Final answer:
Citizens of Oceania are forbidden from foreign interactions to maintain governmental control, reflecting historical instances like the White Australia Policy and Japan's 'closed country' policy, which sought to isolate populations and solidify power.
Step-by-step explanation:
The citizens of Oceania are forbidden to learn a foreign language or have contact with foreigners as a method of control by the ruling authorities. Historically, policies that limit language and communication with outsiders have been used by various regimes to isolate their populations and maintain power. The White Australia Policy, for instance, introduced measures to exclude non-European peoples through mechanisms like dictation tests in European languages, disadvantaging groups such as Asians and Pacific Islanders. Similarly, during the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, the nation adopted a 'closed country' policy, which severely restricted interactions with foreign entities to maintain traditional social structures. These measures echo those in fictional Oceania, where language and communication control serve to maintain the ideology and authority of the state.