English students of Japan, unite! You have nothing to lose but your (conversation school) chains!

Over the past 38 years in Japan, I have heard many explanations for the oft-cited low level of English-language competence here, including the ridiculous ("Japanese people just have no talent for languages") and the utterly preposterous ("Japanese brains are wired differently from those of other nationalities").

Whatever your take on language acquisition might be, the practical problem facing teachers of foreign languages anywhere is student motivation.