Monthly Archives: March 2007

　まことに遅ればせながらカラープリンターを購入することに決め、パソコンの店に行きました。これまで、プリンターはもっぱら翻訳の出来上がりを印刷するだけだったので、カラープリンターは持っていなかったと話している際に、私が日本人とわかると、店員のひとりが　I know some Japanese　と言って「こんにちは」と言いました。

　なかなか良い発音だったので、お決まりの褒め言葉で済ますかわりに、「こんにちはといいながらお辞儀をすると数倍印象的です」と、実演して見せましたら、お辞儀することは知らなっかと率直に言いました。

　英語教科書には必ず、「英語圏では握手をする」と絵入りで説明されています。それと同様に、日本ではお辞儀が不可欠であることを、もう少々徹底させてもよいのではないでしょうか。

　何故、お辞儀にこだわるのかといいますと、初めて日本から英国に行ったとき、「あなたは自動的に頭を下げる」と指摘されて、そのとき初めて、日本ではいかにお辞儀が大切であるかを痛感したからです。

Don’t forget to bow!

　Very belatedly, I purchased a color printer the other day.  When one of workers at the computerstore found out that I didn’t have a color printer because I used a printer only for printing my translation works from Japanese to English, he said that he could say "Konnichiwa."

 His pronounciation was rather good.  So, I told him " It would be more impressive if he bows when he says that."  He said that frankly, he never knew he had to bow when speaking Japanese.

 When the Japanese start learning English, we also learn that English speaking people shake hands. How about to stress that it is important to bow when people speak Japanese?

 I think the reason I am particular about bowing is that because I was asked ,"Why do you bow automatically?, when I  went to England for the first time out of Japan.  I felt keenly then how important it was for the Japanese to bow.

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A few years back I read a book called Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield about the battle of Thermopolye and thought to myself "Wow how have they not made a movie based on this book yet?"  Then several months ago I went to the theatre and saw previews for the movie 300 for the first time and I was totally amp’ed.  After a little research I found out Frank Miller (writer/director/etc. for 300 and Sin City as well as creator of numerous  comic books)  didn’t base the movie on  Stephen Pressfield’s book  but instead based it on a comic book he wrote which he based on a movie he saw as a kid called 300 Spartans.  Needless to say I was a little disappointed by this fact but I went to see the movie anyway.  Though it was far from similar to Stephen Pressfield’s book it was still a really good flick.   Continue reading →