I VNƯ Journal of Science, Social Sciences and H um anities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 Language as a means and object of area studies Trinh Cam Lan* College of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU 336 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam R eceived 14 M arch 2007 T h e m e a n in g fu ll re la tio n sh ip b e tw e e n la n g u a g e a n d A rea S tudies is ac cep ted a tru th As a n o th e r d iscip lin e s, la n g u a g e is o n e of objects of A rea Studies M oreover, n o t o n ly o b ject b u t lan g u a g e is a h e lp fu l m ean s in this d iscip lin e T his p a p e r deals w ith the ro le of la n g u a g e in A rea S tu d ies d u rin g it's d e v e lo p in g h isto ry , fro m th e b e g in n in g w ith O rien talism o f E u ro p e a n Scholars to p resen t T h e p a p e r consists of tw o parts: L a n g u a g e as a m ean of A rea S tu d ies L a n g u a g e as a object of A rea S tu d ies E ach p a rt is d iv id e d into tw o p erio d s: O rie n ta lism of E u ro p e an Scholars a n d A rea S tudies after th e S econd W o rld W ar w ith th e su m m a riz in g ev id en c es ab o u t th e role of la n g u a g e as a m ean of A rea S tu d ies, as w ell as su m m a riz in g su bjects of la n g u a g e stu d ied in A rea S tu d ies The relatio n sh ip and in terd ep en dence betw een lan g u ag e and area studies seem to be obvious R esearchers of area stu d ies and language all accept this m eaningful relationship Like other subjects such as literature, history, politics, econom ics an d so on, language is one of the objects of area studies H ow ever, unlike the above subjects, language is n o t only the object b u t also an im portant m ean s of area studies In this article, the au th o r does no t atte m p t p u t forw ard a new in terp retatio n ab o u t the relationship betw een language and area studies, b u t only w ants to exam ine area studies system atically from the historical angle Language as a means of area studies 2.2 Orientalism of Europeans M any evidences have proved th at at the start of area stu d ies on E uropeans' O rientalism , language w as considered as the first im p o rtan t m eans of helping researchers be aw are of and discover a new land 1.1.1 Teaching Oriental languages became an important policy in churches and missionary schools This originated from the idea of penetrating the O rient in o rd er to carry out m issionary w ork by the languages of O riental people M any scholars think that O rientalism w as considered to com e into the world officially in 1312 w ith the event th at A ustria C ouncil of C hurches m ad e a decision to found m ore • Tel.: 84-4-5656499 E-mail: lantc@vnu.edu.vn Trinh (Cam Lan / VN U journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 departm ents fo r teaching Arabic, Greek, Judaic Syriac in Paris, O xford, Bologne, etc A t cle 11 in th is decision stipulated th at it was necessary to establish the departm ents f teaching, Judaic, Greek, and Arabic in main universities The acceptance of this tid e of the A u stria C ouncil of C hurches showed that to g eth er w ith the W esterners' *cl a ot carrying m issio n ary w ork in the East, there was the id ea of penetrating new lands by local languages This has significant effect the history o f the dev elo p m en t of Area studies in terms of m ethodology The tim e O r ie n ta lis m came into the w orld is a m atter that hasn't been u n ite d and it is not d ealt w ith h re The author only cites this event to show that the decision to teach an d learn O riental nguages was considered as an event to ark the foundation of a scientific discipline •ailed Orientalism at th at time In addition, any missionaries and culture researchers 'onsidered "the learning of A rabic as the best tool to convert A rab ian s " (R aym ond Lull) Thus in fte early time, the W estern ithorities oi the C hristianity w ere aw are of the role of ajiguage as a m eans of penetrating new lands aid governing them as well as widening m drow n restrictions ỉtidựing local languages is Qriertdifts f a t step to enter their career in 21 studying O'iei tủism When Orientalism as a discipline was initially lfim e d in the 18th century, Orientalsts 3tưted their career by learning and studyn; Driental languages A nquetil's p u n e y to / s â (1736 - 1805) w hich resulted in tiie fcaisatons from A vesta into French, 'ả u c a and ink the two hemispheres of human >enus aid introduced into our schools Fra'ic’) kiơveảge about civilizations which >xis£Ci p lo tg time" H is translations first m ade E u ropeans see the im portance of Asia intellectually a n d historically, an d helped them u n d e rsta n d m ore about the legends and spaces of Asia These values affirm ed the role of language as a tool to u n d e rsta n d a region O ther O rientalists of the first generation such as W illiam Jones, Sylvestre de Sacy learnt to becom e influent in O riental languages w h e n they started their careers Before leaving E ngland for India, Jones had been proficient