Foreign Language Education in Japan and the United States

In the media in Japan you can often see complaints and criticisms of the country's education system.These attacks often center on English teaching.So it might be interesting to compare foreign language teaching in Japan with foreign language teaching in another country, such as the United States.Though European schools probably do a better job of foreign language teaching, Japan's system doesn't look too bad compared to America's.I've taught in public schools in both Japan and the United States, and though there are differences, many things are very similar.Let's take a detailed look at the who, what, when, where, why and how of language teaching in Japan and the United States. WhoWho are the students?Who are the teachers?In Japan almost everyone takes English in junior high and high school, but in the United States foreign language teaching is not quite so universal.The standards for