English: July 2007 Archives

    In Japanese, the nuance of "I think he is not coming." and "I do not think he is coming." are slightly different. I believe it's the same in English. The former one is you can also say "I guess he is not coming.", and the latter "I believe he is not coming." I have never lived abroad, so I am not sure whether these difference are correct, but I can feel some of them.

    I occasionally translated an English website into a Japanese one as a volunteer for a few years, then I found a lot of difficulties. One of them was the technical words. It was a website for music, and I knew some words for it, but I did not know enough to write the Japanese articles. So sometimes I had to check some Japanese music websites to find what kind of words were used.

    Translating English into Japanese is not easy because sometimes they include special expressions such as idioms or old sayings, or thoughts with religions or cultures. I could use my words for it, but 'my words' led readers in different direction because of the meaning of their words depended on their feelings.

    As I first wrote, I can feel differences between two sentences in the above, but it depends on my feeling. But if I keep writing and try reading articles, I would be able to become closer to their original intentions.

    I have been thinking how I can improve my English.   Should I read a lot of English books in order to increase my vocabulary?   Should I listen to English radio or TV in order to improve my listening comprehension?   Of course they are important, but I know I have a weak point.   A more important thing for me is proper grammar at the moment.

    I know when someone wants to speak a language which is not their mother tongues, they need some skills of communication.   I think it is not necessary being fluent but passionate.   On the other hand, with writing, you can not show your emotions or reactions, or see theirs.

    Whenever I write English mail, even if it is a short mobile mail, I become a little nervous and I think I have low confidence, because I always think my writing is not good enough to express my emotions or thoughts, so it might hurt someone or be misunderstood, etc.

    I should've studied English grammar more in my school days, therefore I can not have confidence.   Using the past perfect tense was one of the main lessons in my high school days, I was not serious enough, so I'm always confused when I want to write such sentences which include this grammar.

    I think writing helps me to improve my English by considering how to make sentences in English, so it's good practice for me to write something.