Acquiring the ability to speak fluent English has been a decades-long pursuit for many Japanese toiling to master the dominant language of the world.

As English tightens its grip as a lingua franca in global communications and a path to increased opportunities, the longing for English proficiency grows even greater.

But it is an enormous challenge for most Japanese to speak the language, given the few similarities between English and their mother tongue.

Ryuichi Hotta, a professor of English linguistics and history at Keio University, recommends that Japanese should not set the bar too high or be fixated on the need to speak "standard" English.

He points to the rise of speakers of a family of English dialects emerging in India, Singapore, Nigeria and elsewhere in the world.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

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Question: What would you say to the belief that having a good command of English is a must if you want to participate on the global stage?

Hotta: It is true that English proficiency is necessary in international settings. English is spoken at most international conferences and business meetings and offered as one of the languages that people can choose from for communication.

English is also the predominant language used in U.N. organizations. It is also the case with global transportation and air traffic where poor communication could lead to immediate danger. Airline pilots and air traffic controllers use English to communicate across the world.

British linguist David Crystal estimates that the combined number of native and non-native speakers of English total 2 billion in the world, making the group the largest of any other language speakers.

English has spread to the world more than any other native language in human linguistic history. You could say that English as a language is used by merely 25 percent of the global population. Still, its importance is undeniable when people coming from different cultures use it to communicate with one another.

Q: Given the dominance of English on the global scene, non-native English speakers appear to be at a disadvantage. There is also the term “English imperialism” referring to the status of English being perceived as superior to other tongues.

A: “English imperialism” is used when the dominance of English is critically viewed. In imperialism, a nation has other countries under its control on the back of its military and economic prowess.

Like an imperial power, the criticism of English is that it has dominated other languages, building the hierarchy of languages with it at the top and maintaining its primacy over others. In my view, the criticism is warranted.

I began learning English for the first time in junior high school, taking English classes like my peers elsewhere in Japan. I liked studying English so that I became a researcher of the history of the English language.

Even today, however, I do not think that English is an easy language to master. No matter how hard you work, you will not be able to speak fluent English like native speakers.

And the dominance of English as the language for global communication continues, you may find yourself pitted against native speakers in professional contexts, including in court proceedings, political debates, business negotiations, arguments and other difficult situations.

Non-native speakers are most likely to get outtalked by native speakers in a volley of words because people are more effective and persuasive when speaking their mother tongues. As a result, non-native speakers harbor fear and concern that they might find themselves in a tough situation one day.

Depending on your native language, it will put you in a better position or otherwise.

Q: How did English achieve its predominant position?

A: Some try to argue that English is easier to learn, compared with other languages, but I do not think that is true. The spread of English has nothing to do with its linguistic characteristics.

English has spread in the world because it happened to be the language used in Britain and the United States, the two nations that have held the hegemony of the world due to their overwhelming power in the military, politics, economy, culture and technology.

Britain, with its outreach to various corners of the globe since the 18^th century, rose to the hegemonic position through the industrial revolution until it was overtaken by the United States in the 20^th century.

Together, Britain and the United States have held the hegemony for about 300 years, retaining the clout to force their language onto other countries and regions.

But there also were precedents. Greek, Latin, Arabic, Chinese and other languages of influential states also spread to surrounding regions. Although the extent of the spread was not as great as today’s English, the language of an influential nation goes beyond its borders. 

Q: Is English a difficult language to master for Japanese?

A: You can say it is. No reliable measure has yet to be established to gauge the absolute level of difficulty of learning a given language. But researchers agree that they can quantify the relative difficulty, depending on the learners’ native tongue.

There are few similarities between Japanese and English in terms of pronunciations, grammatical systems, vocabularies, for example. Japanese require a lot more time to acquire English skills than native speakers of European languages because those languages and English are likened to dialects when their roots are traced back thousands of years.

English and European languages have many things in common.

And equally important to remember is that Japanese and speakers of English as a first language do not share the foundation for communication, such as religion, history, culture and customs.

Japanese hit a wall as soon as they attempt to strike up a conversation in English because they do not know how to begin in the first place. In contrast, European countries have many things in common with Britain and the United States, including manners when conducting conversations.

Speakers of European languages do not feel this barrier in speaking English from the start. 

Q: What would you recommend to Japanese to be able to speak English with confidence?

A: They should give up their obsession with speaking "standard" English. The world’s 2 billon speakers of English consist of 500 million native speakers and 1.5 billion non-native speakers.

The gap between the two is expected to grow in the coming years from the current three times, given the population growth in Africa and Asia and the advance in educational standards in the regions.

As the world has seen a decline in the hegemonic power of the United States and Britain in recent decades, the influence of standard English spoken in the two nations is also being chipped away in the Anglophone world.

In contrast, World Englishes, a reference to new vernaculars of English that have evolved in India, Singapore, Nigeria and many other countries, are thriving.

Take Indian English, for example, which is said to be spoken with a strong accent. But Indians are known to speak their English confidently at international conferences.

Most Japanese are preoccupied with the idea of acquiring skills in standard English that they deeply admire and are afraid of deviating from it perhaps because of their diligence or the flawed English education system.

But we are now living in the world where the majority of the English-speaking population are not speakers of standard English. They instead speak Englishes and have no problem communicating with each other.

If Japanese grow more aware of the rise of World Englishes, they would feel more at ease with speaking their own English. If you turn to YouTube, you can find countless videos spoken in Englishes. You will be reassured that you can communicate sufficiently even with your broken English.

But when it comes to written English, I strongly recommend that you should strive to acquire deep knowledge of English grammar and a rich vocabulary to be able to write compellingly what you intend to convey.

(This article is based on an interview by Arata Namima.)

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Ryuichi Hotta, a professor of English linguistics and history with Keio University, was born in Tokyo in 1975. A graduate of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies with a degree in English language, he obtained a Ph.D. after completing the doctoral program in English language and linguistics at the University of Glasgow. While in college, he took a year off from school to backpack around about 50 countries, with most in Eurasia.