Some Short Words From Me

Some short words from

ME“since idk what title can I write so I write this :)”

“btw this is going to say something about English in Japan I know it’s very messy and I’m sorry about that is because my brain is messy as well as I am writing this piece” -Hongbin Law

In October 2014, the airplane’s wheels just scratched the asphalt of the runway of the airport in Nagoya (I have forgotten the name of the airport so ya :)). That was the first time ever in Japan, totally new, and sometimes to be mysterious (idk y). After me and my family reached a random hotel in Nagoya, my mum and the hotel receptionist were struggling to communicate with each other because on that time they didn’t know each other’s language (btw my mum had learned Japanese literally decades ago but she has forgotten what she learned decades ago and thus she struggles to communicate with a random local and needs to rely a translator. Ok back to the text). Before that I had heard a lot of tourists were struggling to communicate with Japanese locals since they don’t know English well. Thus, I always boast that my English will be “Big in Japan” since my command of English is not really good in my home country which is in Malaysia. But when I come to Japan, since they literally don’t speak a single a word of English in their daily life. But why can’t they have a good command of English? And is it true that using a different language will affect its identity in Japan? First and foremost, we must look at how the Japanese government views English education. From past to present, the attitude towards English education in Japan is up and down, from using English as a medium to giving up English and picking back English but slowly throwing

it away. Literally everyone in Japan will know about this historical event by the Meiji Emperor. This guy feels that the only way to get Japan stronger is to westernize, so he literally westernizes everything including food, culture and language. Not just modernizing the economy, living standards and the military in Japan. That brought the widespread use of English in Japan and some of the people had a feeling that English will eventually replace Japanese to be the lingua franca in Japan. Which feels hmm, kinda good. When you finished reading that last paragraph, you guys might think that hooray, I’m not going to learn Japanese in order to communicate with them when I am travelling in Japan. Heh, things got worse when the enactment of Meiji Constitution in 1889. BOOM! The nationalism soared in Japan and suddenly the national anthem just played in your head, and you have forgotten any English words, and you will be ashamed when you learn English. But don’t worry, the nationalism in Japan had gone down again when the United States occupied Japan and rebuilt it to prevent communism from soaring in Japan. At that time, English in Japan is just like saying “Hi I’m back, do you guys miss me?” And the host of the Olympics in Japan in 1964, the Japanese government felt that time to improve citizens' English. But it rarely does any effect to improve it. The old school teaching method rarely made Japanese students learn any useful English and they needed to rely on translators to tell their stories to the world. But don’t forget that the economic boom in the 60s also made nationalism soar again and everyone plays the national anthem in their brains. (Please fast forward when you’re reading this) No one wants to learn English, keep calm and speak Japanese.

But during this era of globalization (pre-covid era), people from all the world started to get to know about Japan's long story and learns Japanese, and also more and more Japanese are getting fluent in English without diminishing their identity as Japanese. This is a good start for everyone in the world who are interested in Japanese and Japanese people getting to know each other. So, in the foreseeable future, Japan will be more linguistically more globalized and to be more tolerant. (Just a simple write and my essay might be out of topic)

Here are some experiences of I in Japan as a tourist years ago. As I found out that the English proficiency in Japan is not really bad as like cannot speak a single word of English. Some of the people that I met are relatively fluent in English, it is just because they are afraid to speak out on what they learn in school. But after reading some materials, there are still some parts of English education in Japan and the attitude towards the identity of being a Japanese hinders the proficiency of English of the majority of the Japanese. A lot of countries have a strong nationalism and the identity of themselves, they are still trying to connect the world in English by using bi-lingual education. For example, Taiwan is transitioning into a bi-lingual education system to boost the proficiency of English among students in Taiwan. The attitude towards identity is not only based on what language you speak, but it is based on the traditional culture that you practice such as celebrating traditional festivals and so-on, like the Peranakan culture in Malaysia and Singapore, most of them speak English or Malay as their first language but they are practicing traditional Chinese culture, and even merge with some other cultures such as the Nyonya delicacies. So, there is still a different mindset for the

Japanese nationalist to realize, and also knowing another language lets your ideas and thoughts spread even faster.

So ya, these are my words for me to submit it to Uprizine, hope you guys enjoy it and don’t ban my essay which might be out of topic. (Please check before publish) Hope fellow readers who have successfully reach here to expand your knowledge and read from a different perspective. See ya!