Departments
EI-KAIWA
英会話
"English conversation"
Thanks to our broad national borders, and the worldwide popularity of English, we Americans spend little time agonizing over our foreign language skills. Although many of us could benefit from knowing a foreign language, there is no national state of anxiety about our collective incompetence in foreign tongues. As a group, we Americans are complacently monolingual. Britons, Canadians, and other native English-speakers also take a generally casual attitude to the study of foreign languages.
Language Anxiety in Japan
The Japanese enjoy no such complacency. Japan is a relatively small island nation, and few foreigners have mastered Japanese. Moreover, throughout Japan’s history, the country has had to interact with more powerful foreign nations. Before the twentieth century, these included China, Russia, Portugal, and the Netherlands. These conditions have made foreign language study an enduring national priority.
At one point during Japan’s feudal era, the country’s nobility immersed itself in the study of the Chinese language. The legacy of the popularity of Chinese can be seen in the kanji (漢字) characters which still form a key element of written Japanese. When European traders and missionaries arrived in the 1500s, the Japanese began studying Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, and Latin.
Since the latter half of the twentieth century, English is the foreign language which has dominated national attention. The Allied Occupation of 1945 to 1952 brought thousands of English-speaking American GIs to Japan. In the years following the Occupation, military, political, and commercial ties with the United States continued, increasing the importance of English. Finally, the status of English in Japan was virtually cast in stone when English became the de facto second language of the world.
English is now a required course in the Japanese school system; and it is included on college entrance exams. In this way, English has become to Japan what Latin was to the West until a generation ago. In Japan, there is a general consensus that everyone should have a grasp of basic English.
Exam Skills vs. Conversational Skills
The emphasis on English in the Japanese school system has not produced a nation of fluent English-speakers. This shortcoming is perhaps inevitable. After all, a limited ability to translate Cicero would not necessarily enable a student of Latin to hold an in-depth conversation with a Roman centurion. Similarly, a passing score on an English exam does not automatically enable the average Japanese to competently use English for business and social purposes. Therefore, eikawa ( 英会話)—“conversational English”—is distinguished from plain old eigo ( 英語), which simply means “the English language.” The Japanese are fully aware of this distinction; and eikaiwa is a major area of focus for anyone who hopes to do business or socialize with foreigners.
The Business of Eikaiwa
The demand for conversational English has spawned new commercial opportunities in Japan, and created fortunes for some. Japan was still mired in postwar poverty when editor Ogawa Kikumatsu, foreseeing the money to be made by teaching English, published the generically titled Japanese-English Conversation Manual. This book became the biggest success in the history of Japanese publishing—a distinction it enjoyed until 1981.
Today there are innumerable books and CD courses that help people learn eikaiwa. However, the Japanese tend to prefer formal study in cultural centers over independent self-study. Therefore, when most Japanese decide study eikaiwa in earnest, they sign up for courses at an eikaiwa gakkō (英会話学校), or “conversational English school.” These schools offer classes in the evenings and on weekends. They are heavily patronized by businesspersons, people hoping to study abroad, and single working women, who typically have large disposable incomes.
The eikaiwa gakkō industry is dominated by chain schools like AEON and Babel. These schools maintain branch offices in all of Japan’s major urban areas. During the Bubble Economy years, when the competition for students was the most intense, rival eikaiwa chain schools produced slick television ad spots that rivaled the commercials of Sony and Toyota.
Smaller, privately owned eikaiwa schools also abound, and flourish in the less populated areas that are often neglected by the large chains. Independent eikaiwa schools also succeed by carving out niches. Some specialize in teaching English with a British accent; others focus on the English language as it applies to a particular industry.
The eikaiwa boom has also created abundant employment opportunities for English-speaking foreigners. Practically every English language school hires real live gaijin (foreigners) for accent demonstration purposes in the classroom. The typical eikaiwa gakkō instructor is a young college graduate from North America. (Many schools prefer Americans and Canadians because American English is generally regarded as the “standard.”)
The turnover rate for eikaiwa gakkō instructors is typically high. The relatively low wages, limited career prospects, and foreign lifestyle in Japan make the job a rotating door for English teachers. A few enterprising gaijin do stay in Japan and open their own schools; but employment is mostly limited to two- and three-year stints.