ENGLISH; Japanese Me and the Language

Now I decided to post some articles in English as well. I have been writing articles in Japanese as it is my primary language, however, I do feel the necessity in writing stuff in English as well. This does not necessarily mean that I am willing to write stuff in English to talk about some issues around.

First of all, what I have to put here would be my relationship with this language. As I have been using this language in writing, reading, speaking and so forth, I've come to face the reality of my own characteristics and assumptions that people DO make as it comes to a situation when a Japanese person uses this language.

FAQ and others;
1) Why do you use English?
English is a part of compulsory education in Japan after WWII. We learn how to read textbooks and grammar in an General English class and how to write sentences in an English composition class. Some people do say and believe that Japanese do not use English, that is wrong.

2) "Your English is very good."
Well, yours would be as good as mine if you studied as hard as I have. How many times I was tempted to say this. This statement has well hidden a phrase, "for a Japanese" at the end or even without it, it does have the connotation of arrogance between lines of statements that the person made towards this Japanese guy. So obviously I hate this. I have seen few who say this compliment without any arrogant atmosphere; those few people clearly stated what part was good or what makes my English good, rather than giving me superficial judgment or lubrication during conversation.

3) Why do you speak English?
Some people are knowledeagle about the Japanese people so they know we do not speak that well even when the Japanese person can write or read English. Then I would say that there are tons of millions of English conversation school program going on and exchange students from all over the world nowadays. Now Japan is full of opportunities to practice daily conversation in English; as to myself, I used to force myself into situations where there was no other way around but communicating with people in English. Practice makes perfect, so I still make progress in this area.

4) Are you still learning English?
This is as nonsense as ever. I am still learning Japanese, then why not English? There is no royal road in learning then nobody should stop doing so, isn't it? In addition, Language is alive; it will evolve and grow into a whole new species. What we speak today will not be what will be spoken 100 years later, so we all have to catch up with the latest info.

5) "You studied English hard out of inferiority complex."
Since nobody can analyze him or herself quite well, I am not in the position of making any statement on this. However, what I could say here is that I have always loved Language itself for sure. Before taking any English class in junior high school, I was intrigued by alphabet and words or phrases from foreign languages. In addition, do you have to have a complicated matter when you are into one thing or another? I really do not think that we need any mental burden or leftover of your past resentment to push yourself harder, higher to be better at certain things. To my surprise, however, I heard this statement from not just one, but several persons. Quite interesting.

There seem to be more to come in this issue, however, I would like to stop here for now.