Why Do Japanese People Find Speaking English So Hard? Three Reasons from the Data, and How to Break Through

Hello, everyone! I'm part of the study-abroad support team here.

When I was studying abroad as a Japanese student, a Western friend once said something to me.

"If three people, one Chinese, one Korean and one Japanese, came walking towards us, we couldn't tell them apart just by looking. But once we talk to them, we can sort of tell. The Chinese or Korean person tries to answer in English somehow. The Japanese person smiles and goes quiet."

Of course, that is not scientific data, and it does not hold for every Japanese, Chinese or Korean person.

She didn't mean it unkindly, either. It was simply the impression she had formed, in her own way, from the people she had met while living abroad.

But oddly, her words stuck with me, and the reason was that I recognised a little of myself in them.

When I couldn't catch what someone said, I just smiled and brushed it off. Even when I had the answer in my head, the conversation moved on while I was still putting together a correct sentence.

Could it be that the problem for Japanese people isn't that they "don't know English", but that they struggle to get the English they do know out of their mouths?

In this column I look at why Japanese learners, who study English so conscientiously, still find speaking it so hard, drawing on recent data and research and on my own experience of studying abroad.

First, the short version

What I found is that Japanese people's difficulty with English does not come from being "not cut out for it".

There are three main barriers.

• Japanese and English are quite different languages to begin with
• In Japan, there are few moments when you would be in trouble without English
• In trying to speak correctly, people tend to become cautious about stepping into a conversation themselves

It makes more sense to put this down to how far apart the languages are, to environment and to experience than to ability.

And the flip side is that if you change the environment and the experience, there is a chance of breaking through.

① Reason 1: Japanese and English are "quite distant languages"

First, a fact that should be a small comfort to us as learners: English is not an easy language for Japanese speakers.

Take word order. In English, you say "I eat an apple." In Japanese, the same sentence runs "I – an apple – eat". The verb sits in a different place: second in English, last in Japanese.

English also has articles (a and the), plurals, the third person singular, sounds that Japanese lacks, word stress, and strings of consonants that have to be pronounced together.

Even the rhythm of the two languages is built differently. Second language phonetics research has pointed out that Japanese speakers tend to find English word stress and rhythm difficult.

One interesting reference point comes from the Foreign Service Institute of the US State Department, which classifies how hard it is for native English speakers to learn foreign languages to a working level.

Spanish, French and the like fall into categories that can be learned in a comparatively short time. Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic, on the other hand, are in the hardest group, Category IV. For Category IV, the FSI gives an estimate of about 2,200 class hours, or 88 weeks, for an English speaker to reach working proficiency.

Of course, this is data for English speakers learning Japanese, so it can't simply be applied in reverse. Even so, it is one way to think about how far apart Japanese and English are as languages.

So we Japanese learners start out climbing a somewhat steep mountain.

② Surprising data 1: Japan scores below Korea and China on the TOEFL, and its lowest skill is Speaking

So what do the English test figures say? Let's look at the 2025 TOEFL iBT test-taker data published by ETS. These are the average scores by country or region of origin.

Japan scores 73, and the lowest of the four skills is Speaking, at 17.

A word of caution about this data, though. It compares only the people who took the TOEFL, so it is not a comparison of the English ability of the whole population of Japan, China or Korea. ETS itself notes that TOEFL scores are accurate at the individual level but not suited to comparing countries.

Even so, it is interesting that Speaking tends to be the weak spot even among Japanese test-takers who care enough about learning English to sit the TOEFL.

③ Reason 2: In Japan, you can live without using English

If you live in Japan, you can get by almost entirely without English. That sounds obvious, but it makes a big difference in language learning.

In EFL (English as a Foreign Language) settings such as Japan and China, there are few chances to use English naturally in daily life, so learners tend to depend on artificial English environments such as classes and role-plays. Second language research has pointed this out as well.

And an ability you don't use does not become automatic.

