during the period when Korea was under Japan's occupation do you think the Japanese were learning Korean or 'persuaded' the Korean to learn Japanese? and do you think that stopped the day after the Japanese left?
It makes a lot of sense for PJB to learn Japanese as a means of communication to reach out to his trainees. Getting the message across to your students in their own mother tongue is the most effective other than pure demonstration. With a brain like PJB's and the interest he's shown by accepting the coaching job despite some some unpleasant history between Korea and Japan, his learning of Japanese must have been quickened in the real Japanese environment with everyday interaction with the language. If I'm not wrong, some written form of both Korean and Japanese words have a common influence with Chinese and this perhaps makes the understanding of Japanese easier for PJB. Indeed PJB is often cited as the man behind the significant improvement in the badminton standards of the Japanese players. Perhaps this is due in part to his quick masterly of the Japanese language that makes it more effective to impart his skills to his students.
Considering there were violent reprisals against collaborators in the late '40s, it is not actually difficult to imagine that language teachers were running scared and forced language acquisition certainly stopped even before the departure of the colonial administrators. In any case, when you consider that children in immigrant communities can quite often be monolingual in the locally dominant language by the 3rd or even 2nd generation, it is next to impossible for a vilified, ex-status language to have any kind of organic base after a generation. In other words, the colonization has exactly zero to do with Park's ability to speak Japanese and there has to be, and is, another explanation. First of all, many Koreans who have tried both English and Japanese claim that they acquire Japanese more easily because of the linguistic similarity in terms of sentence structure as well as the number of cognates. Second, Park is fluent in English as well, despite the fact that he has been in Japan nearly twice as long as he was in England and Malaysia combined. In other words, he has a demonstrated aptitude for language acquisition and if he can learn English, the experience of other Korean language students would suggest that he'd have no problem with Japanese. The one thing you mention that is relevant is the notion of people who speak internationally powerful languages not being motivated to learn less powerful ones. In other words, we wouldn't expect the Japanese team to line up to learn Korean any more than we would expect the Brits to have learned Danish to speak to Jonassen, or Chinese or Bahasa Melayu to communicate with Tan Kim Her. I'm sure there aren't many players in Calgary who learned Bahasa Indonesia to be coached by Ardy Wiranata, either. It's more complicated that that, of course. Many teams rely on a shared lingua franca. Also, some Chinese-speaking coaches in Korea have learned Korean while in the case of others, they have relied on existing bilingual members of the coaching staff. In Korean team sports, they allocate a budget for translators to deal with foreign coaches or players. It would be interesting to compare Park's experience with the other coaches, trainers, and players from Korea, Taiwan, China, and Indonesia who have worked in the Japan league. Differences will still stem more from time in the country, personal aptitude, existence of bilingual colleagues, and the ability to use a third language such as English as a lingua franca, than on colonial histories ending in the mid-20th century.
There are some people who are gifted in picking up languages. Perhaps, PJB who must be a smart fellow to get a Phd degree is one of them, and also because of his association with Jap badminton that 'pushes' him to learn the language. I have many caucasian friends here that speak fluent mandarin. My old boss (mentor early in my career) is a Chilean, he speaks only Spanish, came to Begium and took up their language while attending University, then came to Canada and challenge engineering exam in english to qualify as an engineer, married a Korean with a interpreter and only learn Korean after his wife came over from KOR (called it a blind, arranged marriage). My older brother, failng Form 3, because of his business that requires him to interact with other races in MAS, can speak many dialects including broken hindi, I really do not know how many languages he can converse or understand. Me on the other hand is the total opposite, can barely speak cantonese (my mother tongue) well, and forget about Bahasa (return this language to my guru long time ago).
"Ho yei, nei tong ngo yi yeon!" (Sorry for the lousy translation in Cantonese for I'm a linguistic failure as well.)
What I mean by "he is quite fluent" is that Coach Park does not bring a translator. And at least he seems able to communicate with Japanese players in the game. Communicating them specially about badminton should not be so hard. Off the court, he might not be as fluent as he could on the court. There must be extra challenges like a language barrier, homesick, different cultures. Regardless of those he has coached in Japan for many years. I think he's doing good.
Park Joo Bong's ability to speak Japanese has nothing to do with Japanese colonization. He might have learned Japanese before, but it would be like getting to know more about a neighbor country. Japan and Korea have many things to solve specially about history. That does not mean Japanese people hate Korean people, or the other way around. It is more like what politicians have to deal with. Majority citizens of Korea and Japan don't think each other as enemies. He did not betray Korea because he's coaching in Japan. He's working for them, but he gets payed and earns good money directly from Japan. Badminton is also olympic sports. It should exclude any political conflicts. Also Mao used to work for Korean Men Single. I have never thought him betrayed his country, China. Specially for coaches, it is always good to work internationally for its sports, because it brings many competitive players from various countries.
Just to put in context to this old comment which seems out of place. And a number of m'sian ex-players are university grads.
Politics invade into sports and other sectors While it is good that PJB can help raise the standard of badminton in Japan and he has settled in there quite comfortably with the culture and the language I presume, the political "quarrels" over the historical baggage between South Korea and Japan will not be good for PJB nor the players of both countries when they meet in court (not legal). One could sense a tinge of tenseness when opposing players compete and the joy of competing is somewhat receded when you have leaders of both countries making public announcements that could hurt the feelings and sensitivities of their people. Rival players and coaches become uncomfortable. But let's hope there will be no walkouts when political tension rises another decibel. And let's hope that political leaders remain more circumspect in their action, including verbal outcries.
PJB seems to be comfortable in Japan and vice versa. Japan's badminton has improved and PJB renewed his contract there That's good enough for the game.
I always wondered why Park decided to coach the japanese team? Why didn't he coach the Korean team? Surely they would've gladly let Park takeover as head coach. Especially after the scandal involving Sung.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efjuix5II1E If you haven't seen it yet, you have to seen this video. At age 48, Park Joo Bong plays a MD with Kim Dong moon against Lee Yongdae and Yoo yeungsung! Remarkably, the old guys are extraordinarily competitive against elite Md players!
