世界１１３ヶ国のうち、８７位とは、どうしましょう。
９月30日となり、今年もあと９０日余りです。庭では、種が零れて自然に生えたマユミも次第に赤くなってきて、嬉しいような寂しいような本格的な秋の到来です。一方、自らを振り替えると生涯の課題の一つとしてる「天声人語」では、夏号２０２４(日英対照版)を今のところ１日で二日分を読み、１０月中旬には読み終えそうです。次回の発刊は１１月下旬です。
１日二日分読んでも日英両言語なので、考えようによっては１日四日分です。日本語版は一回さあっと読めば意味は捉えられても、英文はそう簡単にはいかず、毎回、新たな新聞英単語に出合います。意味と発音、そして例文を単語帳に記してますが、すべて頭に定着できるものではありません。「記憶とはそれを実際に使ってこそ」と考えます。
ところで、国際語学教育機関「EFエデュケーション・ファースト」（本部・スイス）がこのほど発表した2023年調査によると、英語を母語としない113カ国・地域のうち、日本人の英語力は何と８７位です。アジア23カ国・地域でも低く15位という結果です。日本は5段階中4番目となる「低い能力レベル」（世界64～90位）とされてます。
日本では昔から小学校でローマ字を習ってます。私の考えでは、これが生涯に亘り、日本人の英語能力向上に大きく災いし、大人になっても、「英文をローマ字式に読んでしまいがちです。」間違ったことで、三つ子の魂百までになってます。地元の小学校に尋ねたら、今でもローマ字を教えてるそうです。今後１００年経っても日本人の英語は世界から立ち遅れているでしょう。
先日、ＮＨＫの番組で女性司会者【アナウンサーではない】がvoyage【航海】のことをボヤジと発音してました。正しくは、カタカナで表せばヴォイジュに近いです。日本語では母音は５個ですが、英語では短母音だけでもたくさんあり、子音でも日本語に無い無声音がたくさんあります。これを脳が柔らかいうちにスポーツのように鍛錬すべきです。
Dear my friends abroad who are fond of English
The simultaneous interpretation for your understanding will be done after my radio gymnastics held in the nearby park and breakfast in Japan time.
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It's September 30th, and there are just over 90 days left this year. In the garden, the Mayumi trees that grew naturally from seeds that were spilled are gradually turning red now, and it's a happy yet sad sign that autumn has arrived in earnest. Meanwhile, looking back at myself, one of my lifelong purpose for Tensei Jingo reading is that I am currently reading two days' worth of the Summer Issue 2024 (Japanese and English version) in one day, and I will be able to finish reading it by mid-October. The next issue will be published in late November.
If I read two days' worth a day, since it's in both Japanese and English, so in fact, it's four days' worth a day. I can grasp the meaning of the Japanese version after reading it once, but English version is not so easy, so when I encounter new newspaper English words every time. I write down the meaning, pronunciation, and example sentences in my vocabulary book, but I can't memorize them all. I believe that "memory comes stay in our brain only when we actually use it."
Not change the subject, but according to the 2023 survey recently released by the international language education organization (headquartered in Switzerland), Japanese people rank 87th in English proficiency among 113 countries and regions where English is not the native speaker. It also ranks 15th out of 23 Asian countries and regions. Japan is considered to have a "low proficiency level"
As you know, here in Japan, people have been learning Roman letters in elementary schools since ancient time. In my opinion, this education has been a major hindrance to the improvement of Japanese people's English proficiency throughout our lives, and even as adults, we Japanese tend to "read English sentences in Roman letters." This mistake has led to a hundred years of misunderstanding. Recently I asked a local elementary school teacher, he said that elementary schools still teach Roman letters. Even 100 years from now, Japanese English will still be lagging behind the rest of the world.
The other day, a lady presenter (not announcer) on a NHK program pronounced voyage as "boyaji." To be precise, if we write it in katakana, it is close to voyage. In Japanese, as you know, there are five vowels only, but in English there are many short vowels, and even in the case of consonants, there are many voiceless sounds that do not exist in Japanese. This kind of pronunciations should be trained like a sport while children's brain is still flexible.
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