J is crossing borders and rubbing noses with North America's rock royalty eh

hmm... who speak english?? i think Utada Hikaru speak pretty fluently ... BoA can speak a bit too .... i heard Fujiki Naohito speak English fluently too in Love Revolution & G@me .... does it ring a bell??

tata...(",)

Dabbies wrote:

i heard Fujiki Naohito speak English fluently too in Love Revolution & G@me .... does it ring a bell??

Yeah, I was impressed with his english in G@me

Meow wrote:

Yeah, I was impressed with his english in G@me

oh yeah? me too .... i heard that he graduated from a well known University in japan .... he really speaks well ... i like him...!!!

tata...(",)

ryohei yamamoto - he lives in America before.....
yea Verbal~

speaking about why few japanese can speak english well.....they cant even pronouce the word right or should i say dont want to speak correctly, exp: thank you, cake (keiki)... maybe is their culture, hikki also speaks engrish with japanese and uses engrish in some of her songs.....they too depend on subtitles and erm..wats that called....something like transforming english words to japanese pronounciation to make it easier to read....thats their way to learn english, cant blame them....english is not a priority in jpn.

Of course Utada can speak English very well she was raised in the US.

Well about Odagiri's name written in Katakana maybe it's for the commercial thing, He too has spent sometime living in the US to study..and his English is very fluent.

Let's not forget Masaya Kato, he can speak English very well and has starred in several Hollywood movie, in which one of them he starred with Brooke Shields.

I'm pretty sure I read through every post...so I don't think Gackt was mentioned. He can speak english. ^.^ His english keeps getting better with time. He's also been studying Mandarin and Korean. I can't remember what other languages he knows.

Leehom Wang speaks english, he was born in New York.

Vanness Wu(from F4) can speak english, I think he was born in California.

Hey does anybody know if Takizawa Hideaki knows any English ?
I once saw pictures of him presenting that Harry Potter kid Daniel Radcliffe with some presents? Just wondering

RoTTen_AppLes wrote:

Hey does anybody know if Takizawa Hideaki knows any English ? I once saw pictures of him presenting that Harry Potter kid Daniel Radcliffe with some presents? Just wondering

erm.... not really sure about that.... coz i didn't heard him speaking in English before... i think he speak mainly the basic like "hello", "thank u" etc...

from what i know.... Fujiki Naohito, Utada Hikaru, Ken Hirai & Manabu Oshio can really speaks English well... mostly because they study in foreign country or they have to learn in local university... thye set a good example for people like me .... heehee ...

tata...(",)

mrs. tsumabuki wrote:

kimura takuya can speak random words in english words that he knows: MAYBE MUSTO BE (MUST BE) THANK YOU GOOD LUCK NHL ....ran out of ideas, please add to the list if you thought of something else... [/i]

he has said the following in concert:

Are you ready?
Everybody ready?
Every time I enjoy
Everybody (then starts speaking in Japanese after he says "Everybody")
Come on!
Everybody sing!
Final
Bye Bye

I think there are more, but have to watch the concerts again.

ainakaikun wrote:

he has said the following in concert: Are you ready? Everybody ready? Every time I enjoy Everybody (then starts speaking in Japanese after he says "Everybody") Come on! Everybody sing! Final Bye Bye I think there are more, but have to watch the concerts again.

Wow, his English vocabulary nearly matches my Japanese vocabulary.

Helene wrote:

Well... I don't know anyone who is able to write a letter in Japanese here in France ... Anyway, I guess u're right : I don't think any of the boys has the time to read the letters they receive, even the ones they get from Europe ... Though I don't think they get so many admirers here in France !? I got this mailing address : Johnny's family club ebisu-minami 1-11-15 Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150 , Japan is it a reliable address ?

I wrote a letter to SMAP at that address not too long ago. I wrote my letter half in Japanese and half in real simple English. I know they cannot read English, but I could not help it, it is because my Japanese grammar is not too good. I highly doubt it will get read by anyone. But I just wanted to send the letter anyway. Also I know that I will not get a response at all, but I still just wanted to send it.

As for SMAP's English -

I don't think Goro-san speaks any or knows any (but I don't care, still love him.)

I think Tsuyoshi-san only knows very simple short English phrases (I remember watching Tsuyoshi-san in Narita Rakon and he said "I'm leaving. Shit!" That was SO FUNNY!!!)

I think Nakai-san only speaks random phrases or just random words, I think what he says he understands, but if he is asked to rehearse something then it is through rote memorization and most likely he does not understand it.

As for Shingo-san, I remember his English skit with the European girl in the 2002 Drink SMAP concert, his English there is really cute, love his accent. And in this concert he sang an English song. But I don't think his English is proficient enough to have lengthy conversations.

But out of all of them, Shingo knows the most English (which is not very much).

I've already heard that song in English ... I can hardly understand what Shingo sings . But I can't blame him ... At least, he tries !! Seems that Takuya says " come on " a million times at concerts ( his favorite English word ??? ) .
as for letters sent to Smap , I know that letters in English ( and sent from abroad ) are thrown away , and I'm quite sure that even letters in Japanese are not given to the boys . sad but true

Helene wrote:

I've already heard that song in English ... I can hardly understand what Shingo sings . But I can't blame him ... At least, he tries !!

...unless the skit was done phonetically in katakana. I think kouseiya would know because she actually met shingo in an autograph session in JPN before.
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