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Language acquisition is culture acquisition, and though this fact may alarm isolationists and those who hide their ignorance of the world behind chauvinist rhetoric, the rest of us should enthusiastically embrace the wonderful expansion of knowledge of the world that necessarily accompanies non-native language learning. As such learning doesn't occur in a vacuum, as m_mac_o states, we learn as much about ourselves and our culture as we do of another through foreign language study. Hence, language acquisition can be seen as a positive feedback loop impacting all aspects of awareness.

I well remember, when I lived in Japan, a dinner party hosted by a Japanese acquaintance who was an English teacher, for my mother who was then visiting. The group in attendance spoke better English than I did Japanese, so my mother could thoroughly enjoy the conversation. When I perfunctorily apologized for our speaking in English that afternoon, our host replied that she really enjoyed any chance to speak English as she felt more relaxed and far less socially encumbered away from her native Japanese and all the necessary social restrictions that condition that more formal and socially hierarchical language. Other Japanese acquaintances have expressed this view on other occasions, and, contrarily, I myself find Japanese language more appropriate for certain experiences, emotions, contexts. Without a doubt, learning another language broadens one's world view and self-knowledge??so long as one actually steps out to communicate with others!

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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Let me add a cultural take on the impassioned and mostly thoughtful discussion thus far. I lived in northern Japan where I bicycled daily for a decade, usually for a couple of hours or more, commuting and touring. Many Japanese students, businessmen, mothers out shopping, and others, use bikes to get to their destinations, or bike parking at a mass transit stations, contributing to the health of a populace where obesity and associated health problems are rare, in comparison to the U.S. The Japanese have reasonably accommodated their heavy bicycle traffic to an infrastructure where narrow roads are often crowded with cars and trucks by recognizing the obvious: bikes are not motorized vehicles and riders are not licensed (although their bikes are), so they are ridden on the sidewalks. Many sidewalks are comparatively wide, and often marked with bike lanes that cyclists use as a matter of proper etiquette when sharing the walks with pedestrians, as is the case in a society where many more people walk. Cyclists are sharing the road with other traffic in neighborhoods and along a small percentage of other roads, but Japan manages a bicycling segment of the population that dwarfs Portland's, as it does a similarly huge walking population, by segregating bikes and pedestrians from vehicular traffic. Could such a system work over here? I don't know, given our often self-centered disregard for others, as evidenced by cyclists blithely swerving into traffic, ignoring stops, and drivers chatting on cell phones while half-attending to their driving or indulging in some sort of road rage. Japanese are brought up to behave appropriately in a polite, disciplined society, making remarkably heavy foot, bicycle and vehicular traffic flow efficiently through urban infrastructure. Can we learn from others?

I'm back to the NW, and ride for exercise into the hills regularly, but must drive into Portland as I'm living out of town and often must transport building materials. Yesterday, a guy in blonde/bleached dreadlocks swung out in front of me on a busy street in N. Portland, forcing me to hit the brakes to avoid rear-ending him. If I'd hit him, it may have been tragic, but his irresponsible riding would have been the reason, taxing our emergency medical facilities and raising insurance rates. As a bicyclist with tens of thousands of kilometers under my seat post, who stopped at intersections, stayed out of vehicular traffic, and deferred to pedestrians?and could still make it across Sapporo in good time?I have no patience with irresponsible riding or other self-centered behavior on the public thoroughfares. Unfortunately, I also doubt we Americans can get our social act together enough to manage even a fraction of the mixed traffic Japanese cities experience as a matter of course. Like our caricature of a Commander In Chief, we live 'large' out here in the Wild West, and are deluded into thinking we can do as we like in public.

posted 5 years ago
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