The Washington herald., 1908-04-16
SPEAKING ENGLISH IN JAPAN
By FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

by FkEUEkI
Tokyo. March 2-The visitor to Japan
| is Immediately struck by the universal
ambition of the people TO learn the Eng
lish language The japanese recognize
the fact that English has become the
universal eoin-current of conversation. and
they are determined to possess it. Taking
a walk thorugh a public park In Tokyo
an Americans ears are greeted by the
familiar Strike one!' Ball three
"Safe." The umpire Is clad ia the kimono
OF his people, one nine dresses IN uniforms
from an American sporting goods house
the other in native costume, but the game
Is good American baseball, and it is al
ways conducted in the English language.
The study of English is compulsory In
the high schools, and Is being gradually
introduced in the elementary schools also.
A few years from now English will be
spoken in every part of Japan, and il
VIII be the national business language
The zeal of the high school boys IS re-
markable. Americans or Britishers who
have lived here for some time become
impatient with the students, but the new
conner is always interested. The boys
have learned 20 be on the lookout for
the rubber-necked stranger. Let him
stop 10 watch a game or look IN q shop
window IN some section of the city re
mote from the foreign settlement. and he
viii be surrounded by a grOu-. Of high
school boys dressed in white -dUr'sd blue
kimonos, If he will so much as glance
at one of them eneouragingly the conyer-
sation begins and the boys volunteer
themselves as guides OF interpreters They
know that practice is required TO learn
10 speak a language and they never over
look an opportun.tv Az American on a
trolley car viii la le services OF two
or three boys 10 L ei1 in finding his
destination, while tic other passengers
who do not know English look upon their
young compatriots with proud and ap-
proving smiles
Even those boys who are too poor to go
TO school and must work for their living
are possessed by the same ambition Such
books as English Learned at Home"
have an enormous sale, and q foreigner
who Is shopping is often asked by
working boy how to pronounce some es-
pecially difficult word, Shopkeepers put
up English signs, some OF them iudi-
crously funny, and the imperial and mu-
nicipal governments recognize English as
| the other language" by placing English
signs over the doors of all public insti-
tutions. The money Of Japan also bears
English inscriptions, as well as native
characters.
II has been within the memory of
young men now living that the greatest
Of Japanese scholars declared that Eng
/ lish-speaking people were inherently
wicked because Of the outrageous Ian
guage they used. He said that an Eng
/ llshman or an American would say see
the moon" instead Of moon see" which
was absolutely idiotie, because If the
moon was not there how could any one
I see It? Now a knowledge of English is
required as a standard of eligibility to
many positions. and without it no one is
Ireckoned an accomplished scholar.
| The men educated in the universities of
/ America and England speak excellent
/ English, but there are many japanese
| who have never been outside their own
country who are equally as proficient.
/ one Of the leading newspapers in Tokyo
/ has an English subeditOr who was born
/ in small village OF interior Japan His
/ father and mother were Christians, and
! he fell under the influence of American
missionaries. He studied English in
| japanese university. and then went TO
/ live with an American missionary family.
/ He speaks not only English, but Ameri-
can and Is equal TO making an original
] joke in the purest Of George Ade. His
/ accent Is strange, OF course, but no one
! has any difficulty in cOnversing with him
upon the most abstract subject. He trans
/ lates the foreign cablegrams for his news
paper, and when such distinguished visit
| Ors as Secretary Taft or Mr. Bryan come
/ TO Japan, he is sent to interview them.
/ He is often asked, When did you study
! in America" and it is not without par-
donabIe pride that ne replies: MY Eng
lish was made in Japan.
The japanese students look to Ameri-
can sources more often than to English.
| perhaps because Of the fact that Ameri-
can translators have been more active
than their British cousins In the native
/ book shops scattered all about the great
/ city of Tokyo one sees the unmistakable
evidence of American influence. There
are several different editions Of The
/ Life of Roosevelt and books which hide
their mysteries under the cryptic Chinese
characters declare their origin by the
/ half-tone cover pictures of Washington.
Z
Bryan, Gladstone, Napoleon, and other
great men Of the Oecident.
The great majority Of books translated
from English into japanese are Of a
| scientific or technical character. Many
standard English novels have been trans
/ lated but many more are to be found in
editions for the student OF English, con-
tanning copious footnotes in japanese.
In this way the japanese student is in
troduced to the delightful romances of Sir
Walter Scott and TO the stirring tales OF
adventure from the pen of Alexander
/ Dumas, coming from the French via the
English. The influence Of Western litera-
ture is making itself felt upon japanese
writer's. and many novels are appearing
which take English fiction for a model
OF construction, Heretofore japanese
poetry has been confined. within the mar
rowest possible limits OF mechanical
Journalism, the custom requiring that a
poem must consist of either thirty-one
or sixteen syllables; no more, no less.
The agitation in favor Of abolishing the
use OF Chinese characters by law and of
substituting the Roman alphabet has re-
suited in the introduction Of bin in the
Diet, but it win be many years before
the change viii come about The radical
difference between the spoken and writ
ten language of Japan makes a phonetic
rendition very difficult. and the universal
adoption Of the Roman characters would
cause great confusion. Nevertheless. the
use OF the typewriter the study of En-
glish, and the new ideas of literature are
bringing about condition which viii one