Teaching English to Japanese Students...etc...etc..

I was thinking the other day of a student I had a few years ago by the name of Megumi Iwasaki and wondering whatever happened to her because I have not heard from her for some time now. She went to graduate school here and I assume that she has probably returned to Japan. You might wonder with all the many students that I have had why Megumi was one that stood out. Well, normally Megumi would be one who would NOT stand out in my memory because she, like so many Japanese students, was very SHY, but Megumi wanted to make an impression on her teacher because she knew the teacher would probably be teaching other Japanese students and she wanted to help the students that came after her. Maybe some ESOL teacher may read this blog and it will help if he/she has Japanese students to teach now and in the future.
Megumi told me that students in Japan have English taught to them for six years beginning in junior high school. She said that the problem was in her opinion that there was an over emphasis on GRAMMAR TEACHING and not enough on PRONUNCIATION. Also, the pronunciation that was taught was the wrong pronunciation so that when she came to the United States she had to relearn English pronunciation. She said that ESOL teachers should encourage Japanese students to speak SLOWLY and when you teach them stress the teaching of the letters "r" "v" "w" and (like most languages) "th". I think also that in Japanese the vowels have only ONE sound for each of them. (I am not quite sure about that.)
And now for the "etc etc" in the title: Sometimes I wish I could speak everyone's language, especially French, Spanish, and Urdu. Why French lately?..because I have received Facebook messages in French from Nancy,France; Spanish?...because I want to read the e-mail I received from Ines about those kids in Uruguay all taking laptop computers home from school everyday!!! Is that impressive or what!! and Urdu?...well, that exotic language is the language of Pakistan and my friend Sikandar the nephrologist, who is in Florida right now and traveling around so much that it is hard to keep up with him !! I envy Sikandar in Florida right now. It is freezing out today!