"In our club there are people who speak English fluently," said the president of the E.S.S. at the welcoming party for freshmen. "And," he continued, "there is one man who can speak Kumalish well."

I wondered what Kumalish meant, so I asked our president to explain the term. "Oh! Kumalish ...? Ah, it's a kind of English. Correctly speaking, it is a form of English that has
the accent and flavor of the Kumamoto dialect." According to this explanation an associate of ours speaks this variety of English.

We freshmen tried to address him in our poor English. At first he spoke Kumalish in this way: "You with me talk?" In translation it means "Do you want to speak to me?" Naturally we laughed our heads off. Yet to our surprise, he replied in very good English.

We were very upset. Then he laughed at us, saying "language is for communicating, so if you can make yourself understood in your own way, then that is good enough!"

"When I was a student I was once forced to speak English at a crowded bus stop. An American asked me something that I couldn't catch. However, I had a guess as to what he might have said and asked, 'You Nishinomiya for?' in Kumalish. 'Oh! Yes! This bus, O.K.?' he answered. You see, I managed to communicate with him. Kumalish is also a respectable variety of English. It's a kind of passport."

We freshmen were moved by his words. We felt that he had come to speak English well because he put emphasis on the communicative aspect of language. The Japanese are said to be poor linguists but if we were to think like my associate, that the purpose of language is to understand and be understood, then we would be less afraid of making mistakes. And, in the course of time we would become better speakers.

We students should use every opportunity to speak English, especially to foreigners. We can only learn from our mistakes if we talk to native speakers. So don't hesitate to speak to foreigners in your own way - using your own English. Don't be ashamed of using Kyotolish (English with an accent of the Kyoto dialect), Osakalish, Tokyolish, Tohokulish, and, of course, Kumalish. This is what we feel we have learned from our fellow E.S.S. member, and we want to share it with you.

Incidentally, Kumalish is quite difficult for me because I speak Osakalish.