Sep 18, 2002 02:46
Yesterday was okay. I got my paper on auxiliary hypotheses for Philosophy of Science turned in. Though I spent all morning antagonizing over coming up with a better title for it that "Auxiliary Hypotheses," everyone in the class ended up calling their paper that, so at least my lack of creativity won't stand out. I also had my first test in Japanese, and that went pretty alright. But then the bastard assigned to us a one page essay due Wednesday in response to a newspaper article we read concerning cultural differences between Japan and the US with regards to apologies. I really had very little to say on the subject, and so I spent all day today procrastinating over this. Thus, today sucked balls (at least in that respect). Finally got started around 10:30. Writing the Japanese was hardly a problem at all. It was just thinking of what I wanted to say. I spent maybe an hour actually writing it, and 3 hours playing DDR while trying to come up with something decent to say. After bumbling around for a few sentances with no particular direction, I just unapolagetically made a couple of huge logical leaps so that I could come to a whiz-bang conclusion. It's short, but not much shorter than the article it's supposed to be in response to, and I can't be expected to become a Japanese newspaper columnist overnight, so if he complains about the length he can shove it. Or maybe if I'm in a good mood I can be honest and tell him I had remarkably little to say on the subject. But I won't be in a good mood because I will have had very little sleep, and I also have a test tomorrow in Ancient Greek. It should be pretty easy, but I have to study my vocabulary. Anyways, here's my fucking, double-spaced, "one page" paragraphessay:
日本では、謝罪は過ちに直面して重大である。 特に実業界では、過ったのは自分ではなくても、顧客または目上の人へ自分の顔
を立てるための最善の道はどくどくと謝るのである。 逆に、謝罪しないのはイメージへ偉い損傷である。 しかし、アメリカで
は、謝るかどうか普通に重要でありません。 「アイ・アム・ソーリー」の通りにアメリカは訴訟社会であって、事故が起きたらい
くら謝っても許させられません。 それなら、紛争は謝罪だけで解決しにくいのでしょう。 アメリカ人にとって、ワドル前艦長の
軍務の取り外しは十分の謝罪として見なされたかもしれませんが、そんなどくどく謝罪ではなくて、日本人にとって足りないのでし
ょう。 もし謝罪してもえひめ丸のような事件は国際問題で、卑小で簡単に解決できることではありません。 どんな文化でも受け
入れる解決が必要である。 どの程度に言葉で謝ればいいか文化にとって違います。 しかし、言葉でも他の行動でも後悔や悔悟を
はっきり表せば、どんな文化でもどんな人でもわかるのでしょう。 アメリカ人はそういうものである。 過ったら、何も言わなく
ても何とかするホンネの後悔を表せば誰でもわかるのでしょう。 アメリカ人は普段にも国際関係にもこういう謝罪方法を使われ
て、日本より国際に気づいている文化であると思います。
hawaii,
games,
philosophy,
japanese,
school,
uh