[EDLING:2210] Japan: English should be an elective

[Francis M. Hult]

The Japan Times

Saturday, Dec. 30, 2006

English should be an elective

By GREGORY CLARK
The debate over whether Japanese children should be taught English at primary 
school deserves better consideration than it is getting.

Currently Japanese school children begin to learn English at age 12 in middle 
school. The teaching continues in high school for another three years, with 
often a year or two at university to follow. But the results, as the world 
knows, are not very good. Some note the superior English-speaking abilities of 
other Asian peoples, most of whom begin to learn English in primary school. 
They want to see the same in Japan.

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