Teaching Japanese in Hindi/Marathi than in English

Japanese and Hindi/Marathi have more in common with each other than Japanese and English. The fact that Hindi/Marathi and Japanese have a Sanskrit past also helps. We believe that if we teach Japanese to Indians using Hindi/Marathi than English, we would enable Indians to learn Japanese much faster. Let’s look at the immense business opportunity this brings about as most of India does not speak English. The BPO/KPO/Legal Outsourcing world now has a world of opportunity open to it. A much larger world as most of the world GDP is not transacted in English. A large mass of Indians can now look at a better quality of life.

But let’s start at the beginning.

If you start reading any basic book which teaches you Japanese in English the first page would explain to you why a simple transliteration of Japanese to English is simply not possible. The structure of the Japanese language and hence the rules of Grammar are nothing like that of English. Learning any language would mean learning words but more important is learning how to speak entire sentences. When we communicate with others using a language we do not use words to communicate but entire sentences. Thus the structure of sentence construction is the most important part of any language. This is where Hindi/Marathi scores over English.

In English we like been upfront and always place verbs as early on in a sentence as possible. We like to commit ourselves very early on while speaking. This is the nature and culture of English. In Japanese and Hindi/Marathi we do it the other way around. A verb which is by far the most important part of a sentence because it denotes action is placed at the very end and not in the beginning of a sentence. This is why in Japanese and Hindi/Marathi we do not know what someone is saying unless he completes his sentence. The verb could be in the negative sense which would change the very meaning of the sentence. This is why a simple translation word by word of Japanese to English does not make any sense it all, but Japanese to Hindi/Marathi is very similar and much simpler. This is why English is a called a Subject – Verb-Object or SVO language and Hindi/Marathi/Japanese are Subject – Object – Verb SOV languages.

One more similarity. Nouns in English are placed at the end and in Japanese and Hindi/Marathi they are get pride of place and are at the beginning. Hindi/Marathi and Japanese have a similar structure and could go on and on with the similarities. We at the IMC believe that need of the hour is to take this idea to the next level and actually create learning material in Hindi/Marathi and encourage training institutions to actually start teaching Japanese in Hindi/Marathi and not English. The IMC can seed this thought amongst Indians, but as we are not a teaching institute we would encourage other organizations and people to do the actual teaching.

This idea came forth at a meeting where we were discussing how Japanese could be taught to Indians and a excellent Japanese trainer Sabina Sakraney came forth with this observation that teaching Japanese in Hindi/Marathi is more productive than teaching Japanese in English. The learning curve is shortened tremendously . She noticed this during the courses she taught. This is why we believe that unless there is more interaction between Indians and Japanese discussing Japanese culture, business, language etc newer and better ideas would not sprout. Unfortunately in Mumbai we have very little interaction amongst the various stakeholders in the Indian-Japanese space.

We would like to convert this e-mail into a white paper for wider circulation and would love to enable creating a actual course of teaching Japanese in Hindi/Marathi. We would also like the Government of India/Maharashtra to get involved along with the technology world. This would benefit the country in a big way.

This is why we are meeting on the 12th of August at the IMC at 1700 hours to take this concept to the next level. Please be there.

PS "Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of a Chinese word ("chan"), which is a Chinese pronunciation of a Sanskrit word ("dhyan"), meaning "meditation"?

If you are interested in attending this meeting, you may kindly confirm your participation giving your contact details including mobile number by email to Mr. Subhash Menon, Head-IT & Dy. Secretary, Indian Merchants’ Chamber, e-mail: menon@IMCnet.org.