You could read a book on how to ride a bicycle for 100 hours, but without actually practising riding you still wouldn't ride well from the start. English is a little like that.

You can explain what the past tense is. But the moment someone suddenly asks you in English, "What did you do yesterday?", your head starts working it out: "It's yesterday, so past tense... the past of go is went..." You have the knowledge, but you can't retrieve it at the speed of conversation.

The problem may be less how much you have studied than how often you have actually used it.

④ Reason 3: "It's embarrassing to get it wrong" stops people speaking

There is one more thing that can't be ignored when thinking about Japanese people and English: the psychological hurdle of speaking it.

Studies of Japanese university students suggest that anxiety about speaking English is linked to things such as:

• how others will see them
• pressure from classmates
• how confident they feel about their own English.

In addition, a small-scale study compared Japanese learners of English with native English speakers learning Japanese. It found that, among the Japanese learners only, whether they felt able to speak could influence their willingness to have a go more than their actual language ability did.

None of this should be reduced to "so very Japanese". Still, I recognise a good deal of it in myself.

You have something you want to say. But you wonder, "Is this English right?" You think, "I should say it in better English." In the meantime, someone else speaks. And you smile, nod and let it end there.

It brings back my friend's words from the start of this article.

⑤ What I found hardest abroad: "My turn in the conversation never comes if I just wait"

Something that really threw me while I was studying abroad was group conversation.

In Japan, if someone in a group is on the quiet side, somebody will sometimes turn to them by name, warmly or casually, and ask what they think: "What do you think?" or "And what about you?" It is a way of passing them the conversation.

That kind of conversational courtesy was second nature to me. So even abroad, I waited, thinking that my turn would come once the person speaking had finished.

But it didn't.

One person speaks. The next speaks straight away. Another picks up on that. Someone else cuts in.

I would wait, thinking "Is it next?" and "Is it now?" And before I knew it, the topic itself had changed.

At first I genuinely wondered, "When is my turn coming?"

But after a while I realised something.

If I didn't step in myself, nothing would start.

Of course, this doesn't mean that "people from other countries all interrupt". Conversation analysis has studied how English and Japanese differ in turn-taking, in back-channel responses and in how people take part in a conversation. And where international students from many countries gather, each person has their own conversational habits.

So what is needed, I think, is not waiting for someone to ask "And you?" at just the right moment, but the ability to take a step into the conversation yourself with "I think…".

⑥ Surprising data 2: Staying silent has genuinely been studied

This one surprised me quite a lot while I was researching.

A large-scale observational study of more than 900 students learning English at Japanese universities reported that, over 48 hours of class observation, less than 1% of utterances were initiated by students. It also reported silence, with neither teacher nor students speaking, for more than one fifth of the observed time.

Of course, that doesn't mean "all Japanese people are quiet". This was observed in particular university English classes.

Still, when students are not so much unwilling to speak as unsure what to say, afraid of making mistakes or finding it hard to speak up first, they may end up producing less English as they learn.

And this is the important part: you can't practise English while you are silent.

You say something wrong. Someone asks you to repeat it. You rephrase. You get through. Repeating that cycle is what builds conversational ability.

⑦ So what can Japanese learners do? It isn't only "study more grammar"

Let's go back over the three reasons so far.

• English and Japanese are far apart.
• There are few chances to use English in everyday life.
• And speaking can feel like a psychological hurdle.

Of these, the first, the language difference itself, can't be changed. But you can spend more time using English, and have more experiences where getting it wrong is fine.

For example, any of these is a great approach:

• English conversation classes.
• Online lessons.
• Events for meeting people from other countries.
• AI conversation practice.

Another way is to put yourself, even briefly, into an environment where you can't get by without English.

⑧ The value of a short study abroad programme isn't in "finishing" your English

Going to Cebu for a week or two will not suddenly make you speak like a native speaker.

