Briefly Noted

Walter W. Arndt, professor of Russian Language and Literature at Dartmouth, is the author along with Lewis Levine of "Grundzuege moderner Sprachbeschreibung," which translates into "Outline of Modern Linguistic Analysis." It is a small, handy guide designed to acquaint the German-learned public with the latest in English language usage. Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tuebingen, West Germany, 1969. 93 pp. Approximately $1.25.

Although most Japanese studying English in school over long periods can read and write it, they cannot understand it when spoken. They remain incapable until they say a word or phrase over and over again or, preferably, write it physically on the palms of their hands or trace it out with a finger on a table. They have learned by eye and not by ear. Paradoxically, bar girls who learn by ear and can neither read nor write, speak better English than young men who have spent eleven years studying under Japanese teachers. In business in the Far East for many years, especially Japan, Robert F. Wilson '21, now with Mobil Oil, has done something about this lack of oral communication. He is co-author of a 312-page working textbook called American-English Conversation Related to Business and Industry. The technique of almost endless repetition is so deadly dull that it would drive an American to saki. This is a cat, this is a cat, this is a cat ... until one is Pavloved into knowing the words and sounds. Mr. Wilson is interested in informal language, the give-and-take of business intercourse, American oriented, without emphasis on purity of diction or refinement. So he stresses the colloquial: Man n woman. Bread n butter. J'eat? [i. e. did you eat?] No, Jew. [i. e. Did you?] Japanese who are nothing if not assiduous will master the book and become capable of going into an office, asking the right questions about duties, commenting on production and distribution, and engaging in the jargon about buying and selling. In oiling the hinges of their tongue, Mr. Wilson has made Japanese more orally mobil and American.