アフリカの社会人の会話

• 社会人 [しゃかいじん] /upstanding member of society/
• 多言語使用 [たげんごしよう] /the use of many dialects/
• 首都 [しゅと] /capital city/
• 裏町 [うらまち] /back street/back alley/slums/
• 安宿 [やすやど] /cheap hotel/
• 下宿 [げしゅく] /boarding (vs)/lodging/boarding house/
• 石造り [いしづくり] /made out of rock/
• 二階建 [にかいだて] /two-storied building/
• 畳 [じょう] /-tatami mats (counter)/
• 牢獄 [ろうごく] /prison/
• 貸間 [かしま] //
• 常に [つねに] /always/
• 塞がる [ふさがる] /to be plugged up/to be shut up/
• 宿 [やど] /inn/lodging/
• 持ち主 [もちぬし] /owner/proprietor/
• 大陸 [たいりく] /continent/
• 中央部 [ちゅうおうぶ] /centre/middle/
• 湖 [みずうみ] /lake/
• 青年 [せいねん] /youth/young man/
• 兼ねる [かねる] /to hold (position)/to serve/to be unable/to be beyond one's ability/to combine with/to use with/cannot (suf)/to hesitate to/to be impatient/
• Summary: I stayed in a cheap hotel in the slums of Kenya's capital Nairobi for a few months. It was a two-storied building made of white stone in an indian style, and there were about ten rooms reminiscent of six-tatami-mat prison rooms for rent, which always seemed to be 80 percent occupied to some degree. The owner of the inn was indian, but the boy that was always at the help-desk was a youth from the Ryuiya tribe near Lake Victoria on the african continent, and he also served as the room boy.
• 地方 [ちほう] /area/locality/district/region/
• 商人 [しょうにん] /merchant/trader/shopkeeper/
• 役人 [やくにん] /government official/
• 部族語 [ぶぞくご] /tribal language/
• 多少 [たしょう] /more or less/somewhat/a little/some (a-no)/
• Summary: Most of the guests were merchants or beaurocrats from the local areas, and since each person's language (tribal language) was different from each other, we mostly spoke in swahili or english. Within the group there was one American student of snakes who said he came to East Africa from his University to study snakes. The other african guests were not fond of the subject of snakes. Myself, I don't like snakes or have an interested in snake research but I have some interest in the taste of snakes as food, so tried to talk to him in the normal manner, and we became good friends. When it became night we used to go walking out drinking or eating together often.
• 半ば [なかば] /middle/half/semi/halfway/partly/
• 巫山戯る [ふざける] /to romp/to gambol/to frolic/to joke/to make fun of/to flirt/
• 大げさ [おおげさ] /grandiose (an)/exaggerated/
• 悪戯 [いたずら] /tease (vs)/prank (an)/trick/mischief/
• 挨拶 [あいさつ] /greeting (vs)/salutation/
• Summary: When this snake student was leaving the inn, he would always say to the boy, Jozam, at the help-desk in a half joking manner "Oh, no! I'm not your friend." He would say that as he passed by the help desk, waving his fist in an exaggerated manner. When he did this, Jozam would suddenly show his pure white teeth in the center of his jet-black face, and grin a mischievous smile. That was their greeting.
• 途端に [とたんに] /just as/in the act of/
• 忠告 [ちゅうこく] /advice (vs)/warning/
• 口調 [くちょう] /tone/expression/
• 改める [あらためる] /to change/to alter/to reform/to revise/
• Summary: One night, for example, when we were out together eating, that subject came up. "If that guy Jozam come around saying 'You are my friend.' you should watch out! Maybe just when you are saying 'yeah, that is it' he will ask 'whatever you want to do, I will take some money.'" I said. The snake student rested his beer drinking hand, and told me in a tone of giving advice told me this. Now, I had an interest in revising (my knowledge of) this word "friend" and so I asked that snake student if there really are situations in which you would say "I'm your friend" or "You are my friend" in english, he said: If you say it that way, it feels strange. It feels like if you turn to them and say "We are friends." it does not sound as strange. (And he was thinking about this.) English is also one natural language, so if you try to make sentences: "I am your friend." "You are my friend." "We are friends." there is no situation when you can't make sentences like those. However, I have a great interest in which sentences within a society are the ones that one could really turn to their partner and use, and which are the ones that won't really be used. For example, if we look at myself as an example, in Japanese even if someone said "That person is my friend" I don't think I would ever turn to the person and say "You are my friend", "I am your friend", "We are fellow friends" and so on.