in Arabic, Judaic an d Persian Therefore, he could collect, restrict an d turn the East into a research field of Europeans quickly and effectively Sylvestre de Sacy, the first and only professor at th at tim e taught O riental lan g u ag es at school, so did professors of m o st O rientalists in Europe He said, "Arabic is the most effective tool for me to discover the East" [1] M aybe, Sylvestre fell into the absolutization of the role of A rabic in O rient Studies, b u t this originated from unilateral aw aren ess of the O rient scope of O rientalism in E urope at the early time The East at that tim e w as eq u iv alen t to M iddle East, som e scholars ad d e d India to this scope H ow ever, w e c a n 't help accepting the role of language an d th e effectiveness of language know ledge in Sacy's career H e becam e the only one w h o tran slated the announcem ents of N apoleon E xpeditionary A rm ed Forces into Arabic, becam e the a u th o r of a series of A rabic gram m atical and phonetic works, other w orks related to stu d ies on epitaph, cast coins, a n d the form ation of A rabian fam ily nam es In Sacy's career, language played the role in the effectiveness, usefulness a n d its p o w er in O rientalism in particular an d A rea studies in general N ot only for E uropean b u t also for A m erican O rientalists after the Second W orld War, language becam e a m eans to set their foot on new lands Before replacing France Trinh Cam Lan / V N U journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 and Britain in the central position of the w o rld 's learning (and of course in the political position), A m ericans' experience in the East is still lim ited In term s of genealogy, m odern O rientalism of A m ericans originated from know ledge tau g h t at O riental language teaching schools for A m erican A rm y, w hich w ere fo u n d ed d u rin g and after the w ar In A m erican social sciences, learning and stu d y in g language as a foreign language is only a m eans to achieve a higher goal H ow ever, the A m ericans are alw ays aw are of the role of lan g u ag e in th eir A rea studies, ỉn 1958, a rep o rt on the research situation of M iddle East R esearch In stitu te had a m ain point as follows: "Russian universities are training people to speak Arabic fluently Russia is aware of the importance o f attracting human beings through their mind by using their own languages The United State o f America needs to develop its foreign language learning programs soon"[ 1] Therefore, learning foreign languages becam e p a rt of ten d er p en etratio n into native residents and a m eans for A m ericans to be aw are of an area called the East, w hich they w ere still strange to at th at time 1.2 Language as a means o f modern area studies after the Second World War in England Kyoto U n iv ersity Tokyo U niversity and Osaka U n iv ersity in Japan li reflect this [2-8] In deed, w h e n studying one society or one c u ltu re Without being proficient in the language o f that society it IS really difficult for research ers Conversely w hen stu d y in g a la n g u a g e w ithout being closely connected w ith th e society or th com m unities using th a t language th learning values will decrease This m ust be strictly com plied w ith because cf approaches and research m ethods of irodern A studies - field w orks or field research All th trends of m odern area studies after til Second W orld W ar w ere b u ilt on the basis f field research [7], This requires language as the first m eans and it is integral The above target is mentioned even in higher education To introduce tie learn stan d ard s of area studies of tie Qual'ty A ssurance A gency for H igher Education in Britain, language ability is m eitbned as a standard in A rea studies =>ducatio A ccording to this standard system, a studies training p rogram s are tie places to create the best op p o rtu n ity tc reach th proficiency in native languages a different levels and it is an im portant tcol for \ researchers [9], This is a renra'kible thing because in the area studies edicition at hi h 1.2.1 Proficiency in native language is the level, not all places attacks speca inpcrUn target for students of area studies to language In our opinion, ir Vietnam this This is the m ost im p o rtan t target in area shortage is considerable in aei stud training and stu d ies after the Second W orld training establishm ents at higie tducaiion W ar in A m erican and E u ro p ean universities In reality, no training establishment at higher The training p ro g ram s in a series of area education in V ietnam continues riiintaiii studies training establishm ents such as the the teaching of native languegts or holds University of California at Berkeley, H arvard activities that help students rronve ti ■ University, Stanford U niversity, Yale native languages This leads tc he fact ihat University, an d H o w ard U niversity in after tw o or three years at higie educat America, O xford U niversity an d C am bridge learners' ability to use natvi language