Radio in Japan

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 32, 20 February 1931, Page 15

Radio in Japan

Language Problem BROADCASTING is playing a curious role. in the evolution of the Japanese language, which is not the same for all classes. Women are obliged to use different words from those employed by men, and, up till very recent times it was a very serious breach of etiquette for a woman. to tise masculine expressions. — On the other hand, the man who so far forgot himself as to pronounce certain words in the feminine. way was scorned and despised. There are two complete sets of idiomatic phrases, each peculiar to one. sex. Again, the language of the . upper class ‘ts completely different to . that of the lower-a master speaks in a, different form to that used by his servant. A further peculiarity is that the written language is totally unlike that spoken, and hence the former cannot be adopted for broadcast purposes for the illiterate would not be able to understand a word. The only solution to the difficulty appears to be the adoption for the use of all classes of a national language which will revolutionise Japan and break down the age-long barriers of caste and sex.