It is 2008-is beef Jerky still ban?

It's a very common misconception that just because a person is young and Japanese they would know how to *speak* English.

Yes the Japanese do study English grammatically for testing purposes, but not many actually can speak it very well, even though they might understand main points, in reading and listening.

I can totally understand this point of view, because I can understand more Japanese then I can actually speak it.

Or take it from the point of view that many of us were required to study Algebra in jr. high and sr. high school, but how many of us really remember algebra other then we studied, we passed the test then we forget because we don't use it. Same for the Japanese in studying English in my opinion. It's another subject to study, pass a test, and if you don't use it you're going to forget it.

John is right. I can read several languages but can't speak them well enough to make a full sentence..
Years ago I was about to take a shuttle bus in Paris CDG airport when I heard a woman shouting in English at the top of her lungs..she was shouting at the driver, who looked shocked and scared.

I talked to him briefly in French then told the woman "no point shouting the poor man doesn't speak English"
She replied "of course he does..he is black!" so I said: "many black people in the world don't speak English and this driver is not only French but obviously born/ raised in Paris (Parisians have a typical accent).

The woman was stunned..She just couldn't grasp the concept of a black person not being Afro-American...

myself I can't grasp the concept of beef jerky..just thinking about it makes me nauseous..