Monday, March 27, 2006

ACQUISITION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

1) ▼ “A person who can speak two languages fluently is called bilingual. A person who can speak many languages is called multi-bilingual. What do you call a person who can speak only one language?”

2) ▼ It was a riddle asked by an American I met recently while collecting news data. The answer was American. It is a joke to caricaturize American conceit. Some Americans consider that the English language can be available anywhere in the world so that they do not need to learn foreign languages, while Japanese people are relatively enthusiastic to learn foreign languages. At a bookstore, I can find a lot of English language textbooks compiled by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) at the beginning of new school term.

3) ▼ They are as many as thirteen different kinds in total for both TV and radio programs. I owed a lot to such a program as a student but textbooks have increased greatly in varieties. They are sold even with compact disks attached. Some learners record programs by a timer so that they do not have to wake up early in the morning to listen to a radio program.

4) ▼ Late Ogawa Yoshio, former president of Tokyo University of Foreign Languages, was in charge of an English conversation program on the radio soon after the war. As it was a live broadcasting, he got up at four o’clock in the morning and took the first train to go to the NHK broadcasting studio. It was indeed success or failure for both the lecturer and learners.

5) ▼ Talking of a language genius, Heinrich Schliemann, a German archaeologist, who excavated the ruins of Troy in the 19th century, is famous. He mastered more than ten foreign languages in his life. He did not take longer than six weeks if it was a modern European language. The secret of mastering a foreign language is to spend every spare moment reciting expressions again and again. He parroted a sermon of the Anglican Church to acquire an English pronunciation. Those learners who are surrounded with so many teaching materials might be less blessed.

6) ▼ It is hard to master a foreign language, but it helps to learn mindsets and viewpoints different from Japanese. We should not spare our efforts at a time when globalization is causing cultural confrontations in the world.