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Keio-educated American politician insists immigrants in Nashville learn English

While searching around on Google for news about immigration in Japan, I stumbled upon an editorial in a Nashville newspaper defending an initiative that would require that city’s government to stop spending money on interpreters and insist that immigrants learn English.

The creator of the initiative is city councilman Eric Crafton, an American who graduated from one of Japan’s top universities:

It’s not that Crafton advocates discouraging the learning of different languages. Crafton is fluent in Japanese. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt. He’s also a graduate of Keio University in Tokyo, where he studied Japanese and political economy. This is not some xenophobic hayseed who wants everybody to “speak American.” Crafton simply wants to build a better Nashville, and you don’t do that by dividing people by language. Teddy Roosevelt understood that in 1919 when he said, “We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.”

This is an English-speaking country. Tennessee is an English-speaking state. Nashville should be an English-speaking city. Crafton’s English First initiative would see to it that all official business done by the city of Nashville is done in English. If you insist on coming here and not learning the language, then the cost of interpreters is going to be on your dime, not the taxpayers of Nashville.

According to Wikipedia, an earlier version of Crafton’s “English First” initiative passed by a vote of 23 to 14 in 2007, but it was vetoed by Nashville’s mayor, who said the bill “would mire the city in lawsuits.”

Do you think a similar "Japanese First" policy should be adopted by local governments in Japan?

31 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 17, 2008 at 6:29 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: eric crafton, japan

http://witzl.blogspot.com/ Mary Witzl

I’m of two minds about this. Personally, I’ve always hated that Teddy Roosevelt remark. I think there ought to be a more open attitude towards speakers of foreign languages and I see that comment as xenophobic and inclined to encourage the sort of people who hate and fear different cultures. And even though it is irritating to find people in the States who have no intention of learning English, and long-term residents of Japan who can barely order a beer in Japanese and have never bothered to study kanji, I’m not sure if this ‘English first’ or ‘Japanese first’ policy is right. I’d be more inclined to give newcomers the right to translation/interpretation services, but insist that they pay for these after, say, two years.

Crafton sounds like a great guy, though. Why can’t we have a president like that?

Olly

What you call xenophobia is a lack of understanding of your part that some culture would like to preserve and protect its tradition.

leitmotiv

The policy suggested by the poll (in view of the comments of Crafton) seems misguided. Drawing analogies on this issue between Japan and the US is severely confounded by the fact that the common language in the US also happens to be a de facto world language. Japanese does not have this status. Due to the clear projected need for more foreigners in Japan to fill employment functions, support the tax base, etc etc in the coming decades, a requirment for everyone to be highly functional in Japanese (or to pay consultants to do so for them) would be a huge damper on immigration. I think Japan should take a path similar to EU countries, particularly scandanavia, which all have their own language, but most issues (business and government) can be handled reasonably in english as well. Moreover, Nashville is a fairly small city and much local political posturing and wrangling over diminishing budgets is certainly behind this (the money saves by this initiative would probably equal US money wasted in Iraq in every 0.5 seconds – but I digress). A good example, particularly for Tokyo, would be NYC, where citizens can conduct personal municipal business (such as voting, etc) in spanish, chinese, korean, and of course english. Officially embracing english as a second official language for business and municipal matters would be a good strategic move for Japan.

klimmer

I agree with you on the point that English being the world language and how the Japanese could (and probably should) improve in this aspect. It’s unbelievable how the Japanese, after so many years of learning English in high school, are still having so much difficulty coming to terms with it.

However, unless I’ve read it wrongly, I need to point out that Crafton’s English first policy applies only to immigrants to the US. Most of us in Japan, are not immigrants to Japan. We’re either short or long termed residents. Hence, we have the option of choosing to or not to learn the language. I do not think it’s unreasonable to insist that immigrants learn the language of their adopted country. Hence, in my view, a Japanese First policy, would not be unreasonable.

Anonymous

Hear hear.

To immigrate means you show a strong intent to become an integral part of that country. This means you ought to adapt to the local culture and language too.

Yes, most Japanese are horrible when it comes to English, and whatever the cause (the Japanese language lacking the wider range of sounds found in English, or the lack of practical conversation classes in their educational system) this means that you cannot expect every Japanese civil servant to be able to speak English.

Yes, you can get away with English in Europe, but if you immigrate to my country I will very much expect you to make a solid effort into learning my native language (Dutch in my case).

Of course you cannot be expected to be fluent upon arrival, so a year or two of support in the form of a translator provided through the immigration bureau sounds very reasonable.
leitmotiv

True – a distinction can be made between an immigrant (who presumably intends to become a citizen) and short/long term residents, who may not ultimately desire citizenship. But the “Japanese First” policy that is suggested in the poll would have a damping effect on both groups. And the Japanese gov’t already recognizes the urgent need for many many more of both of these groups to stay viable in coming years (but the GoJ’s operational plans on the matter seem pretty confused thus far). Its a matter of record that foreigners, on average, tend not to take so well to learning Japanese to a high level. (the reasons for this are unimportant and differ from case to case – and it is a situation that is unlikely to change itself spontaneously. ) Recognizing this sitiation for what it is, and starting now to incorporate a second, internationally accessible language (english) as a real working language in Japan would help Japan’s future prospects immensely. Moreover, it would immediately help many of the anemic management pools of some business/gov’t sectors in Japan to become more viable and respected internationally. This would take a generation or more – obviously this is not a project that can be completed by next fiscal year. But the fact is that if Japan does not do this, and as their competetiveness diminishes with their work force, they will eventually have a second de facto official language imposed on them via simple market forces – and this language might be chinese rather than english if they hesitate too long. I assume english would be preferred over chinese by the general population in Japan, but I dont know that for sure.

