Tall stories are clearly better than short ones, at least in the world of publishing. A whole industry has grown out of the perceived, often exaggerated disparities between things Japanese and things non-Japanese. Without cultural antithesis it seems, there would be little material for the countless books and articles churned out every year; the gravy train of publishing would soon come to a halt.
I opened the pages of "I Wouldn't Want Anybody to Know: Native English teaching in Japan" with a well-grounded feeling of dread, subjects like this tending to be as dull as dishwater. Contrary to expectations, I found myself enjoying this book, alternately nodding in agreement, taking strong exception to other views and snorting with laughter.
The thirst for English in Japan does not presuppose good, or even willing students, many of whom are disadvantaged from the outset. Having studied English for years in the school system, one that is generally counter-intuitive to the communicative nature of language, foreign instructors, some with little teaching experience themselves, are required to get results. In many instances, universities and private language schools become detoxification centers tasked with the job of reversing the damage done by the education system. This can be an awesome undertaking, as one of the contributors to this collection, the very astute Reza Fiyouzat, points out. Exposing the underpinnings of this wobbly educational construct, he rightly comments that in this system form takes priority over meaningful communication, causing "another essential mechanism" of language learning to be subverted, "that mechanism being the negotiation of meaning."