說出你的願望 否則不會實現

I haven't typed in English for about two weeks, ever since I finished the AWA writing exam. The reason why I am doing this now is owing that one of the MOFA staffs, who is concerned much about my career, asked me to write some articles during my office hours in order to improve my English ability.

This kind of English writing is kind of different from the AWA writing, for I have to argue the issue that is set by myself as well. This time, the topic I would like to talk about is "Can you speak English?"

As I mentioned in the last article, I watched the Japanese drama series, Dragonsakura,on the day before, and I got some inspiration from the drama. In one part of the series, Sakuragi hired a new English teacher to replace the old one who is not capable of improving the students' English grades.

The new teacher Kawaguchi raised a interesting question to the students. He asked Mizuno, one of the students," Can you swim?" Mizuno replied," I can swim for 25m straight without stopping. Yeah! I guess I can swim." And Kawaguchi turned to another student, Yajima, and asked, " Can you roller-skate?" "Not very good at it, but I suppose I can." Yajima replied.

Then, Kawaguchi raised another question,"If we ask American whether they can speak Japanese, the answers would often be "Yes!" However, the people who say so are likely to know only a few Japanese words such as sushi, ninja, and wasabi. But,they are not afraid of saying these words out loud. In contrast, the Japanese who, in fact, know much bigger English vocabulary always deny they are capable of speaking English.

Kawaguchi proceeded his argument as everybody had begun to mull over what he just said. He went on arguing that," A girl that can swim for 25m straight claims that she can swim and a boy that can skate without falling over supposes that he can skate. However, most students that actually have learned a great deal of English words dare not to claim that they can speak English. Why does that keep happening around us?

To solve this problem, we have to learn to "love" English, not to fear it; to embrace it, not to abandon it. I will not go any further with the consequent scenario. If you are curious about what happens next, please, go to watch the serial! It won't fail you!

What Kawaguchi mentions above is not uncommon in Taiwan. The people in Taiwan are always being criticized of poor English. Thus, we have to ask ourselves, whether we can or can not speak English. We do can speak English but not that fluently as native speakers, of course. There is nothing to be ashamed of, since English is merely our second language, not our first. There is nothing wrong with not speaking it fluently, so that we are not supposed to be afraid of speaking it when some native speaker asks you if you can speak English. We are ought to reply," Yes, We can!"

And here is something that is irrelevant to the issue on the above, however, I would like to point out here is that the American usually don't ask a foreigner," Can you speak English?" but " Do you speak English?"

What's the difference? If he uses the word "can," it means that he supposes you cannot speak English. On the contrary, if he uses the word "do," he makes an assumption that you can speak English. But he is not aware of that whether you are willing to speak it or not.

Maybe most of us do not give a damn about the slight differece it makes. However, the language is a form of art, we should learn to appreciate it in a more specific way. There might be a lot of typo or mistakes in grammar. But, who cares? I am merely practicing writing something down in English, not taking a exam. This is pretty much it!