抄録
Ranald MacDonald (1824-1894) who got into Japan in 1848, when the doors of the country were closed to foreign countries, taught English to Japanese Dutch interpreters at Nagasaki for about 6 months, while he was imprisoned there. The names of the 14 students in his list have been identified. Their ages raged from 16 to 73, and their ranks as interpreter varied from the lowest to the highest. They were from families engaged in the hereditary occupation for about 200 years by that year. A few of them had already possessed certain knowledge of English. Moriyama was an interpreter on the occasion of Capt. Mercator Cooper's visit to Japan in 1845, when he translated Government orders to the Captain into English, and Uemura was one of the Dutch interpreters who started to study English under the Government orders in 1809, having Yan Cock Blomhoff at Dutch factory as their teacher of English, who, in the strict sense, was Japan's first teacher of English. Fathers or grandfathers of most of MacDonald's students were Blomhoff's students. The significance of MacDonald's English teaching was that it was by the first English teacher whose native language was English, and that it firmly took root in this country. In September 1850, about 18 months after the departure of MacDonald from Japan, all the Dutch interpreters were ordered to study English and Russian languages, and to compile an English-Japanese dictionary. Moriyama was one of the two responsible for this project. Unfortunately, the dictionary was unfinished after completion of 7 volumes on A and B, because the interpreters become too busy to continue compiling another, being forced to be involved in the negotiations of Japan with foreign countries after the visits of Perry and Putyatin in 1853. However, the knowledge of English taught by MacDonald was shared among their colleagues during the period of about 3 years' learning, and not only his students but also those who learned from them made great contributions to the civilization of Japan, by devoting themselves in their work, teaching English, and transmitting western culture.
