Reply To OceanWannabe Regarding, 'Well, maybe they just aren't interested in languages'

French is French. English is the language used in international business. Europeans, like the Germans and the Dutch, plus all other countries surrounding the French, have been lapping up learning English for decades now. It is why I have some good friends from such countries. I often say to them, 'Thanks for speaking English. I'm sorry I don't speak German' and they give me strange looks and then say, 'Uh, it's English'. When in Turkey,  I met a few travelers from China and Taiwan and they spoke better English than what I did. I met two Japanese. They spoke pretty good English but not at the level that their Asian cousins exhibited. The two Japanese were leading very, very interesting lives. Such interesting lives could only be attributed to their attempts at embracing the English language.
If English were not the language of the world, I would laugh along with the 'this is Japan'  kids who sit there looking self-satisfied and 'right' in their refusal to learn the language. But I have seen the world and I have met hundreds of different kinds of people, and I have to say that it is English that has brought us together, that has fueled friendships, interesting conversations, new things learned about other cultures, opportunities, and if I were to have to study a language for 6 long years, with at least 3 classes a day devoted to the language, then I think I'd start to realise that maybe I should make those 6 long years worth the trouble.
There is no excuse for the lack of effort MOST Japanese students give English.
Like I said, from now on, I will only engage with the kids engaged with the language. The rest can stew in their mono-lingual miso soup. I used to care. I don't anymore. I have told them time and time again about former students of mine who are doing really well, leading interesting lives; average students, who merely because they put some effort in with English, had doors opened to them that otherwise would have remained closed. How can what seems to be 98% of the population here, remain so hostile to the language? I just don't understand. After 20 years here, on and off, nothing, absolutely nothing has changed from 1992. Weird. p.s I also tell the kids about an exchange student we had from Thailand a few years ago whose English was amazing. Thailand! I am sure learning English is as difficult for Thais as it is for the Japanese. There is no excuse. It is laziness. Pure laziness. Like I said, let 'em stew. I no longer care for the ones who will forever stubbornly remain within these shores.