Some readers' responses to Nicolas Gattig's Nov. 22 Zeit Gist column, headlined "MacArthur, identity theory and Japan's lingering eigo woes":
Nicolas Gattig's article is typical of the woolly-headed "relativistic" thinking prevalent nowadays. It also demonstrates the tendency of Americans in Japan to buy into the notion common in Japan that there are only two countries in the world that count.
If, as members of the world's third largest economy, Japanese are indeed so intimidated by Westerners as to be unwilling to express themselves in English, what does that say about the rest of the world?