Forum Report
On December 15, 2014, Reexamining Japan in Global Context's seventh seminar took place at the Embassy of Canada, Tokyo. The theme of the event was “English as a Lingua Franca.” The first presentation of the forum was given by Professor Takehiko Kariya (University of Oxford) under the title “Globalization and University Reforms in Japan: Real or Illusory?” In his presentation, Professor Kariya examined recent efforts by the Japanese government to “internationalize” Japanese universities, critically analyzing the ‘Global 30’ and ‘Super-Global University’ projects. The second presentation, by Professor Eve Haque (York University), was titled “Canada’s National Framework of ‘Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework’ and Possible Implications for Japan.” Professor Haque analyzed the historical background and current status of Canada’s language policy and examined the implications of this analysis for the future of Japan’s policy on language and multiculturalism.
In his presentation, Professor Kariya examined recent efforts by the Japanese government to “internationalize” Japanese universities, critically analyzing the ‘Global 30’ and ‘Super-Global University’ projects. The second presentation, by Professor Eve Haque (York University), was titled “Canada’s National Framework of ‘Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework’ and Possible Implications for Japan.” Professor Haque analyzed the historical background and current status of Canada’s language policy and examined the implications of this analysis for the future of Japan’s policy on language and multiculturalism. (Click on the Final Report for further details)
Background
The hegemony of the English language is one of the major elements of “globalization” today. International business, diplomacy, the operations of international organizations andacademic activities are conducted predominantly in English. One cannot simply expect to be competent on the international stage without learning from English-language material and engaging in English-language discussion. In the international intellectual space,books and articles written in languages other than English are increasingly irrelevant.
Although the hegemony of English gives an “exorbitant” privilege to native English speakers, just as the U.S. dollar’s key currency status advantages Americans, it is undeniable that we all benefit out of what economists call the “network utility” of sharing a single medium of exchange. Standardization renders everything—for example, currencies, railways and telephones—much more efficient. Thanks to the hegemony of English, even non-native speakers of English are now able to communicate with each other relatively easily.
The hegemony of English does, however, represent a serious challenge for non-native speakers of English in a variety of ways. Every year hundreds of languages disappear, endangering cultural traditions. Extra efforts are required to master English as a foreign language. Access to English-language education can be difficult and expensive, particularly for non-Westerners. Investing in English language acquisition might involve heavy opportunity costs, such as impoverishing non-English language intellectual spaces, undermining not only cultural diversity, but intellectual diversity as well. It may also create an intellectual divide in non-English speaking societies between the limited number of elites who have access to the English language space and those in the street who do not.
And yet, multilingualism may not be as rare, as threatened, or as threatening as we think. In a polyglot and multicultural country such as India, for example, the colonial language is actually a unifying force. In medieval Europe, Latin served the function that English serves today. In pre-modern East Asia, Chinese that played that role. The development of the Japanese intellectual tradition, in fact, depended on it.
In this seminar, we examine a variety of implications of the predominance of English in global intellectual life today by discussing the experience of multilingualism in Canada and Japanese struggles with the current dominance of English in the global language landscape.