on the native qualities

[Dr Yoshimasa Tsuji]

Dear Georges,
I beg to disagree to part of your statements, please. As I mentioned,
children first learn mother's tongue (if her pronunciation and usage
of words/syntax are consistent, the better). And then when they are
exposed to other people's talk, they develope a special device that
would classify some of the different code as the "same" code. As the notion
of "sameness" develops, they will be understanding more and more people.
(It is interesting to see children say honestly "I don't
understand a word" to foregners who have been flattered by adults as
speaking "without an accent".) When the processor becomes very stable/fixed,
any foreign sound will find its slot within the device automatically.
Not only the sound, but lexics/syntax as well because in everyday
conversation people talk without grammar but get across all right
thanks to this mechanism. That mechanism functions as a reflex like legs
and feet after the age of eight or so.

  Just as it is not impossible to change one's manner of walking/running
in adulthood, restructuring the automatic processor of the first language
is not impossible. People with poor capability to learn a second language
are not stupid, but perhaps too clever, trying to make use his own
established devices to the full and stubbornly committed to preserving them.
Many of my colleagues are so clever that when they speak English, they,
thinking in Japanese, switch between two languages very, very quickly. As
I am much less intelligent than they, it takes me weeks to really switch
to another language and I will stay put there. (This explains partly why I
write such poor English, having switched to Japanese mode for months).

  College students from Japan who wish to throw away their Japanese identity
and acquire an American one usually pick up the new language remarkably
sooner than those who are more intelligent but are committed to preserving
Japanese identity. I remember witnessing children in an English school
laughing and giggling horrendously when one of them imitated a French
accent in a French lesson. That sort of attitude is the greatest barrier of
all.

  A good motivation will facilitate the unlearning process of the
first language. Psychological factor plays a great role, indeed.

With best wishes,

Tsuji