by liberal japonicus
A topic that everyone might have thoughts on
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a radical, little-known educational experiment trialled in British schools (and in other English-speaking countries) during the 1960s and 70s. Billed as a way to help children learn to read faster by making spelling more phonetically intuitive, it radically rewrote the rules of literacy for tens of thousands of children seemingly overnight. And then it vanished without explanation. Barely documented, rarely acknowledged, and quietly abandoned – but never quite forgotten by those it touched.
Why was it only implemented in certain schools – or even, in some cases, only certain classes in those schools? How did it appear to disappear without record or reckoning? Are there others like my mum, still aggrieved by ITA? And what happens to a generation taught to read and write using a system that no longer exists?
I've often said that teaching is a conservative (small c) profession that draws in the most liberal folks to work in it. I used to joke that there was no other profession that you could have someone from 100 years in the past come to the present and could do the same job, with the only requirement being that you show them how to take the cap off the white board eraser. That's observation is fraying a bit at the edges, what with AI and all that, but it's that conservatism that makes the introduction of AI probably more disruptive than in any other field. (cause in the other fields, you just give pink slips and turn things over to Skynet) Though China seems to be doing it right But as a counterpoint
https://youtu.be/s9EvvxTYjb8?si=Vs3G_XaCOQA95XUl&t=1703
The problems that some of the people in the article have synch with some things I have seen and experienced. When I first came to Japan, students were taught romanization using Cabinet style (Kunrei shiki) and when then moved to JHS, they shifted to Hepburn, when English was formally taught. I came on the first year of the JET program and there was this influx of foreigners (the first year's intake was GB, US, Aus and NZ. The next year, Canada and Ireland were added. There was also the chattering class of foreigners who were always horrified that Japanese spent 6 to 10 years learning Japanese, yet were unable to converse, so the push was for communicative English.
Kunrei shiki is the most logical way to romanize Japanese. You can take Japanese sounds, and make each row a vowel, and then make each column a consonant and you would have a 5x10 grid. Kunrei shiki (and for the purposed of this, I'll pretend like there is only one system, but there are some slight variants) would have the same consonant at the beginning of the sounds in one column. The only problem with this is that the sounds have undergone some change, so in Kunrei shiki, Fuji, the mountain symbolic of Japan, would be spelled Huzi.
Every since Meiji, people and groups have suggested that Japanese shift to a romanized script, and there have been massive battles about which system to use. Being Japan, they have tried to appease both sides, so traditionally, Kunrei shiki was used for information designed for Japanese, and Hepburn shiki was used for things aimed at foreigners. I don't have to note that you are going to have some problems. For example, when Japanese started getting credit cards, their passport would be in Kunrei shiki and the credit card would be in Hepburn shiki. If you were unfortunate to have spellings that were different, this could end with your credit card being rejected because it wasn't the same name as on the passport.
Recently, the Japanese government may take steps to make Hepburn shiki the standard romanization, which tracks with the fact that English has been pushed down to elementary school and it is becoming more confusing.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/03/06/japan/japanese-romanization-rules-change-explained/
The article supports the change, but suggests that it is only for "some obscure historical reason", that these spellings exist. While I agree that it is probably better to change, it is not an obscure historical reason, it was trying to make a statement about who the language was for and why it was used. But that is another blog post or 5.
This all applies to this story because when I arrived, I would also run into a number of Japanese who surprised me with the problems they had with Japanese. English was still only formally taught in JHS and there was not any sort of pressure for students to get better at English ahead of that (unlike in Korea), so there was a very carefully constructed curriculum. My 4th and 5th year on the program, I was in the Board of Education with all of the subject consultants. These were all sharp people who had achieved success in teaching and were promoted because of their skill in education. Yet with the exception of the English Teaching Consultants, none of them had any fluency in English. Sitting down with them, a lot of times, if they wrote down something in English, it would be in Kunrei shiki, which leads me to think that the problem was not that they learned English poorly, but that they learned it too well and were unable to get out of the rut.
This tracks with some personal experiences I have had. After my first 5 years in Japan, I had an ok reading knowledge and could write, albeit with a word processor rather than a pen. I went to grad school and kept up my spoken Japanese, but, because I thought it wasn't a big deal, studied Thai, which was a mistake for me. After I finished my MA and was packing to take a job in Japan, I found my old word processor (this was before internet and before pcs). I found the adapter, plugged it in and started it up and was shocked because I was greeted with a document that I could remember writing, but could not read. I could have been typing REDRUM REDRUM.
When I got back to Japan, re-learning kanji was a little like learning how to walk after a stroke. With age, I know that my ability to read and write was a lot better after my first 5 years than it is now. I also worked at one university for 3 years before moving to another university with a more permanent position and a similar situation occurred. I was packing up the books I sent over and I found my Thai notebooks and had the same experience, remembering writing them but being unable to read them.
I got to the place where I still am and was able to work on a research project connected with Vietnam. I went over for two trips of a few weeks and worked on with my phrasebook to get around. About 5 years later, I was able to organize a yearly conference in Hue and it was astonishing how much Vietnamese I remembered. I guess I had a sight vocabulary of about 1000 words and I believe that the reason was because my language ability was, at its core, my ability with the English alphabet.
So, to get back to the article, had I experienced something like the Initial Teaching Alphabet, it would have been as dire. I think that my acquisition of Japanese would be nil if I had an iphone, google maps and translate when I arrived in Japan.
Anyway, a thread for all your language and education musings.
Recent Comments