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VinnyG.
Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 18 Location: Massachusetts
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Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:17 pm Post subject: Quote from 1926 |
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I started reading An Immigrant in Japan by Theodate Geoffrrey (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926) and came across this paragraph:
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English is taught in the public schools all over Japan. Later, when I came to travel widely in the interior, I often found bright schoolboys fourteen or fifteen years old who would volunteer as interpreters. In another generation English may be a second language for the Japanese, even as the Dutch to-day are competent linguists because the world cannot be bothered to learn Dutch. (p. 21).
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I thought this 87 year-old quote was interesting.
Vinny |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan
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Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:03 pm Post subject: |
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What happened? |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 12:24 am Post subject: |
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Pitarou wrote: |
What happened? |
WWII, I suppose. Often times when the Japanese would try to fool the Allies on the radio, their English was 'too perfect'.
But from all the history that I read, it seems that pre WWII and early post war Japan had some decent English skills. I guess having a terrible ESl rpgram ruined that
They went from having a great program, to basically throwing money into a pit |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 1:08 am Post subject: |
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rxk22 wrote: |
WWII, I suppose. Often times when the Japanese would try to fool the Allies on the radio, their English was 'too perfect'. |
So now they are trying fool us with their bad English?
"Stupid Americans. They only think we are learning English. Haha!" |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 2:05 am Post subject: |
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steki47 wrote: |
rxk22 wrote: |
WWII, I suppose. Often times when the Japanese would try to fool the Allies on the radio, their English was 'too perfect'. |
So now they are trying fool us with their bad English?
"Stupid Americans. They only think we are learning English. Haha!" |
well a lot of their officers trained or rather studied in the US prior to 1936. I think most of them died. Seriously they all died and were never replaced. Never again did massive amounts of Japanese gonabraod and study seriously |
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DLIguy
Joined: 29 Jun 2013 Posts: 167 Location: Being led around by the nose...by you-know-who!
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 2:26 am Post subject: |
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rxk22 wrote: |
steki47 wrote: |
rxk22 wrote: |
WWII, I suppose. Often times when the Japanese would try to fool the Allies on the radio, their English was 'too perfect'. |
So now they are trying fool us with their bad English?
"Stupid Americans. They only think we are learning English. Haha!"
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well a lot of their officers trained or rather studied in the US prior to 1936. I think most of them died. Seriously they all died and were never replaced. Never again did massive amounts of Japanese gonabraod and study seriously |
Source, and, erm, spell-check? |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 3:01 am Post subject: |
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DLIguy wrote: |
rxk22 wrote: |
steki47 wrote: |
rxk22 wrote: |
WWII, I suppose. Often times when the Japanese would try to fool the Allies on the radio, their English was 'too perfect'. |
So now they are trying fool us with their bad English?
"Stupid Americans. They only think we are learning English. Haha!"
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well a lot of their officers trained or rather studied in the US prior to 1936. I think most of them died. Seriously they all died and were never replaced. Never again did massive amounts of Japanese gonabraod and study seriously |
Source, and, erm, spell-check? |
sorry on my cell. Would have to do some digging. As I don't have that many japan specific books that deal with WWII that aren't about ships. |
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DLIguy
Joined: 29 Jun 2013 Posts: 167 Location: Being led around by the nose...by you-know-who!
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 3:07 am Post subject: |
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sorry on my cell. Would have to do some digging. As I don't have that many japan specific books that deal with WWII that aren't about ships. |
It'll be an interesting read when you do. I trust your source is well-sourced as well. |
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Kaguyahime
Joined: 22 Aug 2011 Posts: 8
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 3:24 am Post subject: |
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[/quote]well a lot of their officers trained or rather studied in the US prior to 1936. I think most of them died. Seriously they all died and were never replaced. Never again did massive amounts of Japanese gonabraod and study seriously[/quote]
Hmm...why "1936"? In any case, from what I have read, there were never "massive amounts" of Japanese studying in the U.S., and the flow of Japanese migrants was halted by the Native Origins Act of 1924. Most of the Japanese already here were quite settled and did learn English, but primarily so they could go about their business, not because they were army officers with an agenda. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629
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Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 11:48 am Post subject: |
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DLIguy wrote: |
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sorry on my cell. Would have to do some digging. As I don't have that many japan specific books that deal with WWII that aren't about ships. |
It'll be an interesting read when you do. I trust your source is well-sourced as well. |
. Hang on.it is a nightmare searching Google for japan English WWII. Stumbling into those sources is so much easier. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629
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DLIguy
Joined: 29 Jun 2013 Posts: 167 Location: Being led around by the nose...by you-know-who!
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:34 am Post subject: |
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rxk22 wrote: |
http://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/ia/eese/artic22/shishin/7_2002.html
Just storing sources for now |
O.K., I've read it drunk, I've read it sober, I've read it standing, I've read it while lying in clover, I've read it in the shower, I've read it while riding a lawn mower...
...I still don't get where you find the proposition that the Japanese "Never again did massive amounts of Japanese go abroad and study seriously." (My spell check and punctuation inclusion.)
I KNOW that you're right...I just don't see it in this text. THAT I'd love to see! |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:42 am Post subject: |
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DLIguy wrote: |
I've read it while riding a lawn mower... |
Please don't do that. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629
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Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:57 am Post subject: |
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DLIguy wrote: |
rxk22 wrote: |
http://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/ia/eese/artic22/shishin/7_2002.html
Just storing sources for now |
O.K., I've read it drunk, I've read it sober, I've read it standing, I've read it while lying in clover, I've read it in the shower, I've read it while riding a lawn mower...
...I still don't get where you find the proposition that the Japanese "Never again did massive amounts of Japanese go abroad and study seriously." (My spell check and punctuation inclusion.)
I KNOW that you're right...I just don't see it in this text. THAT I'd love to see! |
I know man. There just isn't anything online to find. You just can't get any appropriate answers from Google. Gotta stumble on them. Sorry, I gotta go through a decades worth of reading to even start to pull quotes. Was hoping in could get more. But that was it |
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Kaguyahime
Joined: 22 Aug 2011 Posts: 8
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