A headline in Japan’s leading economic newspaper declares that “Japan’s Corporate World Still Found Tongue-Tied When Using English”—an obvious reference to the fact that a significant proportion of business dialogue in Japan takes place in a foreign language; mostly English.
Some schools in Japan have been teaching English since shortly after the end of the samurai-dominated Shogunate era in 1867. One compelling story that dates from the 1930s relates how students in one school were charged with memorizing every English word in a Japanese-English dictionary. When some of the more determined students finished memorizing each page they tore the page out and ate it in the hope that literally digesting the words would help.
Until recent times Japanese English language students—in private schools as well as in-house corporate settings—were handicapped by the fact that their teachers themselves could not speak the language fluently; although they could read it well. Another factor that had traditionally played a role in keeping most Japanese “tongue-tied” was a sincere disinterest in studying English and a cultural bias against it.
All of that began to change in mid-1900s, and the more global Japan’s economy became the more need and pressure there was for a continuously increasing number of Japanese to learn how to communicate in English with adequate skill.
By the 1990s this pressure had become so compelling that the need for more Japanese to learn English had become a national priority—and yet still today the Japanese are far behind the South Koreans, Chinese and other Asian nationalities in their efforts to make English a second language for the younger generations.
In South Korea this effort became so powerful, so demanding, that a national law was passed to prevent after-hours private English language tutoring schools from staying open after 10pm so their students could go home and get some sleep!
By the middle of the first decade of the 21st century the need for more English speakers in Japan had become so compelling that some companies took extraordinary steps to achieve that goal—with the huge online shopping company Rakuten taking the lead by making it a policy that business in the company would be conducted in English, and that new hires would already speak English or take steps to learn it quickly once they joined the company.
Prior to this other companies in Japan had already initiated emergency programs to deal with the language problem. As early as 2001 Accenture Japan initiated a policy that all management meetings would be conducted in English. The attempt failed, resulting in the company bringing in simultaneous interpreters to make sure their meetings went smoothly.
However, the company continued to hold meetings in English when the majority of the participants were English-speaking foreigners.
One of the fundamental problems that the Japanese face in doing business in English is that there is a significant difference in the cultural nuances and uses of key Japanese words and their equivalents in English. This difference ranges from subtle to dramatic in both the meaning and the spirit that is incorporated in the two languages. To speak English “fluently”—that is to be culturally correct—the Japanese [and any other foreigners involved] must know how to “think” in English, with all of the cultural overtones this implies.
That ability requires a profound shift in the mindset of the Japanese that generally comes only after several years of living in and functioning in an English speaking culture—meaning that “English-speaking” Japanese who have not lived abroad are still handicapped in dealing with native English speakers.
Another side of this factor is that generally speaking older Japanese in particular do not want to give up their cultural essence in order to communicate with foreigners. They understandably value the “spirit” that is inherent in the Japanese language.
And yet, there is growing awareness that as long as the Japanese are linguistically and culturally tongue-tied Japan will not be able to compete in the global economy on an equal footing.
_______________________
Copyright © 2012 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
_______________________
Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of 70-plus books on the business practices, arts, cultures and languages of China, Japan, Korea and Mexico; on the degradation of American culture, and on the destructive nature of male dominance in particular.
De Mente is a graduate of Jōchi University in Tokyo and Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, and wrote the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business [1959] and How to Do Business with the Japanese [1961].
His current bestselling books include SPEAK JAPANESE TODAY! – a Little Language Goes a Long Way! and AMERICA’S FAMOUS HOPI INDIANS! – Their Spiritual Way of Life & Incredible Prophecies! To see a full list and synopses of his books go to: BoyeDeMente.com and/or Amazon.com.