Trinh Cam Lan / VN U Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 gradually falls into oblivion The m aterials of the Q uality A ssurance A gency for H igher Education in Britain show th at this country has 106 area studies training and research establishm ents in universities and in research institutes A part from 19 A m erican Studies establishm ents w hich d o n 't teach native language, 87 establishm ents teach native languages for a considerable period of time [10] 1.2.2 Native language as an important means of Area studies for researchers D avid L Szanton [8] affirm ed the role of language as the object and m eans of the discipline w hen he m entioned general features of the concept of "area studies" From his point of view , "area studies" should be understood as a concept th at describes a group including fields and learning activities w ith the general features as follows: 1) deep studies on languages, 2) field research in local languages, 3) careful stu d ies on history, points of view, docum ents an d explanations of the localities, 4) exam ining, discussing, criticizing or d eveloping fundam ental theories based on specific observation, 5) m ulti-discipline discussions related to m any social sciences and hum anity This is a m eaningful and reasonable sum m ation, the consequence of this country in area studies for a half of century full of difficulties after the Second W orld W ar This sum m ation is w idely accepted not only in A m erica b u t also in m any other area studies research establishm ents all over the w orld Of course, they can discuss som e m atters such as how to arrange features related to approaching m ethods, objects an d contents of research in term s of scope O r sh o u ld the p rio r o rder of m entioned features such as deep studies on language be arranged? But in general, the existence and content of every feature not need discussing? Tansm an, A [11] m en tio n ed indirectly the role of language in a different w ay H e th o u g h t that area stu d ies is a form of translation The w ork aim s a t reaching the interpretation, analysis and explanation of foreign country cultures th ro u g h a prism of m ulti-disciplines In other w ords, "the interpretation, analysis and explanation" of another culture is translation Basically, it is an effort to aim at m aking suppositions, m eanings, structures an d d riv in g forces of a culture or a society becom e easy for the people belonging to th a t culture or society In his opinion, the rig h t translation of any docum ents - even a poem , a speech or a social event - all requires serious efforts to u n d erstan d structure, m ean in g and driving force of that docum ent T hat docum ent should be p u t in its ow n language and history, in the relation w ith previous docum ents and m o d ern situation His point of view contains m any senses It not only heightens the stren g th of native language proficiency in A rea studies, b u t also im plies the lim itations of A m erican area studies in particular and A m erican social sciences in general T hat is the im position of concepts, theories an d m odels w hich u sed to com e into the w orld in W estern situation on the rest of the w orld This is the m istake w hich area studies at a start - O rientalism of Europeansused to m ake A rea stu d ies in Japan also m entions the learning of native languages as the first content in p rep aratio n for area studies w ith the m eth o d of field research [12] A ccording to Kataoka, to use and exploit docum ents, it is necessary to have the language ability to read Trinh Cam Lan / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 an d in terp re t these d ocum ents The processes of carry in g o u t field research in localities need a series of m an ip u latio n such as d esig n in g research, read in g docum ents, record in g su rv ey results, interview ing local resid en ts an d so on Therefore, learning native lan g u ag es is the first requirem ent Language as the object of area studies 2.1 Language studies in area studies at the start An im p o rtan t achievem ent w hich O rientalism of E u ro p ean s in the 19th century has left for the linguistics of m an kind is the com ing into being of the historical com parativ e m ethod in linguistics At the start of O rientalism , w ith the am bition of u n d e rsta n d in g m ore ab o u t India than any E uropean countries, W illiam Jones first im plem en ted his research career w ith the construction of a list of research objects d u rin g his stay in India The list show s that there w as the presence of philosophy in poetry an d rhetoric Jones as well as other O rientalists only h a d the p u rp o se of com parin g gram m ars to facilitate E uropeans' u n d e rsta n d in g of O riental languages w hen he started language studies T h ro u g h com paring S anskrit w ith W estern languages system atically w ith a m eth o d w hich w as later called historical co m p arativ e m ethod, he had conclusions related to the restoration of the origin of E uropean languages