is japanese english a new english?...116 明治大学教養論集通巻527号 (2017•9)errors in...

明治大学教養論集通巻527号

(2017• 9) pp. 115-133

Is Japanese English a New English?

Johnny George

English has such a large presence in Japan that one may be inclined to

ask if one may consider Japanese English as one of the variants of world

English in the same way one might refer to Australian or Singapore

English. This query concerns Japanese English as one of the "new

Englishes" that have their own unique characteristics and are recog-

nized as indigenous variations of English. For instance, many users of

Indian English consider Indian English to be a distinctive English vari-

ant, so if a speaker of this variation utters a statement such as, "I am

having a cold," it could be deemed acceptable. In short, Indian English

can be evaluated by an endonormative standard, or on its own socio-

cultural terms. However, if a Japanese English speaker were to utter

the same expression, it would generally be deemed ungrammatical by

Japanese people since Japanese English speakers aim to maintain an

exonormative standard based on either standard American or British

English. When considering the typical criteria, especially socio-

linguistic, for identifying Japanese English as an independent English

variation the simple answer is that Japanese English would not immedi-

ately be identified as a recognized variant. However, if we consider

structurally the English used by people born and raised in Japan, it is

possible to find systemic forms used in the population that have similar-

ity to features in other'new Englishes'. From this body of data we can

then understand that the variation of English spoken by Japanese

speakers certainly has the potential to gain recognition as an English

with its own norms and standards.

For this issue commemorating the career of Mark Petersen, this

paper will outline parallels between what typicaJly is identified as

116 明治大学教養論集通巻527号 (2017•9)

errors in the speech and writing of Japanese L2 English users and see to

what extent such speaker errors can mirror what would be other recog-

nized as legitimate variation in other Englishes. If particular'errors'

were to become systemic and accepted as norms among English speak-

ers in Japan, then a new variety of English, Japanese English, could

emerge. Just like other new Englishes, this variant would progress

through development stages that would move the variation towards

possible endonormative acceptance in some language contexts. Cur-

rently in recognized world English variants, hybridity, or variation in

speech, is the norm, even for countries with colonial English pasts such

as the U.S. or Canada. Additionally, many Englishes that do not con-

form to standard American or British English norms have emerged

worldwide. A future with a wider acceptance of varieties that flout the

traditional exonormative English standards is gradually coming to re-

alization.

While this paper leans towards an acceptance of expanding English

variation, it does not deny the social significance of prescriptive norms.

A well-documented exonormative language model such as standard

American or British English provides relatively clear benchmarks for a

language learner. Additionally, L2 English users who work in environ-

ments that rely primarily upon standard British or American English

need the ability to use standard forms for successful performance when

the social currency of such communication is essential. However, based

on estimates from Crystal (2003) the majority of English speaking peo-

ple worldwide are L2 English speakers (109), and in many international

business contexts, English that does not necessarily conform to the

British or American standard are no less effective. A comprehensibility

study including Hong Kong, Indian, Korean, Japanese and American

speakers even found that the least intelligible speaker among their sub-

jects was the American speaker (Kachru and Nelson 2006, 70-71). In

short, a speaker with command of almost any systemic English variant

and an adequate lexicon related to their given field of expertise can

potentially function in a broad range of business environments.

