![]() ![]() The long history of Kyoto has created such a profound culture. I’m not blaming Kyoto people here but respect their culture on the contrary, though I don’t think at all I can survive there. If your kids are shouting for joy and running around in a restaurant in Kyoto, the restaurant staff might smile at you and say “They are so cheerful.” Don’t you ever reply like “Yeah, they’re so excited about coming here in Kyoto.” In fact, the staff tries to mean “Shut them up!” Here is another example: even if you wear a cheesy shirt, Kyoto people would smile gently and say “You look good no matter what you wear.” The real intention is “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” It’s a kinda scary, isn’t it? Concealing true intentions is ancient wisdom for Kyoto people to survive Let me give you some examples for your easier understanding. In Kyoto, we’re always and strictly required to understand the implication of their words. It’s not about their accent or dialect, though I admit their accent and dialect are most beautiful. Making matters worse, their language is too difficult even for most Japanese people outside Kyoto. What I wrote above about Kyoto people’s characters is a stereotypical idea many Japanese people outside Kyoto have in their minds, and I’m personally sure it’s generally truthful. For your information, Hokkaido has always defeated Kyoto and maintained the first place in the popularity ranking for these 14 years. It’s just an aside, but I think it’s funny (interesting) that Kyoto and Hokkaido are always competing for the first place in the popularity ranking of Japan 47 prefectures, though their characters are completely different. No offense if you are a big fan of Kyoto, but Kyoto people are often said to be snobbish and behave like still believing Kyoto is the center of Japan. As you know, it’s the ancient capital of Japan and one of the popular tourist destinations in Japan. Mind you, there’s one exception: It’s Kyoto. Looking on the bright side, Japan is basically a monolingual country, and you can communicate only in Japanese anywhere in Japan. (Contains 17 references.TOC Kyoto language is too difficult even for the Japanese peopleĪs you know, most Japanese people can’t speak English very well. It is concluded that in both countries multilingualism is not a threat, but that narrow-mindedness and the failure to look beyond ones own borders are far greater problems. Multilingualism has been unavoidable in a country comprised of immigrants from across the world. This is a more recent phenomenon in Japan, but in America, significant multilingualism goes back to the founding of the first colonies. Yet both countries are far more linguistically diverse than the typical lay person or government official in either country realizes. In Japan and the United States, there are prevailing attitudes that for speakers of the dominant languages-Japanese and English respectively-there is no need to learn another language, and that all others living in the countries should learn to speak the primary language. While Japan and the United States are typical of monolinguistically-dominated societies, and some similar attitudes prevail in both countries, their approaches to dealing with multilingualism are vastly different. ![]() Multilingualism in a monolingual country is frequently seen as a threat to the established monolingual and monocultural way of life. There exists the perception in countries where monolingualism is considered the norm that bilingualism, and certainly multilingualism, are problematic. This paper considers how multilingualism is approached in both Japan and the United States by considering the position and roles of the government, schools, and public.
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