SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES.
ITO THE EDITOR OF TUE " SPECTATOR."'
Sre.,—In discussing this School it is desirable to secure accurate data, and in this interest I venture to correct. some slips occurring in letters published by you in a recent issue. Mr. J. H. flubbing writes that, except for Consular and Diplomatic students, "well-established facilities for the study [of Japanese] in Japan do not., and in the nature of thingii cannot, exist." I take it that he is not aware of the existence in Tay.,
of the Japanese Language School (Nichi-go Cakko), which holds its classes in the Government School of Foreign Languages, by invitation of the Director, Professor Murakami. The School was begun in 1903 by Mr. J. Matsuda, and reorganized in 1913 by a Committee, five of whom represented missionary interests in language study, while six arc drawn from the mercantile and official communities. The Principal is Profesaor Frank Muller, and the students are mercantile, missionary, and other newcomers who intend to use the Japanese language in the prosecution of their work. The correct use of a cultured vernacular. is the primary object of the School, but instruction is also given in the literature, history, religions, and customs of Japan. The average number o: students is about thirty. So far for facilities open to mercantile st udents in Japan. But for mercantile, missionary, and official students, even fo: those for whom is provided the excellent system of instruction dovelopo in the British Legation, there have arisen within recent times the science of phonetics ; the science of linguistics ; and the science of anthropology, in relation to the origins, primitive customs, forme of thought, social customs and institutions, and religion, both primitive and developed. all of which are of the greatest value to a worker in any capacity among the Japanese--this applying mutatis inutandis to other foreign peoples. It is not possible to secure abroad specialized teaching of a high grade. The student might at least lay the foundations of his future study of the vernaculars of the East and Africa among the above-mentioned subjects, and, when on furlough, return to these studies to find solutions of the many difficulties which have at least worried and not seldom baffled him.
Your other correspondent, "R. S.," considerably overstates his ease
when he says that " aspirants for missionary work abroad are sent where they are required, and do not know their future destination till just before they sail. Hence a probationary course in languages, &c., is impossible." No one interested in the scientific preparation of mix• sionarics is unaware of the difficulty, but its existence is neither o general nor so obstructive to progress as " R. S." suggests. Certainly to-day it is a rapidly diminishing quantity. Missionary Societies have recognized the value of missionary preparation. and are now in moat cases willing to designate the student to a particular field in time to allow of at least some preparation. As the value of the preparation is demonstrated the willingness of the Society to meet the needs of its students becomes more apparent.—I am, Sir, &c., JOHN STEELE, D.Lit.,
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