JAPAN ON THE TELEPHONE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20455, 7 November 1934, Page 14

JAPAN ON THE TELEPHONE.

With all. admiration for our girl telephone operators, one wonders how j many will be able to master the Japan- ; language in order to keep the wires going when the telephone service be- ! tween this country and Japan is inaugurated in December next, savs an English writer. Possibly the service, at the beginning can be operated by English girls at both ends, but this is not likely to be satisfactory when the business starts to extend. It j s pro bable that the Post Ofhce will invite some of the multi-lingual girls who sit at the. world switchboards of the International Exchange to study Japanese, and the keenness and success of these young ladies in learning languages in the past will lead, probably, to a number of volunteers presenting themselves. . Some of these extraordinarilv efficient operators can speak. five or sixlanguages, but they will find themselves confronted with a big problem m , 3 ‘tempting Japanese. Even to those who know it best, its sounds present wTreJ d ' ffiCu!ty over the telephone