[mesmark]

Yeah, if they go to a public school. (In Japan English is a compulsory subject.) As a tax payer, I don't feel it's important to cater to them. If their parents don't want them sitting in an English class wasting their time, that's their decision to make.

I'm in that boat. My kids will be going to at least JHS here in the local community and they'll have to sit through English classes. I don't expect the school to make special provisions for my kids.

What about the kids that go to cram schools and have already learned anything the math teacher might have to say? Should they have to sit through class as well? ... My answer is yes.

It may be a good exercise for them to understand that their English isn't the rule. I've found what I thought to be structuraly irregular senteces in textbooks and then Google them, only to find I was wrong. Plenty of people say it that way.

It's definitely hard to have a several line dialog or story at beginner levels without requiring a little leeway with tenses or wording. For an English conversation class, the textbook is just a springboard anyway. It's up to the teacher to teach and provide an environment for the students to acquire (natural) use of the language.