Who are some people you know who became fluent in a foreign language as an adult?

Here’s one.

Chie Hama. She was doing an MA in my linguistics department, under A/Prof Janet Fletcher. I’ve googled Chie; she’s now tutoring down the road at RMIT, but RMIT doesn’t give its casual tutors much of a web presence.

Chie Hama came to Australia from Japan. Chie swore to us blind that she did not really learn English in Japan. Having read about how the official teaching of English works in Japan, I’m not surprised.

Chie was adamant that she learned English in Australia. She had completely fluency, but I totally believe her.

Because she spoke English with every little quirk of inflection and mannerism of A/Prof Janet Fletcher.

“Yaaaaah… so we’re to test the…. okaaaaaaay? Yaaaaah.”

It was like listening to a recording.