LANGUAGE COURSE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 7 January 1944, Page 1

LANGUAGE COURSE

STUDY OF JAPANESE AMERICAN NAVY PROBLEM When Japan struck at Pearl Harbour the United States found itself at war with an enemy whose language was a mystery to all but a handful of Americans, states a release from the American Navy Department. For every American who had a working knowledge of Japanese there were at least 100,000 Japanese who had a working knowledge of English. The United States Navy had been fully aware of this problem Jong before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Since 1922 the Navy had sent language students to Japan and they underwent a tfiree-year course in Tokio. However, in 1940 the number of men trained in Japanese by this method did not exceed 65 officers, which was wholly inadequate to meet language requirements in the event of a war with Japan. Another problem was that there were only five or six American universities which gave courses in the Japanese language. INTENSIVE COURSE A suggestion by Commander A. E. Hindmarsh, U.S.N.R . in December 1940, that a nation-wide survey of all available Japa'nese linguists be taken, was immediately accepted, and he was authorised to take steps to organise special training courses in Japanese for naval personnel. Between March and June, 1941, the Navy built up a file of 600 persons in the United States who were stated to possess a knowledge of Japanese or Chinese. On examination it was found that about 300 of them possessed little knowledge of either language and of the remainder 56 were selected as having the required knowledge. The Navy proposed an intensive course of 12 months, designed to produce competent translators and interpreters. Formerly it was customary for students to spend four or five years studying Japanese and still be unable to read with ease a modern Japanese newspaper. The Navy established two training centres, one at Harvard University and the other at the University of California. SUCCESS ACHIEVED In spite of the exceedingly rigorous nature of the intensive course, the number of “casualties” was low. By the end of February, 1942, there were 90 students in the two courses. Of them only five were dismissed for failure to meet the minimum requirements. Thus, the total loss from physical, mental, character and academic causes amounted to only 4.3 per cent. The courses were based upon five of the Naganuma language readers, with other specially-prepared teaching aids. On completion of these materials within 12 months, the student was expected to read with fair ease a Japanese newspaper, to converse in Japanese with fluency and to handle the language both in its written and spoken forms with ease and facility. BRITISH STUDENTS Arrangements were also made with the British Admiralty for the enrolment of a small number of British naval officers in the language course. They received the same course and had to meet the same requirements. The significance of this new approach to foreign language study in the postwar era cannot be over-emphasised, states the release. As it Is essential to-day to know our enemies by knowing their language, it will be equally essential m the future preservation of world peace to know our neighbours by the same means.