Good Enough Japanese?
I recently read an article in the Daily Yomiuri that advocates the ‘good enough’ or ‘just try’ approach to conversational English. This brings a new perspective to my goal of improving my communication skills in Japan. I would be happy to speak ‘good enough’ Japanese but the question then becomes what is ‘good enough’? Here is an excerpt from the article:
… Don’t feel unnecessary pressure when speaking English. Say what comes to your mind and it might work.
It is really regrettable that most Japanese people find themselves unable to converse in basic English, even, in most cases, after studying for six years in middle school and high school.
… renowned scholar Michael Swan said …teachers of foreign languages “are very often extremely perfectionist” and that this attitude tends to be passed on to the students. “Children are not designed to grow up with perfect parents,” he said. What they need are not perfect parents but “good enough parents.” Likewise teachers are needed to produce students with “good enough English.”
In the past I always found that a smile, a few words, pointing and a lot of patience worked but my minimal Japanese language skills do limit my ability to interact socially which can be frustrating. I’ve always been scared to ask questions or say anything other than very basic Japanese phrases because I didn’t think that I could understand the response. This put me in a bit of a learning rut as my vocabulary hasn’t expanded very much and I am still not comfortable with sentence structure and other nuances of the language. With my new found perspective I will try harder and risk not understanding the response - hopefully I will gain confidence and improve my ability to converse while I am at it.
Practice makes perfect or in this case ‘good enough’! Wakarimashita-ka?
on 8 January, 2008 on 8:41 pm
Hey - I think the article was probably culturally slanted to help ease Japanese people (or students) into a realm where they are free to make mistakes. The perfectionist teacher of foreign languages isn’t as big a problem as the fact that those languages are being taught as facts (or as knowledge), not as tools. Communicative English involves conveying information. English class, unfortunately, involves writing target sentences endlessly and attempting to pass the tests. It’s vocabulary and archaic grammatical constructions, not getting or receiving directions from a friend over the phone. Big difference. With the emphasis on testing, many students are simply not willing to take a shot when they are not 100% sure of the answer. The result? Not many progress in conversational English. Sad, but true. Anyhoo - I hope your Japanese studies are fulfilling!
Found this via JapanSoc, by the way.
on 8 January, 2008 on 8:51 pm
Deas - thanks for the comment. While I agree the article was geared to teach the Japanese students that they don’t need to be perfect I think the concept can be applied equally to foreigners trying to learn Japanese. I do think of Japanese as a tool and if you don’t use it it sets in the back of the closet getting rusty! In my case I find myself reverting back to one word sentences, etc. for fear of saying things wrong and it has definitely left me in a rut that this ‘good enough’ philosophy may help me out of. Maybe I am a student at heart and need the pressure of some of those tests to improve???
on 9 January, 2008 on 9:03 am
I totally agree. When I moved out to Japan I spoke no Japanese, and all I could ever say to my students was 「話さないで下さい！」 yet just hearing their Japanese response taught me more about the natural flow and ebb of spoken language than any textbook could. This is sound advice and I may write an article about it on Japan Is Doomed at some point. (You’ll get full credit!)
Found this via JSoc
on 9 January, 2008 on 10:05 am
I really think that learning any new language is about your mindset. But just getting out there and trying is half the battle. If we are scared to get it wrong we will never improve. We didn’t learn to ride a bike by sitting on it in the back yard - we had to get out there, wobble a bit, and fall down a few times before we could do it without thinking. If you don’t get out there and try you will never get any better - you will somehow stumble through but you will be missing a whole lot of the experience. This is true for anything in life - don’t you think?