A meta-analysis of 42 studies on studying abroad found a medium-to-large effect on second language acquisition overall. By skill, the effect was particularly large for vocabulary and Speaking. Another analysis, which pooled 14 studies, found a medium effect of the study abroad setting on the development of second language fluency, compared with learning in one's home country.

However, these analyses include study abroad stays of anything from a few weeks to over a year, so they do not mean the same effect would appear in one or two weeks.

So I think it helps to see a short study abroad stay not as "a place to go and finish your English" but as "a training ground for getting into the habit of using English".

⑨ In Cebu, you can deliberately build in time when staying silent isn't an option

A major feature of studying in the Philippines is one-to-one lessons.

In a Japanese school, with nearly 40 pupils in a 50-minute class, each person can speak only for so long. Even in group lessons, speaking can end up concentrated among the students who are good at it.

In a one-to-one lesson, though, it is one teacher and one student.

The teacher asks a question. You answer. The teacher asks you to clarify. You explain. If you stay quiet, the lesson simply doesn't move forward.

If you aren't used to speaking English, it may be a little tough at first. But as you repeatedly experience "the teacher waits even if I make a mistake" and "it's fine to rephrase", you gradually become less resistant to speaking itself.

A short programme isn't only about how many hundreds of English words you memorise. It is also about building the reflex of "when someone speaks to me in English, I try to give some kind of reply first". I think that means a lot, too.

⑩ Your first goal isn't to be "fluent" but to stop "smiling and going quiet"

Many people probably set "I want to be fluent in English!" as a goal before studying abroad. That is a lovely goal, of course.

But if you're heading off on a short study abroad trip after reading this, there is one more goal I'd like to suggest: "Even if you don't understand, say something back."

• You didn't understand what they said. Try saying "Sorry?"
• You forgot a word. Try explaining it with words you do know.
• You can't get into the conversation. Try saying "Can I say something?"
• You were asked a question. Before building a perfect sentence, try saying "I think…"

Even a beginner can take these on.

Then you speak once. You speak twice. Ten times. A hundred times. Keep that up, and English starts to come out more naturally than it used to.

What I see on the ground

While researching this topic, I thought of my friend's words for the first time in a while.

"Japanese people smile and go quiet when you talk to them."

At the time I felt a little rueful, as though she had put her finger on a sore spot. But now I don't think this has to end as a negative stereotype of Japanese people.

There are reasons why it takes Japanese people time to speak English. There are language differences. There is the learning environment. There are psychological factors.

In other words, it is not a matter of innate ability.

So there are things you can change.

• Spend more time using English.
• Make more mistakes.
• Talk with people from other countries.
• Step into conversations yourself.

And have more experiences of thinking, "I got my point across!"

Perhaps what we Japanese learners need is not only to work through another 100 pages of grammar exercises, but to actually use the English we already know a hundred times.

References

• U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Institute「Foreign Language Training」. Link
• ETS（2026）「TOEFL iBT Test and Score Data Summary 2025」. Link
• Muroya, A.（2022）「A bidirectional comparison of English and Japanese learners' willingness to communicate in their foreign language」. Ampersand, 9, 100081. Link
• Clancy, P. M., Thompson, S. A., Suzuki, R. & Tao, H.（1996）「The conversational use of reactive tokens in English, Japanese, and Mandarin」. Journal of Pragmatics, 26(3), 355–387. Link
• King, J.（2013）「Silence in the second language classrooms of Japanese universities」. Applied Linguistics, 34(3), 325–343. Link
• Tseng, W.-T., Liu, Y.-T., Hsu, Y.-T. & Chu, H.-C.（2024）「Revisiting the effectiveness of study abroad language programs: A multi-level meta-analysis」. Language Teaching Research, 28(1), 156–200. Link
• Kim, K., Lee, J. H. & Lee, H.（2024）「Systematic review synthesising the effects of study abroad experience on the development of language fluency」. Oxford Review of Education. Link