Learning Useless English Grammar in Japan

Have you ever struggled to understand a presentation by a scholar with a strong Japanese accent? Last week I wrestled with the speech of a brilliant young psychology lecturer visiting from Japan. For the word graph (IPA [gɹæf]) he produced what unfortunately sounded almost exactly like grape. I knew enough about Japanese phonology to guess what he probably intended by his pronunciation (IPA [gɻeːɸ]), but many audience members were baffled.

Many schools in Japan teach English from age 10, but th...