Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Grammar Book

     The book in the picture is my grammar textbook that I used in my junior and high school days. It is worn and mended with scotch tape. My youngest daughter found it in the storage room and was checking inside the book that her father had used at the same age as her. I'd no idea about what she felt after seeing it, but she seemed to know that her father was struggling to acquire English skills and it was not easy to have entered the national medical school.
     She's looking forward to visiting Canada next month and also learning English very hard. Finding this book might be a good silent lesson for her.

U.S. Presidential Election

     Female or Black? Such an issue is only superficial. His or her view of the world is correct or not? Anti-Japanese or pro-Japanese? Flatterer or having an affinity for China? These are the problems.
     During the next four years, the power of the U.S. will decrease drastically, I suppose. Some huge streams that affect world history will happen, like the tragedy of the era of former President Carter, 1976-1980. President Carter was born in the atmosphere of being weary of war and acknowledgement of the decline of th U.S.
     He declared at first he would pull the U.S. Army back from South Korea and made Asian countries feel doubtful about U.S. policy. He didn't intervene in African countries when the government was overthrown in Mozambique. At last his policy resulted in the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
     You might wonder why I remember him like this. That's because I'd met him in Kanagawa prefecture where Commodore Perry arrived in 1853. I was a university student at that time. I wanted to meet him and I attended the meeting. I remember as if it was yesterday that I couldn't understand his English due to his strong dialect.

(Vocabulary)
understanding of the world / view of the world    世界観
get weary of war  厭戦的になる
overthrow  (政府・制度など) を打倒する, 転覆させる = oust

　女性か黒人か？そんな問題は表面的なものに過ぎない。彼らの世界観が正しいのかどうか、親日的か反日的か、媚中派かどうか、これらが問題なのである。
　次の4年間、アメリカの力は劇的に減少するだろう。世界史に影響を及ぼす大きな流れが生ずるかもしれない。例えば1976年から1980年のカーター時代の悲劇のように。カーターは今のような厭戦的な空気の中で誕生し、アメリカの衰退を容認した。
　彼はまず、韓国からの撤退を宣言し、それはアジア諸国に不安感を生じさせた。モザンビーク政府が転覆したとき彼はアフリカ諸国に介入せず、ついにはソ連のアフガニスタン侵攻を許してしまった。
　なぜ、そんなことを覚えているかと思われるだろうが、実は彼に神奈川県であったことがあるのだ。この地は1853年にペリー提督が訪れた場所だ。当時まだ大学生だった僕は彼に会いたいと思って集会に参加した。彼の強い訛りのため英語が全く聞き取れなかったことを昨日のことのように覚えている。

Invitation from Europe

     At first look at the picture. These leaflets on ski resorts in Europe came to me a couple of days ago. These are from my friend in Switzerland.
     I become friends with a few people in Whistler every time I go there. I think it's because all the visitors are on vacation and also happy. It makes us talkative. Especially if they are from other countries, it means they are kind of sophisticated and nowhere near committing criminal offenses. This provides some sense of security. I'm going to visit Canada next March for the first time in two years and I feel my mind has already gone to Whistler.
     By the way, I cannot afford to go on a ski trip to Europe now, but my eldest daughter can communicate with people in French and my second daughter in German. That is to say, my family can move in Europe easier than usual. I'm sure to visit France, Switzerland and Austria in five years. My youngest daughter would be a student of veterinarian science and we would have enough time at that time. My wife has just started to learn French to enjoy French dishes.

(Vocabulary)
sophisticated 〈人・言動などが〉 洗練された, 教養のある
nowhere near
1 …からだいぶ離れて
The hotel was nowhere near the station.  ホテルは駅からだいぶ離れていた．
2 とうてい…ない
We have nowhere near enough time.  時間はとうてい十分とはいえない．
criminal offense 犯罪（行為）
provide some sense of security / provide the sense of security  安心感を与える

Ski Schedule

     Our next ski trip to Canada has been scheduled. All members but me will visit Whistler on Mar. 21st. I couldn't take enough days off and will leave here on Mar. 23rd alone. I'll enjoy skiing in Whistler and Blackcomb for four days and stay in Vancouver on 28th and go back to Japan on the next day. Our plan in Vancouver is up in the air yet, but I'd like to visit the statue of Mr. Inazo Nitobe which is near UBC.
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/08/taking-a-walk-i.html
     These pictures were taken in Hokkaido University which has the oldest department of veterinary science in Japan. My youngest daughter is eager to become a veterinarian and wants to be a student of this university. She'd like to proceed to higher education like UBC Postgraduate School and become a researcher. I'm going to ask a taxi to drive slowly in the campus of UBC.
     She's also looking forward to joining the ski school in Whistler.
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/04/the-last-ski-da.html
     This time her English is better than two years ago and she's going to try talking to lots of people on the slopes and in the village. It would be a great experience for her.