H is w ork show ed th at m odern O rientalism at first had profo u n d philosophy an d m ethodology, had deep effect on the m eth odology of m odern linguistics in p articu lar an d m o d ern area studies in general T h at is the com parison research m ethod Its first p u rp o se is to affirm that the origin of O rientalism w as the basis of European languages at that time He wrote, "N o m atter how old it was, Sanskrit had a m iraculous structure, it is m ore fully-done than Greek, m ore plentiful than Latin and m ore precise than the tw o above languages, it is closer to the tw o m entioned languages, both in roots of verbs and gram m atical form This closeness is so m uch that every w riter believes that they share the sam e origin w hen exam ining three above languages [1] Follow ing closely W illiam Jones was Ernest R enan w ith the studies on Semitic languages com pleted in 1847 and was first published in 1855 U ntil now a few people have know n this w orks, b u t it w as considered as the first com prehensive research on O rientalism by scholars at that time "Studies on Semitic languages" w as considered as the significant contribution to the developm ent of Indian-E uropean linguistics family Prior to that time, they had found the existence of language idea w as granted by God After the language studies of Jones and especially of Renan, this thought gave way for the scientific th o u g h t w hich w as sum m arized on the basis of com parison and the scientific restoration of language origin For linguists in O rientalism studies in the 19th century, it was im possible to describe language as the result of sacred and su p ern atu ral strength The notion of "prim itive language" or "original language" created by h um an beings at that tim e w as a logical result of research for years Since it cam e into the w orld, this notion has never existed as a controversial theme At that time, people accepted the so-called "original language" w hich co u ld n 't be reproduced and only could be reproduced th rough "processes of philosophy" A lthough the political p urposes w ere represented in Trinh Cam Lan i V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Hum anities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 this w ay or an o th er in w orks, scholars still considered th at "for R enan, the research on Sem itic languages w as the sym bol of E uropean s' an d R en an 's d o m in atio n in the East" Exam ining it from scientific aspects, he w as considered to be a talen ted ling u ist and m ake great co n trib u tio n T h at co n trib u tion not only w as rep re se n te d in language discoveries b u t also in the creation of new scientific aw aren ess b ased on the O riental language im p o rtan ce in E urope It is possible th a t g reat linguistic discoveries in c o m p ariso n g m m a r of S ylvestre de Sacy, W illiam Jones, an d E rnest R enan w ere d u e to ancient b io g rap h ie s w hich w ere b ro u g h t to Paris a n d L o n d o n from the East It w as no t baseless w h en E Said th o u g h t th at m o st of O rien talists started their career by stu d y in g p h ilo so p h y and the consequence of this p h ilo so p h y rev o lu tio n gave b irth to Sacy, Jones, R enan, etc an d their students Linguistics in E u ro p ean O rientalism is really a co m p ariso n subject based on the theoretical prem ise th a t each lan g u age belongs to a linguistics fam ily of IndianE uropean an d Sem itic lan g u a g e fam ilies In the m id-1800s, E u ro p e an O rien talism becam e a g reat learn in g treasu re O ne of the fam ous p ro d u cts in this tre a su re is tw o books Dỷ Jules M onl - the secretary of the A sian A ssociation in P aris - w ith th e title 'T w e n ty seven y ear histo ry of O rie n t stu d ies" For these 27 years, all the w o rk of E u ro p ean scholars on A sia w as w ritte n in "O riental stu d ies" by M onl H is n o te-tak in g w as related to a great am o u n t of p u b licatio n s on the East, especially researches o n su ch lan g u ag es as Arabic, som e lan g u ag es in India, Judaic, A ssyrian, Babylon, M ongolian, C hinese, M yanm ar, Java A cco rd in g to M onl, the list of researches for these 27 y ears could n o t be w counted [1] T his show s that the position lan g u ag e o u t of the objects w hich O rientalism a n d area stu d ie s used to stu d y at a start and this po sitio n w as m ore affirm ed in the period w h en research ers w ere alw ays aw are that by and th ro u g h languages, they could u n d e rsta n d a n d discover m ore profound k n o w led g e (such as culture, society, hum an races, etc.) in each region In term s of m ethodology, language researches in E uropean O rientalism m ainly u sed co m p arativ e m ethod on the basis of d o c u m e n t stu d ies We will realize clearly that this is one featu re of the language research m eth o d in O rientalism w hen it is p u t in the co n trast w ith the language research m ethod in m o d e rn area studies - the period of tim e after the Second W orld War 2.2 Language studies