Japanese students: English lessons are boring

This just in: a survey has found that Japanese kids think English class is boring.

A majority of junior high school students say that English lessons at elementary school are either boring or unhelpful, according to survey results released at a recent research meeting of the Japan Teachers’ Union.

Foreign language studies, which are already taught at some schools, will become compulsory for fifth- and sixth-grade elementary students from the start of the 2011 school year.

A teacher from a junior high school in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward carried out the survey on 168 pupils, around 80 percent of the total student body. Eighty-seven said the lessons were either “a bit boring” or “boring”, compared to 81 who said they were “fun” or “lots of fun.”

Am I the only one out there who read this story and was reminded of a particular news report from America?

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Mister M

I believe that most kids dont care so much about learning another language as before. Maybe today the most interesting language to be learned in Japan especially among middle ages is Korean due to Korean Dramas e stars, then Chinese as business language among graduate students, but when it comes to kids, they are not very interested in language as before.
http://www.feitclub.com feitclub

More like This Just In: Exaggerated Results of Unscientific Survey with Incredibly Small Sample Size is Meaningless.

Seriously, even if you give these 168 students’ opinions a lot of weight, nearly HALF were positive about English class. 87-81 “against” is technically a majority, but those are some awfully close numbers to write this kind of pandering headline about.

Sen

seriously..lol

http://ourmaninabiko.blogspot.com/ Our Man in Abiko

Whatever next? Have heard it said, but not sure of the numbers, that, gasp, maths and history are boring. Apparently playtime is fun. Also, the sky is blue, Japan is an island nation and cheese is fermented milk. Who knew? The Onion, as, usual, has it spot on.
Scott

This is the type of survey that needs what’s called a “control”. Did they find it more, or less boring than math?
KokuRyu

Oh, yes, I remember back when I was in school that every subject was interesting, for every student, every day of the year. We all got straight A marks, too. Everyone.

This “English class is boring” phenomenon is terrifying.
Patrik

Another question I’m wondering about is if they had asked the same question about any other type of course (e.g. maths) would the responses have been too different?
Jake

There are already too many genki English clowns jumping around classrooms shouting the ABCs at children. If anything, English needs to be made more boring.
BS

Sounds about right to me. I enjoyed about half of my classes in school.

I think it’s also important to note that in the Japanese version it’s not fun vs. boring. It’s fun vs. not fun.
Eddie

Wow, kids finding school lessons boring!
Crazy!!! Only in Japan could something as crazy as this happen!!!
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http://wearechikineko.blogspot.com/ Charles Jannuzi

I guess they found out that learning a foreign language means something has to happen upstairs, cognitively speaking, and that is often rather boring. Learning that is. I’m sure the elementary schools are doing a horrible job introducing EFL, getting students ready for the boring JHS and SHS years.
http://www.hormel.com Vonskippy

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read today. Words are words. Every language has words that someone somewhere will deem vulgar or repulsive. What languages do you think are oh so pure.
The Overthinker

Is the “R” short for “Trolls ‘R’ Us”?

Japanese students: English lessons are boring

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