Over on the Genki Japan site we have lots and lots of people learning Japanese. The main reason for most of them is so that they can experience Japanese culture in real Japanese. Certainly no one in this day and age would say “Right, I want to learn Japanese so I can tell Japanese people about American culture!”.

But that’s just the situation many primary schools in Japan put themselves in. They see English not as a communication tool, but as a sales point so the kids can explain “Japanese culture” to “foreigners”. Apart from the fact that the English comes out sounding really stupid and totally boring ( it sounds much better in Japanese!), many schools try to teach about things that aren’t Japanese at all, for example chopsticks ( definitely Chinese), o-koto ( arguably Chinese) or things like “Kendama” – the cup and ball game that even the Japanese Foreign Ministry says isn’t Japanese. This is embarrassing enough as it is, but even more so when kids have to read a script to visitors from China on how to use chopsticks!!

Personally I think that we teach English so that our students can learn about other cultures, to let them explore and open their eyes to what else is out there.

But if you really must teach “Japanese culture” in English class, then at least think about it from a kids’ point of view. Japanese culture is a huge boom around the world at the moment, but it’s not the traditional stuff, it’s what kids are really interested in i.e. manga, anime, Nintendo. Even Transformers is really Japanese!