This paper looks at some second language acquisition research (e.g., Gardner & Lambert, 1972; Crookes and Schmidt, 1989) on affective, environmental, and pedagogical variables involved in learning a second language, and associates those variables with the situation in Japan. It then looks at different types of learning centers vis a vis these variables. It was found that there are more historical and/or cultural factors that have had a profound effect on Japanese students in second language learning than previously reported. These factors, when combined, may be some of the most important considerations in deciding issues about learning resource centers.

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Rudeness can occur any place at anytime in social interactions. People not only become rude, intentionally or unintentionally, but also become the recipient of rude behavior in both verbal and non-verbal settings. However, contrary to the extensive studies on politeness in linguistic interaction (Brown, and Levinson, 1978; Blum-Kulka, 1987; Fraser, 1990; Kasper, 1990; Lakoff, 1989; Leech, 1983), rudeness has not been the main focus of research in sociolinguistics or related disciplines thus far (Beebe, 1993). Therefore, this paper explores relatively untouched features of rudeness, and aims to describe sociolinguistic patterns observed in the data on rudeness which occurs especially when the speakers and the addressees have different expectations in their communicative interactions.

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