本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist 2016年第35期，Asia版块。

Learning English in Japan

The government hopes to boost the economy with English lessons

Aug 27th 2016 | TOKYO

ITS buses and trains arrive on the dot[准时;准点]. Its engineers are famously precise. But when it comes to English, Japan is uncharacteristically[一反常态;非同寻常地;不典型地] sloppy[1]. Signs are often misspelled. Taxi drivers point at phrasebooks[常用语手册,短语手册] to communicate with foreigners. Shops that take an English name to be trendy[时髦的;流行的] often get it horribly wrong: witness “Poopdick”, a second-hand cosmetics[化妆品;装饰品] outlet[专卖店;直销店].

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English-speakers are much less common in Japan than in most rich, globalised countries. In 2015 Japan’s average score in the TOEFL[托福考试], a popular test of proficiency for non-native speakers, was 71 out of 120, lower than in all East Asian countries except Laos[老挝] and Cambodia[柬埔寨]. Companies seeking English-speakers tend to look for people who studied or grew up abroad, on the assumption that[假定] locally schooled candidates will not cut the mustard[符合要求;满足要求].

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The government wants to change this. Earlier this month it announced plans to overhaul[2] the teaching of English. Children may soon start learning the language two years earlier, when they are eight instead of ten. Lessons will emphasise communication over reading, writing and grammar.

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All this, it is hoped, will help Japan play a bigger role in a world where English is the lingua franca[(母语不同的人共用的)通用语]. “We need English to understand other cultures and explain ourselves to them,” says Hideyuki Takashima of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. And, particularly important to the government of Shinzo Abe, English is needed to boost the economy. Japanese companies, which are increasingly expanding abroad as the local population shrinks and ages, need English to prosper outside, and to attract talented workers to Japan.

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Some businesses have taken matters into their own hands[3]. Sony[索尼] has long insisted that workers be able to explain the workings of its products in English. Six years ago Hiroshi Mikitani[乐天集团], the Harvard-educated boss of Rakuten[乐天], an e-commerce giant with operations in 30 countries, decreed[4] that English should become the firm’s main language; it no longer conducts any meetings in Japanese. Rakuten provides tuition[学费;讲授] in English for all its staff. Honda[本田], a carmaker, said last year that by 2020 it too will make the linguistic shift.

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Tweaks[5] to the education system alone will not be enough; cultural barriers[(跨越)文化的障碍] abound[v.大量存在;有很多]. Many Japanese don’t see the need to use English because they rarely travel abroad and work in jobs that don’t require it. American films and music are not as widespread as in Europe, Africa or the Middle East. Traditionalists[传统主义者;因循守旧者;墨守陈规者], eager to maintain the purity of Japanese culture, would be happy for things to stay that way.

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Kensaku Yoshida, a professor at Sophia University[上智大学] in Tokyo, reckons the biggest obstacle is a lack of confidence. Many Japanese are so embarrassed by the inevitable mistakes that a non-native speaker makes that they prefer not to try at all. Many also struggle with English sounds: their language does not differentiate[区分;区别] between “l” and “r”, for instance. The many English words used in Japanese are often so changed as to be unrecognisable to a native speaker: aidoru (idol), Makudonarudo (McDonalds), bareboru (volleyball). “We need to accept that we don’t have to talk like native speakers,” says Mr Yoshida. “We just have to communicate.”

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[1]sloppy：not taking care or making an effort 草率的，马虎的

Spelling mistakes always look sloppy in a formal letter.

在正式信函中出现拼写错误总让人感觉写信者草率马虎。

Another sloppy pass like that might lose them the whole game.

那样的草率传球再有一次，可能会使他们输掉整场比赛。

[2]overhaul：to repair or improve something so that every part of it works as it should 彻底检修，大修；改造；改进

I got the engine overhauled.

我彻底检修了发动机。

The government has recently overhauled the healthcare system.

政府计划彻底改革公共医疗保健服务。

[3]take matters into your own hands：to deal with a problem yourself because the people who should have dealt with it have failed to do so 亲自处理问题

When the police failed to catch her son's murderer, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

警方没能抓到杀害她儿子的凶手，于是她决定自己来解决此事。

[4]decree：to officially decide or order that something must happen 法令，政令；命令

They decreed an end to discrimination on grounds of age.

他们下令不准再有年龄歧视。

[ + that ] After the earthquake, the government decreed that all new buildings must be built according to the new standards.

当地议会下令关闭那家医院。

[5]tweak：to change something slightly, especially in order to make it more correct, effective, or suitable 稍稍改进

The software is pretty much there - it just needs a little tweaking.

软件差不多好了——只需要一点点改进。

You just need to tweak the last paragraph and then it's done.

你只需要把最后一段稍作修改就可以了。

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以上言论不代表本人立场。

原文摘自The economist，仅外语学习之用。

其中生词解释来源于Cambridge Dictionaries

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