in modern area studies The object is language w hich linguists co n sid ered from tw o angles: (1) studies on the featu res of a language in order to facilitate the teaching of native languages in area stu d ies tra in in g program s; (2) studies on the lan g u ag e of a region (local language or fam ilies of languages) in social language research pro g ram s From thè form er angle, m odern Area stu d ies co n tin u ed to follow its prim itive stu d ies w ith the analysis and recognition of phonetic, lexical features, especially g ram m ar system of a lan g u ag e in ord er to find out the rules a n d p rin cip les in a language system to help learn ers stu d y m ost effectively In the later p erio d , w h en the dem and for training an d stu d ies on different areas in the w orld d ev elo p ed rap id ly , researches on language from this angle bloom ed The research view po in t of S zanton, D L as m entioned in 1.2 Trinh Cam Lan / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 also show ed that language n o t only w as the norm al object of A rea studies, b u t also the object that needs "stu d y in g d eep ly " O nly from the exam ples of lan g u ag e research achievem ents in D ep artm en ts of In tern ational stu d ies and A rea stu d ies in C alifornia Berkeley U niversity (A m erica) and C am b rid g e U niversity (Britain), w e can see th at the num ber of publications on language stu d ies at least is dozens of books, a n u m b er of theses at different e d u ca tio n a l levels, articles and researches on la n g u ag e am o u n ts to h u n d re d s [13] In term s of content, in tro d u c to ry w orks and researches on native g m m a r account for a considerable am ount For exam ple, for a few years, the centre for S outh A sia stu d ies in California at Berkeley released a series of researches on g ram m ar of n ativ e lan g u ag es in S outhern Asia such as "A n In tro d u c tio n to H indi G ram m ar" by U sha Jain, p u b lish e d in 1995; "A n introduction to S an sk rit L an g uage" by R obert p G oldm an and Sally J S u th erlan d G oldm an, the third ed itio n in 1999; "Interm ediate H indi R eader" by U sha Jain, published in 1999, and so on Som e British A rea studies such as "A G ram m ar of Tariana, from N o rthw est A m azon" by L atin A m erican researcher - A rnold J Bauer; "G ram m a r of Som alia by Nicole K ruspe, w h ich d re w m uch attention w ere all p u b lish ed in C am b rid g e U niversity Press In additio n , th e researches w hich aim at facilitating the acq u isition of native languages at the conferences on im proving the quality of tra in in g a n d area studies in all countries are v a rio u s an d can 't be counted Language in area stu d ies in th e p a st and from the form er angle are m ain ly research ed in texts, bu t now scholars p u b lish m o re and m ore researches in the d ire ctio n of sociolinguistics, p rag m atic and sem antic analyses, conversational and cultural analysis am ong regions an d researches on speech com m unity The w o rk requires th at language be p u t in its social context This is the later angle w h en exam ining language as the object of area stu d ies program s W hen only m en tio n in g "S urvey of English D ialects" of C am b rid g e U niversity for 10 years from 1962 to 1971, w e can see the atten tio n of the area stu d ies for native lan g u ag es in regions are considerable This su rv ey p ro g ram is present in m ost of English native languages in different areas such as N o rth Am erica, C anada, N ew Z ealand, Iceland, and S outheast A sia w ith d o zen s of publications w hich record the resu lt of the survey in each area [14] These su rv ey s focus on a series of issues such as situation, language policy, lan g u ag e p lanning, especially bilingual, m u ltilin g u al situations, and lang uage/native language contact, b o th geographical native language a n d social native language In different A rea stu d ies establishm ents, studies on lan g u ag e/ regional native language in this direction h a v e n 't becom e a system , b u t they have h ad certain achievem ents A nother exam ple is th at the researches on C hinese native languages in H o n g Kong, G uangzhou, S hanghai, etc by A m erican scholars com e from the C entre for C hinese S tudies at C alifornia U niversity such as B auer R obert w ith native lan g u ag e G u an g d o n g , Ball J D yer w ith native lan g u ag e of M acau, M atisoff Jame w ith native lan g u ag e of L ahu, Me C oy John w ith native C an to n ese in H o n g K ong [15] L anguage as th e object seen from the second angle is p re se n t in a general research on th e scenery of an area T he researched area in this p ro g m is u su ally sm aller th an a nation, it m ay b e a territory, a district, a Trinh Cam Lan / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 1-9 co m m u n e or even a village and language v arian ts in the area are exam ined in the situ atio n of th at area and in the relation w ith the varian ts in the neighborhoods and the national