Merienda! - The Japan Foundation, Manila

Halo HaloLanguage Education 101言 語 教 育Glossary for theフィリピン 人 教 師 のじゆうちょうHalo-halo. A very delicious refreshment that offers mixed sweetened fruits and beans topped byshaved or crushed ice and ice cream, milk and custard. It’s more than just a dessert, it is a meal in itself.Serious^ Nihongo Teacher言語習得基 本 練 習 ・ 応 用 練 習教授法We began this column hoping to introduce Nihongo teachers to important concepts in language and language education from the perspective of both Englishand Japanese language scholars.Sociolinguistic:Role Language Choose your answers from a to e. The answer is “1-e”, “2-b”, “3-a”, “4-It is said that “Language will alwaysd” and “5-c”. “Role Language” appearsbe part of society. Society will always 1. SOUYO,in the various ways to saying “Ibe part of language”. “Language is a ATASHI GA SHITTEIRUWA. (WATASHI)”, the sentence endingsmirror of culture.” Language is alwayslike “-ORU” and so on.changed by factors of society. 2. SOUJYA, WASHI GA SHITTEORU. How many correct answers did youSociolinguistics, which is the field ofget? Probably, all Japanese can answerinvestigating the relationship between 3. SOUJYA,100% correctly since they havelanguage and society, has been chosen SESSHA GA ZONNJITEORU. naturally learned “Role Language”as the theme for this series. Our lastthrough Manga and Anime fromtopic was “Youth Lingo”. For this issue, 4. SOUDESUWAYO,childhood. When reading Manga orour topic is “Role Language”.WATAKUSHI GAwatching Anime, please try to“Role Language” consists of the ZONNJITE ORIMASUWA.appreciate not only the storyline, butspecial expressions used by charactersalso check out the Nihongo that thein Manga or Anime, which are not used 5. NDA, ORASHITTERUDA.character are using. You can surely findin real communication.many interesting “Role Language”!!For example, if a character in aManga or an Anime is to say the a. Warrior (SAMURAI)expression “Sou desu. Watashi ga b. Old mentor/doctor金 水 敏 (2003)『ヴァーチャル 日 本 語 役 割 語following expressions can be used. Can d. Rich, sheltered young ladyの 謎 』 岩 波 書 店you guess who said each expressions? e. girlMDear sensei あなたの 悩 みにお 答 えします…Dear M Sensei,It seems students have a way of making the teachers study the language more without really meaning to.Recently, the students came up with the following kaiwa during one of our class activities:(Setting: Officemates talk about a party) A: Tanaka-san wa nanji ni kimasu ka.B: Shirimasen.I thought a better reply would be Wakarimasen, so I told the class. But when I was asked, I could not explain thedifference between the two expressions. I know that both mean ‘I don’t know’, but can you please help me explain thedifference between Shirimasen and Wakarimasen?TO KNOW YOU IS TO UNDERSTAND YOUDear TO KNOW YOU IS TO UNDERSTAND YOU,I do understand your predicament very well. One may be able to use Shirimasen and Wakarimasen appropriately, but itis certainly a different issue when it comes to being able to explain the difference between the two expressions.Although as a reply, both mean ‘I don’t know’, they differ from each other in nuance. If you use them inappropriately in aconversation, you might risk offending the person you are speaking to and embarrassing yourself.To have an idea about the difference between the two expressions, let me first give you the meaning of the base verbs,which are shiru and wakaru.Shiru means to gain knowledge about something or someone through experience or outside information. So it’s eitheryou gain that knowledge and you are in the state of having that knowledge, and say shitteiru, or, if you do not have theknowledge, acquaintance, or memory of something, you say shirimasen, as in the following:Yamada-san to iu hito wo shitteimasu ka?. . . . . . . . . Iie, shirimasen.Since you do not have knowledge of a person named Yamada, it is proper to use shirimasen, as there is nothing you can do as ofthe moment to get to know Yamada..Wakaru, on the other hand, means to gain knowledge about something and then process it in your mind for future use.So if you are confused about something, or don’t get the whole picture of a certain situation, you say wakarimasen. Look at thefollowing example:Watashi no setsumei ga wakarimasu ka?. . . . . . . . Iie, wakarimasen.Here, what is being asked is whether you, after having heard the setsumei and having gained knowledge regarding it,comprehend the content of what you have heard. So the verb wakaru entails knowing or gaining knowledge about something(shiru), before comprehending it.So, based on the above grammatical explanation, since B does not have any information about Tanaka, shirimasen isindeed a proper reply. But in terms of the Japanese way of communicating, saying shirimasen is too direct. It gives the idea thatthere is nothing else to talk about as the speaker does not have the information asked for. And Japanese usually donot like to abruptly end conversations in that manner. Wakarimasen, on the other hand, is an ambiguous reply – whichthe Japanese are very fond of. It vaguely expresses the idea that the speaker may or may not have the information,but the information has not been processed in the mind. So wakarimasen is kind of an indirect way of keeping thecommunication lines open between people. How about that? Saa, wakarimashita ka?10 みりえんだM悩相み談