[lit-ideas] Re: News via the web
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 19:21:22 +0900
On 2004/04/03, at 18:34, Omar Kusturica wrote:
> Packer evidently does not speak Arabic and had to
> communicate through not-too-competent translators.
> This should be the first thing to raise doubts about
> the reliability of his impressions. I have had many a
> confusing 'conversation' in China, due to my own
> linguistic incompetence and that of my interlocutors
> or (what often makes things even worse) other people
> acting as translators.
I rise in support of what Omar says here. Similar muddles continually
arise here in Japan, even when highly qualified interpreters are at
work.
The problems are particularly acute when journalists or business people
trained in the English rhetorical style in which a topic is announced
then discussed in increasing detail are confronted with Japanese
speakers who seem to meander all over the place and only come to their
points after laying out the evidence, inferences and qualifications to
whatever their points turn out to be.
In part these habits are embedded in Japanese syntax. Japanese is a
subject-object-verb (SOV) language, which in itself is not so bad; so
are, I believe, both German and Latin. The killer is the use of
left-branching instead of right-branching relative clauses, so that,
for example, instead of saying, "The cat who caught the rat that ate
the cheese," the Japanese says, "cheese <object marker> ate rate
<object marker> caught cat" and concludes with a verb indicating what
the cat is up to now.
In part they reflect traditional approaches to polite conversation,
which begins with commenting on the weather, polite expressions of
mutual regard and only gradually begins to sketch the background to the
topic under discussion. Some sociolinguists attribute this pattern and
other circumlocutions to the given that all formal conversation (and
conversations between Japanese and newly met foreigners are always
formal conversations) assumes a hierarchical relationship in which it
is rude for the speaker (who must place him or herself in the humble
position) to impose his or her views on the other (who is assumed to be
superior). No straight talk, let's come to the point, Jack, Western
frankness here.
In part they build on Japanese-style education, which cultivates the
ability to absorb large amounts of partially digested information of
the sort that may need to be regurgitated on demand. Thus, a properly
humble speaker will, just to be on the safe side, try to lay out all
that he or she knows about a topic before ever so gently pointing
toward the conclusion that the listening superior (client, boss, god)
must infer.
It is not surprising, then, that Japanese, like it appears Arabic
speakers, are constantly being accused of muddled thinking by
foreigners who simply don't know how to listen properly to what they
have to say.
John L. McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama, Japan 220-0006
Tel 81-45-314-9324
Email mccreery@xxxxxxx
"Making Symbols is Our Business"
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
