English Skills Are Important As Digital Skills たかが英語されど英語

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Learning English has been one of the hottest issues at schools, home and office in Japan over a long time. English is a must or at least is useful and, for some, should be taught from childhood. But there are other views.

One such example is that the less creative they are, the more they want to learn English. The author of this blog says that someone who is good at speaking English has just a good memory because learning English requires only a good memory. I've also heard a very famous Japanese mathematician saying in an argument about whether or not children should learn English at elementary schools that speaking something lacking substance fluently in English should be most ashamed of and learning Japanese is most important for child education.

I agree with him. Speaking something that lacks substance and intelligence is stupid. Learning our mother tongue, i.e., Japanese, is significantly important for us to think. But this doesn't make it less necessary to learn English. Rather it makes it more essential so that if we, when speaking in English something with substance, aren't made fool of. I believe that learning English isn't sufficient, but necessary as we can't live without some computer skills.   

I disagree with the blog author's comment that the less creative they are, the more they want to learn English. This should be rephrased to, "Learning English doesn't require a lot of creativity, but a lot of exposure to it." In other words, English is not something you make a fuss about, but you should be able to use. And that is why I strongly support Japanese elementary schools to have English classes. Some students may find it fun while others hate it as other subjects and that's all. Nothing more or less.

英語学習。学校、家庭、職場で熱く語られている問題だ。絶対必要とまではいわなくてもやっといた方がいいという人は少なくない。でも違う意見もある。

例えば、あるブログには「創造力がない人ほど英語を勉強する」とあり、「英語はただ暗記するだけの科目なため、得意科目を聞かれて『英語』と答える人は、自分は物覚えがいいだけのバカだと自覚すべき」と書かれている。数学者の藤原正彦氏の「流ちょうな英語で中身がないのがもっとも恥ずべき、一番大事なのは国語」という発言も引用している。

中身のないことを話すのはばかげていること、日本語を学ぶ重要性については賛成だが、それで英語を学ぶ意味がなくなるわけではなく、逆に中身のあることを話しているのに英語で誤解されることを防ぐためにも、英語はやはり必要なのではなかろうか。今や英語はpcスキルと同じくらいに必要（十分ではないが）だと思う。

創造力についても、「英語学習に創造力は必要なく、慣れるだけのこと」と思っている。そんな大騒ぎすることではなく、使えるようになればいいだけのもの、ということ。というわけで小学校からの英語授業には賛成。他の科目と同様、面白いという思う子もいるし、嫌いな子もいるでしょう。それだけのことです。