Five Reasons Why Many Japanese Struggle to Speak English

And a few tips to help us effectively communicate with you

Photo by Aphriell Art on Unsplash

Some English native speakers have asked me, not in derision, but genuinely confused:

‘Many Japanese are hard-working. Yet so many of them have poor English skills. Why?’

Indeed, it may seem odd. As a former English teacher in Japan, I have some answers to that question. By reading this, you will understand that it is not simply due to a lack of ability or effort.

Linguistic distance: Japanese and English have so little in common

Photo by Chandra Daru Nusastiawan on Unsplash

Linguistic distance is a term that has yet to be clearly defined, but in essence, it refers to how different one language is from another.

English is one of the Germanic languages, including German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. As you may know, many people in these countries can speak English almost as fluently as their mother tongue, mainly because they are similar.