It’s so daunting!

An average Japanese has undergone more than eight years of English-language instruction, taught in middle school, high school, and in college. Nevertheless, the great majority of Japanese still find it daunting merely to give directions in English....Yes, I am one of them.
Given that Japanese already spends eight years studying English with very little to show for it, just increasing the time to spend for English would be a waste of time.

So what can be done?

I have a 'Japanese language brain' that English sounds are not processed in the language sphere. I have learned this in a brain science course at university.

For a grown-up, learning a foreign language is very difficult. I once read an interesting story somewhere(I forgot where I did). Using a powerful brain imaging system, brain scientists compared the brain reactions of Japanese and American speakers to spoken English. When people listen to their native language, the "language center" in the left hemisphere become activated. But when Japanese speakers heard English sounds like "ra" and "la", a contrast that does not exist in the Japanese language, their brain activity was found to be located in the right hemisphere, which was also activated when they heard meaningless sounds---So English is just a noise for me.

Here I list English sounds that Japanese find it almost impossible to distinguish one from the other.

'l' and 'r'------- bleed, breed, breathe
'v' and 'b'
'f' and 'h'
'hut' , 'at' , and 'air'
'in the' and 'in a'

Hmmmm.....It's so daunting! I have learned English almost for a decade, with little to show for it. But, according to this article, there is still a hope for English learners. In the same study they showed this 'right-brain phenomenon' was reversed when Japanese speakers were given a special training.

"After training, not only were Japanese speakers significantly better at correctly identifying "ra" and "la," but the sound difference that had previously been detected by the right hemisphere had crossed over to the left hemisphere. "

Wow! Let me work as a volunteer for this trial!