Language comprehension from the Past
TANAKA Akio
1955
Tableau of dialogue of Nagano district
When I was the second grade of elementary school, I visited Nagano district being taken by mother in summer vacation.
There I first heard Nagano dialect. I was interested in the dialog.
After returning home of Tokyo, I summarized the experience of Nagano to a tableau in which I wrote a comparison of dialect between Nagano and Tokyo.
This tableau was pinned up on the wall of the classroom in new autumn term.
It was a pleasant remembrance of my language comprehension.
1956
Question about a notation
When the third grade of elementary school, I asked a question about the notation of Japanese.
Having same pronunciation /o/ between the following two words, why < many > is written to ooi, while <father> is written to otousan?
1957
First learning of foreign language
When the forth grade of elementary school, I began to learn English, the first foreign language, by myself reading texts of my elder sister.
1964
Symbolism of France
When the second school of high school, I learned French for reading the poems of symbolism in France.
1967
Memorization of Saying of Mao Zedong
When learning the composition of Chinese, we memorized and wrote the phrase of Saying of Mao Zedong once a week.
It is a peculiar time of my life on language learning.
1970
Learning of Russian
I learned Russian from the daughter of Russian noblewoman.
Her pronunciation is clearly remembered at present in my heart.
She taught me the Russian poem for the festival of Russian class of the university.
1979
Pronunciation of Korean
When learning of pronunciation of Korean, the teacher was not satisfied with my pronunciation of imnida.
I recognized the difficulty of foreign language again there.
The teacher whom I respected died at age 47.
His name is CHO Shokichi.
One of his most important works is Watashino Chosengo sho-jiten, My little dictionary of Korean Language.
Tokyo
November 14, 2004
March 11, 2007 Revised
