PDF #11 – English as a Global Language and its role in Japan
English as a global language
English a Global Language in Japan – In Japan, English is largely neutral and its popularity along with its importance is more the result of economic factors as opposed to imperialistic or democratic motives. English is now spoken by about 1 billion people all over the planet which encourages more people in Japan to learn English as a tool for international communication.
The interest in studying the English language is growing in Japan. I can respect the opinions stated by Wardaugh, Phillipson and Crystal; however, I would like to state from my perspective that English in Japan has economic benefits. English has been described as anything from an imperialistic language by Phillipson that is forcing other languages to disappear to even being a neutral language as described by Wardaugh in which it belongs to no specific political, cultural or religious group.
In my view, English has become the language of opportunity in Japan. For many Japanese people, knowing English has opened the doors to many job opportunities from high tech industries to working at luxury hotels among other economic gains. In terms of Crystal’s statement of English as democratic, I find it to be rather complicated. There are aspects of the English grammar system that show different moods of politeness in relationships that do not make English democratic.
Japan and English: neutral, imperialistic, or democratic?
In this section, I will discuss about the economic gains of English for Japan as well as how Japanese society deals with the widespread use of English to its own society’s benefit. Kennedy(2004:70) writes about objectives of English language planning, and lists “to enable trade/technology exchange” as a reason for a country such as Japan to study English and he mentions “to communicate with contacts world-wide”as a language policy objective for Japan.
After reading “English a Global Language in Japan” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.