{"id":4788,"date":"2019-03-06T06:30:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T21:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu?p=4788"},"modified":"2019-04-22T06:39:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T21:39:30","slug":"mission59-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/en\/the-professional-translator-e\/mission59-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW!!Japanese will Save the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\"\u7c73\u56fd\u7ffb\u8a33\u5c02\u9580\u8077\u5927\u5b66\u9662\uff08USA)\u526f\u5b66\u9577\u3000\u5800\u7530\u90fd\u8302\u6a39\"<\/p>\n

\nTomoki Hotta
\nVice Chancellor
\nBabel University Professional School of Translation<\/p>\n

In this article, I\u2019d like for us translators working in Japanese and English – who need to place utmost importance on Japanese – to remove the stereotypes we have from learning Japanese in school in considering Japanese and English. The weighty issues I\u2019ll bring up in this article are based on the experiences Montreal University Japanese professor of 25 years Takehiro Kanaya wrote in his book These are the Reasons why Japanese Makes the World Peaceful (published October 11, 2018 by Asuka-Shinsha). <\/p>\n

Have you heard of the concept of linguistic relativity, also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? This is a hypothesis that a person\u2019 native language \u2013 the language they learned as a child in their family \u2013 shapes how that person views the world. Accordingly, people that learn a second language also form a new way of viewing the world based on the influence of that second language. <\/p>\n

Although I won\u2019t follow exactly the same order professor Kanaya does in his book, since many of you readers are aspiring translators, I\u2019d like to start off by considering various episodes in the book to look at what kind of language Japanese is.<\/p>\n

First, there\u2019s the story of NHK educational TV program Series Japanese, whose program instructor is the linguist Yoshihiko Ikegami. In this program, instructor Ikegami uses a comparison of the introduction of the famous book Snow Country by novelist Yasunari Wakabata in both Japanese and in English (translated by Edward George Seidensticker) to show the characteristics of Japanese and English. <\/p>\n

Instructor Ikegami looks as the following is a translated sentence into English from the book: \u201cThe train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country\u201d (the original Japanese is \u56fd\u5883\u306e\u9577\u3044\u30c8\u30f3\u30cd\u30eb\u3092\u629c\u3051\u308b\u3068\u3001\u96ea\u56fd\u3067\u3042\u3063\u305f.)<\/p>\n

Reconsidering the original text in Japanese, one could paraphrase as follows: \u201cNow, the train is running through the darkness of the tunnel, and I am sitting within the train. Look, it\u2019s starting to get brighter and brighter outside the window. It looks like the train is about to make it through the tunnel. Now the train has left the tunnel. My goodness! The mountains on this side are a pure white world. I\u2019ve entered the snow country!\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the reader senses the scene changes from moment to moment along with the transition of time. The main character is on the train and the reader sees what the main character sees; both the reader and main character seem to blend into each other. <\/p>\n

English readers in the program were asked to give a description of the scenery based on the English translation \u201cthe train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country\u201d to see how those readers understood the scene. <\/p>\n

All English readers reportedly described the scene from an angle looking down from above. Although in Japanese the viewpoint had been from within the train, it switched in English to being outside the train and looking down from above. <\/p>\n

Instructor Ikegami concluded from readers\u2019 responses that the difference was that in Japanese there\u2019s no subject in the sentence, but in English a subject is necessary so \u201cthe train\u201d is used in the sentence. In doing so, the scene that possessed a transition and flow of time in Japanese turned into a single snapshot without the flow of time when expressed in English.<\/p>\n

Instructor Ikegami explained that in the positioning in Japanese, one is no longer able to be seen by the narrator. In other words, in languages such as English that always require a subject, this subject serves to create a distance from the situation at hand. Instructor Ikegami says that what this means is that English separates the subject (\u201cI\u201d) and the object (the other party) and places them in a polarized world. <\/p>\n

For example, the inscription on the monument in Hiroshima Peace Park reads, \u201clet all souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.\u201d This phrase does not make clear whose evil (literally \u201cmistake\u201d) it was. The inscription seems to suggest that you and I coexist, and that it\u2019s as if the enemy and ally live in a state of coexistence. <\/p>\n

