AsiaTalk: Asia's Talking... in English?

In January of 1997, I served as the official notetaker for a World Bank workshop in Tokyo on social and economic development in East Asia. The three day event was attended by ten professors and researchers from countries all over Asia. China (both mainland and Taiwan), India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore were are represented. Believe it or not, the reason I was asked to be the notetaker was that all the discussion and reserach was done entirely in Englsh. Since English has indeed become the de-facto global language, I guess it isn't too unusual for a bunch of people from Asia to talk in English. Nevertheless it felt a little strange for me to be taking notes in a room with such a wide variety of accents, not to mention interesting grammatical patterns.

At my university a similar phenomenon can be seen. Since the vast majority of the the top academic journals in the world are witten in English, professors who want to receive international attention must publish in English. Translating generally takes a long time and is expensive, so many researchers find it easier to write their papers from scratch in English. (This is not something I would like to try to do in Japanese! Fortunately, the university allows me to submit my work in English.)

The more I think about it the more I realize that we native speakers of English are truly blessed. However there is a dark lining in this silver cloud. Although it is true that we are able to communicate with essentially with all people of the world in our natural language, we are also tempted by this very fact to neglect our studies of foreign languages. Even though we may feel good that English has spread all over the globe, this is not the time for those of us in the U.S. to sit back and toss out our Spanish, French, or Japanese(?!) textbooks. There is too much to be gained from studying a foreign tongue. (I know I am a bit biased since I have a real love for learning new languages, but please bear with me as I get up on my soapbox.)

The first great thing about learning a foreign language is it expands your mind. Learning new ways of saying things creates new ways of thinking. Every language has its share of words and phrases which seem to defy accurate translation. Either you try translating literally and end up with something that makes no sense, or you use up a whole paragraph trying to describe the prhase and its culutral background. Another possibility is to try and find an expression in the target language which is similar, but this always leaves out the special flavor of the original phrase. What are some examples? How about: "Far out, dude." "Reagonomics" "He got whitewashed." "It's like dejavu all over again. (Yogi Berra)" "He left here like a bat out of Hell." "It's nice and cozy here."(Rudy and Sarah, I'm sure you can think of others. Please send some suggestions if you can think of any.) In my experience, it has definitely been the case that the more I know a country's languange the more equipped I am to understand the country's culture. Furthermore, learning a new language has also given me a new perspective on my own native language. We say some pretty funny things in English. Why do we call a slushy, "a slushy?" And why is it called a "hot dog" anyway?

The second great thing about learning a foreign language is all the doors it opens. When a foreign person sees that someone has made the effort to learn his or her native tongue, immediately some barriers come down, and friendships more easily spring up. This is certainly true if you travel abroad, the French are famous for being friendly if you try to speak French to them and rude if you first address them with English. It can also be true if you stay in the U.S. So, if you've ever learned a foreign language I suggest you try using it soon. I bet you'll have fun.

If you haven't ever learned a foreign language, why not try it. Let me know if you're interested in Spanish, Japanese or Chinese. I know a few good programs and would love to introduce them to you.

Until next month, this is Dan your man in Japan saying, "Sayonara! Anata no ue ni heiwa ga arimasu you ni." (Good bye! May peace be with you.)

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