Oral History Interview with Stephen E. Van Nostrand, April 20, 1987 Page: 46
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46
Marcello:
Van Nostrand:direct impact on the relationships between the men. It
worked the other way, too.
As I say, we had very good experiences. In my estima-
tion, they played a very important role. One of the Socal
vice-presidents in early years--he was a Caltex director--
was a man by the name of Ted Lenzen, and Geneva Lenzen
always used to come to Japan and cause problems by saying,
"Why aren't the Caltex wives on the payroll?" (chuckle)
I have another question that's kind of related to what we're
talking about at this point. Of what advantage is it to
have some knowledge of the language of the host country?
I would think it's a tremendous advantage, definitely. We
only operated successfully without it because we had bridges
like Shun and, currently, Sam Iwamoto, and let's say
important foot bridges--not main structures--like a;nkYamada,
who is an interpreter for the Nippon Oil Company side. The
problem is, and always has been, that Japanese is such a
difficult language. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's
difficult for one Japanese to communicate with another.
It's an unwieldy, difficult language, together with very, very
sensitive innuendo. It's awfully difficult, even if you
speak the language perfectly, to absorb or to project the
nuances that are necessary. It is very complicated. So
I never considered that we could successfully embark on a
Japanese language program. In Chinese we did very well.
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Marcello, Ronald E. & Van Nostrand, Stephen E. Oral History Interview with Stephen E. Van Nostrand, April 20, 1987, book, April 20, 1987; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306889/m1/48/?q=%22~1%22~1&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Oral History Program.