My sister lived in Japan for like a decade, and she sometimes complained to me that she'd try to talk to people in Japanese (she is quite fluent in it) but they'd respond in English because she's very clearly not ethnically Japanese. Sometimes she would keep replying in Japanese but a lot of people never switched to it, so it would get weird and she'd eventually switch back to English.
So, you know, stuff like that might also play a role. Japan is a kind of weird example for this because it's a very insular culture that can often be pretty xenophobic.
edit to add: Also, I'm pretty sure JET (the main way that Americans get to live and work in Japan) actively discourages fluent Japanese speakers from applying, or at least used to. My sister tried to apply with them right after graduation (after spending a year in Japan as a student) and was told that her fluency in Japanese was actually a problem, because it's an immersion program and they don't want teachers falling back on communication in Japanese. Or that was my understanding, I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. This was like 25 years ago, my memory is not that great and also things may have changed a lot.
it's an immersion program and they don't want teachers falling back on communication in Japanese
Kinda yea, but not really. English classes in Japan aren't immersion classes. JET and all ALT and eikaiwa is mostly just about foreigners being used as training dummies.
English class here isn't about teaching fluency, it's mostly about reiterating the children's Japaneseness in contrast to the foreign teacher, and teaching children that they must control and manage foreigners, and teach them basic behavior, and how to do that.
It's one reason you have so many people rushing to help tourists - it has nothing to do with hospitality, it's people excited to finally have a chance to teach a foreigner something - it's the same thing that the old ladies dumping trash bags on immigrants' doorsteps are doing - they think it's their job to "teach" the foreigners.
ALTs and eikaiwa teachers aren't banned from speaking Japanese for immersion, it's because their real job is to play clueless foreigner - the entire purpose of the class falls apart if the children realize you're just a normal member of society with a family and home here.
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u/Loud_Insect_7119 2d ago edited 2d ago
My sister lived in Japan for like a decade, and she sometimes complained to me that she'd try to talk to people in Japanese (she is quite fluent in it) but they'd respond in English because she's very clearly not ethnically Japanese. Sometimes she would keep replying in Japanese but a lot of people never switched to it, so it would get weird and she'd eventually switch back to English.
So, you know, stuff like that might also play a role. Japan is a kind of weird example for this because it's a very insular culture that can often be pretty xenophobic.
edit to add: Also, I'm pretty sure JET (the main way that Americans get to live and work in Japan) actively discourages fluent Japanese speakers from applying, or at least used to. My sister tried to apply with them right after graduation (after spending a year in Japan as a student) and was told that her fluency in Japanese was actually a problem, because it's an immersion program and they don't want teachers falling back on communication in Japanese. Or that was my understanding, I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. This was like 25 years ago, my memory is not that great and also things may have changed a lot.