English responses, page 8

I was born in Hiroshima on July of 1949 and live in Hiroshima now from August of1997 with my wife, a daughter (17 years old) & a son (10 years old). I work as a surveyor of the ship classification society for twenty five years. During my career I lived in several offices which are located in Tokyo (headquater), Yokohama, Buenos Aires of Argentina, Imabari (Shikoku iland), Santiago of Chile & Okayama.

Every weekday I take a Shinkansen super express train between Hiroshima and Okayama for a work for fifety minutes since I believe to have to live all together with a family until when a child will live independently. They were thought a good oppotunity not only for me but also for ny wife & children to know a life & costum of some places including southamerican countries. I love the southamerica, especially Argentina, as sma as Japan and it seems thatthe Argentinian enjoys his own life much more than the Japanese in any level oflife. I can't undestand the reasons why the living cost in Japan is most expensive inthe world. I consider that we shall look for what we want to realize in our lives.

I am Japanese. I boned and grown up in Japan. But I am feeling that differences of culture exist among Japanese and other European countries. Some Japanese would say that existing difference among Japanese and other countries is right thing.

I cannot agree that statement,but I hardly make them understood it is wrong.

I have ICQ soft. I talked with some people from many country via ICQ random chat. It's more difficult to talk with native English than other tongueｓ. They use phraises which are not on the dictionary ! But I enjoyed to talk with unknown people on the whole. I toled that I talked with unknown people to my friends, they said to me 'Is it interesting to talk with unknown people?' I found that there are some people who don't want to talk with unknown people.

I am a new comer to E-mail world. I started communicating with my friends, domestic & overseas, since January this year. Mostly I agree with you on what you indicated about Inter-net and us Japanese. So far I'm communicating only with people whom I know for long time. About your mention on us Japanese, I also think that we are perhaps not open minded as you are probably 'cause we live in a world where almost one single race exists. We probably live, act in the same manner and conservative way.

Apart from that, I am a retired man from a worldly renowed electronic company and leading a retired life. While I was with the comapany, I traveled quite a lot to overseas. I traveled to US on several occasions, mostly to NY, LA. I don't wanna go there now when Yen value is so low. I have a fairly large number of E-mail friends overseas but none in US. I like watching American movies, mostly action-packed ones in which most people use those 4 letter words.

Our famiry lived in Los Angeles from 1988 to 1990. While in the USA, many people treid to talk to us in everywhere. It was nice experience.( Long ago in Kansai area, atmosphere were like these.) Every Wednesday I took bus to Santa Monica to get fresh fruits and vegetables (I coudn't get driver's licence) in Farmers Market. In the bus, unknown people talked to me and baby. It was lot of fun to talk these people. Of course in the Market, I enjoy not only smell of fresh fruits but also enjoy frendly people.

I know my English is bad, but some of my European friends give me letters with many wrong spellings, but I can see what they want to say. Important thing is that whether one have things to say and intention to communicate to other people. This is also true to internet, maybe we Japanese have few thing to say to the world.

Anyway I like to say "Have a nice day."or "Have a safe trip." to people unknown before he or she talk to me, when we apart to different direcrion. But I love old saying "Even a chance acquaintance is decreed by destiny". So if you have chance to come to Tokyo.(I'm living in Tokyo) please let me know if .It's glad for me if I can be any help for you. I'm 39 years old woman and have 2 kids. I'm architect and working as art plannner for some company.

I'm first grade of highschool. I lived in America and Germany for each 6 years and 5 years. So I can speak English and German a little. My hobby is making my own homepage. These days, I'm trying to make an English page. It is good for my learning English. So I want foreigners to come to my homepage. Could you introduse foreigners my homepage?

My URL http://www.geocities.co.jp/Broadway/3652/mackey.index.htm

What I interested in was that you had once served as an assistant English teacher at a junior high school. I would like to invite your comment on the present situation of the English teaching in our country. Many people have pointed out that we Japanese are very poor at communicating with foreign people even after we have learned English for six or more years. What do you think of the main cause of the deficiency in it?

As you pointed out in the paper, we Japanese may be too shy to talk to persons who are not yet familiar with. When we travel in some countries, some people are easy to talk to, but some are not. Americans are, generally, said to be frank and straightforward, but English people are different. I know this is not the matter of the knowledge of a language. This may be derived from a kind of nationality.

I like traveling and have visited lots of countries. I like the beautiful scenery and sightseeing places, needless to say, but am also very much interested in the people living there.

Japan is one of the countries in the world where English is not understood by the ordinary people, even after they have learned it for six years. It is amazing! Could you tell me the deficiency of English teaching in our country?

