マイケルの視点

I have recently heard from learners saying the phrase "moving on". They said "I'm moving on" or "I've got to move on", etc. When I asked them why, they answered that they were too behind on what they were doing......

Well, "move on" means "to start something new"!

So when one says "I have to move on", it is likely to mean that he/she is tired of doing something current, and wants to try something new.

In the North American Society, if we say "to move on", it means that we would try a new hobby, a new life, or to look for a new employment etc.

Therefore, be careful of your timing when you say "to move on".

Recently I have heard a lot of learners say:

I go to work by walk. I came here by walk.

Walk can be used as a verb and a noun. Grammatically the above sentences seem to be correct, but they don’t sound natural. In native English, we would say either:

I go to work on foot. OR I walk to work. (as a verb)

Conceivably, people translate it into English directly from “歩いて行く” => by walk

Remember, we use by car, by train, by boat, by airplane, BUT on foot!
Using walk as a noun, it would be take a walk, go for a walk, etc.


最近この言い方をよく聞いてます。　I go to work by walk. I came here by walk.
Walk は名詞と動詞、両方とも使えます。文法的には正しいみたいですが自然な感じではないです。ネイティブの言い方は：

I go to work on foot OR I walk to work (動詞として)

大体みんな “歩いて” から “by walk” に直接に訳しました。By car, by train, by boat, by airplane でも on foot で話しますので覚えてください。

Walkは名詞として使えばtake a walkやgo for a walkなどを話します。

My apology for my long silence!

Recently I have been asked by a lot of advance learners, what would be the perfect "icebreakers" to start conversations with foreigners, especially someone we know very well and we see very often? Is it just limited to weathers or our latest?

Through my observations, I've found that the culture of Japanese language is lack of "sense of humour" comparing with English and other languages. My recommendation is that to try to make slight and non-sensitive jokes with foreigners. When you know your counterparts are making jokes about something, try to get to the sense. That way you may enhance your opportunity to continue such conversation, and a fun and relaxing atmosphere can also be created.

Give it a try, it works!

ご無沙汰して申し訳ありませんでした。

最近僕はよく聞かれています：外国人と会話しているとき、一番良い打ち解け方は何ですか？特にいつも会っている方とか、よく知り合っている方とか。。。。いつも天気の話はつまらないでしょうか？

僕の観察によると、日本語の文化にはsense of humourという習慣は少ないです。 おすすめとしては, 日常会話に軽いユーモアのジョークを入れてみてください。それとも会話の相手はジョークをしている場合、同じように付き合ってみてください。

そうすると会話の内容は盛り上がるし、雰囲気もアップすることが出来ます。

やってみて、上手く行けるぞ！

On Oct 29, we hosted a Halloween party for kids. Some kids’ mothers assisted during the party, for which we really appreciated them.

Before the party began, one of the mothers said to me that she smelt a strong aroma of coffee within the lobby. I told her that we got some ground coffee as parting gifts for all those who helped today. Since the ground coffee were packed with a label of a local famous cafe M-ya, the mother asked: “Is it a donation from M-ya?”

Hmm…..a donation…???

I explained to her that, NO it wasn’t a DONATION, but SPONSORED GIFTS from M-ya instead! Then I was asked: What is the difference between donations and sponsored gifts?

Donation: Something is given to a person or an organization in order to help, particularly the person or the organization is in need of such thing, therefore we make a donation to charity, and we donate blood.

Sponsored gifts: Items given by a particular party whose purpose is to present a favour and/or to advertise its products, while the recipient welcomes the favour but isn’t really in need of those items.

Since we were not in need of the coffee, but we welcomed it from M-ya and meanwhile, through this M-ya could make a good advertisement, therefore they are definitely not the donations but the sponsored gifts.

