Why You Should Study Japanese

As an ALT or CIR living in Japan, you should study Japanese. I know, crazy, right? Sounds like a reasonable assertion for some of us. The first time I wrote this article on my blog, I received some pretty strong reactions from the other side, so let me be clear about something first: though I think learning the primary language of your host country is always a good idea, I’m not writing this as a finger-wagging at those who decide not to study Japanese. That’s a personal choice. I’m writing this because I firmly believe studying Japanese will make you a better teacher. By that I don’t mean that it will necessarily make you a better teacher than those who don’t study Japanese, but it will certainly be a means of self improvement, and I’m going to tell you why.

According to the US Foreign Service Institute, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn. This is because on many levels they are very different. Knowing more about these differences will help you better understand the difficulties and challenges that your students may face.

Augmenting your lessons

Japanese doesn’t use articles, like “a,” “an,” and “the.” Similarly, there are few ways to distinguish between singular and plural nouns, aside from context. But you don’t need to study Japanese to know that. Let’s go a little further.

The Japanese language lacks certain sounds, so English pronunciation (both speaking and listening) can be very difficult. The combination of “l” and “r” is pretty widely known. Japanese also lacks a “th” sound. In Japanese “f” and “h” are blended. There is a “wa” sound, but no “wo,” “wi,” “we,” or “wu.” And since Japanese characters (with one exception) always end in a vowel, one of the biggest challenges is getting students to drop that extra letter. We all know this as “katakana-izing” a word. For example, “what” becomes “what-oh.” “Name” becomes “Name-oo.”

Japanese uses many loan-words from other languages, including English. But upon adoption, many of these words undergo a change in meaning. ジュース (juice) doesn’t mean “juice.” It means “soft drink,” which includes juice, but also soda and other beverages. バイク (bike) doesn’t mean “bicycle.” It means “motorcycle.” And you don’t チャレンジ (challenge) yourself to do something; you challenge a thing.

例: 難問にチャレンジする。
While a native English speaker might look at this and think literally “Challenge the difficult problem,” it means “Tackle a difficult problem.” チャレンジ doesn’t exactly mean “challenge.”

The more you know about the differences between English and Japanese, the more you can tailor your lessons to avoid these pitfalls and potholes along the road. If there’s a particular vocabulary word or grammatical expression that is very dissimilar in the two languages, you can be prepared to explain a certain way or spend more time on that point.

Easing communication

When I was a kid, sometimes when I asked my dad what a particular word meant he would tell me to look in the dictionary. As much of a hassle as that was at the time, I see the value of that now, especially when studying a foreign language. Be that as it may, dictionaries have their place. Writing an essay, doing homework, research – all great times to use this aid.

But when you’re trying to speak, it can take too much time and interrupt the flow of conversation. For this reason, I think it’s nice when a student can ask a teacher “What is ____ in English?” Of course, even if you’re studying Japanese you may not know the answer, but there’s a much better chance you can help the student continue with their flow of thought and save them from getting bogged down for one or two minutes looking through a dictionary while you (and maybe the rest of the class) wait.

Students wait while little Takeshi searches for “pants” in the dictionary. This could have been avoided!

Setting an example

Studying Japanese is an important way that you can show your students that (a) you’re interested in them and their culture and (b) you’re not just all talk. To them, it shows that you’re not only good at making them do challenging classwork and homework, and speak in a language they’ll never use; you can walk the walk, too, and learning actually has real, tangible application.

In conclusion

Do you need to study Japanese to be a good English teacher in Japan? Of course not. In fact, not studying Japanese also has its benefits. You can honestly claim ignorance when students try to speak to you in Japanese, for one. If they don’t get frustrated and give up, they’ll be more motivated to study English so they can communicate with you.

And if you do decide to study, I’m not saying you have to plunge in and aim to pass the JLPT level 2 within a year. Even learning the basics of hiragana and katakana at a leisurely pace has its benefits.

But I will say that I believe, without a doubt, that studying Japanese will improve you as a teacher to Japanese students.

If you liked or hated this article or are interested in checking out more of Paul’s writing, he posts regularly at Just Another Day in Japan (www.jadij.com)