The rhythm found in English that I experienced through FEN listening brought
me more than listening power. Until I could conquer word sounds, rhythm only
belonged to the realm of sounds, but now that I entered the meaning area, it has
expanded into syntactic and semantic domains. Rhythm is helpful to catch sounds
but there is more to it for understanding a language. When one gets well
accustomed to word sounds, one realizes that the sounds moves behind the
scene while the meanings of words move towards the front. In other words,
rhythm is a chain of meanings. One expects unconsciously what word, or meaning
follows. It is a stepping stone. We can guess what the next stone is like or where it
is placed if we remember the track of the stones we already walked over.
The word order in English language is entirely different from that of Japanese
language, syntactically and semantically. So when one gets used to this order,
one can claim that his English level has advanced.
To me, the English language is like a saboten or cactus while Japanese language
is like a bonsai or potted pine tree. English is more cactus-like than a pine tree.
Syntactically, English is more noun-oriented than verb-oriented. A cactus is
composed of many knots and joints, just as English is neatly composed of many
short phrases, rather than long clauses. Japanese, on the other hand, is more
verb-oriented and is inclined to have long clauses, just like a bonsai has long and
bent branches. That is why the conversion from one language to another is very
difficult. Of course, each language can be translated literally from one another,
but the direct translation usually sounds very strange and unnatural. How to
remedy this state remains to be seen.
I believe that reading will not help solve this problem no matter how well one
reads because reading does not bring forth the semantic rhythm of the English
language. The only answer to this question is the listening of natural English.
Once one gets familiar with the structure of the English language, one can expect
greater improvement in all studies of English: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Presently in Japan, practical English is strongly advocated by the government
in view of oncoming prevalence of worldwide internet conducted dominantly in
English. But this is not the first time. Our history after Meiji restoration witnessed
the necessity of English ever since. There were times in the early Meiji period,
from the 1880-90's, where some great users of English lived. The way they learned
English was by listening to native speakers from England or America. They listened
from the age of ten, as if they were members of an English speaking country.
My listening experience as mentioned above will, I hope, serve to be of any
assistance to my readers.
The end
