I'm not even sure why this would be an issue.
Toshihide Maskawa, one of this year's Nobel recipients for Physics, will give his Nobel prize lecture in Japanese, simply because he isn't proficient in English.
I must admit that till now, I thought that it is common for Nobel prize lectures to be given in a language that the winner is comfortable in. Obviously, most tend to give such lectures in English since that is widely used. Still, I thought it would be more common than this that a non-English lecture would have been given.
But then again, in physics, English is such a "necessary" language if one wishes to publish in all the leading journals and get wide exposure. Still, great for Maskawa to stick to what he's comfortable with.
Zz.
3 comments:
That's bad. He does it because he is Japanese nationalist and hates everything else except Japan.
Many times ago physicists all over the world used Latin as a main language for communication. Physics is a worldwide science and one is not able to know all the variety of langugages. That's why one common language should exist. Now it is English.
Syed Iftikhar Ahmad Writes
I think it is nice to deliever lecture in Japanese. Whatever is in his mind will either benificial, for the world or for his nation, both will be good. Lets allow him to apply his design in his own way. We should respect the will of such a great man.
Language does not matter much. But one'd better choose the language that is most suitable for the situation.
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