Japanese English (Lin Te Kuan)

 Japanese are famous for poor English ability and their strange English accent. I am really interesting in it so after I came to Japan, I pay more attention to Japanese English ability and found out some cool things.

      First, people who had traveled in Japan said that Japanese are all poor at English, but I do not really agree. I remember the first time I went to Shinjuku station, I was lost. But I couldn’t speak any Japanese, even すみません! So I had no choice but to speak English to ask for help. I asked a manager in a department store, a police officer and some pedestrians. They were all very polite and spoke English in a slow way, though not perfect but at least not bad actually! They could understand me and I could understand them about 70% percent, (because of the strange accent so not 100%) the communication was almost done! So I don’t think that Japanese English ability is poor. And when I went to buy my bicycle, it was surprising that the shop keeper could speak English well! I thought only people who have jobs that connect to the world would be better at English, but it seems that Japanese are not that bad because even people sells bikes can speak English! I believe it is because even Japanese know that they are notorious for having poor English ability so they are trying to improve themselves. And I heard that Japanese government is planning to lower the grade that starts to teach English. I take that as good news for everyone because there are so many tourists come to Japan every year! So first I think Japanese English ability is improving and that is cool!
      Second, Japanese have a special accent when they speak English. They even have their own way of pronunciation that totally confused me. When I came to Japan, I couldn’t get used to the strange and heavy accent of Japanese. Even they are speaking English, it sounds like Japanese! But after I learned a little bit Japanese and living in Japan for a longer time, I start to be used to it and understand it. Japanese has three types of writing system, Kanji, hiragana and katakana. Katakana is used to write sounds that come for foreign languages, especially English. Because of that, Japanese are strongly affected by that and the pronunciation has something to do with katakana too! For example, Japanese always pronounce “g” in the words that have “ing”. Because in katakana, “g” is written out so they are used to pronounce it, joggingジャギング, for instance. And they have no “v” in Japanese, so they use “b” to replace “v.” At first I thought Japanese couldn’t pronounce the sound of “v”! For example, Japanese always say “Bibian” instead of “Vivian.” After I found out that Japanese language causes Japanese have strange sound in English, I don’t blame Japanese and regard it as a special thing!
      So now I think Japanese English ability is not poor and their pronunciation is distinctive and cool!