English Teacher's View of Japan

By Kosuke Nemoto and Nozomi Amano

We were interested in Japan and the Japanese from the foreigner's point of view so we did an investigation. Using a questionnaire, we asked native speakers among the NIHS teachers.

Here are the questions we asked:

1. What's the first Japanese word you learned?
2. What's your impression of Japanese people?
3. What's your favorite culture of Japan?
4. Which place in Japan do you like best?
5. What is the difference between Japanese and people from your country?
6. What's your favorite Japanese food?
7. Where do you often go shopping in Japan?
8. What's your favorite TV show in Japan?
9. What do you think about Japanese students compared to you country’s students?
10. Why did you choose to work in Japan?
11. What is your favorite word in Japanese?

Chris, from the UK, first learned "Konnichiwa" in a book about traveling in Japan. His favorite word in Japanese is "Isogashi" because this word is so useful in many situations. He often goes shopping in Osu because there are many good quality, casual clothes. His favorite place in Japan is Nagano. He enjoys skiing and climbing mountains there.
Petra, from New Zealand, thought that Japanese were very friendly and helpful when she first came here. She studied Japanese in college, so that encouraged her to decide to work in Japan.
Thomas, from the U.S.A., likes Unagi (eel). Actually we found that other countries' people don't often eat them. He also likes the japanese word "level-up". It isn't correct English (it is made in Japan), but it sounds good. He said he liked to watch the Docchi-No-Ryori-Show and Trivia-no-Izumi, famous Japanese T.V. programs. But both finished, so he felt so sad.
Valerie, from the U.S.A., thought that Japanese people were very sincere and honest. Her favorite part of Japanese culture is taking shoes off.
The most interesting thing was the difference between Japan and their country’s students and school's system. Thomas said that Japanese students were so quiet when they were taking classes. But in constrast, they were very noisy the rest of the time. He wanted them to be more in the middle during class. Petra also had a negative opinion of the Japanese school system. In her opinion, Japan doesn't have consequences. It means that even if they do bad things, the teacher does not give them something as a punishment. I agree with her.
We had a good time in Journalism together and were good partners with each other. We had a lot of contact with native speakers. This interview was very interesting. We want to know more about Japan in a second interview. But, we understood the attraction of Japanese by the interview. For example, "Ganbatte"or ‘Otsukare-sama" are such useful words. From now on we would like to learn more about Japanese culture.