In this issue’s column, the author reflects on his experiences communicating with young people from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds who work in diverse neighborhoods in London. Having encountered an amazing diversity of friendship groups abroad during a one-year exchange at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England, the author applied to a graduate school in Japan that allowed him to return to the UK to conduct fieldwork on the linguistic factors that have led to the development of multicultural London English (MLE).
When I received a letter dated May 1, 2022 from the admissions office of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), the news brought me both excitement and surprise. I was excited because one of my biggest ambitions was to study abroad at a university in the U.K. I was surprised because ever since the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, I had been praying that I would be healthy enough to study overseas. I simply could not believe that I would be going to England in five short months. At the time, however, I did not expect that a year abroad in England would change my direction in life.
I had studied American English since junior high school. I was not particularly fascinated by the English language. I had an opportunity to visit Salinas, California on a sister city program with Ichiki Kushikino City, Kagoshima. I started to appreciate the English language more and became intrigued by communicating with my homestay family and people my age, whom I met at malls in the neighborhood. At senior high school, my foreign language teacher was from England, and three years later, my university professor was a specialist in Shakespeare. Communicating with my teachers sparked my interest in British English. In my undergraduate lessons, I became used to hearing the British-accented English of my professors and recordings in assigned textbooks. In the comfort of my own home in Japan, I tuned in to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News via YouTube. I regularly visited the BBC News website before going to England to practice my listening skills and considered it to be the standard English, or the King’s English. Listening to the BBC did not prepare me, however, for riding the rapid transit system operated by the London Underground.
Study Abroad
In September 2022, all my efforts were rewarded, and I bought a plane ticket departing September 15, 2022, with a return flight scheduled for September 14, 2023. When I finally arrived in England, my first challenge was taking the train from London to Preston, where UCLan is located. Although I am an experienced traveler on Tokyo’s maze-like subway network, the Tube was much more complicated than I thought. It was a labyrinth that even my smartphone could not make sense of. To make matters worse, when I asked for directions, I was baffled by the station master’s accent.
When I eventually made it to my campus dormitory in Preston, I began reading much more widely on British dialects and accents. I became glued to the Netflix series TopBoy (Bennett et al., 2011–2023)—a captivating show about youth, drug dealers, and gangs in London. Some of the cast members had Irish, Welsh, Scottish, or a standard London accent, but most spoke with multicultural London English (MLE). Of the many accents that I heard, the one that interested me most was MLE.
MLE is a dialect of London English, which emerged in the early 1980s in parts of London where there had been a relatively high level of immigration. I noticed numerous accents firsthand by talking and interacting with my friends and classmates at UCLan. The multicultural university attracts 38,000 students, who come from all over the U.K. and over 100 countries around the world. In addition, on the weekends I travelled around the U.K. to gain exposure to diverse accents. These included Scottish, Liverpool, and Manchester dialects. I was at least able to pick out a few words every time I communicated with people. The most challenging accent that I heard was the Irish accent, an accent that continued to challenge my ear no matter how hard I tried during my one year abroad.
Meeting Real English
London was more diverse than I had originally thought. With its nine million citizens from 287 ethnic groups, I set out to meet as large a sample size as I could. It was a daunting prospect, as there are over 300 languages spoken in London—more than any other city in the world (Greater London Authority, n.d.). When I met someone at the student union pub, who later became a dear friend, he called out, “Wagwan,” to me as a greeting. I did not immediately know what he meant. He told me later that this meant hello and suggested that I should give it a try next time I met someone new. Moreover, diverse ethnicities co-exist in London. I noticed numerous international restaurants and supermarkets. At times, I was overwhelmed by the diversity of the world-city because of its global atmosphere and the plethora of foreign languages in the markets. I came to understand that people spoke a variety of English typical to their ethnicity, and when they interacted with someone from a different ethnicity, they would start speaking in MLE. This interaction formed part of the melting pot that is MLE. The mix of foreign accents, languages, and foreign people are intertwining to create new culture and new language. I attended many musical events (see Figure 1), which were a fascinating example of the amalgamation of languages, as the vocalists sang in MLE.
From these opportunities and experiences in the U.K., I began writing a research paper about the modern-day development of the English language. As soon as I handed in my undergraduate dissertation and completed my final year presentation, I began thinking about digging deeper into this fascinating field.
I applied to conduct graduate research on the effect that immigrants in London have on British English. New words and colloquial expressions have been added, and some words are disappearing from the London dialect. For example, mandem is an association to a group of male friends. Another common London slang is innit which is a contraction of the expression “isn’t it.” The vocabulary and accents used in London are considerably diverse, and I would like to understand more about them. Therefore, I decided to conduct my Master’s degree research on MLE, multiculturalism, and mixed languages.
Japan’s Future
Although the population of Japan is decreasing, the number of foreigners in Japan has increased. According to The Japan Times (2024), the number of foreigners living in Japan has hit a record high with over 3.4 million in 2023. This is a 10% increase from 2022. There seems to be more opportunities to see foreigners and hear foreign languages in Tokyo now more than ever before. To me, Japan feels as though it is becoming a more diverse country, which means the Tokyo dialect might also change from standard Japanese to a more inclusive multicultural Tokyo Japanese. I have been studying about multiculturalism and language to lead Japan to a more promising future, where native Japanese and foreigners can coexist harmoniously. For example, where I live in Kagoshima, the population is falling, and on my campus in Kagoshima, the number of students has been decreasing for several years. However, the city is located in the southern part of Japan and close to other Asian countries, so there are an increasing number of students from China, Taiwan, and South Korea in my postgraduate course, and they speak several different languages, such as Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and English.
My Future
My strong interest and admiration for London encouraged me to apply for a visa to return to the U.K. At the time of writing this essay, I received confirmation by letter that my Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) visa to live in England for two years from September was approved. This welcome news again brought me both excitement and surprise, so in five months, I will conduct research on MLE and multiculturalism in London. I am grateful to return to London to further immerse myself in MLE and the London culture. I hope to be able to write about it in an MA dissertation and perhaps another essay for this column.
Figure 1
Collecting Data at a Concert in Victoria Park, London
Note. The Warehouse Project, Manchesteron December 2nd, 2022
References
Bennett, R., Flind, A., Steel, A., Demange, Y., Carter, M., Drake, Henderson, J., Nur, A. F., Harwood, D., Kano, Walters, A. (Executive Producers). (2011–2023). Top Boy [TV series]. Cowboy Films; Dreamcrew; SpringHill Entertainment.
Greater London Authority. (n.d.). 20 facts about London’s culture. https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/arts-and-culture/vision-...
The Japan Times. (2024, March 23). Record 3.4 million foreign residents in Japan as work visas rise. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/03/23/japan/society/foreign-natio...
