How English is difficult for Japanese people

"Why it is difficult for Japanese people to acquire English as a second language." I want to translate this idea written by a Japanese who traveled all around the world.

1. Japanese people live the circumstance where they don't have to use English.

2. The Japanese education system of English weight on grammar with textbooks too much.

3. Many students laugh students who speak English with correct pronunciation.

4. It is difficult for "Japanese speakers" to acquire "English" to begin with.

5. There are less vowels and consonants than English.

6. "Kata-kana" reading of English is too proliferated in Japan to correct it.

7. The level of English teachers are way too low.

Because I agree with his idea, I decided to write this. I think #2, 4, and 5 is literally critical problems for Japanese students.

About #2, #Globish, which is a sort of English used as a second language among international business people, requires 1,500 words to communicate each other. It is the level of the high school English in Japan. Even if students know those words with the correct grammar, they don't have enough practical opportunities to use it. The author of this article said that it is like people who are familiar with the mechanical knowledge of a car but cannot drive.

In addition, according to the Foreign Service Institute under the Department of State, Japanese is categorized as the level-four-language group, which takes longest time to acquire. The elite people who are from the top schools need 2,700 hours to acquire just a general conversation, not business level. It means that Japanese is neither easy to learn as a second language nor vice versa.


Also, I totally agree that the number of vowels is critical problem because English has at least 13 vowels, even though native speakers don't notice this fact, while Japanese has only five vowels. 


If I can afford to establish English school in the future, I want to hire teachers who really understand such problems and want them to lift up the bottom  line of English beginners.