MODERN LANGUAGES IN A TOUR AROUND THE WORLD 33 



the mother-country. And what is true of Hongkong is equally true 

 of the other English dependencies, Singapore, Rangoon and India in 

 general. The British have been for a long time a nation of aggressive 

 and successful colonizers, and where they have established themselves 

 they have implanted their language. The English are not regarded 

 by the Germans, for example, as good linguists. Where a German 

 learns a foreign language and speaks it with enjoyment, conquering 

 the difficulties with genuine gusto, an Englishman resists as long as 

 possible, and yields only as a last resort. In this respect the English 

 and the French have one point in common. The Frenchman learns 

 a foreign tongue only under compulsion. Having for centuries 

 listened to the flattery that his own is the most beautiful, the most 

 perfect of all languages, he finds it quite right that foreigners should 

 rise to the standard and speak French. Only within comparatively 

 recent years, with the growing commercial spirit of the age, have the 

 French begun to learn foreign languages with a better grace, and 

 especially English. Meanwhile the French language is less and less 

 cultivated throughout the world. At one time there was a current 

 opinion more or less true that French was the foreign language of the 

 Orient, but this held true only with regard to the countries of the 

 immediate Orient bordering on the east shores of the Mediterranean. 

 In the extreme Orient it is hard to see how French could ever have been 

 much in use excepting in diplomacy and at diplomatic dinners. When 

 one looks back over a long journey in the Far East, and remembers 

 the quantity of English spoken and recalls but one person, a Chinese 

 railway official, who spoke French but did not know English, one 

 cannot help feeling that whatever may have been true in the past, 

 times have now changed. In India it is but natural to find the English 

 language the predominant one. Indeed, the insistence upon English 

 is regarded as the most effective method of civilization. The mis- 

 sionaries may or may not know a little of the native dialects in the 

 places where they are stationed, but they feel that their greatest influence 

 is exerted through the English language and the teaching of English 

 standards of life as well as the doctrine of Christianity. In Egypt, 

 too, English is the most practical language to have at one's command, 



