Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies 研究

神奈川大学外国語学部英語英文学科です。中村ジェニス先生のゼミナールを紹介します。

More than half of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual. Even English-speaking countries are multilingual. About 20% of the US population speaks a language other than English. In Canada, the percentage of bilingual/multilingual speakers is even higher at almost 40%! Japan is also rapidly becoming a multilingual and multicultural society like the rest of the world. You probably noticed that many public signs and train announcements in the city are already available in two or three different languages.

Multilingual signs at a sweet potato shop in Hakone

A multilingual sign in Hakodate where Russian is commonly displayed

Japanese-Korean bilingual signs are easily spotted in Osaka’s Korean Town.

My seminar introduces students to our multilingual world, where people use different languages for different purposes. We look at multilingualism from two aspects which I will explain here:
The first aspect of multilingualism is the psycholinguistic （心理言語学）aspect. We look at how people acquire and use two languages. Some questions we ask in class are: Do bilingual speakers get confused? How do bilingual speakers code-switch? Is it possible to forget your native language? We find the answers to these questions together.

An example of code-switching by a Japanese-English bilingual child

The second aspect of multilingualism is the sociolinguistic aspect (社会言語学), e.g., how languages are used in multilingual countries. We explore Switzerland, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Belgium, etc., as case studies of multilingualism. You will develop a global perspective from the countries we cover in class.
 
We also study linguistic landscape (言語景観) by doing fieldwork in Yokohama Chinatown, which is very near our Minato Mirai campus. By taking pictures of public signs, students understand more about the multilingualism around them. We also take trips to Yamate, JICA, and the Yokohama Port Archives to learn more about the history of multilingualism in Yokohama and overseas.

Students doing fieldwork in Yokohama, Chinatown

Students visiting Yamate, a hill overlooking Yokohama Bay where many Europeans used to live from the 19th century. We explore the European houses here to understand how foreigners and local Japanese people interacted with each other in those days.

Seminar students visiting the Yokohama Port Archives

Students who take this course develop a better understanding of living in a multilingual society where different cultures and languages co-exist. Such knowledge and empathy are crucial for Japan’s multilingual and multicultural future.

中村ジェニス先生をもっと知りたい方はこちら！

中村　ジェニス

中村ジェニスゼミナールが2022年10月の「Jindai Style」Vol.334で取り上げられました。p.9をご覧ください！
https://www.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/aboutus/publication/style/file/336.pdf

中村ジェニス先生のゼミナール紹介はこちらの記事もご覧ください！

【英語英文学科】教員と先輩が書いたゼミナール紹介レポート／お知らせ｜神奈川大学