Multilinguism

Here's a scenario I bet most foreigners are familiar with in Japan. We often get praised for our linguistic skills, for most of us can speak at least 2 languages (our mother tongue & Japanese).

Japan is after all, pretty much a monolingual nation, which isn't necessary a bad thing. The other languages used here are English (due to US' influence), Chinese Mandarin & Korean Hangul. However, the chances of meeting someone who can speak these languages to an understandable level, is pretty slim on the street.

Once in awhile, I witnessed or heard cases where tourist was rejected assistance by ordinary folks because they could not communicate with each other effectively. I'm trying to see it this way that given such situation that stresses and perhaps embarrassing for the Japanese, they would rather walk away to save all the trouble and hassle. As for the unfortunate tourist, the impression of friendly Japanese just shatters. Thankfully, they are also Japanese who are eager to help out the foreign guests, as seen at some tourist spots where one can find free volunteer tour guides.

Quite a number of foreign expats have bashed Japan for it's overly grammar-oriented English education that neglects the speaking part mostly. I would think that it is because they lacked a proper environment to speak English. To make things worse, trying to speak English publicaly can still be taken as an act of showing off, something against the Japanese's modesty culture.

Speaking as a Malaysian, I think that one of the best thing being a former British colony, is the solid English foundation built up over the decades. While the current Malaysian government seems to be trying to reduce English's influence in education, there is no doubt that English has rooted deeply into the Malaysian society. The fact that the newspaper with the most readership in Malaysia, is English-based The Star proofs this well.

In Japan, sometimes we'll get commented for speaking "funny" or "weird" English. We are speaking Malaysian English after all, and there is distinctive difference than the mainstream American or British English. Only fellow Malaysians or our close neighbor Singaporean can decipher our English. For me, speaking our style of English comes very naturally with fellow countrymates, however other than that I have to be careful not to slip out the Malaysian English in me.

Ada juga masanya apabila kita dalam keadaan yang kurang selesa, di mana kita ingin berkata sesuatu tetapi tidak hendak difahami orang lain kecuali orang sendiri. Masa itulah Bahasa Malaysia sangat berguna. Di Tokyo saya sering ada peluang bercakap BM kerana ada ramai rakan di sini, dan sebab itu BM saya masih boleh tahan lagi.

Walau bagaimanapun, saya pernah jumpa dengan warganegara yang enggan ataupun tidak boleh bertutur dalam BM. Ada yang anggap sekadar dapat "memuaskan" dalam sijil SPM sudah cukup dan ia tiada gunanya di Jepun. Ada yang sudah lupa kerana telah lama tinggal di luar negara. Kadang kala ada kesnya ditanya warganegara lain, kenapa orang Malaysia tidak boleh bertutur dalam BM? Ia amat menyedihkan dan memalukan.

话说中文呢，很庆幸在日本还蛮常派得上用场。在日的外国人当中，有多数都是来自东亚中文圈。有时候他们会被我们马来西亚的华裔吓到，＂你们普通话怎么说得那么好啊？＂无论是中国的普通话、台湾的国语、还是东南亚的华语，我们都能明白。其中之有一些人还精通方言，如广东话或是福建话等。接受过中文教育的人，学日语时有很大的优势，因为日语本身多数是原自由中文，尤其是汉字。

現在日本に来て6年目になるんだけど、日本語はまだまだ頑張らなきゃ所はあると思っている。学生時代とは違って、今はもう社会人なんだ。会社内の人に対しても敬語でメールを書いているとは少し驚いた。まだ外でお客様との打ち合わせの機会は少ないが、今までの通りではやっていけないと分かっており、自分の日本語を更にレベル・アップしていきたい。

日本では確かに日本語だけで生きていける。でも生活により豊かに、楽しく、賢くやっていきたいなら、もう一つの言語を学習すればいかがでしょう？きっと新たな扉が開くんだから。その他には、短期間で海外で暮らしてみることも良いでしょう。そういう経験を持っている日本人の知り合いは、多方面から物事が見られ、思考も大きく変わるのだ。

日本では伝統、パターン、ルーティンとかは大切にしていることは決して悪くはない。ただ、時代の変遷によって、変更しなければ存在ができなくなる可能性がある。それに、変更のタイミング、方針も非常に重要である。例えば、かつて音楽再生機の主流であったソニーWalkmanは、革新が遅れて今iPodの後ろに追いかけている状態になってしまう。同じくソニーのPlay Stationも、XBoxとの競争は真剣に取らないといけないと考えている。

ということで、ここまで記事を書き終えたい。人によって記事の一部しか理解できないのだが、それはわざとしたのだ。私と似ているような状況の人間なら、解読できるはずだ。

P/S:
Lastly, just to clarify that I'm writing this from the perspective of a Malaysian in Japan. Multilinguistic isn't our privilege only, and in fact there are others who can speak more than we do, just look at the Europeans. Being multilingual isn't something we should be proud of, but most importantly how can one make full use of each languages to it's best potential.