Japanese Language

I studied Japanese when I was living and teaching English there but never really understood the history of how the language evolved. I knew there was quite a bit of deliberate state action taken in the name of simplifying the language, but I didn't realize how recent that really was; thought it was in the so-called "olden days." Of course it makes sense that it was during the Meiji "Restoration," as it were, but I guess that didn't click for me before.

As linguistics is intimately linked with culture and the rules of human interaction and decorum, I wonder how such intentional, non-organic (not to insinuate bad necessarily, tho neither to support its opposite) manipulation of the Japanese language has affected subsequent generations since. Here's a history.

One thing I do find interesting to note is the emphasis the first linked article (a review of a book written about the history of Japanese written language) puts on the role of public speaking's high popularity in Japanese culture. I find this funny because, in Japan, I found that my older students especially loved to give little oratories that they'd written up as homework the class before; so every class I assigned this type of homework. And they just loved it! It was a way to share with a group ("the community") something about themselves, a memory or a tradition or a cultural reflection, something one doesn't often discuss in mixed company. It was wonderful. But it always seemed to me that they would most certainly not express in Japanese some of the feelings I heard articulated, only in English; their language of self-expression? I'm sure it's no shocker that I also drew the link between these little speeches that some loved giving in class to the same urge the Japanese all seem to share: to bust out some karaoke moves to an enthusiastic room full of fans. It's adorable.