Tuesday

Today's song! Bon Jovi！You give love a bad name. Listen it! Very hard rock! 

 Today was happy day because there was my favorite subject. My favorite subject is Interpretation. I studied Sight Translation. Sight Translation is very difficult but it was interesting for me. Afterward, I will review interpretation.

Language and Culture

 When I first came to Japan, many years ago, I took a train from New York to San Francisco, and a freighter from San Francisco to Yokohama. The train trip alone took about four days, and after boarding the freighter, it was another two weeks before I finally sailed into Yokohama Harbor. During that long trip it had become very clear to me that Japan and American were indeed very far apart.

 But times have changed. During the past twelve months alone. I have made four trips to Japan from New York. With only a little preparation, I board a jet in New York, and in just fifteen hours, I am in Tokyo. Given this amazing change/ I have now come to fell that Japan and America are really very close. 

 But that is a matter of transportation. We must now work to make other kinds of exchange equally close. How wonderful it would be if our ability to communicate could improve as much as the difference between days and fifteen hours!

 Whether we are speaking or writing or listening or reading, we depend on language to communicate across cultures. The problem is that every language is unique and transferring from one languages to another is very difficult.

 When studying a foreign language students often make the mistake of thinking only about vocabulary and grammar. They think that if they memorize word lists and grammar rules, they can speak and write a foreign languages by translating from their native language.

 Unfortunately this does not work! Every language is interwoven with the culture within which it is used. Just as every language is unique, very culture is also unique. Japanese cannot learn to speak and write natural English simply by translating from the Japanese language, and Americas cannot learn to speak and write natural Japanese by translating from English. One of the most interesting contrasts between Japanese and American culture is the differing attitude toward foreigners. This contrast has a direct influence on language use.

 So, when I translated Language and Culture, I was at a loss a little then. Thank you for reading. 

[407 words/11641 words]