I ran into one of my students on the train one day, going the same direction. She had taken a short story and film class several years before and was a very good student. She told me about her job and ‘shakaijin’ life, and she asked me to recommend my favorite recent movies. She said she still really loved movies, but that taking my class had gotten her in trouble with her family.
“What?” I asked, confused about how there could be trouble with her family, and instantly feeling a little guilty.
“In my family, we used to always watch movies together every Saturday night, but in your class, we had so many discussions and questions all the time. I wanted my family to tell their opinions, too,” she laughed. “I asked my family so many questions they got angry at me and told me to quit talking so much and just enjoy the movie! But, I can’t do that anymore!”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, not sure if I should apologize or not.
“No, that’s great!” she answered, “My boyfriend likes to talk about movies, too!”
Like this student, English seems to open students up beyond just learning and using the language. They learn many things in addition to grammar, and, like this student, through English, they start to ask questions and think more broadly and deeply. At a barbecue party at my house this year, my senior seminar students told me how powerful the effect of English had been. Like the student on the train, they said they had become the kind of person they were and chosen the kind of job because of English. Studying another language had energized them to change the direction of their lives and the nature of their character.
That is, of course, how it should be. Studying should always aim at liberating people. For most students, studying English is a way to liberate their thinking, help them achieve their life goals, compete more successfully in the global marketplace, and to understand the world. I like to listen to my students talk about their experience because it reminds me that learning English is a way of opening their minds and thinking in different ways. The end goal of studying English is not a high TOEFL score, but a more flexible, thoughtful and open-minded person.
Studying another language at any age opens up understanding of the other languages and language in general. What students acquire when the study English is much more than just English. They learn about how language works and functions. That’s important because language becomes an objective experience as well as a subjective one. That is, students can understand language from outside, not just inside. They can develop a distanced position that puts them in charge of using language, not a passive victim of the language system.
Another language serves as a mirror to see unrecognized aspects of one's own language. Many people fear learning another language means losing one’s native language, as if there is some limited amount of language storage space in the brain. However, many studies have shown that students who acquire a second language are also much better in their native language. The sequential or simultaneous learning of languages does not impair overall language abilities in the long run. The more of another language one learns the more one understands their native language.
This view of the hidden benefits that another language provides also connects to culture. When learning a language, a lot of culture is transmitted. The ability to reflect on one's own language and culture from another point of view, even if one is not totally fluent in the language or completely knowledgeable about another culture, is invaluable. In this day and age, people with only one way of thinking are easy to manipulate and are too limited to compete in an increasingly complex world. Without knowing another culture, in some small way at least, people have a much more difficult time dealing with people even in their own culture.
From a practical point of view, too, studying English helps many young people to find their path in life. English for many students is the beginning of a turning outward towards the world and towards their own interests. They find themselves by studying English, or find an important part of themselves. I see this happen all the time with students, who begin to understand themselves through the consistent study of the language. For my students, studying literature, film and culture further expands this self-discovery by offering insights into life, the human mind, society and other huge life issues that surround all individuals.
This broadening of outlook is more than just hoping and dreaming. For many students, English becomes an important building block of their careers as well as their private lives and personal interests. This is especially true for women, for whom English has a greatly equalizing effect. Within the context of a still sexist society, English moves women several stepping-stones forward in life. As Japan's workplaces start to change, both with more gender equality and more globalization, high-quality English offers many women a skill they can use to compete and find a place.
English can also lead to other languages. Among my students are many who went abroad, with the help of English, to study everything from film directing to sausage making to theology, and in many different countries. I have students who later learned French to study pastry making, Spanish to trade in South America, Italian to study art gallery management, and German to work in a company in Europe. English helped them by opening up the possibilities for other languages.
English is one step in the process of finding one’s way by coming to understand the world more deeply and fully. English, as well as other languages, helps young people to think more and open up their attitudes and values. They can more easily and completely become globalized workers and world citizens. When that happens, students can better consider their own life options, and have more of them. What is included inside the study of English is the learning of a range of ways to communicate, to understand the world and to find a place in it, even if it makes it hard to just sit back and enjoy movies quietly and unquestioningly.
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