In the
1990s, I studied at a university in the USA. My classmates came from all around
the world.
One
day, we discussed Americanization. I am not sure if the tendency to discuss
that is still strong now. At least in the 1990s, most countries were influenced
by the USA. American movies and TV dramas were popular all over the world. Japanese
people used English words to describe new concepts every day.
But
some people worried about Americanization. They thought it might destroy their
traditional society.
The
class had discussion time. I listened to many opinions from other students.
The
teacher asked me my opinion.
I told
this story.
I had
Korean and Taiwanese classmates at that time. I confessed to the teacher that
we often cheated during classes. We have different languages, but we used
common letters: Chinese characters. Our pronunciations are different, but the
meanings of the words are almost the same. So, when we had difficulty
communicating in English, we often wrote down Chinese characters. It made it
easier for us to communicate. But using non-English words in the classroom was
cheating because it was an English class.
Why
could we communicate in Chinese characters? About a thousand years ago, China
was a prosperous country. The countries around China sent students to China.
They were influenced by China.
I said:
“I can’t predict what country will be prosperous in a thousand years. I don’t
know what country future students will go to when they want to study. But I am
sure they will cheat in English.”
All of
my classmates and even my American teacher laughed.
In the
1990s, it might have been a nice joke. I am not sure it would work now.
Picture
by mariakray
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