Japanese People Who Want to Improve Their English

This is a story from right after I took the mental training instructor course
from Mr. Takashi Harada, who is known as a "charisma of education."
When I went out to eat with a colleague,


I was sharing what I had learned about mental training with everyone.
A female English teacher was extremely interested in the mental aspect,


and she asked me,
"If I quit being a teacher and open an English conversation school, would you be willing to teach mental training to my students?"


I answered, "Of course!"
Three years later, last August,


she opened her English conversation school.
She asked me, "Will you teach mental training as promised?"
and I immediately said yes.


Currently, I teach mental training
via Zoom online once every two months.

We had many meetings
before she opened the school.


Interestingly, that female teacher has experience studying abroad
in the United States and the United Kingdom,

and she even earned a bachelor's degree at a British university.
Despite that, she says she still
cannot easily gain confidence in teaching English.

"I'm really not that great."

is what she says.

"Huh?"

I was speechless.


What do you all think?
Studying abroad twice is
a dream within a dream to me.


This is the modest side of Japanese people.
I studied English in junior high, high school, and university, but I consider myself bad at it.
If a foreigner speaks to me, my heart starts racing.


A while ago at a train station, a Black man
said to me,
"I want to go to XX Station,"
and when I desperately tried to explain it in English,
he raised both palms to his shoulders, shook his head from side to side, and walked away.

It was a bit of a trauma.


Even though children learn it from elementary school now,
it seems many people have a mental block against it.


Even if they understand vocabulary and grammar to some extent,
they still have that mental block.


In contrast to this,
people overseas have a different mindset.


If asked, "Can you speak Japanese?"
they will confidently
answer "Yes."
If they are then told, "Well, please speak it,"


they will

"Fujiyama, Sushi, Ichiro"

and answer with a straight face.


Can you speak Japanese?
They were asked that, so they answered with words,
and they say they can speak it.


That's right.
Japanese people are serious, so
they think they must be able to speak
with perfect grammar.


On the other hand,
foreigners think that if they can speak Japanese words,
they understand Japanese!
They think it's fine.


I realized that because they have confidence, they can easily
go on trips to Japan.


The fact that this logic is correct

can be seen by watching Tetsuro Degawa
succeed on "Sekai no Hate Made ItteQ!"
by using what is called "Degawa English," which is just stringing words together
to speak English.

Hiroyuki also
praised Degawa English.


It gives us Japanese people the courage to think that if we string words together without being embarrassed, we might be able to manage.


It makes you think, "If it's like that, maybe even I can do it?" doesn't it?

With that friendly smile,
he gets along with anyone.
It is truly a talent.


What we lack
is not English skills, but the courage to take a step forward and speak.
The rest is just experience, right?
I learned that from Tetsuro Degawa.
Thank you always for your likes, follows, and comments. They are encouraging.


(Summary)


・The reason we Japanese feel bad at English
　is because we think too much that it has to be grammatically perfect.
・It is important to have the confidence that even "Degawa English," which combines words,
　will get the job done.