世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s a short but sweet survey from goo Ranking, looking at when on holiday, at what moments do people wish they’d studied more English.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 1,137 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were female, 8.0% in their teens, 20.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, 9.2% in their fifties, and 7.2% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Being a native English speaker, I of course have the benefit that any communications problems are caused by the other person not learning enough English, so just shouting a bit louder can solve all language problems.

Seriously though, in Japan I occasionally have the second problem, often as I adopt the English, not the Japanese pronunciation for certain words that should be understood by both of us. The most recent example I can think of was when I was asking if they had any Xylitol-based chewing gum, and given that I’m not even quite sure of how to say it in even in English, I had to get my Japanese wife to rescue me from the blank stares!

Ranking result

Q: On an overseas holiday, when do you wish you’d studied English more? (Sample size=1,137)

Rank		Score
1	When the words I want to say just won’t come out	100
2	When I have to repeat over and over due to bad pronunciation, but just cannot make myself understood	89.2
3	When I cannot smoothly order food	74.7
4	When I get a different dish from what I ordered	57.3
5	When I can only communicate by gestures	52.7
6	When I cannot haggle over prices	49.9
7	When I cannot enjoy a conversation with other tourists	48.5
8	When I’m lost but cannot ask the way	40.1
9	When I cannot tell the shop staff what I want	36.9
10	When they just laugh at me	34.1