Schoolkids Think English Important But Don't Want Job That Needs It

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Students - English useful, but not for me
Seventy percent of middle school students think English ability would be useful for obtaining a job in the future, but only 11 percent want to get a job that requires English, according to an education ministry institute survey...Eighty-five percent said they think, "It is important to study English" or "It is rather important"...Only 11 percent responded they strongly hope to get a job that requires English skills, down six percentage points from the previous survey. In contrast, 43 percent answered, "I don't want to get a job that requires English skills," up from 36 percent in the previous survey. Kenji Miyauchi, head of the research and development section at the institute's Curriculum Research Center, said, "[Students] are keenly aware of the importance of English in this age of globalization, but at the same time, they don't seem to want to study English or they think it's troublesome to do so"...more...

[Yokohammer]

I find it interesting that the report makes "they don't seem to want to study English or they think it's troublesome to do so" sound like a problem with the kids, rather than the education system, their teachers, parents, and any other motivating factors.

[gaijinpunch]

Uh... did anyone here really know anything about anything in middle school?

[wuchan]

Uh... did anyone here really know anything about anything in middle school?

do weed and sluts count?

[McTojo]

I say let em' stay just like they are.

[IparryU]

do weed and sluts count?

... yes... the main reason why guys likes Spanish/French class is because it is entertaining to listen to when you are baked and all the hot chicks rather take Spanish or French rather than German.

Dat is sum edumacation dere.

[matsuki]

do weed and [color="Red"]sluts[/color] count?

This ties back in with Yoko's comment on motivating factors...I didn't take French because I wanted to get a job. Japanese either...though it sure has helped.

[Russell]

Poor English skills saved Japan’s bankers from subprime loan fiasco: Aso

Japan’s banks emerged from the 2008 global credit crisis largely unscathed because their senior employees did not speak English well enough to get into trouble, Finance Minister Taro Aso said Friday.

Aso, who doubles as deputy prime minister, said bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players, so had not bought them.

“Many people fell prey to the dubious products, or so-called subprime loans. Japanese banks were not so much attracted to these products, compared with European banks,” Aso told a seminar in Tokyo.

“There was an American who said Japanese banks are healthy, but that’s not true at all.

“Managers of Japanese banks hardly understood English. That’s why they didn’t buy,” he said.

More

[wagyl]

bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players, so had not bought them.

I thought the whole problem came about because nobody could understand the complex financial instruments.

[Russell]

bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players, so had not bought them.

I thought the whole problem came about because nobody could understand the complex financial instruments.

Yep, but the Japanese bankers were the ones who understood they did not understand...

[yanpa]

bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players, so had not bought them.

I thought the whole problem came about because nobody could understand the complex financial instruments.

Yep, but the Japanese bankers were the ones who understood they did not understand...

Albeit for the wrong reason.

[Russell]

bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players, so had not bought them.

I thought the whole problem came about because nobody could understand the complex financial instruments.

Yep, but the Japanese bankers were the ones who understood they did not understand...

Albeit for the wrong reason.

Ahum, yes, you are right!

[matsuki]

So let's praise them for shitty English skills?? Only in Japan can shit like that be rationalized.

[Coligny]

So let's praise them for shitty English skills?? Only in Japan can shit like that be rationalized.

Nothing new... If you can't do something properly, do it poorly and call it another name...

[Samurai_Jerk]

So let's praise them for shitty English skills?? Only in Japan can shit like that be rationalized.

It's a pretty stupid useless comment to make. Even if it was just dumb luck due to lack of English ability, why not take some credit for i? I definitely do that at work when shit goes my way by chance.


Anyway, back to the topic. How many kids in any country (especially a developed one) would want a job where they needed to use a foreign language?

[sublight]

Is arbitrage considered a complex financial instrument? Because Japanese banks looooved that shit. So much so that the nickname for it among a lot of the investment houses was 'blips for Nips'.