(Vocabulary)
proceed to something  (フォーマル) ＜…＞に進む
= move on to something

     My mother, Eri, Yuri and me in front of one of UBC's domitories in 1995.

A Korean Rider

     I had an e-mail from a Korean postgraduate student whom I met on the internet. He is planning to enjoy riding a motorcycle across Japan for three months in 2008. I have always thought of riding in South Korea for these past two years, so he is just the opposite case to me.
     However he doesn't have enough information on Japan. When is the best season for riding in Japan? This was his first question. Japan is a small country as you know, but Japan has various climates in each area. I'm going to give him as much information as he needs....in Korean. This makes me better at using the Korean language and will help me travel by myself in South Korea at the same time.
     He showed me a map of his plan. I'm happy to know that my hometown, Matsuyama City, is located just on his route. I suggested he could stay one night in my house. If he doesn't mind, I'd like to ride my scooter with him for a few hours.
     I really think that the internet is wonderful. He seems to have some friends in Japan using the social network service. I think that he has read my blog that contained my severe remarks against South Korea, but he puts forward an idea: Let's put aside the relationship between both countries and let's go together face to face as a single individual.
     It's OK and great! I'm looking forward to seeing him.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

안녕하세요.
마츠야마에 와 주면 환영합니다.
마츠야마시의 자료는 있습니까?
마츠야마시와 평택시는 자매 도시이니까, 평택시에 가면 손에 들어갈지도 모릅니다만, 보내도 주어요.　공항등에서 무료로 입수할 수 있을테니다.

세토나이카이는　한려해상국립공원를 닮아 있는 것 같습니다.
세토대교는 부디 달려 보세요.에히메현 남부의 해안선도 예쁩니다.

일본은 작은 나라입니다만, 변화가 풍부하고 있습니다.
큐슈와 홋카이도의 투어링이라면 여러가지 어드바이스 할 수 있습니다.

A Map

     My brother, a journalist, was travelling in France for his vacation. The picture shows the map and pamphlets that are written in Korean. I asked him to bring them back when he was just about to fly to Paris. I'd like to get anything official that is written in Korean. Anything was OK, for example maps, pamphlets, time schedule sheets for flights, trains or buses, information on hotels, theaters, museums, , , and so on. These are for free and my brother wouldn't feel any pain to collect them. If he couldn't find them, it was OK. Anyway, I sometimes look at this map of Paris over a glass of brandy. I've never been to France, but my imagination takes me to Paris. Besides it is good for learning Korean.
     Why Paris? It's because one of my daughters is learning French and I hope that my family can go skiing in Chamonix plus I'd like to get on the TGV and enjoy travelling under the Channel. Her French would help us enjoy travelling and skiing in Chamonix.
     I'm planning to visit Vancouver for skiing next March. I've been to Whistler 5 or 6 times, but I've never been to Europe. I'm really keen to visit some countries in Europe someday.   

Korean Letters 4

Continued from here.

    I learned Korean history by myself. I focused on before the 19th century this time because I know roughly about after the 19th century.
     The pictures show the books that I read for these past 3 weeks. Both books in the first picture are written by a Korea-hating person and a Japan-hating person. I compared them with each other.
     The book on the right was written by a Japanese historian. His opinions, based on reliable evidence, seemed to be perfect. On the other hand the book on the left was funny and ridiculous. For example, the author describes the issue of Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima in Japanese) this way: Japan can easily file a lawsuit to the International Court of Justice because Japan has nothing to lose when it loses the case, but Korea is tightly controlling the Rocks effectively now and if it loses the case it has to give it up...so, Korea won't go to the Court. See also here.
     What do you think about this excuse? It's literally nonsense. It's because the Korean administration officials know that they have no chance against Japan that Korea won't sit at the table of the International Court. The author continues ....  The Korean language is superior to Japanese because homonyms are fewer in Korean than in Japanese. I couldn't believe my eyes to read this. I think he is unqualified to write books. In Japan and China the written language is an ideogram. Korean is a phonogram. His opinion is completely wrong. Originally it's of no use to struggle for mastery between different languages.
     I really think that Korean is systematic and beautiful. I'm learning it like maths and listening to it like music. I like it though I'm sorry to hear that Korean is denying the usage of Chinese characters.
     Anyway, the book on the left was written emotionally and the evidence is vague. Reading this book was just like wasting time.
     See the second picture. These books are written by a history researcher after intensive research. I examined some evidence that the author took up in his book and I got to believe these books. I'd like to pay a tribute to Korean readers to give me a chance to learn about Korean history. I got shocked to know it. If I were the Korean president, I would be sure to hide the historical facts and never show it to Korean children. Korean history is such a history.
     When the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea was signed in 1965, Seoul didn't say anything about the issue of comfort women. Why did the issue show up now? It has been my biggest question. I know the book that triggered this issue, but the author of this book revealed later that he wrote it on speculation and no evidence. However the Koreans are continuing to blame Japan for this issue. Why? In fact there's a general idea on prostitution (sex for money) in Japan but no notion about obliged comfort women (kind of sex slavery).
     "Comfort women" was from the Korean culture. If you are Korean, please study your own history and culture. Examine every kind of record and figures sincerely. There remain many documents in China, your country and also Japan. Many travel writers left the documents for you. I don't want to offend you and write about this issue any more but I hope you'll stop shifting a lot of the responsibility on Japan. (和訳)