Is Japanese English a New English? 117

Categorizing World Englishes

The immediate question that comes to mind when considering Eng-

lish use internationally is, "what constitutes a recognized variation of

English?" Englishes that have spread through permanent settlement of

English speaking populations are universally recognized as standard

bearers, so one can refer to American, British, Canadian or even South

African English with little to no controversy. Some may immediately

intuit that those Englishes have existed the longest or that such coun-

tries have the highest proportion of English speakers. While such gen-

eralizations can hold to some extent, the history of English spread

contradicts such notions. For instance, as described by Mukherjee

(2010), India is one of the earliest nations with English contact, with the

East India Company arriving in the early 17th century, culminating in

1750 with rule by the East India Company. English was firmly estab-

lished in India and used widely by indigenous India inhabitants by the

late 19th century (Mukherjee 2010). In contrast, the first English-

speaking colony in Australia, Cape colony, did not arrive until 1788 and

Australia did not enter the British Commonwealth until the beginning

of the 20th century (Burridge 2010). The countries that had English-

speaking settlers historically do not necessarily have the highest per-

centage of English speakers. South Africa has a history of settlement

by English speakers but, according to the Statistics South Africa 2011

Census, South Africa has only around 5.7 million speakers or a roughly

11% English speaking population. Singapore, made up primarily of a

population with Malay, Chinese and Indian heritage, comparatively has

a higher proportion of speakers than South Africa as seen from the

Singapore Department of Statistics 2010 Census, which indicates that

over 32% of the population uses English as the primary home language.

A cluster of factors, historical, structural and social tend to define the

reception of a given English within and beyond the borders of a particu-

Jar English speaking country. This section will consider a particular

categorization of English social use, the identity of English users, and


English hybridity in order to introduce some of the broad themes in the

classification of World Englishes.

Researchers have developed various systems for categorizing world

Englishes with Kachru's Three Circles Model of English perhaps being

the most cited. Kachru delineates the English realm with three catego-

ries: inner, outer and expanding. Much of the discussion here comes from

Kachru 1985, but Kachru's detailed responses to critiques of Three Cir-

cles Model may be found in Kachru (2005, 211-220).

The inner circle refers to the English regions where English-

speaking settlers established permanent colonies that have developed

to their modern day incarnations. The inner circle refers to countries

such as the U.S., Britain and New Zealand.

The outer circle Englishes also tend to have relatively early English

contact and spread, but English becomes institutionalized in contexts

where English is not the primarily first language; these regions typi-

cally have undergone a process of colonization as a part of their histo-

ries. English serves as only one out of two or more languages of such

regions and has a significant status in relation to language policy. The

other characteristic of the outer circle is that English speakers in those

regions use English in a range of domains -social, educational, govern-

mental and creative. The outer circle would include countries such as

Singapore, Malaysia and India.

Kachru (2005) uses the expanding circle as a type of shorthand to

acknowledge the socio-economic dominance of English worldwide.

Typically it refers to countries that lack the strong colonial ties of the

outer circle countries, but still has a strong emphasis on developing its

populace's ability to use English as an international lingua franca.

Kachru notes that the expanding circle Englishes share qualities with

the inner circle Englishes, so their boundaries overlap and these two

categories are quite fluid. Expanding circle countries include Japan,

China and Russia.

Kachru explains that prescriptive English-norms differ among the

circles so each has a different type of sociolinguistic status. The stan-

dard versions of inner circle varieties tend to represent the norms for


English production, especially since such varieties tend to be perceived

traditionally as spoken by "native speakers"; standard American and

British English are the most widely adapted norms. Kachru labels the

inner circle as "norm developing" as their speakers have conflicts about

what should serve as the English norm. These countries have signifi-

cant populations of speakers who have taken full ownership of the Ian-

guage and have tied their own variant to their national identity. At the

same time conservative forces wish to adhere to traditional norms; an

example would be the Singapore Speak Good English Movement (Ling

2010, 232). Expanding circle Englishes tend to be norm-dependent, so

they lack endonormative or internal models for appropriate English

speech and instead rely on inner circle English models.

Kachru (1985) goes on to explain the issue of what constitutes an

"authentic" English variation. The inner circle Englishes all have dia-

lectal variation and the populaces of those countries do not typically

adhere the standard dialect; for instance Trudgill and Hannah (2008)

note that standard British English, Received Pronunciation is only spo-

ken by three to five percent of the population (9). English has no abso-

lute standard, so as a result, the basis of language codification lies in

official references such as dictionaries, social attitudes, educational set-

tings and business preferences (Kachru 1985, 17-18). This lack of a

universal standard and the history of language change and innovation,

even within inner circle Englishes, leave open a space for the greater

acceptance of broad English variation within the international speech

community. Kachru (1985) points out that despite the emergence of

English variety, the formally educated varieties of English appear to

have a high degree of mutual intelligibility (24). This mutual intelligi-

bility in a way argues for a larger acceptance of a certain degree of

divergence from the traditional inner circle English norms.

