Geez, Thanksgiving. Turkeys are hard to come by, so today it's eel.

In yesterday's class we started a unit on jobs. When I asked the students about what kinds of jobs they were looking forward to, I was surprised to find that they actually had ideas. In the past three years students have often answered that they don't have any preferences. Yesterday was a big change. 4 students answered that they didn't know. Favorite employment options included public servants at 2, business persons at 3, and one travel agent. One person said that he wanted to be president of the US, and another that he wanted to go and work in the US. When asked what kind of work he'd like to do, he said that he didn't care, that he just wanted to work there.

Doing more thinking about the word "foreigners". One of the teachers with whom I have contact from time to time expressed their opinion about reasons for students to learn English. And as often is the case, the argument for "being able to talk to foreigners" came up. My conclusion is that "foreigner" is a word with very broad meaning, and without careful usage, usually gets used in lazy ways. My guess is that Matuzawa and this teacher used the word because they got lazy, and just used it to generate certain connections in the listeners' or readers' minds. Here's the reply that I gave after I made comments about the usage.

My suggestion is that you refrain from referring to nationality AT ALL. Let me give you some reasons.
1. Mombusho, (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) does not mention "foreigner" or "people from other countries" in their course of study. That is maybe the only thing they did right. The problem here is that we are all foreigners. If you step off this tiny island country, you too are a foreigner.
2. Let's look at our seminar. How many English teachers are there? Around 10? How many "foreigners" or "people from other countries." Let's say for argument's sake that there are two, Andy and I. If you speak to everyone in class, 80% of the people you spoke to were Japanese. Only 20% of the people you spoke to were not. My guess is that our students, if they find themselves in positions where they use English, some of that English will be used with Japanese nationals. If we assume that English is only used with non-Japanese, that will lead to some very unusual conversations.
3. Another problem is the assumption that all foreigners speak English. Many cannot, and others do not even if they can. Let's be more specific. I'm American so I can speak English. I have friends who are as American as I am, but couldn't speak English until they went to grade school, because everyone in their family and in their neighborhood spoke Spanish. We have the right to use any language, or no language, at any time, regardless of our nationality.
4. Why refer to nationality at all? Is it important some how to communication? Culture is important, but culture is only partially defined by nationality. Language choice is important, but that is only partially defined by nationality.

I humbly suggest that you use the word "people."

Crime and criminals, how many of us foreigners here in Japan are offenders. If you believe some politians here, we all are!

"Foreigners are all sneaky thieves. As Tokyo Gov Ishihara has cracked down on them, they have flowed into Kanagawa Prefecture."
Kanagawa Gov Shigefumi Matsuzawa, during a campaign speech Sunday.

Now, if you want to read about how some others are feeling about these kinds of comments, look at the Economist. A really interesting article on how this phobic attitude will affect the economy. Will racism and zenophobia
hurt them in the pocket?
Yup. I can only hope so.

Tuesday, and again with the repeaters. We have lost quite a few classmates. I have no idea where they went, but from a roll for two 90 minute classes of around 30 people, we are down to about 5 on track for a passing grade. Maybe that isn't too surprising, but I am a little disappointed.