(Vocabulary)
homonym     同音異義語
phonogram  表音文字
ideogram     表意文字
pay a tribute to　（人）に賛辞を呈する、（人）に敬意を表する、（死を）哀悼する
the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea　日韓基本条約   한일기본조약
hift responsibility to　（人）に責任を転嫁する［なすりつける］

韓国からの手紙４

ここからの続き　http://ridiculouskcruelc.seesaa.net/article/141154175.html　朝鮮史の勉強をした。１９世紀以後は大体わかっているので今回はそれ以前に焦点を当てた。写真はこの３週間の間に読んだ本を示している。最初の写真の２冊の本は韓国嫌いの人と日本嫌いの人とによって書かれたものである。これらを比べてみた。　右側の本は日本人歴史家によって書かれている。彼の意見は信頼できる根拠があり、完全なように見える。一方、左側の本はおかしくてばかげている。例えば、竹島についてはこう書かれている。日本は何も失うものがないから簡単に国際司法裁判所に訴えることができるが、韓国は現在竹島を実効支配しており、もし裁判で負ければそれを諦めねばならないから、、、だから韓国は訴訟に応じないのだと言う。参考: http://ridiculouskcruelc.seesaa.net/article/141154384.html　この言い訳はどうだ？全くナンセンスと言わざるを得ない。韓国が司法の場につかないのは、日本に対して勝ち目がないことを政府が知っているからだ。著者は続ける、、、朝鮮語は日本語よりも優れている。なぜなら同音異義語が日本語に比べて少ないからだと。これには驚いた。この著者は本を書く資格はないと思った。日本や中共の書き言葉は表意文字である。それに対して朝鮮語は表音文字だ。彼の言葉は完全に間違っている。もともと、言語の優位性を論じるなど、何の意味もないことだ。朝鮮語はシステマティックで美しいと思う。数学のように学び、音楽を聴くように聞いている。ただ、朝鮮人が漢字を使わないようにしてしまったことを聞いてとても残念に思うが、朝鮮語は好きだ。とにかく、左の本は感情的に書かれており、根拠が希薄だ。この本を読むことは時間の浪費に過ぎない。 　２番目の写真を見て欲しい。これらの本は歴史家により十分な研究の後に書かれている。著者が取り上げている根拠のうちいくつかを自分でも調べてみて、これらの本が信頼できるものとわかった。朝鮮史を勉強する機会を与えてくれた韓国の読者に感謝したい。朝鮮史を知って驚いた。もし、僕が韓国大統領であったら間違いなく事実を隠し、子供達には教えないだろう。朝鮮史はそのような歴史である。 　日韓基本条約が１９６５年に結ばれたとき、韓国は慰安婦問題について何も語らなかった。なぜ今になってこの問題が出てきたのか？引き金となった本を知ったが、後にこの著者は単なる想像で書いたもの、何の根拠もないことを明かしている。しかし、朝鮮人はこの問題で日本を責め続ける。いったいなぜ？日本には当時から売春婦という概念はあったが、強制的な慰安婦（性の奴隷）という概念はなかったのだ。 　慰安婦という概念は朝鮮文化から来ている。もしあなたが朝鮮人なら自国の歴史や文化を勉強してみることだ。支那や貴国、日本にも多くの文書が残っている。多くの旅行作家の記録もある。あなた方を攻撃するつもりはなく、この問題でこれ以上書くつもりもないが、日本に多くの責任を転嫁するようなことはやめて欲しい。

(KW: 黄　文雄　嫌韓流　혐일류）

Korean Letters 1

     I got more than 50 e-mails from Korea. It's because of this entry: http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/10/korean-textbook.html

     This blog is linked to a Korean blog that is maybe written by a Korean priest. I guess it is the reason why I got so many e-mails from South Korea.
     All the e-mails but two were written in Korean. They might have a misunderstanding that I'm very good at Korean. I'm just learning Korean because I want to enjoy travelling in Korea. I'd like to try many Korean dishes and to see beautiful scenery. My German was obtained as a subject in my student days and was required again at my postgraduate examination after ten years as a surgeon. The ability of reading and writing German, along with enough vocabulary, was mainly required. On the other hand, talking about Korean, it's a kind of amusement to learn Korean. The ability of talking and listening in Korean in daily life is what I'd like to acquire. That is to say, my vocabulary of Korean words is poorer than that of German and English. My comprehension level in Korean is lower than that in German.
     Anyway, it took a lot of time to understand all of the e-mails. Please write in English next time! I'm going to write about the contents of e-mails in the next entry.

