h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nah, you're not in the wrong place, just the wrong time zone I'm in Japan, so when you wrote, I had just gone to bed .

So I'm guessing 'szia' means hi there, or something? I don't speak a word of Hungarian (to my embarassment). My grandfather refused even to let his own children learn, so none of his grandchildren can. My European history is really weak too, but I believe the deal is that part of Hungary he was from got annexed by Germany and became part of Czechoslovakia after the war, and he decided that being Hungarian was a bad idea. I still have lots of (living) relatives who speak it though, and I have a box full of Hungarian books I inherited from his brother sitting in the garage for if I ever get around to learning ...

Tatsuya-san! Hi there - my name is Sam Semple and I'm one of the editors here at h2g2. I used to live in Japan for a while a few years back, and, quite unlike your good self, I have the barest grasp of the language (although I intend to resume part-time studies soon)! I've got some really good friends (Japanese) living mainly in Tokyo and right now I'm keen to build up an h2g2 Japanese community. If you have a minute, check out a couple of postings I made earlier this week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F69825?thread=121249&latest=1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F52082?thread=121431&latest=1 I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on whether you think h2g2 is a cool place for Japanese to integrate with other folks from all over the world, using quality/informal English. Do you think h2g2 could be used as a teaching tool in Japanese schools? When I was helping out in Japanese High Schools there seemed to be a need for something other than a strict and lifeless grammatical approach to English studies. I'm so interested in the meeting of the two mind sets; Occidental and Oriental, and I would love to see a dialogue, a real exchange between the two on h2g2! Whenever you have the time, I would greatly appreciate you thoughts. All the best, Sam. :-)

Hey Sam,

Thanks for the interest. Sorry I hadn't got back to you earlier; I've been inactive on h2g2 for the best part of a year. Its just taken me about 10 minutes to even remember my password to log in and reply to you.

I think h2g2 is a cool place for anyone to integrate with anyone. I've never been much into the Occidental / Oriental mind-set thing though. It seems to me that English/Japanese, even English/American 'mindset differences' are used as a general escape-all for getting your own way; "oh but that's not how we do things here". At the end of the day, the Japanese are just zis bunch of guys you know? Interaction of any kind that helps people see that their opposite numbers are just a bunch of people muddling through has got to be a good thing.

As for using h2g2 in schools; well I'm firmly of the opinion that English shouldn't be taught in Japanese schools except perhaps in emergencies as a 3rd language in the sixth form . Korean is to Japanese as French is to English [with annoyingly similar yet twised grammar and impossible pronuncation to match]. Seriously though, anything which gets people actually _using_ a language is always a real help to learning, and h2g2's editorial and conversation system provides just the right forum for fixing grammar, style etc. in an informal setting.

I'm on quite good terms with the headmaster of one of the local Junior High (12-15) schools. Perhaps I should try and inveigle him into introducing it into the curriculum