this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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Summary

Japan’s English proficiency ranking dropped to 92nd out of 116 countries, the lowest ever recorded.

The decline is attributed to stagnant English proficiency among young people, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Netherlands ranked first, followed by European countries, while the Philippines and Malaysia ranked 22nd and 26th, respectively.

(page 2) 33 comments
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[–] Rune_Walsh@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's still higher than the United States.

[–] Frog@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Funny. Joking aside, I don't think England, Ireland, the US, and Canada were tested.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And, to be fair, there are millions of U.S. citizens who speak English as a second language.

About 1 in 10 according to the U.S. census do not speak English at home.

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/12/languages-we-speak-in-united-states.html

Spanish is first, Chinese a distant second. I am guessing there are also plenty of indigenous people, especially in Alaska considering its isolation, who primarily speak native languages at home.

[–] Frog@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's interesting.

Makes sense that America does not have a national language. I'm pretty sure you can ask for any federal form in Spanish.

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[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

In Canada too

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[–] Irremarkable@fedia.io 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

the English proficiency of young people in the country is stagnant compared to other countries and regions.

Seems like my gut was right, that it's less because they're regressing, and more because other countries have been increasing theirs.

[–] thrawn@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’ve heard it characterized that Japan has been in the early 2000s since the 80s. At first ahead, but now behind with less than expected development economically, societally, and in some ways technologically.

I’m just a foreigner and do not understand the culture well enough to be writing this comment, but reading “stagnant” didn’t surprise me much.

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[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago
[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So, for comparison, how do English speaking countries rank in ability to speak Japanese?

[–] shikitohno@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

Would probably be more relevant to measure English-speaking countries' ability to speak whatever the most commonly studied foreign language is, rather than Japanese. That would also probably need a caveat of eliminating native speakers and/or heritage speakers from the data set in some countries, as well.

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My mother in law who is an english teacher in Japan says the social media the children are consuming is distracting from their studies 😂.

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