P.S.   This storm of e-mails made me better in Korean. I'll try to write something in Korean here in the near future.

The Englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain

     An easy, but interesting story. I enjoyed the scenery of Wales and the British English. It's a little hard for me to listen to British English. While I feel like a round cobble stone against American English, I think British English is like an angular piece of rock. The story was; people simply try to make the hill into a mountain by adding altitude. They carry mud and stones up to the summit and pile them up there. It was a very simple and funny story but I was moved.
     In Japan there is a mountain 2998 meters high. The name of the mountain is "Tsurugi-Dake". I climbed Tsurugi-Dake twice in the summer and winter. Everytime I got to the summit, I stretched higher to take pictures, because my finger end had to be over 3000 meters high.

(Vocabulary)
angular pieces of rock　　角張った岩

Korean Textbook for Japanese People

I wrote about South Korean policy in the following entry:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2006/12/international-s.html

     This entry was grammatically corrected by a native lady who agreed with my opinion. After I wrote that I had wanted to read the real Korean textbook because I thought it must be due to the education that Korean people had in their student days that they insisted on many things unreasonably. Eventually I found the book in the city library. This Korean textbook of history for junior high school students is translated into Japanese. The pictures show the front cover and some pages in it.
     More than 10 Korean people have often accessed this blog and I wanted to prepare one written in Korean for them, but I couldn't. Whatever, you Japanese would easily understand that it is not the individual Korean but the Korean government that is responsible for the deep division between both countries.
     I focused on 2 points in the textbook. One is about An Jung-geun (安重根 안중근) and the other is about Liancourt Rocks (竹島 다케시마(일본어)  독도  獨島)
     At first take a look at the second picture. You can magnify and read the textbook. What do you think about it? Some people whom we think of as terrorists from any angle are honored as kind of national heros. When such a biased education occurs during the low teens, the students would be brainwashed. I wonder why the Japanese government doesn't accuse them? On the other hand, the Korean government does the same with our textbook. I think they don't have room to criticize us. Japan shouldn't hold back against South Korea. I didn't know, but it looks like there was another terrorist act against an American. (written on the same page.)
     Next, I hope you'll access the following website if you can read Japanese or use the automatic translation system: (Korean people, I think, can easily read it, because Japanese grammar is extremely similar to Korean.
http://www.geocities.jp/tanaka_kunitaka/takeshima/
     The Korean government interprets their own historical documents in a distorted way many times, besides sometimes changing the content of their historical heritage, I mean, they are twisting things around. I'd like to describe only one thing here that I was the most afraid of.
     Take a look at the last picture. That is a page in the textbook. The content is like this: You can see Liancourt Rocks clearly from Ullungdo Island (鬱陵島 울릉도 うつりょうとう) with the naked eye if the weather is fine and that was written in an old document more than 100 years ago. (To tell the truth, these sentences indicate another island of the same name, but the government is twisting that fact.)
     By the way, is it possible? Liancourt Rocks (竹島 독도) is a rock rather than an island as you can see by the pictures of Liancourt Rocks on the above website. Its altitude is only 157 meters. Liancourt Rocks is 92 km away from Ullungdo Island(鬱陵島 울릉도). Can you clearly detect a rock 157 meters high in the ocean from a distance of 92 km with the naked eye. What do the students who live on Ullungdo Island think? They must have known that their government is officially lieing. Korean textbooks for teens acknowledges lying!
     I've found much more interesting things in this textbook, but I don't have enough time to show all of those. Anyway, I can declare with confidence that the Korean government has a serious responsibility about the Korean way of thinking against Japan.

To Korean people !

Please see the same page in the textbook written in Korean. You would understand my opinion. I mean no offense to you. I feel an affinity with you and your country, so I'm learning the Korean language.

(Vocabulary)
hold back 〔事実・本心などを〕隠す［秘密にする・しまっておく］、本当のことを言わない、
take in a distorted way / twist things around　曲解する
no offense  悪気はない