The Overthinker

Why should hundreds of thousands of Japanese learn English to deal with a few thousand migrants?
Nor is overly high level Japanese required for day to day things, or even stuff like alien registration or renewing your visa – and they speak foreign languages at those places anyway. English is already a well-enough “working second language” already.
leitmotiv

“Why should hundreds of thousands of Japanese learn English to deal with a few thousand migrants?”

Um…..for the reasons stated above….none of which have to do with convenience or catering to a minority.
weirdo

they will eventually have a second de facto official language

I don’t see this happening, or at least not this century.

The Overthinker

I disagree with the poll concept as well, but on very different terms. Japan is already “Japanese First” – there is not nearly the demand for second languages that there is in the US, as there are far fewer migrants. Most of the language services are set up by the Japanese governments to make life easier, but they do and should have the ultimate goal of getting people to learn the language. Most issues in Japanese business and government can already be done reasonably in English as well.

http://cutetwirler.blogspot.com Cutetwirler

I quite disagree with you, I’m afraid. Japanese almost expect to speak to us in English- and expect us not to be able to speak Japanese. In fact, them getting so nervous over the pressure to speak English to us is one of the main problems with us fitting in. There is a lot of English about and so it is easy to live here and not understand a word. I’m (though it may be bad of me to say this) quite disgusted at my co-worker at my part time job (Eng lang club) for living here for 4 years and not being able to go to the drug store and get himself medicine when he is ill. What’s more, at the Japanese university that I study at, there’s a Western guy who’s been here for 20 years, is married to a Japanese lady and barely speaks any Japanese. I really think that people SHOULD be forced to learn Japanese.

Japan isn’t just a Japanese-language society, English plays a huge part which why we get paid 4000Y an hour to teach it, why a good TOIEC score is more valuable than a good ‘kanji power’ test and so on.

The Overthinker

I don’t think you are disagreeing with me actually.
The demand for English is driven, as I noted, by Japanese, not by migrants. While the Japanese may want to speak English, and while it may be possible to get by sort of in English most of the time, that isn’t like the situation in the US or Nashville where migrants are basically demanding the right not to speak English, hence the “English First” movements. Are people like that guy at your univeristy demanding that Japan caters to his ignorance, or is he merely accepting his limitations?

http://cutetwirler.blogspot.com Cutetwirler

(In fact, after posting, I read your comment again and found that I do not disagree with you! Sorry!)

I find that by not learning Japanese he IS demanding that people cater to him. He is a professor and so he will have people needing/wanting to speak to him often.. and other teachers just speak to him in English as it is the only way to communicate. Is that not demanding people to cater to him?

Darg

I’d say that Japanese society already puts a rather high level of importance in learning English, and do oft times go out of their way to try and use even a limited English ability depending where in Japan you are. I know they’re just playing the generous host role, but until a significant portion of the population is proficient in English if you ask me they’d be doing everyone a favor by forcing everyone to use the lingua franca – Japanese.

I personally would prefer that they provide easy access to learning Japanese for foreign residents and set even just some unofficial time-based guidelines for linguistic progress.

As for the Nashville idea, good on them. I learned Japanese before I came out here and would say that it makes life so much easier and enjoyable when you can have an actual conversation with the other 90% of this country that doesn’t speak English so well, as well as read all the signs and follow directions written plainly for everyone in Japanese. Providing interpreters and info in other languages is like a quick fix, but the actual solution is to help immigrants/foreigners help themselves by teaching them the language of the land. Once they reach the other side of the linguistic fence they’ll appreciate having their hand forced.

http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

Darg, most local governments provide free Japanese lessons, although I doubt if you’ll pick up much more than basic conversational stuff from there!

Talking of foreigners not speaking Japanese, I saw on Shinkon-san Irasshai last week an Argentinian researcher (currently doing Blue-Ray stuff at NAIST or somewhere similar in the Keihanna area) who has been living in Japan for 17 years since shortly after graduation, I would guess, and had just got married, but his Japanese was pretty awful; thick accent, only basic grammar, etc.

sireB

Sorry duder, it take almost a generation to make such a transition, and will occur naturally anyway. A min-wage laborer simply does not have enough hours in a day to learn English.

And who picks up the emergency room bill because the Mexican laborer was too afraid to go to a free preventative medicine service that might charge them a ‘translation fee?’

Preemptive CLEAR COMMUNICATION solves problems before they occur. Why the fuck do you people think we have multilingual diplomats?

