Learning to Speak Better English: Yes, We Can! WSJ

Quoted via Wall Street Journal:

TOKYO -- English teacher Makoto Ishiwata stood in front of a classroom one recent morning and watched a gray-haired Japanese student struggle with a line.

"They ... would ... give me an ... African name, Barack, ... or 'blessed,' " said the man, furrowing his brow in concentration.

"Not 'blessed,' " Mr. Ishiwata interjected. "Bless-ed."

The student was reciting a passage from Barack Obama's famous 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention. That oration catapulted Mr. Obama into the national spotlight and laid the foundations of his presidential campaign. But in Japan, that speech, and others by Mr. Obama, have become the latest fad fueling this nation's long, and oft-frustrated, passion for mastering English. more