先月の２９日に子供たちのHalloween Partyが行われました。お母さんたちには手伝って頂いて本当に感謝しております。

パーティーが始まる前に一人のお母さんと話していました。コーヒーの良い香りがすると言われたのでコーヒーを今日の皆さんのお土産として用意したことを伝えました。

コーヒーは地元で有名な珈琲屋さんの袋に入っていたので、そのお母さんにそれは珈琲屋さんからのDonationですかと聞かれました。僕はDonationではなくSponsored Giftですと返事しました。

DonationとSponsored Giftの違いは？

Donation（寄付）というのは助けが必要な人、または組織に対しての物です。

Sponsored Gift（提供品）というのは受領者にとっては必要かどうか分かりませんが、提供者にとっては宣伝の目的を含む好意のことを言います。

そのコーヒーは僕達にとって必ずしも必要な物ではないかもしれませんが、提供者の宣伝の意味を含むプレゼントです。だからDonationではなくSponsored Giftの方が適切なのです。

It's a first time updating my weblog in two and half months. And I have an interesting story to share.

Some relatives of mine visited Hokkaido and they brought me a few bottles of XO Sauce. One of my friends likes it very much for seasoning so I gave her one. I know she likes spiciness but too bad the bottle of XO Sauce wasn't spicy. I told her so and she said "No problem, I like sweet taste too"!

Hmmm....? XO Sauce contains no sugar. How could it be sweet???

This is a nuance, and therefore leading to a confusion between Japanese & English.

When we have curry, yakiniku sauce, and fried chicken etc., in Japan we are always asked "Karakuchi" 辛口 or "Amakuchi" 甘口. In the West, we are given the same choices, but it will be called "Spicy" or "Mild".

辛口 Karakuchi: simply Spicy
甘口 Amakuchi: never say Sweet, but say Mild.

ブログの更新は２ヵ月半ぶりです。

面白い話を聞きました。最近香港の親戚が北海道へ観光に来ました。香港の有名なXO醤を持って来て頂きました。

日本人の友達はXO醤が大好きなので一本を差し上げました。彼女は辛いものが大好きなのに今回のXO醤は甘口なので彼女は英語で"I like sweet taste too"と言いました。

えっ？Sweet?

これは英語と日本語の間のニュアンスです。辛口はSpicyで大丈夫ですが、甘口はMildと言います。海外旅行すると甘口のカレーやフライドチッキン等を注文する時Sweetと言ったら通じないですよ！気を付けてくださいね！

The other day someone said to me: I am going to sell CHICKETS of a SACCER game for my CHEAM.

?????

What is a CHICKET? What is SACCER? What is a CHEAM?

As I am an English language instructor and I am able to understand Japanese language, I could understand what they are about. However, it is very important for English learners to realize the pronunciation errors derived from Katakana.　For native speakers overseas, they will have a hard time understanding these errors.

Ticket ティッケト　not Chicket チッケト
Soccer ソッカー　not Saccer サッカー
Team ティーム　not チーム

Other similar pronunciation errors such as:

Tour/Tourist, should be トゥーア/トゥーアリスト; not ツアー/ツーリスト

Two, should be トゥー; not ツー

*********************

先日この言葉を聞きました： I am going to sell CHICKETS of a SACCER game for my CHEAM. これからうちのチームのサッカー試合のチッケトを売ります。

Chicket, Saccer, Cheamって何でしょうか？

僕は日本語を理解できる英会話講師として勿論この言葉は分かりますが、そんな発音の間違いは片仮名のせいです。そのまま外国で言葉は通じないと思いますよ！

Ticket ティッケト　not Chicket チッケト
Soccer ソッカー　not Saccer サッカー
Team ティーム　not チーム

他の同じ様な間違いは：

Tour/Tourist, should be トゥーア/トゥーアリスト; not ツアー/ツーリスト

Two, should be トゥー; not ツー

皆さん、英語の発音する時、気をつけましょう！

My wife and I went to a Yakiniku restaurant on Saturday. It was the first time in 4 months.

土曜日に妻と焼肉屋さんに行ってきました。四ヶ月振りでした。

Since it was a Saturday, I thought I'd better call to make sure there were tables available, and if possible, to make a reservation just in case, as it was a Saturday!