Anonymous

For the group of immigrants already present, free language classes would be a must. The government should support this worker in achieving a decent level of English proficiency as long as he cooperates. Pay him for those hours in class if need be, or cooperate with the employers to set up these classes as part of their daily work routine. (of course, this is impossible in the US of A)

Also, emergency services will and should be prepared to deal with someone in their native language if that area houses a large group of speakers of that language. That is an exception. If Mr Gonzales wants to get his driver’s licence renewed, he will have to deal with English. It sounds perfectly reasonable, no matter what country you apply this to.

Mister M

He is right in some degree. If someone goes to somewhere to live, he or she should not expect that their language will be more important than theirs. In Japan, people should learn Japanese to live a better life, as well as other nations.

klimmer

In any case, it’s a non issue unless one is trying to take up Japanese citizenship. In another 10 years, one would be hard pressed to find a Japanese person in Tokyo who cannot speak any English.

weirdo

Where did you get that information from? Because I don’t think everyone that’s bad at English will suddenly die out in 2018…

The Overthinker

It depends how you define “any English.” Any at all….
weirdo

Lots of people learn english, but speaking it is a whole different thing. I’ve got friends in japan that can ace tests but when they visit they can’t speak at all.

joeglens

I love to travel, so for me i follow this famous saying – “when in rome, do as the romans do”

so i always try my best to adapt to the culture and language on places I visit.

The Overthinker

When I travel, I follow “when in Rome, do as the Romans do,”especially if I’m not in Rome – then I can just blame the Romans.

KingElvis

Why is it “Speak American”? Isn’t it supposed to be speak English?

LB

I think that depends on whether you come from America or a country that speaks English.

hadji

because people in Nashville speak really awesome english others should follow suit
http://thejapaneseeye.blogspot.com/ The Japanese Eye

Having worked in housing projects in the UK, money was used on for translators to help first and second generations of families to get access to benefits and key services such as health care, which is not something you can expect to solve through beginner level english classes. The key to making these kind of things work is an intergrated program offering both services, however the problem can be is convincing people to take up english classes when they have never spoken another language in their lives, have other family commitments etc, simply removing the translation service, will not force people to learn english, they will just remain in their own first language community.

Now living in Japan, I am grateful to volunteer language services offered by local community centres, however I still need to rely on friends or co-workers to help me out at the city hall or hospital, the problem with the volunteer services, in my experience is that the volunteers have little experience in teaching, and so learning is slow and painful, but its free, however if the local government put an emphasis on training volunteers to teach Japanese or provided qualified teachers, the n people would have the option there, however like my experience in the UK, a lot of ex-pats here in Japan can get by living in their own first language community groups.

LB

While you make good points, if the State gets into the business of hiring translators, where do they stop? I mean, you start with Chinese, Korean, English, Spanish, Portugese, then move into Hindi and Urdu, Malaysians show up so you need Bahasa Malay speakers, then you get some Africans so you need French and Swahili speakers, then Filipinos… Vietnamese…
This is exactly where areas of the US have gone wrong. I believe California now, by law, prints most state documents for public services in 8 or 9 languages! So multiply all costs by a factor of 8 since you need to do the same work 8 times over. And then what happens? People feel they don’t need to learn the language as they can stay in their own “first language community” even at the city hall. You aren’t helping people integrate, you’re helping them stay un-integrated.

If one chooses to live in a foreign country, and that is a key word, “chooses”, then the onus is on the immigrant to learn the local language in order to get by in society. It is not society’s obligation to change or go out of its way to accommodate the immigrant.

In the US there used to be the “three generation rule”. Simply put, the first generation, if they did not already speak English, learned enough to get by at work but tended to stick largely to “their own” group. However, they insisted their kids learned English as that was the key for their children to succeed. If they needed help filling out papers, they found a friend who could help, relied on their kids, or paid the local “translator” for his time.

The second generation grew up bilingual, speaking English outside the home and their parents’ language within it.

The third generation grew up speaking English both within the home and outside, and only learned the language of the “old country” when they went to their grandparents’. Most of them never became truly fluent in the language of their ancestors.

Now, people immigrate and expect public schools to teach their kids in Spanish or whatever, with English taught as a second language. They don’t “melt”, and they are handicapping their kids in the future.

I know from first-hand experience that it is rough to learn a new language when you go to live in another country. I’ve done it twice now, and won’t be doing it again. Would it be nice if documents were available in English? Sure, but this isn’t an English-speaking country, so I made damn sure I learned Japanese so I could read and fill out those forms. I never complained or demanded forms in English, I made a choice to live here and I am responsible for the results of my choices, not the local city hall.

Jun

When I was in high school all the mexican students (who’s parents are all illegal immigrants I might add) got their own personal spanish/english translator. They also got their own special classes. They basically got to do their work in a seperate room with their translator. And rather than the translator being a teacher and trying to teach anything the translator basically just gave them the answers.

This doesn’t relate 100% to this article. It has nothing to do with Japan.

But I think if you’re in the US you should have to learn English if you’re from Mexico.
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Keio-educated American politician insists immigrants in Nashville learn English

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