Regarding the Nov. 13 article "Dialect-rife Japan can be tongue-twisting": Let me make a few comments as a man who is keen on local dialects. From ancient times Japan has been a country of centralization. When Kyoto was the capital, the Kyoto dialect was standard and the rest were considered inferior. This is the basic problem with the attitude toward local dialects.
Kyushu had cultural connections with China and Korea, and then with advanced countries. Osaka was the commercial center. Kanto (Kamakura, Edo) was the political center. However, the Tohoku region was the land of the Ezo or Ainu. They were considered "barbarians" during the Nara Period and still are to some degree! Generally Tohokuites don't like to use dialects because they are ridiculed when they go to another region.
In Okinawa, schoolchildren were forbidden to speak their own local dialect; if they did, they were forced to wear a card showing that the student spoke the dialect!
Non-Japanese should first learn common Japanese and then try to speak the local dialect where they live if they want to. Dialects have their own value!
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