We held our seasonal meeting of English on April 8 after long intervals. Three were four participants including me at the meeting. The attendants were all fluent speakers of English. We really enjoyed our discussion even in a small number of participants.

　　　First we talked about the article of “Low English levels pervasive among nation’s teachers（The Japan Times, May 26）“　The article says that “55.4% of teachers who teach English in public high schools have either Grade-1 or Grade Pre-1 of the Eiken test, or those with TOEIC score of 730and higher, while the number stands at 28.8% for those at junior highs. One might say that much things have done to reform the teaching methodologies in the past years initiated by the ministry of Education; teachers in schools are making much efforts to improve their communication skills, together with their teaching skills in the classroom. It can be said that we cannot measure the ability of teaching English only by the score of TOEIC or the grade of Eiken, Education at large covers the whole genres of teacher’s personality and knowledge in daily life.

　　　Second, we discussed the issue of a mother’s online grumbling about Japan’s notorious day care center shortage(The Japan Times, March 8). We unanimously agree with the idea that a lot of people are not satisfied with the situations in which mothers can not actively work in society, though Abe promised to realize a society where all the people can play an important role in the society of Japan. Welfare minister Shiozaki indicated some measures to tackle the day care issue the other day. He seems to consider the safety at day care centers for children, because one teacher can take care of six children at most. There is no denying the fact that many children are on waiting lists for nursery schools. We have to work out some measures to cope with the day care issues by the cooperation of government and people.

　　　Third, we talked about the crisis of night clubs to be closed by the threat of archaic law. Young people in Tokyo visit their favorite dancing clubs to get out of their systems every weekend. Some young people like salsa as an entertainment at night. The government should revise the old-fashioned “Entertainment Business Control and Improvement Law” to get along with the atmosphere of modern days.

　　　Lastly, we had a debate concerning the recent Brussels bombings. The topic of the day was whether we should refrain from traveling to Europe for the time being or not. We wanted to have some advice from a frequent traveler, but we couldn’t. However, we tried to think over the safety to travel to Europe in such a risky moment. Some people said that the Japanese travelers are relatively safe because they are not the real target of the terrorists at large. The Japanese will be able to enjoy watching the Mona Lisa at the Louvre without waiting so long even in the peak season. Those who oppose the idea of traveling to Europe insisted that they should not visit some soft targets such as shopping malls, amusement parks and art museums. where many people gather to spend their free time. However, everything has a risk in daily lives. It depends on each individual to decide what to do in the holidays of May..



Junichi Saito