Shared Qualities of Japanese and Outer Circle Englishes

Japanese English shares a number of structural similarities to outer

circle Englishes, so has the potential gain wider endonormative accep-

120 明治大学教養論集通巻527号 (2017• 9)

tance. Comparing features of Japanese English to those in South East

Asian English, with particular attention to Indian English illustrates

that a number of productions labeled as errors, can be reconsidered in

light of English norms in other variations.

It seems that one of the main determinants of labeling a particular

English expression as erroneous or not, is the frame from which a !is・

tener considers the language. Based on the status of English in India,

classified as an expanding Circle English by Kachru, most laypeople

would probably acknowledge the existence of a distinctive Indian Eng-

lish. As a result, an expression such as "I am having a cold" (Gargesh

2006, 104), which uses the present progressive in a stative sentence

would largely be identified as a particular grammatical feature of In-

dian English. A listener would probably deem as ungrammatical the

same expression spoken by a Japanese speaker, who is framed as an L2

learner of English based on the exonormative standard of British or US

English. This section will consider a number of such "errors" from Japa-

nese English that scholars have identified as distinct features of other

Englishes.

When considered from the perspective of other Englishes, the ap-

parent idiosyncrasies of Japanese English speakers actually appear

fairly normal. The substratum influence of major areal languages

drives much of the diversity in the world's Englishes and such influence

is no less true for English used by Japanese people. Ultimately we can

see that conformity to an exonormative standard such as British or

American English does not serve as a necessary criterion for recogni-

tion as an English variety.

The Pronunciation of Japanese English speakers

People usually take notice of the phonology of a variety of English that

contrasts with an expected standard such as standard British or Ameri-

can English. Consider the typical fare of mainstream Hollywood films

that present non-US origin characters who speak English but with the

imagined accent of a French, Russian or Chinese speaker. More than


almost any other aspect of a character's expression, the exaggerated

"accent" of such film characters highlights a foreign identity. Much is

made of the L2 speaker's ability to successfully pronounce utterances

with a degree of accuracy. However, even inner circle English contains

phonological variation to the extent that there are fewer speakers of the

variety that usually is recognized as the standard. For instance, a small

percentage of British English speakers adhere to Received Pronuncia-

tion, and the speakers of American newscaster English, the Midlands

dialect, are far outnumbered by speakers of Southern English. It natu-

rally follows from Inner Circle English variety that outer circle

Englishes will deviate from any model deemed to be the standard. This

section will consider some examples of the types of pronunciation used

by Japanese speakers of English in comparison with speakers of varie-

ties of outer circle Englishes.

Since Japanese English typically receives judgment based on an

exonormative standard, L2 English learners receive guidance on sound-

ing more native-like through the correction of their English pronuncia-

tion, which has been influenced by Japanese phonology. Japanese

speakers typically have difficulty emulating speakers of an inner circle

variety such as American English since the Japanese language has a

phonology different from English. The contrast is especially clear when

considering vowels since Japanese relies on a smaller vowel inventory

than English. While Japanese has five vowel phonemes, consisting of

/i/, /e/, /a/, ju/ and /o/ (Okada 1999, 117), an American English vari-

ety can contain 15 different phonemic vowel contrasts, which consist of

both monophthongs and diphthongs (Ladefoged 1999, 42-43). As a re。

suit, Japanese L2 English speakers will commonly utter vowels that

contrast with those typically used by American English speakers.