When I make travels in foreign countries, I always feel the importance of the language, together with sincerity and faithfulness. Without the primitive knowledge of the language of the country, we cannot make ourselves understood, though smile is sometimes helpful.

I am already more than sixty years old and have retired. After I retired, I began internet to widen my narrow world. I always feel the importance of the knowledge of some languages. The knowledge is the only means to understand the information from internet. I am also very much interested in the different cultures.

My name is Shoji Narahara. I live in Nishinomiya city near Kobe. I read your opinion about Internet in Asahi Newspaper on August 30th. I hope you'll get many e-mails from Japanese who agree with your opinion. I think I am one of them.

If you don't mind, can you answer this question for me? What's a goal of your study? Do you want to be a "nakoudo" between Japanese and other people in the world?

Yes, I think we need a lot of nakodos helpers to overcome our shyness. Many will appreciate what you are trying to do. This is my voice.

My name is Shoko Tanaka and I live in Ashiya.I read your article in the newspaper yesterday. At first,I want to say thank you for trying to prevail the Internet here.

After I read that,I want you to know the other reason why it is not so popular with japanese. Of course, we are not so friendly as you. It could be the reason. But it costs too much!! This is the biggest reason,I guess. Acutually,I want to have computer at home and use the Internet. The problem is MONEY!! Now I can use the one in our company,only e-mail. If I want to use it,I need permisson by bosses. It must be ridicurus!

Anyway,I am trying to start to use the Internet at home right now.Maybe I have to save maney for a while.

I retired 5 years ago after 17 year-working at junior high schools. Now I'm teaching English at home and I'm planning to comunicate with American schools' homepage with my students.I have checked some of their addresses.

I have been interested in exchanging E-mails between Japanese schools and foreign schools since my retirement. Recently most of junior high schools have their computer rooms, at least here,in Shizuoka Pref. There are usually 20 computers in a room.In spite of spending great money,computers are not used enough. One reason is that teachers are too busy. I don't know how many lessons students have in a computer room a year. It must be a small number of chances.They have no practice to type. Perhaps you know teachers have many chores to do.If you start a new work,you may cut some other works.But they can't.I wrote to Ministry of Education as a monitor that the goverment should enploy specialists to manage computer rooms and help teachers like librarians, though even a librarian or a counselor isn't at school. But the goverment spent much money to hard wares,so they should spend money to people as soft wares,too. Accoding to this morning edition of Asahi(Aug.31), the Ministry said there are still not enough teachers who can use and teach computers.

This summer I got a seminor about Internet and making homepages at a college of thecnology. There were 10 junior high students among us. I think it's wonderful for all juior high students to have same seminor at thier schools.I wish you could help them to comunicate foreign people and cultures. E-mailing is one of the ways.

I read your comment yesterday's Asahi newspaper.I was afraid of mistaking to write in English.But now I would not be hesitate everything. Thank your encouragement.

I'm an employee with one of American carriers and just started using e-mail a few months ago to contact offices in the US easily. Since most of the mails sent to me are business issues,I don't have many chances to enjoy private mails... of course,it would be great if I could have chance to talk to people all over the world through computer. However,as you know, I,Japanese,am always worried about " whether my English is grammertically okay or not?! ", " if my wrong English possibly makes the person feel bad...?! ", and so on when creating mails/talking to foreigners........ ( To tell the truth,I would have liked to send you my mail in Japanese if I joined Japanese provider...)

Our letter culture that we often send seasonal greetings like nengajou,syochuu-mimai,etc.. gradually makes us more shy......,I can guess. Compared with talking directly or on the phone,we,Japanese,can tell very easily through letter/e-mail as well what we are exactly thinking about . Actually,through letter/computer, I can enjoy speaking with one of my old classmates who was not very close to me at Univ. This point is very interesting for me even though I am pure Japanese. How about American people?!

What makes you,Americans,be more sociable/positive?! Although many American co-workers surround me, cultural differences often surprise me very much. ( too many to explain !!) I have never lived in the US and don't know details about your culture.....however I heard that to continue to talk at the diner table is a kind of good sign. Does it make Americans be more friendly/genki?!

I've just read your contribution to ASAHI SHINBUN and I have interest in your point of view. Especially, I'm for the idea of "nakoudo" (go-between)in Japanese society. I think that it is hard for Japanese to get acquainted with different generation people.(I mean we tend to have friends a few societies. For example university, working place, and so on.) because of this idea.

However, with internet Japanese could be more better at making acquaintances, I think. Because it's really easy and useful to know about only oneself interest. So we can enjoy ourselves without other's eye at least during facing display. (Japanese are very sensitive to other people.)

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