Japanese: The Law Of Inverse Returns :: essays research papers

Japanese The Law of Inverse ReturnsScott Barlow December 6, 1996 Shoji Azuma Japan 355 - 1The law of inverse returns states that the better the foreign learners Japaneseis, the worse the reaction of the Japanese native population will be to thelearners use of Japanese. In this paper, I argue that the better the learnersJapanese is, the better the treatment to the learner of Japanese from nativeJapanese. I will argue this point by making trio statements and then provideopinions and reactions of others whom I have interviewed over the Internet. Thebetter the Japanese language that one has, the more the freedom he feels. I feltthis savour while I was in Japan and I could finally go to the bank and make adeposit or withdraw without fumbling and literally making up my own Japanesevocabulary. Until further Japanese study, did I find out that the word to"withdraw" money from the bank was the same as "taking something down," likefrom a shelf. These are the same words, but in Japanese it is the context thatthey are used is what is important. Not only does better Japanese save you theembarrassment of making a mistake, but having better in Japanese as well helpsnatives feel less of a burden on them, than if you didnt pronounce good Japanese.In Japan as a missionary, I had the opportunity to visit a retirement home oncea week. During our visit with the elderly, we also cleaned up. doing the normalhousekeeping that was necessary for them to live in a cleaner, betterenvironment. I am very glad that I had Japanese that I was open to understandthe retirees, especially when the needed someone to talk to and when I was ableto understand and help them clean where they asked me to. Through theunderstanding that I had then as a missionary in the Japanese language, I feelthat the full-time workers there were less worried about us performing dutiesfor them because we had better Japanese. This resulted in the better treatment Ireceived as I was in Japan because of the position I was in able to serve.The second argument I would like to make on a related topic of being lessburdensome to the Japanese. Everyone doesnt like a lazy person, although a lotof citizenry in America like being the lazy person. In Japan if you arent busydoing something, it is like being counter-productive and demeaning the existenceof society. The better the learners Japanese is, the more likely he is to be