日本語版韓国歴史教科書

韓国の政策について下記の記事でも書いております。http://ridiculouskcruelc.seesaa.net/article/141154384.html　韓国人がここに書いたような非理論的な主張をするのは学生時代に受けた教育によるものに違いないと思ったのでこの記事を書いた後で本物の韓国教科書を読んでみました。たまたま市立図書館で教科書を見つけたのですが、中学生向けの韓国の歴史教科書で日本語に翻訳されています。写真は教科書の表紙と一部のページを示しています。　１０人以上の韓国の方がこのブログにしばしばアクセスされており、彼等のために韓国語でも記事を書きたいと思いましたが、うまく書けませんでした。いずれにせよ、日本と韓国の間の深い溝を作った責任は韓国人個人にあるのではなく、韓国政府にあるのだということがわかると思います。　争点を２つに絞ってみました。ひとつは安重根というテロリストについて、もう一つは竹島についての書き方です。　まず第一に２枚目の写真を見て下さい。拡大すると文字を読むことが出来ます。これをみてどう思われますか？どう見てもテロリストなのに国家的英雄とされています。このようなバイアスの掛かった教育を１０代の前半で受けてしまうと学生は洗脳されてしまうでしょう。これらの事実を非難しない日本政府はいったいどうなっているのでしょう。一方で韓国政府は教科書問題で日本政府を批判します。彼等には我々を批判する資格はないと思いますがどうですか？日本は韓国に対して我慢するべきではないと思います。　次に韓国の方へ、もし日本語が読めるか、自動翻訳システムを使うことが出来るなら次のサイトにアクセスしてみてください。http://www.geocities.jp/tanaka_kunitaka/takeshima/　韓国政府は自分たちの都合の良いように歴史を解釈し、歴史書を改ざん、つまり歪曲しています。僕が今一番心配していることをこれから書きたいと思います。　最後の写真を見てください。教科書の一ページです。内容はこんな感じです：竹島は天気が良ければ鬱陵島から肉眼で見え、このことは１００年以上前に書かれた資料の中にも書かれている。(実を言えば、この文献は同じ名前の別の島を表しているのですが、韓国政府はそれをわかっていて曲解しているのです。）上に紹介したサイトの写真で見る限り、竹島は島と言うよりは岩礁です。高さはたったの１５７メートルです。これが９２キロも離れた鬱陵島から肉眼ではっきりと見えるのでしょうか。双眼鏡でも使えば別ですが。鬱陵島に住む中学生には歴史教科書がウソをついているということがはっきりとわかっているはずです。　この本の中にはまだまだ多くのおかしな点がありますが、全てを紹介するには時間が足りません。とにかく、韓国政府は韓国人の対日感情について重大な責任があると自信を持って断言できます。 韓国の皆さんへ！韓国語版の同じページを読んでみてください。僕の意見を理解して頂けるでしょう。僕はあなた方を攻撃するつもりはありません。むしろ韓国人と韓国に対して親近感を覚えています。だから韓国語も読めるようになりました。

 

 

 

 

 

(KW: 韓国　歴史教科書　反日)

Korean Cuisine (参鶏湯 삼계탕 Samgetang）

     I have been learning Korean for two years from TV or radio program on the NHK educational channel. I knew many things about the Korean culture on the program and got interested in them. One of them is Korean dishes. I happened to know about a cooking class of Korean dishes the other day and the dish that would be cooked in the class was samgetang. I immediately signed up for the course.
     I was expecting that I could cook samgetang by myself, but I couldn't because it takes more than four hours only to boil it and we didn't have enough time in the class. The instructor prepared the dish previously on our behalf, and we had only to boil it for an hour. I learned how to prepare the food while boiling it. The instructor was an elderly Korean lady who owns two restaurants. She was Korean but was not good at using Korean because she was born and grew up in Japan. However, she looked happy when I told her things about South Korea. Pictures show the boiling pot and served samgetang. It doesn't look so delicious, but the taste was very good. Anyway, I enjoyed not the cooking class but the eating class!
     Many Japanese people got intersted in the Korean culture and watch Korean TV dramas and movies now. Many artists of both countries visit each other. She repeatedly and happily said that she couln't imagine today's boom in Korean culture in Japan when she was a child. She seemed to have been living in Japan trying to avoid Japanese society.
     There's a Korean primary and junior high school near my high school. I used to belong to the soccer club in my high school and I knew the level of Korean soccer was relatively high. I wanted to play a friendly match with them, but I couldn't. I felt a kind of unvisible barrier between us and them. The direct distance between both schools was only 200 meters but there was no exchange of students. I didn't know why that happened in those days. See also here.
     I feel learning languages, including Japanese, makes me open-minded. I don't know when the next class will be held, but I'll try the next dish.

(Vocabulary)
on behalf of sb/on sb's behalf ((米)in behalf of sb/in sb's behalf とも)
＜人＞に代わって, の代理として, を代表して

