Should English Be Japans Second Official Language

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Language and identity | Should English be the second official language of Japan | Kareem Kassar | Rational This editorial talks about the Japanese Prime Minister’s office proposal to make English the second official language of Japan in 2000. This was in response to achieving world class excellence demands that, in addition to mastering information technology, all Japanese acquire a working knowledge of English, not simply just as a foreign language but as the international lingua franca. Japan acquires poor level of English proficiency, and Japlish being used in signs, advertisements, being used as a way of communicating and being used around Japan to communicate, it implies to foreigners to immerge and start thinking ‘ what in the world is this trying to say’. The content of this task is linked to a particular part of this course which is language and identity. It explores the issue of English becoming the second official language in a traditionally non- English cultural context. The task explores different cultures identity and their language and the power of language, how it leads a person thinking what is going on. The purpose of the task is to assert that English should be Japan’s second official language, as it improves Japan’s relevance in the internet age and achieving world class excellence but as the world has seen they have transformed English into Japlish and it causes confusion to foreigners. Therefore as English being their second official language they have to work on improve their English proficiency. The choice of an editorial was to write my opinion of issue but in the form of an editorial, to address the issue by persuading the audience with explanation. The intended audience is those people who read the newspaper, but more importantly it is the Japanese people and the those people that are keen about the issue. 25/2/01 Should English be

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