Kirk here. Koichi HAGIUDA, Minister for Promoting Green Transformation of Japan (and, by the way, a politician known for his cozy relations with the Unification Church [Moonies]) visited Kumamoto today in connection with preparations for the arrival of TSMC. According to the news report, Kumamoto University is considering teaching classes at the affiliated elementary and junior high school in English so that the children of engineers can study there. Minister Hagiuda went so far as to speculate that classes at the school might be conducted entirely in English and still be in accord with the Ministry of Eduction guidelines (学習指導要領).

Personally, I wonder how many of the families that will be coming to Kumamoto will want to have (or be ready for) instruction conducted entirely in English. Here’s a quote about English proficiency in Taiwan:

— start quote — In the EF English Proficiency Index of 2018, which was the last time Taiwan was included, Taiwan ranked 48th out of 88 non-English speaking countries. With a score of 51.88, Taiwan fell into the “low proficiency” category. — end quote — https://bubbleteaisland.com/2023/05/09/what-percentage-of-taiwan-can-speak-english/

By the way, in that 2018 survey Japan was ranked 49th. In other words, typical Taiwanese proficiency in English was just above that of Japan. So, isn’t this a little like people in Taiwan saying “Many Japanese business executives will be moving here. We need more schools that provide instruction in English”? Granted, some such people might prefer instruction in English to instruction in the local language, but that doesn’t mean that instruction in English alone is the obvious solution to questions regarding how best to education the children of such workers. The media coverage I’ve seen so far has ignored the question of whether or not the families of people from Taiwan would really want or be ready for instruction only in English.

Another question is Would Kumadai’s elementary and junior high schools really be able to provide good quality instruction only in English? I’ve heard rumors that some people in the Faculty of Education, which would have to administer such a curriculum, aren’t happy about all this talk about doing everything in English.

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