Finding Forrester

     I make it a rule to watch one DVD movie a week. It's because I like movies, of course, and I have one more reason. Every DVD movie has subtitles of many languages. I usually watch movies in English with Japanese subtitles. If I come across some good or witty expressions, I watch the same scene again with English subtitles and I always try to memorize the lines as much as possible. I feel delighted to see the same expressions as I learned from books. The words that I found in the lines or in the pictures of movies are always imprinted clearly and surely on my mind. I think that watching movies might be one of the good methods to increase vocabulary. When there are many slang words or words that need background knowledge of American history, show business, current common affairs and a background as an American, it is extremely hard to understand the story. However, even in such a case, I have begun to be able to figure out the rough story.
     "Finding Forrester" is the title of the movie I watched today. At about 1 hour and 9 minutes from the beginning, I found the good thing.
     Most entries of this blog are getting corrected by a native speaker. He always advises me not to use "And", "But" and such conjunctions at the beginning of each sentence. I have wondered why? When I speak Japanese, I often use conjunctions at the beginning of the sentences. I wouldn't have found the answer to his remarks in my grammar book for a long time.
     Sean Connery is starring in this movie and discussing with his student about conjunctions at the beginning of sentences. It was just the answer I wanted to hear. He is acting the role of a famous novelist, the professional writer in the movie. He said that the sentences will give a run-on feeling if you use conjunctions at the beginning of sentences. By the way, why do you think I reacted to this scene? It's because it's the second time I've met this word "run-on". A Korean-American? was using the word "run-on" in the following blog. I'm deeply honored to be written to as above. Anyway, I felt I fully understood the meaning of "run-on" this time.
     When I started to learn English, the purpose of it was only to enter university. In the entrance examinations we were required to translate Japanese sentences into English, but the question was only one or two sentences. You know, we didn't practice writing essays or long stories. I figured out why I didn't mind using conjunctions at the beginning of each sentence. This movie was greatly profitable to me.

One of my favorite lines is:
Sean Connery's line:
Do you know what the absolute best moment is?
It's when you've finished your first draft and you yourself read it.
It's just my feeling at this time.

(Vocabulary)
run-on sentence　カンマ・セミコロン・ハイフンなどを使って複数のセンテンスをつなぎあわせたセンテンス

Porotokotan

     About twenty years ago the Japanese Prime Minister at the time, Mr. Nakasone, announced a controversial comment that Japan is ethnically homogeneous though the U.S. is a multicultural country. The drift of his argument was like this:
     The U.S. government has always had some difficulties to carry out their policies because of the influx of illegal aliens who are in most cases uneducated. On the other hand, the Japanese are a single race and medical services, welfare and education are being equally done all over the country in Japan.....
     As mentioned above, he was accused of not knowing about the Ainu. Lots of critics told of the Ainu living in Japan and it's not good that the Prime Minister didn't know about it. The Ainu was also mentioned in the fundamental primary school textbook of history and I had heard of the Ainu. I thought it was just a history, however, I was surprised to know that Ainu is alive and exists today.
     Ainu is one of the northern peoples. They were living on the eastern coast of Russia, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Hokkaido since far before the Japanese went to Hokkaido. That is to say, they were the indigenous people of Hokkaido. Old records reveal that they lived in the north of Honshu (main island of Japan) too.
     According to the story from a guide to POROTOKOTAN, the Ainu and Japanese got mixed at least before the middle of the Edo era. The guide was an eldery gentleman who looked to be in his early 70's and he seemed to be the 6th generation of the mixture of Ainu and Japanese. I heard lots of things about the Ainu from him.
     I imagined and expected to be able to see the Ainu village here at Porotokotan. In other words, I took Porotokotan as a real Ainu village. However, it was just an illusion. The real Ainu, leading a quiet Ainu life, don't exist now. Porotokotan was just a museum or amusement facility though I'd like to see a real life presentation like that of the Amish. I was disappointed that there is no genuine Ainu life now.
     Even young people who have Ainu ancestors don't use the Ainu language in daily life and they work hard to learn it just to preserve the Ainu culture. A dozen employees of Porotokotan wear the ethnic costumes and entertain us, but they live as Japanese outside Porotokotan and put on the native dress only during their business hours.
     At this point Mr. Nakasone's comment that I introduced at the beginning of this entry was not totally wrong. Ainu is almost completely fused with Japanese now.
     I took more than fifty pictures here for the rest of my family. I chose and show you some of them. At first, let me explain the name Porotokotan. More than 90% of names of places in Hokkaido are named from the Ainu language. "PORO" of Porotokotan stands for big. Likewise, "TO" means lake and "KOTAN" means lakeside. Totally, Porotokotan means the lakeside of a big lake. I think you know the biggest city in Hokkaido is Sapporo. "PORO" of Sapporo means "big" too.

 

     This picture shows the entrance of Porotokotan. Tourists have to go through the shopping street to get here and the same going back to the parking lot. When I walked here on the way to the entrance, I was going to buy something for a souvenir on the way back, but I didn't get anything here when I returned to the parking lot. I heard in the museum that there are no Ainu leading the Ainu life. That means,,, who made these folkcraft articles? I didn't ask this question there, but the folkcraft must have been made by machine, not by the hands of Ainu.

 

     My digital camera is old and doesn't have a wide angle lens. I'd like you to see the huge sculpture in the 1st and 2nd pictures. I couldn't shoot the whole image in one time. I think you can imagine how big it was, compared with the size of the people. You can see only the base of the sculpture in this picture. The sculpture is a kind of God for the Ainu and was built praying for the happiness of all the visitors.

