I assume this is because it’s more difficult to get in if you aren’t American and English isn’t even your first language. You know how Japanese is considered one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn? Well it goes both ways; English is just as alien to them as Japanese is to us - and college entrance applications typically have essay questions. Maybe Stanford accounts for that when considering the application. I don’t know, and Kaguya likely doesn’t either.
English is actually a mandatory subject in Japanese schools. It’s not taken that seriously as anyone having to listen to a “fluent” English speaker in Japanese media can attest, but that wouldn’t matter to her archetype. We can safely assume she is, at worst, right behind the president in her English fluency.
Beyond that Bush got in to Harvard, she can figure out the secret cheat code. I believe in her.
If you spoke with any Japanese people in the wild, it’s very hard to find those who can speak proper English. Most of the time they’ll have some basic vocabulary and will be able to understand what you are saying, but saying anything themselves is practically impossible. I often say that Japanese is a phonetically impaired language, mainly because of how little valid sound combinations there are in the language, being risen surrounded with only Japanese trains your voice cords to only produce these sounds. And Japanese phonetics barely intersect with English ones. You see the problem, right?
And Japanese who are hanging out in places where they can meet with foreigners are obvously better at it than your average Japanese person.
だから、私日本語を学んでいる。この方で楽だ。
Spanish was mandatory for my for 3 years of elementary school and 3 years of middle school. I came out of that without even the requisite knowledge for forming basic sentences. My high school German classes were better, but only a little better. It takes a ton of self-study to really learn a language rather than just passing classes.
That said, I agree that she could probably get into Stanford and it probably wouldn’t be as difficult for her as she supposes. She is portrayed as a genius specifically with languages that one time with the French exchange students after all.
