Quote:
Originally Posted by RobinMask
I am shocked at the amount of written English avaliable too, especially as one of my main reasons to go is to become fluent, it's a reief to hear though that English isn't as widely spoken - although are your experiences of these just confined to Tokyo, or are they widespread perceptions?  |
After a few years of Japan I can pretty much count on one hand the number of times people tried speaking to me in English. The majority of Japanese people DON'T want to speak English; they are deadly afraid of standing out, making mistakes, just don't know any in the first place, or are simply apathetic. Those who do know English usually aren't brave enough to walk up and talk to a foreigner without some context or excuse (it's also a cultural thing - you don't chit-chat or randomly talk to strangers).
Anyways this is good news for people learning Japanese. Once you hit an intermediate level then Japanese will never try to switch to English, unless you are with a group of other foreigners at a hotel or something.