Net, the flood of English
English Summary
In 1991, when I was studying at Peking (Beijing) University, I once traveled to a small town near Wu-xi (in Middle China) where I saw a young Chinese and a Korean gentleman talking about their business in Japanese. I was very impressed and moved because this was the first time for me that I heard my mother tongue spoken as an international and common language among foreigners.
Later, I remembered that such an experience is not rare and impressive at all to the native speakers of English.
In these days, the Web is being spread rapidly, where English has become the standard and formal language. Of course, you can use Japanese as far as you use Net only in Japan. But, even when you send e-mail to a Japanese who lives in foreign country, you must use English because the computer of the receiver may have no Japanese environment nor plug-in. Let alone viewing home pages !
I also used some English when I founded my web site. My patriotic mind made me add a short message: "I recommend you equipping your computer with Japanese environment or some plug-in."
A man in Chicago sent me mail after he viewed my web site. He wrote that he would buy Japanese software in order to read my Accordion Home Page. This mail made me glad a little, for I felt as if I were an ant who succeeded in a tiny kick against rushing elephants.
or KATOU, Toru
(The article above was written for " Hi-Shou" or "Flight", a formal magazine of Hiroshima University )