     This picture was shot from the pier. I hope you can figure out the atmosphere of Porotokotan. As you can see, Ainu houses were arranged here and I entered one of them. As soon as I entered the house, I felt something strange or not right. Do you remember the houses that I showed you at the historical village of Hokkaido? See the 5th-7th pictures of this entry: http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/08/historical-vi-1.html

     The climate of Hokkaido is extremely severe, especially in the winter. Winds must have been so strong. Did Ainu people have the technique or method to build such a big and strongly structured house? I asked this question to my guide. He replied that these houses were not built by Ainu people and were of no importance historically. It's just for the exhibition and performance. The size of the houses seemed to be more than ten times as big as the real Ainu houses.

 

     This is the entrance of one of the houses. The name of this house is written in three languages on the signboard. The upper line is written in the Ainu language, the middle is English and the lower is Japanese. In this house, I was given a lesson about the history and daily life of the Ainu from a member of staff. There were about 200 tourists in the house, but mostly Korean. Though the Korean group had an interpreter the speaker himself added some Korean words in his talk and his speech was interesting and very enjoyable. If allowed, I wanted to hear the story about the forced migration by Stalin just after World War Two, though the speaker might have intentionally wanted to avoid the political story. The Ainu people were forced to move from Sakhalin to Hokkaido by the Soviets. If the Korean people had heard that story, they would feel sympathy with the Ainu because Korea had just the same experience.

 

     I took a picture of an ethnic Ainu dance, but their movement was so fast. The picture is what you see. We were sitting on the front row. A, my daughter, was always away from me. She was sitting 1.5 meters apart. There was room for about two people to take the seats between us. A Korean man seemed to want his daughter to sit between us from a casual glance backwards. I tried to say "Do you want your daughter to sit here?" in Korean, but I couldn't. My Korean was no use in the extreme situation that requires the exact words. My words were "앉으세요" meaning "Take a seat please!" It was not wrong, but wasn't exactly what I wanted to say. I explained that the girl was my daughter and she didn't like me and was sitting apart with my poor Korean skills. I hope he really understood me. At any rate, the words are kind of tools to communicate with each other. If you can't use the tool at the moment you want to use it, the tool is no use at all. I realized that reading the grammar book slowly at the desk is not sufficient to enjoy chatting in Korean. It was a good opportunity.

 

     A is eating soft ice cream at the POROTO (big lake) lakeside.

     As I wrote above, there were many Korean tourists in Porotokotan, but there were few foreign people in the historical village of Hokkaido. Porotokotan is not a historical heritage site but an amusement facility, whereas in the historical village there are many real houses that were actually used. I wondered why the Korean group chose to come here, not the historical village?

(Vocabulary)
drift of an argument　論旨
indigenous  〈人・慣習・文化などが〉 （土地）固有の, 土着の
Amish 《複数扱い》 アーミッシュ (非常に厳格なキリスト教の一会派
use ~ at the moment one wants to use it　～を使いたいときに使う
at a casual glance　何気なく見ると

(KW: ポロトコタン アイヌ民族博物館)

A Korean Classy Lady

     A Korean classy lady consulted me today. She was suffering from cervical spondylosis and has attended my hospital regularly. She has been put in traction and other physical medicine.
     To tell the truth, I have been trying to speak to her in Korean, but I couldn't. I didn't have enough confidence in my skill in Korean.
     There always are some Korean texts on my desk at OPD. When the stream of patients are split, I make it a rule to look over them. She gave a glance at them and talked to me about the Korean language. I realized that it was my chance. "잘 지냈어요" (How have you been?) I uttered lamely. My voice was so weak, but she completely understood my Korean words. I was very happy.

(Vocabulary)
classy
〈ホテル，レストランなどが〉 高級な, おしゃれな, クラッシーな
〈人が〉 上品な, エレガントな, 一流の
spondylosis 《医》脊椎症
lamely  心もとなさそうに, へどもどして

Seven Years (1)

     For these 7 years I have been attending weekly meetings of English speaking people, who are all non-native speakers. Those members each have a purpose. Some are for their jobs, some are for amusement like watching movies, travelling abroad, etc. and some want to learn as a kind of accomplishment. Our teacher is a professor from the nearest university who is from Michigan. He has presided at this meeting for more than 15 years. I was among them for these 7 years. However, this meeting got to break up this March because his work got busy and he didn't have enough time for us.
     All the members felt sad to say good-bye, but I think the parting is a kind of starting. I found a nice word, "commencement". It means graduation and starting at the same time. I decided not to miss those members and become a better English speaker when we see each other next time.

