From Japan Today. I think they need to make all schools in Japan like this. Why is Japan so afraid to let its people become fluent in English??
School conducting most classes in English opens in Gunma
Thursday, April 7, 2005 at 07:26 JST
MAEBASHI — An elementary school that will teach nearly all subjects in English opened Wednesday in a Gunma Prefecture city that has been authorized to run schools emphasizing foreign language education under the state’s deregulation initiative.Gunma Kokusai Academy, a privately run school funded in part by the Ota city government, admitted a total of 166 pupils in the first and fourth grades. The school has no students in the second and third grades and plans to fill up the remainder of classes up to the sixth grade in the next two school years. (Kyodo News)
Can you post more on the government’s education deregulation? Both Japan and the USA have poor secondary schools, and it would be interesting to compare the two countries’ solutions.
Funny you should mention that because I am currently planning on doing a couple more articles on education in the near future. Stay tuned.
What is so great about English? Kids have to know the language of their native country. If you want them to learn English — and you probably do — send them to the US or the UK for a year when they’re 12 or 13. That will do it, and their Japanese language skills won’t suffer as a result.
Curzon, Most children on this planet speak two or more languages. Knowing a second language makes the native language stronger. If you take some time you will find that my statement is statisticly sound. Also your question about English. It is not that it is so great, it is just that English has become the international language for communication.