[steven]

Evanny, I think in a place like Europe learning multilanguages is quite practical. From what it seems like, there is a good chance you would have many opportunities to speak with people from other countries therefore giving you more of a reason to learn the language to a decent level.

As far as Japanese education of English goes, I think TheScrounger is the epitome of it. They are much more comfortable in writing than in speaking, which I think is a strange way to learn a language. It's like they know all those words but cannot say them-- I imagine it would be very frustrating. It's also a characteristic of English I suppose. The way words are spelled doesn't really indicate how they are pronounced (although there are many clues there for native speakers or people who've really read a lot).

This is my opinion, but I think Japanese are doing an extremely good job of learning what they're taught. What they're taught is the problem. The grammar is some kind of weird compromise between actual spoken English and English that somewhat resembles Japanese. The vocabulary consists of words which they are familiar with because they are in everyday use in Japanese, in their Japanese form of course. Also, the spoken parts are either over or underacted... there's not really any inbetween. It's always too slow and the intonation suffers as a result. So given those kinds of circumstances, plus the constant pressure to do better on tests like Eiken or TOEIC (which, no offense to the Japanese who have scored high on those tests, are not even close to revealing a person's English abilities) it's no wonder why most Japanese can't speak anywhere near fluent English. Don't get me wrong though... a lot of the Japanese textbooks (for English learners to learn Japaense) have been pretty bad too.

To me the frustrating part is that there are obviously a LOT of people in Japan who want to communicate with 'foreigners' (which equates to them wanting to speak English). If you've ever been to Japan chances are you've been helped out by or talked to by a complete stranger who was struggling to give you some information in English.

The technology is there... I think it's time a new test comes out where it's all about listening/watching and speaking. There are business-practical aspects to the writing side of English, but speaking seems to be the most rewarding and what most Japanese people are really after when they learn English.