lan g u ag e of th at area This is the scope to w hich attention has been paid to by m o d ern area stu d ies in recent decades and is becom ing a m ain research trend In term s of m ethodology, language stu d ies in m o d e rn area studies is not only rep resen ted in w ritten docum ents w hich are ancient bibliographies an d any kind of d o cu m en ts (language research), b u t also m ainly b ased on sources of living m aterialsspeech (speech research) This originates from the research tre n d of b o th sides: 1) The trend of linguistics research in the post-structural era is the speech research an d language is p u t in context; 2) the tren d of m o d ern area studies is to give u p the research m ethod of "politicians in arm chairs" in o rder to carry o u t field research In com parison w ith the lan g u ag e stu d ies in the previous period, it is possible to call this a feature in this period an d also an advance These m ethods not exclude one another, b u t can exist together for their joint p urpose language alw ays expresses its role th at cannot be replaced This role is alw ays affirm ed and becom es a m ethodology requirem en t which areas studies in any era, any institution and w ith any p u rp o se alw ays com plies w ith as a protection for its existence References [1] E w Said, Đông phương học, NXB C h ín h trị Q uốc gia, H Nội, 1998 [2] L A nn, Area Studies in Universities: Organization and Funding, Japan-U S A A rea Studies C onference, Tokyo, 1997 [3] J C am pbell, Internationalization o f Area studies, T he Japan-U S A A rea s tu d ie s C onference, Tokyo, Japan, 1995 [4] R.J Ellis, A rea Studies: th e n a tu re o f the discipline, C onference "Understanding the World: Developing interdisciplinary Area Studies to meet the needs o f the 21st century", L ondon, 2004 [5] Itagoka Y uko, Area Studies m ust be the Foundation of new Scholarly Knowledge, Japan-U S A S tudies C onference, Tokyo, h ttp ://w w w la n g itsn ac u k /re so u rccs/g o o d p cti se.asp x [6] Lia H u tto n , Area and International Studies: A n introduction, T he A d v isin g Q u a rterly , 1997 [7] Conclusion A rea 1997 M atsu b ara M asatake, In tro d u ctio n , in International Area Studies Conference /, Japan-USA Area Studies Conference, T okyo, 1997 [8] D.L S zanton, The Origin, Nature and Challenges o f L ang u ag e in area stu d ies is only a relative clarity from tw o angles as m entioned in this article D ialectically and flexibly, it is necessary to u n d e rsta n d th at it is im possible to m ake clear tw o kinds of language: one is a m eans an d the other is the object of area stu d ies because of the m u tu a l relation an d the ability of exchangeability b etw een them In the d e v elo p m en t history of area studies, a lth o u g h n o t too long, b u t no t too short, Area Studies in the United States, T h e Politics of K now ledge: A rea S tu d ies a n d th e D iscipline, ƯCIAS E dited V o lu m e 3, U n iv ersity of C alifornia In tern atio n al a n d A rea S tu d ies D igital C ollection, 2003 [9] The Q uality Assurance A gency fo r Higher Education, A rea S tu d ies - A cad em ic stan d ard s, 2002, h ttp ://w w w qaa.ac.uk [10] Where can I study Area R esources for le a rn in g L anguages, L inguistics h ttp ://w w w q aa a c.u k Studies in the UK, and and teach in g A re a in Studies, Trinh Cam Lan / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No.5E (2007) 7-9 [11] A T an sm an , Japanese Studies: The Intangible Acts [13] Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundation o f o f Translation, T he Politics of K now ledge: A rea S tu d ies a n d the D isciplines, ƯCIAS E dited V olum e 3, U n iv ersity of C alifornia In tern atio n al a n d A rea S tu d ies D igital C ollection, 2003 Language, Series of C a m b rid g e U n iv ersity P ress, [12] K ataoka S achihiko, Lý thuyêì khu vực học Nghiên cứu Nhật Bản nhìn từ góc độ khu vực học, Bài g iản g c h u y ê n đ ề cho sinh viên ch uyên n g n h N h ậ t B ản học K hoa Đ ông p h n g học, Đ H K H X H & N V, H Nội, 2006 h ttp ://w w w c a m b rid g e o rg /u s/c a ta lo g , h ttp ://w w w ia s.b e rk e le y e d u /so u th a sia [14] J.K C ham bers, p T ru d g ill, Dialectology, C am b rid g e U niversity P ress, C a m b rid g e , 1980 [15] R.s B auer, Cantonese sociolinguistic patterns: correlating social Characteristics o f speakers with phonological variables in H ong Kong Cantonese, U niversity of C alifornia B erkeley, 1983 ... teach native language, 87 establishm ents teach native languages for a considerable period of time [10] 1.2.2 Native language as an important means of Area studies for researchers D avid L Szanton... the m istake w hich area studies at a start - O rientalism of Europeansused to m ake A rea stu d ies in Japan also m entions the learning of native languages as the first content in p rep aratio... g and after the w ar In A m erican social sciences, learning and stu d y in g language as a foreign language is only a m eans to achieve a higher goal H ow ever, the A m ericans are alw ays aw