While a speaker using standard American English would say'bit'with

a front high tense vowel, a Japanese L2 English speaker would pro-

nounce a vowel that sounds similar to the front high vowel and the

word would sound more like'beet', perhaps with a shorter vowel.

When we consider the phonology of Japanese English alongside the

phonology of outer circle Englishes such as the South Asian English


group, many similar alternations in vowel pronunciation can be found.

Gargesh (2006) contrasts the phonological characteristics of South

Asian Englishes with standard American and British English.

Deterding (2010) examines the speech characteristics of the English of

speakers from various countries. This section will compare the descrip-

tions of Englishes by Gargesh (2006) and Deterding (2010) with the

likely characteristics of Japanese L2 English as influenced by Japanese

phonology.

Phonological Contrasts between Standard American/British English and Japanese/South Asian Englishes

Japanese English South Asian English Standard American/British

Monophthongs Monophthongs Diphthongs face/goat

Full vowel Full vowel Schwa hi Weak forms of of/for

Ass1m1late to t/d Assimilate to t/d lnterdental fricatives taught/dis taught/dis thought/this

Clusters break up Word initial clusters Consonant clusters Supeechi, sutepu break up speech, step

Equally Promment Equally Prominent Strong/weak stress contrasts syllables syllables

Japanese English shares number of vowel contrasts with the outer cir-

cle Englishes in relation to vowels in standard British and American

English.

South Asian English diphthongs in words such as'face'and'goat'

become the monophthongs /e/ and /o/ respectively (Gargesh 2006,102;

Deterding 2010, 392). Similarly, in Japanese English, such diphthongs

become monophthongs as expected from the influence of L1 Japanese,

which lacks diphthongs (Okada 1999, 117). Deterding finds that Indian

speakers tend to voice vowels fully, instead of using schwa, even in

expected environments, such as for weak vowels (Deterding 2010, 392).

Similarly, Japanese English speakers tend to avoid use of the schwa as

Japanese vowels generally tend to be fully realized.


Standard American and British English contains a number of con-

sonant features that South Asian and Japanese speakers assimilate in a

way that conforms more closely to the phonology of South Asian

Englishes and Japanese. Interdental fricatives from Standard Ameri-

can/British English assimilate to /t/ or /d/ in both Indian and Japanese

English, so'thought'becomes'tought'or'this'becomes'dis'. In South

Asian languages such as Hindi-Urdu and Haryana, word initial conso-

nant clusters are broken up through the addition of a prothetic vowel,

[speech→ is/peech] or insertion of an epenthetic vowel [speech→

sapeech] (Gargesh 2006, 103). Japanese has a consonant-vowel (CV)

morphological structure, so with the exception of the nasal /N/, all

syllables must remain open (Okada 118). As a result all consonant clus-

ters in Japanese English tend towards pronunciation with the insertion

of an epenthetic vowel.

South Asian Englishes and Japanese English also contrast in the

distribution of stress relative to Standard American/British English.

South Asian English has syllable-timed rhythm, which tends to give

equal weight across syllables. Therefore, speakers of South Asian

Englishes articulate syllables fully giving little prominence to any par-

ticular syllable (Gargesh 2006,103). Analogically, Japanese relies upon

pitch accent contrasts (Okada, 119). As a result, the stress distribution

of Japanese English differs from that of standard American or British

English.

In light of an exonormative standard the pronunciation of the typi-

cal Japanese L2 English learner appears erroneous; however alongside

the more widely recognized Indian English, Japanese English has the

feel of simply another world English. Indeed, the shared features of

Japanese and South Asian English appear across many varieties of Eng-

lish. For instance, avoidance of dental fricatives is ubiquitous in outer

circle and inner circle varieties of English (Deterding 392). We see as-

similation away from the dental fricative in Hong Kong English, Nige-

rian English and American Southern dialect varieties (Deterding 392).

