Friday, 19 July 2019

Language comprehension from the Past

Language comprehension from the Past 
TANAKA Akio

1955  
Tableau of dialogue of Nagano district 

When I was the second grade of elementary school, I visited Nagano district being taken by mother in summer vacation.
There I first heard Nagano dialect. I was interested in the dialog.
After returning home of Tokyo, I summarized the experience of Nagano to a tableau in which I wrote a comparison of dialect between Nagano and Tokyo.
This tableau was pinned up on the wall of the classroom in new autumn term. 
It was a pleasant remembrance of my language comprehension. 
1956  
Question about a notation

When the third grade of elementary school, I asked a question about the notation of Japanese.
Having same pronunciation /o/ between the following two words, why < many > is written to ooi, while <father> is written to otousan?  
1957  
First learning of foreign language

When the forth grade of elementary school, I began to learn English, the first foreign language, by myself reading texts of my elder sister.  

1964                 
Symbolism of France
When the second school of high school, I learned French for reading the poems of symbolism in France

1967                  
Memorization of Saying of Mao Zedong
When learning the composition of Chinese, we memorized and wrote the phrase of Saying of Mao Zedong once a week.
It is a peculiar time of my life on language learning.

1970    
Learning of Russian

I learned Russian from the daughter of Russian noblewoman.  
Her pronunciation is clearly remembered at present in my heart.
She taught me the Russian poem for the festival of Russian class of the university.

1979                   
Pronunciation of Korean
When learning of pronunciation of Korean, the teacher was not satisfied with my pronunciation of imnida
I recognized the difficulty of foreign language again there.
The teacher whom I respected died at age 47.
His name is CHO Shokichi.
One of his most important works is Watashino Chosengo sho-jiten, My little dictionary of Korean Language.

Tokyo
November 14, 2004
March 11, 2007 Revised

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