木村：アメリカの報告集を許むと、バイリンガルな子供は知能が低いそうですね。
鈴木：そんな報告があるとは、合点がいきません。いったいどういう基準でそういうことが言えるんでしょうね。
Gatten
Kimura: Amerika no hookoku-shuu wo yomu to, bairingaru na kodomo wa chinoo ga hikui soo desu ne.
Suzuki: Sonna hookoku ga aru to wa, gotten ga ikimaen. Ittai doo iu kijun de soo iu kotoga ierun deshoo ne.
Kimura: I understand some U.S. reports say that bilingual children have lower IQs than the other kids.
Suzuki: I wonder from where they got reports like that. I mean, on what basis did they reach such conclusion?
You use the expression gatten ga ikanai to show that you are not completely convinced or persuaded of something. The expression was originally used in a haiku meeting; gatten meant the pass mark of a haiku a participant makes.
The number of non-Japanese children who live in Japan and speak both their native tongues and Japanese with equal fluency is rising steadily. Being bilingual means that one can freely switch from one language to another. So I assumed that many bilingual children are bright. Soo iu kodomo no chinoo ga hikui to wa gotten ga ikanai (I find it hard to believe that such children are less intelligent).
When I looked into the reports further, I learned that the questionable conclusion was drawn from a survey on English-speaking native American children. It was conducted using a method that is also used here to test children's IQ level-the subject is asked to look at a picture of a construction of wooden blocks and asked to say how many blocks are hidden at the back.
Let's think about the method from the native American children's point of view. First of all, there are some who have never had the experience of playing with wooden blocks because I am afraid that they don't have as many opportunities to see square-edged objects in their daily lives as we do. This is the context in which they are labeled as less intelligent. So iu handan wo sareru to wa karera ni totte mo gatten ga ikanai koto daroo. (They may find it unfair to them when they are judged like this.)
It is arrogant to try and measure someone's intelligence only in terms of our own culture.