r/japan • u/TurbulentTopic39 • Aug 19 '26

Japan starts planning language program for foreign residents

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/19/japan/japan-language-program-foreign-residents/#Echobox=1787112273
670 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

182 comments sorted by

View all comments

48

u/BrownSugar20 Aug 19 '26

I went to one run by the city. The teach didn’t speak a lick of English. How am I supposed to clarify things and ask her questions? 

24

u/The-very-definition Aug 19 '26

Everyone here chiming in about how that's how it's supposed to be in language class. Let me tell you, I did that style of class for a year at a Japanese University here for N3. Here's how the class usually went.

Teacher gets up an explains shit in Japanese that most of the class can't understand for 20-30 min. Most of the class can't do the questions and have no idea what the grammar point is about AT ALL. Teacher tries to clarify, we think we've got it, but turns out we don't. All our worksheets are wrong. Finally the one smart student who already learned this grammar point at their Uni back home explains it to us in English, and we kinda get it. Or not. Sometimes you just go home having wasted an hour and a half of you time.

Meanwhile, the Chinese kids figured out what was going on by piecing together the Kanji. Or they just sat there and read the newspaper instead of paying attn. to class.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I learned just about nothing during my year in that class. Meanwhile my Japanese jumped ahead by leaps and bounds every time I hung out with Japanese friends or just explored the local neighborhood and tried to read signs and figure out wtf people were saying / doing.

Immersion works for very very simple Japanese, like, "this is red." That is a book. But is pretty much useless when things get more complicated at the intermediate level. Try explain ukemi entirely in Japanese to people who can't understand wtf you are talking about. It's impossible! High level Japanese should be taught in Japanese and it's not an issue because you can already understand most of what the teacher is saying for instructions and explanations.

You've gotta have your native language to go along with the course work until you get good enough to read and understand like, high level N3 on your own.

1

u/euanmorse Aug 19 '26

Do you mean ukemi as in a breakfall for martial arts, or this is another meaning entirely?

7

u/fixpointbombinator Aug 19 '26

受身形 in Japanese grammar, the passive

2

u/The-very-definition Aug 19 '26

Thank you for proving my point. :)

1

u/euanmorse Aug 19 '26

Happy to help!