Don't Judge by Names トムは英語話しません

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I watched a sociology lecture by Professor Harvey Molotch at NYU on YouTube. During the lecture, he talked about names, saying that assimilation was one of the exogenous factors of naming children....  It was difficult, but very interesting, reminding me of something happening to Sachiko, a friend of mine when she was working for an American company. 

When starting to work at the company, Sachiko was surprised that there were so many Japanese Americans working there, i.e., almost all the names on the intranet were a combination of "an English first name" plus "a Japanese last name," such as Tom Tanaka. This meant that most employees were Japanese Americans and that her translation should be perfect because it would be under strict scrutiny by them, i.e., bilinguals.

One day, she was told to join a meeting to translate for Mr. Tom Tanaka. Before the meeting started, she went to his office and asked him what she had to do, i.e., whether she had to simultaneously translate or translate certain parts upon his request. She said, "Would you like me to translate simultaneously or should I translate when you need me to do?" Tom gave her a big smile and said, "Boku, eigo zenzen hanasenai kara (I don't speak English at all)."

The American company had acquired many Japanese businesses and as a result had many Japanese employees who don't speak English at all. Communication between English and non-English speakers was a big problem and one of the company policies to solve it was that every employee had English first names whether they speak English or not. Don't judge only by names.

NYUの社会学の講義を YouTube で視聴した。子供の名前をつける時の外的要因には「同化」があるということで、アジア系アメリカ人はWASPの名前を付けるらしい。聞いていて幸子さんの話を思い出した。幸子さん、昔アメリカの会社で通訳をしていたのだが、入社してすぐ、社員のほとんどが日系アメリカ人で驚いたという。名前が日系の名前（例えばトム田中）なのだ。バイリンガルの日系アメリカ人の前で通訳するわけだから求められる質が半端ない。とても緊張したらしい。

ある日、外見は全く日本人のトムのために通訳するように言われたので、同時通訳してほしいか、それとも必要なところだけ通訳してほしいか英語で聞いたら、笑いながら日本語で「僕、英語全然話せないから」と言われた。

何でも、そのアメリカ企業、日本の会社をたくさん買収していて英語を話せない人がたくさんいるので、コミュニケーション改善のために、英語が話せるかどうかに関わらず、全員に「英語名」を付けるように指示したのこと。名前だけで人を決めつけるのはやめましょう、という話でした。