English as an Academic Language for Homeschoolers in Japan

The argument starts from the experience of our homeschooling. As we tried to procure Christian resources for education, we found the difficulty in finding them. At first we tried to translate the documents in English, into Japanese as much as possible. Translating several textbooks is not enough because the content of the textbooks are based on the many intellectual resources. In other words, when we learn something we are learning the system of knowledge, skills, and other important basics. It is a package deal. A textbook is backed by a lot of visible or invisible footnotes. Suppose you translate an English textbook of some subject into Japanese you will find that it is filled with the essence of other books and resources. If you want to learn deeper on that subject, then you should go to the references which is in English or some other languages.

For long, Japanese have been importing civilizations. Japanese culture is based on the imported cultures. They have been rearranging what they have imported from outside of Japan, and make something Japanese. In other words, they rearrange or manipulate what they have imported according to their context in the Japanese culture. They did this on the Buddhism when they imported it from the continent. They did the same thing on Christianity. What is imported abroad is incorporated into the Japan-system. This often caused the problem of "Japanization" of Christianity which leads to the compromise with idolatry.

The Japanese language cannot sustain itself without using imported letters(e.g. Kanji), ideas, etc. It doesn't have solid and systematized grammar which can be found in the European langages such as English. We see the Japanese language becoming incapable of catching up the speed of internet based information-oriented society. We can see this phenomenon when we read the books on computer science written in Japanese. They are heavily dependent on the English language, especially about using the technical terms by using kata-kana.

From a geopolitical point of view, Japan is an island country. Therefore it had been relatively easy for the gatekeepers to control the influx of infrmation, goods, culture. Usually, those gatekeepers have good command of foreign languages such as Chinese, Dutsch, German, French, English, etc. Majority of the people are controled directly or indirectly by the gatekeepers. Those who are not able to use foreign languages are totally dependent upon the gatekeepers. This is also true even now.

The advent of the Internet is gradually changing this situation, but still the linguistic barrier is playing an important role in making the majority of the Japanese people be dependent on the gatekeepers who are able to communicate with the outer world.

Even now, in the Japanese educational system, English teaching is geared to deciphering documents in English.
In his book The Japanese Edwin O.Reischauer says,

Japan has traditionally thought of contact with other cultures as being through the written word. This was true of their early borrowing of Chinese culture, and since the opening of Japan in the 1850s they have seen themselves as needing to learn about the West through writing which could be deciphered and translated at leisure and to train a few experts for this purpose and for necessary dealings with foreigners.

Edwin O. Reischauer, The Japanese, (Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc 1979), p. 397