MODERN LANGUAGES IN A TOUR AROUND THE WORLD 3 1 



point of view of his questioner, who finally gives up in despair. If a 

 guide speaks poor English, the situation is all the worse. For this 

 reason many wealthy tourists, who engage a guide as the proper thing 

 to do on arriving in the Orient, dismiss him at the earliest oppor- 

 tunity. A courier is serviceable, as bearing the brunt of the disa- 

 greeable details of traveling, but he does not always satisfy the 

 educated tourist. Let us suppose, however, that the traveler arriving 

 in Japan does meet with a satisfactory native guide. What languages 

 does he speak ? English and only English from among the modern 

 European languages. It would be odd indeed to imagine such a guide 

 speaking German, French, or Spanish, and there are good reasons for 

 this. The guide would die of starvation waiting for a client. The 

 English, or rather the English-speaking people, are the people who 

 travel. If a German travels for pleasure or on business in Japan, he 

 is usually able to speak English. If he is traveling for pleasure, he 

 must be a person of more or less wealth and position, and a German 

 of that class is not content, like the average wealthy American, to 

 speak only his native tongue. To speak English is one of his accom- 

 plishments. It is good form. It is expected of him. If, on the other 

 hand, the German in Japan is there on business, he also is able to 

 speak English for the reason that business is business and English is 

 the world-language of business. The Japanese are ambitious to learn 

 English. In their hotels the guests are well looked out for in English; 

 in the shops likewise. Japan is therefore not a favorable field for the 

 exercise of one's acquisitions in the other modern languages, any more 

 than Hawaii was; and the same condition prevails throughout the 

 Orient, with a few modifications. In Korea, Manchuria and China, 

 the tourist gets along with English because he is expected to get along 

 with it. The native takes it for granted that foreigners will accost 

 him in English. In the capitals of oriental countries, where foreign 

 embassies and legations are represented, it is of course a decided 

 advantage to speak modern languages, just as it is in the European 

 countries, but it is not absolutely necessary. The average round-the- 

 world American tourist on a seven months' schedule does not meet 

 the diplomatic society of the countries he visits, unless there is some 