In his book, Takehiro Kanaya also looks at the familiar words \u201carigato\u201d (thank you) and \u201cohayo\u201d (good morning) in defining the essence of Japanese. In Japanese, the word \u201carigato\u201d is directed towards no person \u2013 there is no speaker or listener implied. In contrast, the words \u201cthank you\u201d are actually \u201cI thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Japanese \u201carigato\u201d is spelled using the kanji \u6709\u96e3\u3046, an adjective that means something is difficult. It describes the situation of \u201csomething that is rare.\u201d Accordingly, Kanaya states that English is a language where \u201csomeone\u201d does \u201csomething,\u201d while Japanese is a language where \u201cthere is some sort of situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Japanese word \u201cohayo\u201d (good morning) is, \u201cI wish you a good morning\u201d in English. \u201cI\u201d is part of the phrase, and it continues with wishing that the morning be a good one, depicting an enterprising action. In contrast, the Japanese word \u201cohayogozaimasu\u201d brings together the thoughts of the two in question given the condition that \u201cit\u2019s still early.\u201d This shows that the two empathize with each other. In other words, one could say that Japanese is a language of empathy, while English is a language of self-assertion and opposition. <\/p>\n

Kanaya states that when one meets Japanese people or studies the Japanese language, that person\u2019s world view changes from one of competition to cooperation, from directly viewing others to viewing together, and from rivalry to coexistence. Within the Japanese language itself, it seems that there is a sort of mechanism that puts a halt to self-assertion. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, English speakers seem to almost talk down to their listeners as they assert themselves with phrases like \u201clisten to me\u201d, \u201clet me tell you\u201d, or \u201cyou won\u2019t believe this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Kanaya concludes his book with the chapter titled \u201cthat\u2019s why Japanese will make the world peaceful!\u201d He states the following: \u201cThose that have taught Japanese for many years overseas say that Japanese is a very popular language.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Overseas Japanese education Agencies Survey conducted every three years by The Japan Foundation, data from the year 2014 shows that there are 16,167 agencies that implement Japanese instruction in 137 countries and regions outside Japan, while the total number of instructors is 64,041 with 3,651,715 learners. Kanaya points out that it\u2019s incorrect to say that Japanese is a \u201cclosed off language\u201d or \u201cdying language,\u201d spoken only by the Japanese in the Japan archipelago. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, the desire for Japanese language learners to learn Japanese is because they like Japan. Namely, they esteem Japan\u2019s nature, culture, and the gentleness of the Japanese people.
\nKanaya states from his experience that when one learns Japanese their personality changes. Their personality shifts from being more aggressive to mild. <\/p>\n

In my interactions with people I come into contact with at BUPST, especially for women whose husband is a native English speaker who can speak some Japanese, when they switch to Japanese during a fight oftentimes their quarrel subsides. This must be the so-called \u201ctatamiser effect\u201d \u2013 a word coined by the French that means to become Japanese-like. <\/p>\n

Kanaya concludes that, through learning Japanese, learners\u2019 world view changes from being competitive to cooperative, from directly viewing others to viewing together, and from rivalry to coexistence. He says one can confidently state that Japanese originally is a very peace-oriented, romantic, happy, and beautiful language. <\/p>\n

Finally, Kanaya concludes with the following:
\n1.\tThere are a growing number of people who want to learn Japanese.
\n2.\tThose who experience Japan like Japan even more, and become what\u2019s known as \u201cJapanophiles\u201d or people that become important supporters of Japan.<\/p>\n

These two points are undeniable facts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s said that currently the trend in world culture is from West to East, and from men to women. I firmly believe that Japan should be confident but also needs to have a maternal volition and use Japanese to bring harmony to the world.
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Tomoki Hotta Vice Chancellor Babel University Professional School of Translation In this article, I\u2019d like for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-4788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-professional-translator-e","tag-toppage-e"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4789,"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions\/4789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babel.co.jp\/edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}