The tendency to use full vowels in contrast with the reduced vowels

from American and British English also appears as a common feature of

124 明治大学教挫論梨通巻527号 (2017•9)

world English varieties. Ultimately, Japanese English conforms with

the norms of language shift that can be evidenced for a number of

Englishes worldwide.

The Syntax of Japanese English speakers

Grammatical expression or syntax serves as another area by which

speakers of English oftentimes receive judgment. Japanese English

speakers can especially find scrutiny for their use of inaccurate English

as judged by standard American or British English. However, like pro-

nunciation, when Japanese English grammar appears in the context of

an outer circle English, such as Indian English, we can readily see that

they share characteristics with each other. A number of features from

standard American or British English that present difficulty for L2

learners shift in the context of non-inner circle English-speaking Ian-

guage environments. This section will consider a number of examples

from Petersen in his discussion of L2 English Japanese learners in rela-

tion to the grammatical use of English in South Asia English variations.

As described in the introduction, in a Japanese English learning envi-

ronment, the exonormative standard is the norm; therefore, Petersen

writes for an audience interested in applying such a standard. This

section creates a new goal, informed by Petersen's findings, to illustrate

that it is possible that some aspects of Japanese English may have suf-

ficient consistency to develop into a future endonormative standard

that mirrors the norms of existing world Englishes.

Grammatical Contrasts between Standard American/British English and Japanese/South Asian Englishes

Japanese English South Asian English

Mass/count nouns deviate

A new equipment, a helpful advice A chalk (Mukherjeee 2010, 175) (Petersen 1988, 39) bnngs you a good luck (Petersen 1988, 17)


The international understanding The Mahatma Gandhi (Gargesh 2006) (Petersen 1988, 21)

Progressive forms with stative verbs

What are you always doing on Sun- I am having a cold (Gargesh 2006, 104)

day? (Petersen 1988, 97) She is not recognizing you (Kachru

I am belonging to a glee club. We are and Nelson 2006, 41) practicing everyday (Petersen 2014,

19)

Use of NP complement construction in characteristic ways

A lyrics of that song was written by a "They were not at all interested in de-

word processor, whose appeal is democracy ... and were only interested pending on clever rhyming and puns to grab power at any cost" (Gargesh

mainly. (Petersen 1988, 131-132) 2006, 104)

He went to China for learning Chinese. (Gargesh 2006, 104)

Characteristic use of prepositions

observed with binoculars (Petersen Now look the difference between ... 1988, 57) (Kachru and Nelson 2006, 46)

written by a word processor (Petersen 1988, 58)

Tense/aspect deviation

When I became a student I thought I SAE I talk to her yesterday (Fillipino want to study abroad (Petersen 2014, doctor case) (Kachru and Nelson 2006, 22) 42)

Irregular use of articles

Kortmann (2010) in his discussion of morphosyntax across Englishes

notes that a couple of pervasive features of indigenized (or Kachru's

outer circle) Englishes is irregular use of articles and wider range use of

the progressive. Japanese English shares these particular features.

Articles perhaps are one of the most difficult words to master along the

lines of standard British or American English since there are a number

of subtle rules and nuances of meaning available through articles

(Kachru and Nelson, 40). When examining outer circle Englishes, varia-

126 明治大学教養論集通巻527号 (2017• 9)

tion in the application of articles can be seen. The classification of

count and non-count nouns is marked by the appearance or absence of

articles. Such deviation is ubiquitous in an expression such as'a

chalk'in Indian English (Mukherjeee 2010, 175) or'equipments'from

South Asian English varieties (Kachru and Nelson, 41). Petersen (1988,

39) also finds nouns such as'equipment'or'advice'treated as count

nouns in the English of Japanese users. In general, the alternative label-

ing of count/non-count nouns rarely affect intelligibility so English

users of any variety can accommodate the shift in usage.

