聖心女子大學2008年の出題３問中１問の問題文です。まづは全文を紹介し、次囘から解説してゆきます。
Long known for importing a multitude of ideas and technologies from other countries, Japan’s innovation and creativity have only rarely been applied to language study. People around the world know they need language skills to perform their increasingly communication-based, internationally-oriented jobs. For most Japanese, though, using English at work or in life remains a romantic daydream, too tough to make real.
The fear of losing Japanese identity is at the root of most critics of early English education, and Japanese culture can presumably be considered more closely tied to language than others. Yet, many studies have found that a stronger sense of Japanese identity develops through contact with other languages and cultures. Awareness of one’s cultural identity comes as much from comparison as from knowing oneself.
Japan must learn other languages, then, not only to understand other ways of thinking and feeling, but also to understand herself. Japan has too long remained an island linguistically. Geography is no longer an adequate excuse. Nowadays, language is what leaps borders with the greatest force and speed, and comes back, whether via the Internet or trade policies or popular films.
The fear of speaking English less than perfectly is a peculiarly Japanese one. Most of the world speaks English less than perfectly, yet they struggle on regardless of grammar mistakes and bad pronunciation. The myth that native speakers speak English perfectly is also under scrutiny. The very definition of a native speaker is slowly collapsing amid international marriages, bilingual education and increasing chances to travel, work and live in other countries.
If anything, the luxury of speaking only one language will be increasingly rare in the future. Only the poorest, or ironically the wealthiest countries, will live monolingually. The poorest countries have trouble accessing the world through other languages, while the wealthiest too confidently assume others will learn their language. Dropping this monolingual myth is the first step to truly make a change.
Japan surely ranks first in the world in sheer numbers of grammar books and electronic dictionaries, not to mention English lessons, yet how often do these help to better understand how to live in the world? The diversity of languages is a testament to the beauty and ingenuity of the human species, but the future is likely to rest on humankind’s ability to create an international culture of communication. No country can afford to relish her uniqueness at the expense of working with others in a common language. In fact, the two go together.
(出典： The Japan Times, “Japan’s Ambivalent English”)