(Vocabulary)
accomplishment  特技, 技巧
sb's accomplishment in sth ＜…＞における＜人＞の特技
John's high level of accomplishment in judo
ジョンの柔道における高度な技量
preside  (行事・会などを) 主宰する, 議長を務める
preside at/over sth  ＜…＞を取り仕切る

Radio with Recording Function

     Though I've been learning some languages from TV programs for these couple of years, I heard that the radio programs are more condensed and at a higher level than TV programs, so I'm going to listen to radio programs in English and Korean from April instead of watching TV. The length of each program is 15 minutes every weekday. I can continue to listen because the length of those programs are suitable for me. It doesn't bother my daily work. However the on-air schedule of programs of both languages are inconvenient to me, so I got a radio with a recording function.
     I can accumulate the whole program into this radio and listen to it every time I'd like to. The text fee is 350 yen (about 3 U.S.$) a month. I think listening or watching TV or radio programs is a good and cheap way to learn languages.

Catch-22

     The phrase "catch-22" was hard to understand. I saw this phrase in a newspaper article long ago. You can't get a job unless you have experience, but you can't get experience unless you have a job. Age 22 means the year of graduation from university in Japan. You know, the students have to get their job at age 22, so I vaguely understood the origin of the meaning of "catch-22". As you can imagine, I thought that "catch some kind of job at 22...." is something contradictory due to the reason that I wrote above. Consequently the phrase "catch-22" comes to mean dilemma. That was my understanding about "catch-22" at that time.
     I understand the correct origin of "catch-22" from an e-mail newsletter a couple of days ago. That phrase came from a novel called "Catch-22". I found myself with this book today.

New English-Japanese Dictionary

     I bought an English-Japanese dictionary for the first time when I entered junior high school. I was 13 years old at that time. One of my English teachers was a Spanish father. I felt a kind of exotic air in the class though I didn't have any interest in English. If I had had a keen interest in English or other foreign languages at that time, I wouldn't have so much difficulty as I have now to learn languages. My brain must have had better memory retention when I was younger.
     I'm trying to write various kinds of articles now, for example diaries, essays, kind of editorials or opinions about current affairs, notes of journeys, introductory essays about my town, my hospital, my family, my hobbies,etc. I'm still learning English and I frequently make mistakes, but fortunately those articles are corrected by a teacher on the internet. Anyway I still use this old dictionary.
     This dictionary was the most popular and the best-selling one when I was a junior high school student. After many years, that dictionary became well-thumbed and looked dirty, so I bought a new one which was a revised version of the same dictionary. Besides, I bought an electronic dictionary a couple of years ago for portable use. I thought those dictionaries were enough for reading and writing English for a long time.
     The other day I found an amazing dictionary. I'll show you inside of it. I checked some phrases that I'm familiar with and I ascertained that the explanations of each phrase were precise and right. The dictionary is color printed and contains many illustrations and photos, but isn't thick. It is very comfortable to look things up in this dictionary. Moreover, you don't see the shadows of the back page. The technique of printing must have developed remarkbly during these last few decades. I'm enjoying writing this entry and looking up English words in this dictionary.

(Vocabulary)
keen　(仕事・勉強などに) 熱心な,  意欲的な〈知性などが〉 鋭い, 〈頭が〉 切れる
keen students　熱心な学生
Greg has a keen mind.　グレッグは頭が切れる．
retention　記憶力　保留, 維持　(水分･熱などの) 保持力　退職［退学］防止
best-selling　(本・アルバムなどが) ベストセラーの
well-thumbed　〈本・雑誌などが〉 手あかのついた, 使い込まれた

School Trip

     My youngest daughter, Annlie, is on the plane heading for Australia now. It's a school trip of her junior high school. She'll visit Cairns and Sydney and have a homestay in Cairns.
     She was only 12 years old when I took her abroad for the first time. She couldn't understand English at all at that time. I remember that she tried to speak to a cabin attendant of Air Canada, "Could I have an orange juice?" ,which I taught her. She loves dogs and wanted to take pictures of dogs that were being walked at Whistler. After she memorized this phrase, "May I take a picture of your dog?", she took pictures of more than 30 dogs saying this phrase. Speaking in English seemed to be fun for her.
     Three years later, she reached the sub-2nd grade in STEP (Society for Testing English Proficiency). It's great work. She is good at English as a subject. I hope that she will be able to enjoy real communication with Australian people.

Yuri's Astonishment

     She has some time before starting to learn German at her university. She seemed to have started to learn German by herself. She got some German grammar books today. When I got back home, she was pronouncing the definite articles of German in the LIVING ROOM. Because she usually studies in her room, I imagined that she was enjoying demonstrating that she had a strong will to master German. Der, Des, Dem, Den, ,,,,, She was memorising by speaking each definite article out loud. So, I said "Guten Abend! Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Ist Deutsch interessant für dich?" She was astonished to hear me speak German. It seems like she didn't know that I can speak German. It was so funny.