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Guest Speaker : Ms. Kathi Aloisi

"Do ordinary people have to speack other language?"
In the United States, 30 to 40 percent of US residents have a certain kind of close relationship with Spanish Culture (e.g. her or his parents speaks Spanish as a first language). In such situation, the Spanish Language is necessary for their daily life. That is why the student has to study Spanish as well as English.

On the other hand, such people who has another cultural background are very few in Japan. Thus, Japanese people doesn't have to speack other language , especially English, frequently.

From Foreiger's Point of View
Ms. Aloisi often feels isolated. When she comes in a store or a restaurant, the staff of the store sometimes escapes from her because they can not speak English. And they pass the buck (to deal with me) to other person. They say, "Who deals with that Gaijin (foreigner)?" For them, there must be no way to commnunicate with the people from other country in English.
It is not a problem in the current situation where English has not been adopted as the second language. However, once if English is defined as the 2nd language, it will be a problem since Japanese people shall be able to speak English in any circumstances. In a sense, such policy will make foreigners feel relieved of such isolation caused by the languages.
Thus, this policy is not only for educational problem but also the problem of the international society. So, Japanese shall discuss more about the social aspects of this policy.

The Influences of KATAKANA
In Japan, there is a convenient character-set, KATAKANA. Japanese people can express the words of another language very easily. So, Most of Japanese always uses this character-set. However, this convenient character-set makes a problem. Those characters can not express the accurate pronunciation of foreign languages. Therefore, most Japanese can not learn the pronunciation of foreign words exactly.

(Audiences' Opinion)
Question: Do you think we have to define "English" as the second language?

Answers:
PROS: 6 persons

• It gives us a strong motivation for brushing us our abilities to speak in English and to listen in English.
• In the current situation, we don't have the strong purpose of studying English. If we defined English as the Second Language officially, we will have to have the ablity to speak the official language.

CONS: 2 persons

• I can not find the significant merit for us to define English as the second language. This policy seems to be for educational purpose, (in other words, to brush up our linguistic ability). If such policy is adopted only for educational purpose, I can not agree with this kind of idea.
• Once if we define "English" as an official language, we, especially our government, will have to prepare any document 2 times (once in Japanese, and once in English). Such task is redundant. It's waste of time for public sectors.

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