From: ishikawa@ds5200.personal-media.co.jp (Chiaki Ishikawa)
Newsgroups: fj.misc
Subject: Re: complement/compliment (was NG for gaijin topics.) (English)
Date: 21 Jul 92 11:12:24 GMT
	<1992Jul14.064301.18789@gssm.otsuka.tsukuba.ac.jp>
	<MARKD.92Jul14133240@stallman.csl.sj.nec.com>
	<SANTOS.92Jul15115310@melon.mickey.ai.kyutech.ac.jp>
	<MARKD.92Jul15103714@stallman.csl.sj.nec.com> <SANTOS.
Reply-To: ishikawa@personal-media.co.jp
Distribution: fj
Organization: Personal Media Corp., Tokyo Japan
In-reply-to: davidg@aegis.or.jp's message of 17 Jul 92 22:45:45 GMT


Hi.

>On the other hand, there *are* differences between 'assure' 'ensure'
>and 'insure'. Here I use Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary
>English as there are differences between U.S. and British usage: 1.
	I thought you teach English to Japanese people. Which
dialect(?) do you teach them? Your daughter lives in L.A. Are you from
the West Coast of U.S.A? So you teach (Sourhthern) West Coast accent?

	The reason I am asking is that when I began learning English
long time ago, the teacher didn't bother to let us know that there are
regional differences (not that I think I would understand it well).  I
went to a local public school, mind you.  For that matter, I wonder if
the teacher himself knew exactly what kind of English he had learned
himself.  When I landed in Vancounver, B.C., Canada, there were lots
and lots of surprises to me.  The English I had picked up was a
combination of mostly Eastern Seaboard English and British vocabulary
thrown in to good measure.

	I think it is best to warn the learner of English and other
foreign languages that the regional differences are large.  The
difference is so obvious and ought to be crystal clear to everyone,
but somehow it was not stressed in the lessons I took. (Was it Mark
Twain or Kippling who said that England and U.S.A. are two countries
separated by one common language or something to that effect?)

>And I myself suspect
>that one of the reasons English is used by so many people all over
>the world is that it is flexible enough to allow constant additions
>of new words and phrases. 
	One reason, to be sure. But, I suspect that English
colonianism may have more to do with it. In the major sea ports of the
world, there are be people who understand English (be it Pigin(?),
Middle Eastern, African, Russian, etc..). French, for example, could
be as universal as English (despite all those Gaulic(?) French
purists).  The use of French in Vietnam and other countries in the
South East Asia clearly shows that French could be learned and used
well by the local population (just like English). When there is a
compelling reason to learn a foreign language, people will.
	
	If it had been French Army that occupied Japan after the
Second World War, young people today might be hanging in a road-side
cafe instead of at MacDonald. Just kidding.


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