While there are obvious connections linking the Muslim societies of the west of Asia, or those in the east that have Buddhist and Confucian traditions, there are few strong links across the whole continent. While pan-Asian identity remains weak, new Asian networks are gradually evolving through the work of international bodies based in Asian cities. Many of these function largely in English. UNESCAP (the Bangkok-based United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), for example, requires staff to be fluent in English. SAARC (the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) holds all its meetings in English.
As well as helping to construct Asian identity, English also plays an important role in conflict resolution between Asian countries. Israeli leaders usually speak to their Arab counterparts in English since fewer and fewer of them study Arabic and almost no Arabs speak Hebrew. Indian and Pakistani army generals hold their discussions in English, even though their respective national languages (Hindi and Urdu) are very similar.
ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) is one of Asia’s most active organisations. When it was formed in 1967, there was a proposal to make Malay its working language since it is spoken in four of its founder states (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei). 30 years later there was an attempt to make Malay its second language. Neither succeeded. In practice the organisation has always conducted business in English. ASEAN is starting to develop its own style of English, rich in bureaucratic acronyms such as HOGs (Heads of Government), HOSs (Heads of State) and IMT-TG (Indonesian Malaysian-Thai Growth Triangle). However, if we search through ASEAN speeches and literature we can find very few uniquely ‘Asian’ words or expressions.
Leaders of several Asian countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines and the Subcontinent, have traditionally known English as well as or even better than their own national language. Sri Lanka’s S.L. Bandaranaike, Pakistan’s General Zia and Malaysia’s Dr Mahathir, for example, became famous for promoting Sinhala, Urdu and Malay respectively, yet in private mostly used English. Singapore’s first leader, Lee Kuan Yew, was educated in English and didn’t learn Chinese until he was an adult. Many of Israel’s leaders, including the late Golda Meir and the current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were educated mostly in the USA. Thailand’s current leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, went to Oxford University.
Other Asian leaders have tried to learn English later in life. Jiang Zemin
was too old to become fluent, but his
efforts encouraged younger Chineseleaders to study the language. Even Iran’s Mahmood Ahmedinejad, a fierce critic of American culture and politics, has an English blog www. Ahmadinejad.ir/) for people from all over the world to exchange messages about politics. Not surprisingly, most of these messages say what a wonderful leader Ahmedinejad is and what a terrible country the USA is.
But not every Asian leader makes effective use of English The poor English of Korea’s Kim Young Sam was the source of many jokes. And few of Japan’s leaders have been able to conduct conversations in English. When Japanese premier Yoshiro Mori met US President Bill Clinton, he managed to say "Who are you?" instead of "How are you?". Thinking this must be a joke, Clinton joked back "I'm Hillary's husband". Mori replied “Me too.”
I think Jiang Zemin's English is not so bad as a leader in China.Because he studied English in China.^_^ not like others Asian leaders which educated in English. When you want to learn English well,you should make sure you have a English surrounding for use English often.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jenny. Considering that Chinese of Jiang Zemin's age did not have many opportunities to study English when they were younger (I hear during the Cultural Revolution that English was often discouraged), he did pretty well.
ReplyDeleteI read Iranian president's blog. It's a kind of difficult for me to understand what he says but I think
ReplyDeleteas a politician it's important to write his opinion in English. Because articles or news report we can get is limited or can be biased.
Since Japanese are not spoken or understood by many people Japanese must practice English much harder to express our opinion or to understand what people fro m foreign culture say.
By the way, long long time ago, Mr. Sakurauch
( Sakura means cherry blossom) went to America
and said " I'm cherry." The old bald man said.
Guess what the people's reaction.
Iranian president blog is very diffcult for me.
ReplyDelete.I think it is important to express opinion but politician who cant master English does not express my opinion in English.If politician make mistake English it become factor tension between two countries.
I think leaving to the translator is the best method
I thik it is natural that English is used in the international meeting like SAARC. Because there is no common Asian language in Asia. If they don't use English, they will have to learn a each other language. I think that is not a efficient way. So I think they have better use English as a common langauge.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't Japanese leaders speak English?? I think Japan is a lucky country. Because that have high technology. So, That was able to grow up own. But,many Asians countries didn't have high technology. So, They needed to speak English to grow up. Why? They needed high technology to grow up, So they learned a technique from the developed countries. I think Japanese leaders need to speak English. Maybe, if they won't speak English, Japan retreats from other the developed countries.
ReplyDeleteNow developing countries in Asia understand very well the meaning they can speak English.
ReplyDeleteSingapore's great leader Lee Kuan Yew is the exactly example. He made Singapore wealthy country but that is concerned with he can speak fluently English.
English becoming one criterion when we judge people or countries.
We must understand that we can make our image good or bad by English.
Other countries leaders or prime minister are grown up in English or USA like Singapore, Israel and Thailand. So they can exactly speak English what they want to say in the world meeting lie ASEAN. Meanwhile Almost all Japanese leader or prime minister cannot virtually speak English on their own. I often hear and watch on TV that they make fun of Japan about no educated country. And then I was so embarrassed about that. Now we have a common langauge of English. So we all have to learn English(focus on speaking) right now as a world meeting or communication tool. Also Japan has a lot of developed products. So we hope that they will strongly recommend or introduce our developed products to other countries in English in the world meeting. But if they wont do that(they still have poor English), it is very wasteful and we all are very dissappointed. Also our leaders or prime minister will lose oppotunities to be more develoed country than now.
ReplyDeleteHi!! I had finished studing a certificated weather forecastet's test. Very hard for me. So I 'm sorry it took me so long for making comment.
ReplyDeleteAsian countries use English. Especially developing county's leader can speak English fluently. But Japan's prime minister can,t speak English much.Possibly becoming wealthy country need not speak English. So developing countries in Asia must have advantages or can speak English.
That's an interesting point, Shiori. You are suggesting that in order to be successful internationally countries either need to have some kind of advantage, such as economic power, or they need to have high levels of English; but they may not need both.
DeleteIf we look at recent Japanese history we can see a certain ebbing and flowing between emphasis on 'internationlisation' (which generally means English language skills) and emphasis on traditional strengths and value (which generally means Japanese language and culture). It is not very clear whether each trend is more associated with economic strength or with economic weakness, but the 'kokusaika' (internationalisation) of the 1980s was definitely associated with economic strength, and now the nationalism and conservatism typical of the populist mayors of Tokyo and Osaka (Ishihara Shintaro and Hashimoto Toru) seems to be the result of economic weakness. I wonder what Ishihara and Hashimoto think about English education?