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A MOVEMENT AWAY FROM X...
X -離れ
The next two example sentences lament perceived declines in the scholarly qualities of Japanese youth. The first sentence discusses a decline in reading rates, and the second notes a shift away from science. Interestingly, commentators in the English-speaking world (and especially in the United States) have been raising the exact same issues.
Both sentences contain the expression X-離れ (X-ばなれ), which means “a movement away from X” or “a detachment from X.”
a.
若年層の活字離れはデータで証明されており，日本の将来にとっても非常に深刻な事態だと感じる。
The younger generation’s waning interest in reading has been proven with data, and I feel that it is a serious situation for the future of Japan.
Original Japanese source: http://www.pref.hiroshima.jp/kyouiku/hotline/13_kotoba/04_gaiyou1.html
b.
日本では現在、子どもたちの間で「科学ばなれ」が進行し、一般の人たちの「科学への 関心度」が低下してきたといわれています。
Source: www.gakken.co.jp/kagakusouken/analysis/check.html
In Japan at present children’s detachment from science continues; and it can be said that the average person has less interest in science
Key: 活字（かつじ）若年層（じゃくねんそう）the younger generation /証明される to be proven /将来（しょうらい）future / 非常に（ひじょうに）extremely / 深刻な（しんこくな）serious / 事態（じたい）situation, state of affairs/ 一般の人たち（いっぱん の ひとたち）average people; people on the street
* * *
You might wonder if learning a foreign language (especially one as difficult as Japanese) is really worth your time. After all, some analysts theorize that in the future, everyone in the world will speak English.
However, there is ample evidence to refute such theories. The following two excerpts mention a phenomenon known as 英語離れ（えいご ばなれ）, or “the drift away from English.”
The first of the excerpts below discusses the situation in the Philippines, a former U.S. territory where English shares official status with local languages like Tagalog. A recent survey indicated that a declining percentage of the population is fluent in English:
c.
「理解できない」１４％に…比、国民英語離れ深刻
14% “Can’t Understand…” The seriousness of the Drift Away from English in the Philippines
フィリピンで英語離れが進んでいる。比欧州商工会議所は１８日、英語を理解するフィリピン人が前回調査（２０００年）の７７％から１２ポイント低下し、６５％になったとの調査結果を発表した。
Source: http://job.yomiuri.co.jp/news/jo_ne_06041902.cfm
The movement away from English is advancing in the Philippines. On the 18th, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines reported the results of their survey, which indicated that the percentage of Filipinos who can understand English declined by 12 points, from 77% to 65%, since the last time the survey was taken.
Key: 進む（すすむ）to advance; to move forward / 国民（こくみん）citizens; the people of a nation / 比欧州商工会議所（ひ おうしゅう しょうこうかいぎじょ）European Chamber of Congress of the Philippines /理解する（りかい する）to understand; to comprehend
In 1996, an article in the New York Times predicted that the internet would become the exclusive domain of the English language, based on the (then) predominant use of English on the World Wide Web. As on blogger points out, however, the situation has since reversed, and the Web is becoming increasingly multilingual:
d.
同じ年に書かれたニューヨーク・タイムズの記事「ワールド・ワイド・ウェブ：三つの英単語」は、「インターネットを存分に活用する道はひとつしかない：英語を学ぶことだ」と言い切っている。
これらは結局誤りということになった。最初のうちこそ支配的だったが凋落も早く、英語で書かれたウェブページは2002年末の時点で半数を切っており、英語離れはさらに続いている。バルカン化、あるいはバベル化だ。
http://blog.japan.cnet.com/lessig/archives/002812.html
A New York Times article written the same year “World Wide Web: Three English Words” asserted that there was only one path to getting the most out of the Internet: “Learn English.”
This turned out to be mistaken after all. Web pages written in English were predominant early on, but quickly waned. At the end of 2002 they had breached the fifty percent mark; and the movement away from English is continuing. [The Web] is balkanizing, or babelizing.”