Progressive forms with stative verbs

Another common feature of outer circle Englishes is the use of progres-

sive forms with stative verbs. As described by Kachru and Nelson

(2006) standard American and British stative verbs do not appear in

progressive forms, but since many languages do not have verbs that

classify as stative/dynamic, a number of Englishes allow for structures

such as'you are resembling your brother.'(41) Indian English allows

expressions such as,'I am having a cold.'(Gargesh 2006, 104). Similarly

in the L2 English of Japanese users Petersen (1988) finds expressions

like'What are you always doing on Sunday?'to refer to habitual activ-

ity (97). The exonormative error of the Japanese L2 English user in this

case reflects a norm of world English due to the contrast between the

grammatical structures that influence outer circle Englishes and stan-

dard American and British English.

NP Complement constructions

The production of NP complement constructions present another cha!-

lenge for L2 users who which to emulate standard British or American

English. Gargesh (2006) describes and example from Pakistani English

of a noun phrase complement used in a way characteristic of that varia-

tion, "They were not at all interested in democracy ... and were only

interested to grab power at any cost" (104). Petersen (1988) presents a


sample from a Japanese L2 English writer, "A lyrics of that song was

written by a word processor, whose appeal is depending on clever rhyming

and puns mainly" (131-132). While the two examples differ, they both

share a distinctive type of NP complement. In standard American or

British English the NP complement should take a prepositional phrase

or a noun clause, so you would get, " .. .interested in power at any cost"

in the first case and "…appeal depends upon rhyming and puns." The

Japanese lack of noun phrase complementation leads to novel develop-

ment of complements in Japanese English as we see in an analogical

way in Pakistani English.

Characteristic uses of prepositions

Standard British and American English involves a wide range of prepo-

sition use, especially through relatively idiomatic phrasal verbs, addi-

tionally standard British and American English can diverge in their use,

so it is no surprise that outer circle Englishes demonstrate their own

characteristic uses of prepositions. Kachru and Nelson (2006) gives an

example from educated Indian English speech, "Now look the difference

between…" (46). Petersen gives expressions such as "observed with

binoculars" and "written by a word processor" from the writing of his

university students (57-58).

Tense/aspect deviation

One more way in which Japanese English mirrors outer circle English is

in deviation from standard British and American English tense/aspect

forms. Kachru and Nelson (2006) note that some Southeast Asian varie-

ties signal tense with time adverbs, leaving tense off of the verb, such as

in "I talk to her yesterday" (42). In a similar fashion, Petersen (2014)

gives an example of writing which omits the tense on the verb in the

noun phrase complement, "When I became a student, I thought I want to

study abroad" mirroring tense use in Japanese when the main clause is

already marked for tense (22). The variety of tense/aspect systems in


world languages influences the development of outer circle Englishes.

Of course there are a number of Japanese English user syntactic

contrasts with standard American and British English that are not rep-

resented in other English varieties. And although Petersen looks at

common errors of Japanese L2 English users, it is not necessarily the

case that these usages are systemic in terms of their outputs. However,

it is still possible to conclude that the future Japanese English will pre-

serve some of the characteristics deemed as exonormative errors if

there ever becomes a time when Japanese English can be judged accord-

ing to its own endonormative standard.

The Lexicon of Japanese English speakers

Probably the most widely discussed features in the literature on world

Englishes is lexical innovation. It is expected that a number of words

from the English language would likely first exist as loans through

areal influence in a locality, and those loans would undergo some type

of semantic shift. At a later point as a locality starts to use English

widely, the loans in the local language(s) will influence the way Eng-

lish speakers in those localities understand and use cognates in their

English language use. In addition, words and expressions tied to local

culture and customs which otherwise do not have equivalents in Eng-

lish are expected to appear in the acceptable lexicon of the local English

variation. A number of world Englishes evidence local language bor-

rowing and lexical innovation spurred by the vocabulary of the local

languages.

