Japan Now Hiring: English Speaking Graduates

Well maybe Japan can outscore U.S. graduates on a lot of things, but we know the “gold standard” language of business better than they do--English. It seems Japan is emphasizing the ability to be fluent in English more than ever. Insofar as, Japan’s top online retailer has given its executives an ultimatum to be fluent in English or hit the road, Jack. Some Japanese companies even require English as criterion for employment. Japanese companies are so desperate that they’ve even begun to hire employees from abroad rather than seek out potential candidates at home that can speak English.

Even though Japanese students begin studying English in elementary, they still struggle and cannot communicate in English as well as North Korea, Mongolia, and Myanmar students. Part of the problem is because Japanese students are not coming to study in U.S. universities as much as before. Over the last 14 years, the number of Japanese students coming to the U.S. has dropped 50%. Japan used to be the top supplier of college bound students to the U.S., now Japan ranks sixth.  Reasons why are cost, lack of credit reciprocity, and the low value of a foreign degree that Japanese employers hold.

Another reason I uncovered (by reading the comments) was the culture of Japanese English education instruction. In English taught classes, they focus on group listening and recitation and strict following of the text. This method is called gishiki— the ritual of group activity. Also there is no opportunity to ask questions—this is what the Japanese call soshiki no ruru. It is customary to go along with the group rather than ask the senior official anything. Consequently, a student will never write his/her own essay in English. If there is an assignment such as this, it will be done as a group. This leads me to believe that reform must take place within the primary and secondary education levels if students are to become fluent in English.      

The fluency of English issue comes to light even more so because the yen has surpassed the dollar. Japanese corporations envision opportunity to expand their production offshore, which will require to ability to speak foreign languages. Nippon Keidanren, the largest business federation in Japan, held a summer conference with Japan’s top university and corporate bosses in an attempt to unite and internationalize 30 Japanese universities. They are calling the venture Global 30. The goal is to internationalize the universities with the partnership of Japan’s top corporations. Hmm…sounds like a neo-liberal state move to me. At the conference, it was announced that Keidanren would award 13 students with a scholarship of 1 million yen ($12,835) in an effort to attract students to attend one of the Global 30 universities and detract them from studying abroad.

In some way, I feel good that English is our primary language and that we are at an advantage because we can speak English better than most countries. On the other hand, Japan has realized they need to be fluent in English to increase their competiveness in the globalized economy. Thus, they are becoming bilingual maybe even trilingual, but the bottom line is that in 2011 it is a benefit to be fluent in another language instead of just one. I think the U.S. struggles with this mindset and hopefully we’ll learn to be more open and see the benefit of learning other languages.    

 http://chronicle.com/article/Global-Economy-Exposes-Japans/129596/