A. It is said that Japanese and Koreans find it very difficult to improve their English. There are many reasons for this. One of the bigger reasons is that the verb order is quite different, ie: "I go to school" becomes "I school to go" in Japanese and Korean. In short, the order of verbs in English is completely different from Japanese and Korean, where verbs come at the end of sentences. In contrast, Chinese people can improve their English faster as Chinese verbs come after the subject as they do in English.

Secondly, as Japan is an island, Japanese have fewer opportunities to communicate in English with foreigners. Another reason is based on the fact that many of Japan's 126 million people who are interested in absorbing foreign culture are living in Japan. In small countries, translation of foreign culture is not much of an industry, but it is big business in Japan. Best selling books from around the world are immediately translated and popular foreign movies are edited into Japanese.

Thus, Japanese can have contact with foreign cultures in Japanese. Therefore mastering English is not an urgent necessity for many Japanese. This leads to the situation in Japan where language is studied almost like a culture lesson similar to flower arranging and tea ceremony.

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