Mukherjee (2010) provides examples of a number of words from

local languages that entered the Indian English lexicon. Challan'bank

receipt', coolie'porter', meta'crowd', goonda'hooligan', and swadeshi'of

one's own country'reflect lexical innovations in English (175). Some-

times Indian English by analogy extends the uses of affixes such as in

words that add -ee: affectee, awardee, and recruitee. Or new words derive

from the prefix de-: deconfirm, defriend and derecognize. There is also

derivation through zero affixation with the new verbs: airling, public


and slogan. Mukherjee (2010) lists new lexical items and compounds

derived from the English lexicon including beer-bottle'bottle of beer', to

by-heart'to learn by heart', to off /on'to switch off/on'and prepone'to

bring forward in time'. Indian English also consists of collocations un-

common in standard British English such as illicit liquor, or illicit den.

Indian English also has vocabulary with semantic (boy means but-

ler) and grammatical contrasts (both can be used with the negative

form of the verb) with standard British English. (175) Mukherjee and

Hoffmann (2006) note the creation of new ditransitives in Indian Eng-

lish. They discuss tokens such as, "I informed him the account I had got

from John Hutson." In which a transitive verb,'inform', which normally

takes one object, transforms to a ditransitive verb, which can take on

two objects. The alternation happens due to semantic analogy from

other verbs in English, a common process even in inner circle Englishes

(166).

Practically all of the changes above result from "nativized seman-

tico-structural analogy". So by using structural analogies from English

itself, much like speakers of inner circle Englishes do, Indian English

speakers derived new terminology (Mukherjee 2010, 175-176). Such

forms through analogy lend support to the argument that Indian Eng-

lish is a norm-developing variety since many innovations are the result

of creativity with English itself, rather than structural interference

from surrounding languages. (Mukherjee 2010, 176)

Japanese English also contains a number of lexical innovations.

Japanese is well-known for borrowing a large vocabulary from English

in the lexicon identified as gairaigo. Oftentimes these words when used

in Japanese English can undergo semantic shift relative to the standard

American or British source word. Petersen (2016) lists some words that

have the potential to appear in Japanese English with a differing se-

mantics from standard American or British English, including: reform

'renovation', shaゅpencil'mechanicalpencil', and playguide'ticket agen-

cy'. (18) Petersen (2016) also finds a few cases where gairaigo have ap-

peared in the English writing of his students such as, (ar)baito'part-

time job'derived from the German word arbeit, and virgin road'the

130 明治大学教養論集通巻527号 (2017• 9)

(wedding) aisle (19). Petersen (2016) also notes expressions which

Japanese English users have created as direct translations of equivalent

Japanese expressions such as, "do your best", from the expression

ganbatte (14). From this small sample one would expect that Japanese

English users will include a significant number of novel English expres-

sions in their speech and writing as speakers of Indian English do so.

Conclusion

It's worth reflecting on the position of Japanese English within the

world Englishes sphere. Perhaps there is a future where we will see

Japanese English in publications and used more widely in not only the

public spheres such as business and education, but also in private

spheres between friends.

Also in the current political environment of a shift towards a sort

of isolationism by the U.K and the U.S, the two countries that have been

sort of the standard bearer of English historically, it may not be too far

fetched to believe that the international community will be more wet-

coming of more varieties of English that do not necessarily conform to

traditionally accepted norms. Such a trend already exists, and the cur-

rent state of affairs helps us to imagine a more fluid English in the fu-

ture.

English is well-entrenched in the education system with students

from elementary school onward required to study English and the vari-

ous university entrance exams requiring English as a test component.

Even before the wave of English only policies, English has always

served as a valued skill in a number of businesses in Japan due to

Japan's economic influence and membership with the OECD countries.

Also, while many lament the poor English skills of Japanese people, it

can be seen that part of the issue stems from whether we view Japanese

English variation from an exonormative or endonormative perspective.

At some point in the future as more Japanese people speak and use

English there will come a point in time when someone will call for

acknowledgement of a Japanese English endonormative standard.


From that point on Japanese English will have the potential of being

recognized as simply one of the varieties of English alongside Singa-

pore, Indian or even American English.

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