Henry Dyer's Speech

420 Words2 Pages
Henry Dyer’s speech was quite an interesting read. Given to a group of graduating engineers from his university in Great Britain, it was very motivating and encouraged the graduates to do amazing things with their futures by giving a few words of advice, such as not forgetting to read and to branch into other areas of education, such as philosophy and other sciences, to have a broadened education. Amidst all of these words of inspiration, Dyer made sure to remind the graduates about how lucky they were in attending such a great institution in such a way that it came off as insulting. The graduates he was speaking to were native to the country of Japan, and although Dyer wanted them to spread their newly achieved knowledge to their home country, he made a paramount effort to point out the flaws of Japan. One particular statement that stood out to me by Dyer was his comment about the quality of engineering schools in Japan. He said that in Japan it is “hitherto been too much the custom with them to learn everything from books and to neglect what is of far greater importance, actual observation and experience” (Dyer 4). Through his and apparently all of Great Britain’s eyes, the Japanese do not teach their students right and therefore will fail as engineers by not seeing the big picture. Imagine if you studied abroad and your teacher told you that America has a poor educational system and does not prepare its students for the future. I for one would be insulted, for everything educational I have done through my whole life would have been undermined. I imagine that the students felt the same way. Henry Dyer goes on about how he wishes his students the best in their futures, but without letting a chance of a degrading remark pass. I feel that this pressure from the British imperial power affected the Westernization of Japan drastically, in that Japan is now
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