blakmetalik wrote:

Yep! And then threw the banana out to the crowd. Boy did I wish I sat in the first 10 rows. It was funny when Hyde asked, "Do you like crabs?" because at first it sounded more like, "Do you like crap?" The audience didn't know how to react at first.

in Japan even the poor schools have a teacher who teaches English. somene told me that even though the children learn English in school, they don't really concentrate or pay that much attention because they live in Japan and it is not that important to them to speak English. also they find the language to be very difficult. and many jobs do not require English. so there is little incentive to learn English. is this true?

as for actors and singers knowing how to speak English, i don't think that many (who are born and raised in Japan) know that much English as compared to those who are born, raised, or living overseas (like in US or England).

as for singing in English --
SMAP sometimes sings good and sings bad in English. they sang the song "Last Christmas" by Wham with that guy who starred in the drama "Last Christmas" with Yada Akiko, they sang that song on a recent SMAPxSMAP episode (i think it was the end of 2004) and they did a really great job. did not need to rely on the English lyrics that appeared on the screen.

SMAP tried to sing Elvis Presley songs a couple of years ago and it was horrible.

Hiro was on the Japan Record Show and she was singing and English song and it was horrible, her pronunciation was really bad, didn't understand what she was singing.

Utada Hikaru sings English good, but then that is because she was born in US.

Boa sings English pretty good.

SmapSmapSmap wrote:

in Japan even the poor schools have a teacher who teaches English. somene told me that even though the children learn English in school, they don't really concentrate or pay that much attention because they live in Japan and it is not that important to them to speak English. also they find the language to be very difficult. and many jobs do not require English. so there is little incentive to learn English. is this true?

Well, there must be some students who liked English, because a lot of the Japanese students here in the States have majors related to English or using English. But it is true...there's usually little need to learn English when you live in Japan.

There are lots of private English schools in Japan for adults and students...they tend to be people that like learning English for the pleasure of it. That's why I'm getting my TESL certificate, so I can actually explain English when I try to go over there to teach.

English instruction is something that Japan's been working on...I don't think they want to be left behind by Taiwan and mainland China, who've so far been more successful in teaching English.
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-=kitakaze=-

kitakaze wrote:

English instruction is something that Japan's been working on...I don't think they want to be left behind by Taiwan and mainland China, who've so far been more successful in teaching English.

But have the Chinese been more successful in learning English?

Well, from all the Chinese (both mainland and Taiwanese) people I've met, they tend to speak English better than the Japanese students.
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The concentration in Japanese schools is still very much on written English rather than spoken.

SMAPXSMAP last night showed Shingo and Goro visting NASA in Houston. There was supposedly a new Japanese astronaut and during NASA's press conference, Shingo asked the astronauts in English, "When you are out in space and you look back on Earth, what do you think is the best song?" (to which one of the American astronauts answered "Beethoven, Bach and the Beatles." After some pestering while the astronauts leave the stage, the Japanese astronaut finally said "SMAP.")

His English is not bad. Very cute.

I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but in terms of Johnny's juniors, Jimmy Mackey is fluent in English. And Ueda Tatsuya and Akanishi Jin from KAT-TUN are learning English. Jin's english is definitely improving...he seems really serious in his english studies.

On an earlier page I said that I thought Kimura Yoshino's English might be good based on the few words of English I'd heard her speak.

Well... I think I might have been right for once. It turns out that she was born in the U.K. and didn't move back to Japan until she was 2. (That means her folks were probably fluent in English.)

And then, because of her father's work, her family moved to New York, and that's where she did Junior High and High School.

So yeah, I'm betting she's pretty comfortable with English.
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Geezer wrote:

On an earlier page I said that I thought Kimura Yoshino's English might be good based on the few words of English I'd heard her speak. Well... I think I might have been right for once. It turns out that she was born in the U.K. and didn't move back to Japan until she was 2. (That means her folks were probably fluent in English.) And then, because of her father's work, her family moved to New York, and that's where she did Junior High and High School. So yeah, I'm betting she's pretty comfortable with English.

Cool.

Gotta love a Japanese gal that can speak English.

bmwracer wrote:

Cool. Gotta love a Japanese gal that can speak English.

oh yeah...

Geezer wrote:

On an earlier page I said that I thought Kimura Yoshino's English might be good based on the few words of English I'd heard her speak.

Iie, it's not Kimura Yoshino... it's:

Kimura Yoshino!!!

Utada Hikaru speaks English well, since she went to HS in NYC.

Faye Wong speaks English fluently

Kelly Chen speaks English and Japanese, though her English and Japaense have gotten rusty



Cheers,
PCM

isnt Utada Hikaru born In NY?
please tell my mistake if im wrong
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Hmm, I read some posts from the first pages and there was the fan mail thingie going on... well over 6 months back I wrote fan mail to Yamada Takayuki through his official website, in english. Never got any reply, or got to know if they even read it. well, atleast I tried

Among japanese astists who can speak English, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Yutaka Takenouchi are really good in English. In Beachboys special Yutaka speak English in his phone, its good!!! Sound like he's not japanese. lol you know ice-cream = i-cu-ki-ru-mu.(I'm studying japanese and has some problem with reading english like japanese say) And Takeshi's really good in English as well. No doubt!

Swedish_Japan_Lover wrote:

isnt Utada Hikaru born In NY? please tell my mistake if im wrong

yeah, that is correct. her parents were celebrities in japan back then, her mom used to go back and forth from tokyo to NY a lot. since the mom spend a lot of time in NY as well, it's not inconcievable for her to be born in NY. anyhoos,:

http://www.asiafinest.com/japanese/utada.htm
http://www.senris.com/hikki/
http://www.allstarz.org/~hikaru/
http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/hikki/

All places points that she is born in NY.
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Here's my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/kwan1?ref=profile

Helene wrote:

Just curious : Can the boys of TOKIO and SMAP and others speak and understand the English language ? have a nice day !

Nagase Tomoya can understand english a lil bit...
he can speak it too...

The problem is, that in Japan the teachers don't teach the children how to speak English. They are only reading from novels, but don't speaking. But now there are even in Japan a lots of jobs, that you can get only if you speak English.
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Andro wrote:

The problem is, that in Japan the teachers don't teach the children how to speak English. They are only reading from novels, but don't speaking. But now there are even in Japan a lots of jobs, that you can get only if you speak English.

i want to be an english teacher in japan.....

aizawa^hase wrote:

i want to be an english teacher in japan.....

You do aizawa-chan?
In the hopes of seing Naga-kun eh?

How about Joe Odagiri? He studied in NYC right? In Satorare he introduce himself in English...nice accent

Not forgetting the handsome-hawt-Keio Boy, Sakurai Sho (please refer to my lovely sig )
Saw some clips of him speaking English really well