世論 What Japan Thinks

Today’s survey from goo Ranking looks at Japanese-English, words that are English (or have their roots in English but have taken on distinct Japanese meanings. Specifically, the survey was about Japanese-English words people were unaware that they were Japanese-English only.

Demographics

The survey was conducted from the 21st to the 23rd of November 2013, and 1,054 people completed a private web-based questionnaire. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I once tried to explain to a Japanese person that “speed up”, “slow down” and “slow up” were perfectly valid, but the Japanese-English “speed down” was nonsense in English!
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The online English conversation lesson site hanaso recently released a survey into dealing with foreign tourists in English.

Demographics

Over the 29th and 30th of August 2013 437 people who had had the experience of being engaged in English conversation by a foreign visitor to Japan. The sample was of both sexes and between the ages of 20 and 59, but no further information was offered. Judging by other surveys on their site, I think that the sample was taken from site users.

Note that since (I presume) the sample comes from English language learners, I would guess that they are more proactive and positive in their English and tourist views, therefore it would be difficult to extrapolate to the general population. However, since I occasionally hear English conversation teachers complaining about the backward and insular views of their students, I feel the results here indicate that these opinions may be the result of confirmation bias rather than actually representative.
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goo Research recently conducted a survey into overseas travel and language learning, the highlights of which japan.internet.com published.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of November 2012 1,094 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I too much specify a preference for real books and real language schools, which leads me to think that perhaps there is an age bias in this survey. The figures were not reported, but older people tend to travel overseas more (I think…), thus older people would tend to be more wedded to 20th century technology, thus the bias away from virtual learning?

Since I’m mentioning online learning, I’ll put in a good word for Tofugu; he offers online Japanese courses along with his rather entertaining blog.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by goo Research on a topic close to the heart of many of my readers, I suspect, that of English study.

Demographics

Between the 28th of August and 3rd of September 2012 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

It does seem surprising to me that people seemed most keen on using their smartphone to improve their speaking skill, but it does suggest that the various Skype-based English lessons should ensure they support smartphone clients, and given the popularity that LINE has in Japan, supporting its new voice call feature too would seem like an easy way to expand one’s business.
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This survey from goo Ranking looks at what expectations Japanese have for fellow Japanese English conversation teachers – note that this means that the survey refers to adult learners, not school children.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 13th of March 2012 1,055 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.2% of the sample were female, 16.9% in their twenties, 41.7% in their thirties, and 41.4% in their forties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Sort-of related, here’s a very interesting quote from the Osaka City governer on what he expects from English teachers in schools – I like the thought, but I don’t think teachers can just change subjects like that:

Teaching is also a form of status. There are many English teachers incapable of English. On the other hand, they have teachers who’ve come back from living in the United States teaching social studies. That’s all they have a license for. Next to the teachers fluent in English are the English teachers who can’t speak English at all, and the teachers back from the United States teach about the Japanese Diet, of which they know nothing.

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goo Ranking had a fun little ranking survey recently, looking at what unusual loan words that have come from Japanese to English. I believe the survey was conducted based on a Japanese Wikipedia list of loan words.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of July 2011 over 1,000 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. However, the link to the sample demographics does not work. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

About the only words you’ll find in a dictionary are hikikomori, which made it into the Oxford dictionary a couple of years ago, and the food ones. I’d like to know how Wikipedia decided on which words to list, as outside of the cooking ones most seem related to anime and manga, in particular the more seedy side of it.
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goo Research recently published the highlights of a survey they performed in conjunction with President magazine (hmm, I could very well buy that issue!) into the English-language ability of professional people.

Demographics

Detailed demographics were not given, but the sample consisted of 1,031 members of the goo Research online monitor group who were not necessarily readers of President. The sample was also limited to those between the ages of 30 and 59 who had not lived overseas but had taken a TOEIC exam. Note that a TOEIC score of 470 corresponds to reasonable ability with conversation and 730 to the beginning of decent proficiency in English.

It’s a bit difficult to draw many conclusions from this survey as having to use English in the workplace is going to naturally improve your English level, and with a number of companies having regulations that require a certain level of English to get promotion, and in an international business the higher-ups are going to have to need English to negotiate, so I think this survey is illustrating correlation, not causation.
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With Japanese primary schools about to start compulsory English lessons, this survey from iShare took a look at people’s English ability and children’s English lessons. As it’s rather a long survey and lends itself into splitting into two, I’ll do just that.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of January 2011 1,722 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service in full-time employment completed a private internet-based survey. 579 people had children of primary school age or younger, 62.0% of the sample were male, 52.2% in their thirties, and 47.8% in their forties.

I recently saw a program where they sent a guy to join an elementary school English class to see how he’d fare. It did seem rather useless, with a native English teacher leading the class in songs and roleplay but a Japanese teacher on hand to command the class. The roleplay feature was that essential skill for life, ordering fast food, with the opening line being a stereotypically Japanese pronunciation of “Harro!”; the kids however seemed to enjoy it and had a relatively good command of the rest of the script.
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With Japanese primary schools about to start compulsory English lessons, this survey from iShare took a look at people’s English ability and children’s English lessons. As it’s rather a long survey and lends itself into splitting into two, I’ll do just that.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of January 2011 1,722 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service in full-time employment completed a private internet-based survey. 579 people had children of primary school age or younger, 62.0% of the sample were male, 52.2% in their thirties, and 47.8% in their forties.

Q3 is a funny one to me – I don’t really associate primary school with studying, so I can’t say there is anything academic I should have put more effort into, although I do wish I’d persevered more with music-making as I wish I didn’t have such a tin ear.

My employer requires various levels of TOEIC scores before promotion to higher levels and there is also some indirect input of English skill into a system for rating skill level. Conversely, they have zero requirement for foreigners to speak Japanese, an issue that I regularly take up with personnel.
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DIMSDRIVE Research recently reported on a survey from the start of the year into taking lessons, excluding formal education.

Demographics

Between the 31st of March and the 15th of April 2010 7,833 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 1.1% in their teens, 12.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% aged sixty or older.

I’m currently not studying anything, although I’d like to go to Go classes, as I used to play quite often when I was a kid. My wife recommends singing lessons, but I fear my tone deafness would try the patience of any teacher!
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