Comments on: Why are so many Spanish neurotic about their English?

By: Nicky

Nicky — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:22:28 +0000

Wow, been a long time since if i screwed around in the TEFLsphere, but this one caught my eye!

I think you have a point about the richness of coloquial Spanish, in fact i think thats something that turns off students here quite a bit, when they ask for suggestions of how to render a certain idiomatic expression and arent satisfied with the result, which leads them to the conclusion that “English is boring”.

By: Darren Elliott

Darren Elliott — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:49:18 +0000

There is something in that, but you might find that the new generation of Japanese men is much more passive and that young women are generally taking the lead. It hasn’t quite filtered into the workplace yet, but it will.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/05/japan.herbivore.men/index.html

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:59:04 +0000

Contentious, me?

Actually based partly on my reading, although as usual I can’t remember what or where. One thing I remember is research where many female Japanese students said that they liked English language debate clubs because in a Japanese language version they were forever at a disadvantage due to having to use more polite, respectful and indirect language that is “suitable” for their gender

By: Darren Elliott

Darren Elliott — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

That’s a contentious last paragraph, Alex.