週末なので、電話で予約しておいた方が良いと思いました。でも店は予約を受けるかどうか分らなかったのです。

When my call was answered, the first thing I said, by tranlsating English <Do you accept reservation?> into Japanese <予約を受け取りますか？> Then the person on the phone went silent! I repeated myself. She didn't seem to understand me! But then I directly asked that I would like a table for 2 in 30 minutes, and she finally got what I wanted.

相手が電話に出ると、英文の Do you accept reservation? から直接訳して＜予約を受け取りますか？＞と言いました。相手は応答がなくて僕はもう一度繰り返しました。多分全然通じなかったのでしょう。直接‘３０分後二名の席をお願いします’と言って結局通じました。

My wife laughed at me!! Why? Although what I said did make sense <予約を受け取りますか>, it is weird to say in Japanese. Instead, <予約出来ますか> is much more common and comprehensible in modern Japanese language. But translating <予約出来ますか？> into English, it becomes which shows a different meaning from Japanese.

妻に笑われました！何故？日本語で＜予約を受け取りますか？＞ってあまり言わないと言われました。代わりに＜予約できますか？＞の方が自然です。しかし＜予約出来ますか？＞を英語に訳してから＜Can I make a reservation?>になって別の意味に変わりました。

In English:

Do you accept reservation? （予約できますか？） We say it when we are not sure if the restaurant would accept reservation or not.

Can I make a reservation? （予約しても良いですか？） We know the restaurant would accept reservation, and it is a polite way to ask.

店に予約できるかどうか分からない場合、英語で Do you accept reservation? （予約できますか？）と言います。

店に予約が出来ることが分っている場合は Can I make a reservation? (予約しても良いですか？) と言います。

Well, a good lesson for me: We can't translate everything from one language into another. It's really a difference of culture!

ま、勉強になりました！文化の違いなので言語は直接訳することは無理ですね！

By the way, the answer to the quiz of the last weblog entry:

Coffee cream is also known as coffee whitener!

We've heard of this slogan from its TV commercial.
Sharpen: to make somebody/something sharp, keen, or to make somebody aware of something.
Then have you noticed that the adjective "sharp" + en = a causative verb?

Point of Lesson: an adjective + en = a causative verb (in most cases).

この言葉をＣＭでよく聞いてますね。
Sharpen: 物を鋭くする、感覚などを鋭敏にする、行いなどを向上する。
では、形容詞 sharp + en = 使役動詞だということに気づきましたか？

レッスンのポイント：　形容詞　+　en = 使役動詞　（ほとんどの場合）

Examples:

sharp ----> sharpen
light ----> lighten
black ----> blacken
white ----> whiten
short ----> shorten

This cosmetics can make your skin white. It may be better or simpler to say This cosmetics can whiten your skin.

This cosmetics can make your skin white. より　This cosmetics can whiten your skin. の方は分かり易いのです。

Make + 動詞の文章だけではなく、enが付いている形容詞 = 使役動詞を使って文章を考えてみてください！


Let's do a quiz!

What is the another name of "coffee cream"?

Nowadays it is quite popular to set up our own `BLOG's. Then we write we want to write, what we think, etc. But have you ever thought about the meaning of a BLOG? What does it mean? You might find that strange that you can't look up this word in your dictionary, why?

BLOG is short for `WEBLOG', or it should read as Web Log. We all know the meaning of WEB, while LOG means a diary, a record of happenings. Therefore, a Weblog, or a Blog means an online diary, or an online record of something.

Although the word `blog' is commonly accepted and understood, I do recommend we remember the original word - Weblog, especially in our writing.

最近人々がブログをやってます。でもブログってどういう意味かご存知ですか？英文でBLOGとスペルしていますが何故辞書で見つからないでしょうか？

BLOG はWEBLOG の短縮したものです。WEBLOG というのは、実は Web Log の意味です！　Web ってオンラインやインターネットの意味ですね。Log は日誌や出来事の記録という意味なんです。なので人々が自分の意見や自分の経歴や自分の視点などを書いてBLOGを作っています。

I welcome any comments and questions, so feel free!

コメントか質問はあればどうぞ遠慮しないでください！