"Asian Language Linguist"

     There was a time, not too long ago when there was an acute shortage of Asian language linguists in America.  The exigencies of World War Two created some by way of language training given to military personnel, but even then, there just weren't that many Americans who could speak Japanese, Korean, Chinese, or other Asian languages fluently.  During World War Two, most Asian linguists were actually first or second generation Asian-Americans, although there were some non-Asians as well.  The interest in Asian languages was always there, it is just that the numbers of linguists was always kind of small, compared to linguists in European languages. 
     The decades of late the 1970s through the 1980s were boon years for Asian culture and languages, it was when quite a few Americans learned Asian languages and also went to live and work in Asia.  This was particularly true of Japanese.  The 1990s saw a dramatic increase in interest in learning Chinese and Korean, so those two languages received a lot of attention.  These movements coincided with economic growth of Japan, Korea, and China.  Today, I believe America has more Asian linguists than any Western country, but, it wasn't always so.
     Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I worked at the American Embassy in Tokyo, many representatives of American companies used to come to Japan to establish business ties.  It amazed me how few (practically none!), had Japanese speaking executives.  They always had to rely on interpreters or English speaking Japanese counterparts.  Needless to say, most were not all that successful and they blamed their failure on Japanese resistance to American business.  Some of it may have been true, Japan certainly had and still has a very "protective" policy when it comes to foreign business.  But, mostly the failures were due to lack of understanding of Japanese culture and mentality, and to a large degree, inability to speak Japanese.  During that period, just about all of the Americans who could speak Japanese and understood Japanese culture and system were U.S. Government employees, civilian or military.  The none government sector seemed to be clueless when it came to Asian languages and culture.  Of course there were people in academia who knew Japanese language and culture, but they didn't work for the businesses that came to Japan!
     I remember one particular amusing incident when a famous American ketchup company sent its people to Japan to try to market their product.  The Japanese, after listening to their pitch, politely asked if the company could produce soft, squeezable plastic bottles for their famous ketchup brand.  They explained that the Japanese housewives did not like the heavy glass bottles that sometimes required the help of a chopstick or some other object to get the ketchup flowing.  All Japanese ketchup bottles were squeezable at the time.  The response from the American company representatives was somewhat surprising.  They said that they were proud of the fact that their brand of ketchup was so thick that it required some help to start flowing.  They said that plastic bottles were cheap and would present a negative image of their product.  So, no, they would not make squeezable bottles.  Needless to say, their deal fell through, the Japanese were not interested in importing that brand of American ketchup, although they readily admitted that they liked the taste!  Apparently the American company did not do its homework, market research!
     There were a number of factors involved in this case, stupidity was no doubt one of the factors.  But the lack of understanding Japanese mentality and culture, and simply the inability to communicate probably were the biggest factors in their failure!  It took a while, but it seems American companies have caught on and are now marketing various products, suitably modified to fit the Japanese needs!  But speaking of linguists, as I said, in the early days, there weren't that many in the private sector.  Those Americans who could speak Japanese or other Asian languages fluently could really cash in on their language skills when Asian economy took off.  There were several notable cases of former U.S. Government employees who switched to private sector and had great success because of their linguistic abilities.
     Andy had a very curious and interesting background.  He grew up in Asia prior to World War Two in Korea.  His parents may have been missionaries or business people, I never really found out.  He grew up in Korea at a time when it was under Japanese rule and he had a Japanese nanny!  So, he learned to speak Korean as well as Japanese from the time he was a baby.  Needless to say, he spoke those two languages like a native!  After he left Asia, he said he always felt somewhat awkward, out of place, didn't feel like he fit-in.  He worked at different jobs, but wasn't very happy and wanted to return to Asia.  When Korean War broke out he answered an ad in the newspaper for Korean speakers.  He was hired, and as it turned out, it was the young (at the time only three years old!) Central Intelligence Agency.  He was stationed in Tokyo but spent most of his time in Korea during the war.  When the war ended he stayed on in Tokyo and worked for the CIA.  He rotated between his time back stateside at Langley and Japan.  A tour in Washington (Langley) and a few years in Tokyo, etc.
     Andy was a blue-eyed, blond, Nordic type, yet he spoke perfect Japanese and Korean, like a native.  If you had your back turned to him and he spoke either Japanese or Korean, you would not have guessed in a million years that he was not a Japanese or a Korean!  His Japanese he spoke with a very slight Saitama accent because his old nanny, the woman who essentially raised him, was from Saitama-ken.  His Korean had a very slight Cholla-do inflection because that is where he learned Korean, where he had Korean playmates and friends.  No doubt Andy was one of those people who was just naturally gifted when it came to languages.  But having grown up speaking Japanese and Korean gave him a tremendous advantage over those who learned the language as adults.  The Japanese in particular were always quite taken aback when first meeting Andy.  Back in those days, there just weren't that many gaijin who spoke Japanese at that fluency level!
     By the mid 1960s Andy decided he no longer wanted to work for Uncle Sam, but rather wanted to stay more or less on a permanent basis in Tokyo, so he quit CIA and started looking for a job.  It didn't take him long to find a job, initially as a salesman for an electronics company to market the goods in America.  Within a few short years he became the senior vice president of that company!  I met him in Tokyo on my way back from Okinawa in 1968 (I had known him since the 1950s) and discovered just how Japanese electronics had almost complete taken over the market world wide!  By then, even some of the famous American brand TV, stereo and radio equipment were all made in Japan, stamped with the American company names!  I wasn't aware of that until I visited his office in Tokyo and saw photos on the wall of Andy with American company executives, shaking hands after closing the deals to purchase Japanese equipment!  He had even managed to sell some electronics (like monitors) to NASA that were used in space flights!
     Andy was one of a kind and was able to make himself a success because of his unusual linguistic ability.  He never went to college, yet was able to attain such success in his life.  Today there are many other non-Asian Americans who work for Japanese, Korean and Chinese enterprises who are fluent in the language and knowledgeable about the culture of the country.  But back in the day, a person like Andy was indeed a rare bird!  I can still remember the surprised looks on the faces of Japanese and Koreans when they first heard Andy speak in their language, it was priceless!