It came to me today, that I really hate it when students from Asia tell me that "Japanese aren't good at learning languages" or "Germans are so good at English."

And then, I heard one girl say today in my part time job (related to language testing) "I am sorry, I studied hard, but I am not enough."

A ha! I got it. Years of uneasiness and vague generalities coalesce into an easy explanation.

Japan treats language as a body of knowledge that can be acquired in the same way you can study history or science.

Thus, a student could, for example, study really hard a week before a major test and expect to do well. This is especially true in Japan, where English knowledge is quantified meaningfully on multiple choice, grammar focused tests, not on use.

But, language isn't a body of knowledge. It's a skill that needs to be practiced like you practice piano. Thus, no matter how hard you study the week before, you won't perform well unless you are USING THE LANGUAGE.

So there. Use it or lose it.