Top 3 Fields in Which There is Room for Improvement (Notes from Under the Tatami Mats–13 … My Adventures in Japan)

“The most shocking thing about the man with the bad dentures ..."

Foreign language destruction

As they say, “You will know them by their fruits.”

After 6 full years of English-language instruction, most Japanese students still cannot speak even a simple English sentence. Clearly, something’s seriously wrong.

Study hard

The first part of the problem is that English instruction in the Japanese educational system is typically based on something called the Grammar-Translation Method. Under that system, most students come away with little knowledge of grammar and no ability whatsoever to translate even a few words. That is, the method has been a complete failure ­– not to mention wrongly named!   

Study softly

Consequently, many Japanese students turn to privately run eikaiwa, or “English conversation schools.” The belief is that they’ll be able to learn English through osmosis ­– just by chatting with a native speaker for 1 or 2 hours a week. 

Of course, since they had completely failed to learn anything by studying in school for 6 years, they see no reason to study any more. In fact, most of those eikaiwa students would never consider ever a cracking book or checking any reference material that might help them gain any knowledge.  _{(Image source)}

Learn nothing

The end result is that a large percentage of the many eikaiwa students also fail to make any progress or to learn anything or to gain any proficiency in the English language. Honestly, many students attend eikaiwa classes regularly for 5 years or more (meaning that they’ve had over 10 years in total of English education). But they still cannot string together a sentence, let alone engage in anything remotely resembling a conversation. 

Peace! Quiet! Quiet!!!

As for the Zen garden with loudspeakers, it was probably perfect without the loudspeakers.                        _{(Image source)}

Do unto yourself as you would do unto your patients

As for the many orthodontically challenged Japanese, we foreigners could never understand why so many kids and young adults walked around with a mouthful of jagged enamel. Particularly when there are so many qualified dentists / orthodontists in Japan.    

The saddest case I ever saw was a middle-aged male student of mine. While his teeth were properly aligned, they were clearly not real, and they actually looked like a cheap, badly stained set of plastic teeth that had been left over from last year’s Halloween party. His “dentures” were not pretty, but I had to see them whenever he spoke – which, in a language class, was quite often.    

The most shocking thing about the man with the bad dentures was that … he was a dentist. Honto.    _{(Image source)}

   Introduction to – “Notes from Under the Tatami Mats”  _{(right-click on title)}

Top 4 Persistent Illusions about the 25-Year-Long Recession

Top 5 Expropriated Islands that Should Be Returned to the Original

Top 4 Brilliantly Novel Uses of Concrete, Concrete, and More Concrete

... and more

Links to my Other Series …

      Introduction – "Intro to Vocab-ability"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Guide – "Guide to Entries"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Index– "Index" to all Chapters and Sections   _{(right-click on title)}

      Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 1"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 2"   _{(right-click on title)}

_{Images sourced from Google Images, unless otherwise indicated or unless my own.}