• 用法 [ようほう] /directions/rules of use/
• 解く [とく] /to solve/to answer/to untie/
• 鍵 [かぎ] /key/
• 早速 [さっそく] /at once/immediately/without delay/promptly/
• 即座に [そくざに] /immediately/right away/
• 断る [ことわる] /to refuse/to inform/to ask leave/to decline/to dismiss/
• 援助 [えんじょ] /assistance (vs)/aid/support/
• 要求 [ようきゅう] /request (vs)/demand/requisition/
• 間柄 [あいだがら] /relation(ship)/
• 打ち明ける [うちあける] /to be frank/to speak one's mind/to open one's heart/
• 権利 [けんり] /right/privilege/
• Summary: I thought that this contained the key to understanding the problem of the meaning and usage of "friend" in the tribal language that Jozam speaks, so that evening we quickly returned to the inn, and waited around the reception desk. "Jozam, what is a friend?" -- "Friend is related to stomach." (?) he immediately answered. According to Jozam's explanation, in the Ryuiya language, when you are hungry, a friend is someone that lets you eat something. Even though you are asking for food, someone who doesn't want to and declines can't indicate to you that that person is a true friend. If you look each other in the eyes and ask for help, that thing exactly is the relationship of friends, he said. When the american snake student heard this he (ended up) smiled (ing), -- that is wrong. He said that a friend is a person with which you have the relationship that you can frankly tell that person anything. But, even though we say that you have the relationship where all things are said frankly to each other, that does not mean that you should think that you naturally have the privilege to say "Give me something." That was how his opinion differed from Jozam's.
• 信頼 [しんらい] /reliance (vs)/trust/confidence/
• ましてや /let alone/
• 証拠 [しょうこ] /evidence/proof/
• 暗黙 [あんもく] /tacit (a-no)/implicit/
• 気付く [きづく] /to notice/to become aware of/to perceive/to realize/
• 敢えて [あえて] /dare (to do)/challenge (to do)/
• 宣言 [せんげん] /declaration (vs)/proclamation/announcement/
• 発言 [はつげん] /utterance/speech/proposal/
• 深刻 [しんこく] /serious/
• Summary: So, if we think about my case, for me the Japanese "friend" I was brought up from a young age to think that the relationship is with one whom you trust. However, it is not that one is supposed to show one's trust to the other person, let alone show request the other person to show evidence of this trust, (those things must never be done?) You are both supposed to implicitly place that trust in your heart, and more than thinking about your own situation, you are supposed to think about the other person's situation without letting them notice, that is what I was told and brought up to think the relationship of a "friend" is. For that reason, most people will probably think that if you make the sort of declarative challenge "I am your friend" in Japanese, that it really includes another deep meaning. Then we thought about this, and the three of use collected the way we use the word "friend", and respectively thought about whether there was some way we could turn to the other person and talk about the "friendship." (?)
• 各々 [おのおの] /each/every/either/respectively/

• 卑しい [いやしい] /greedy/vulgar/shabby/humble/base/mean/vile/
• 卒直 [そっちょく] /frankness (an)/candour/openheartedness/
• 土地 [とち] /plot of land/lot/soil/
• 各種 [かくしゅ] /every kind/all sorts/
• 菜食 [さいしょく] /vegetable diet/
• 様式 [ようしき] /style/form/pattern/
• 丁重 [ていちょう] /polite (an)/courteous/hospitable/
• 招待 [しょうたい] /invitation (vs)/
• 戯ける [おどける] /to jest/to joke/to play the fool/
• Summary: Then snake student said "I think Jozam doesn't particularly have a mean heart by making the declaration of friendship, it is just that he is translating directly into English or Swahili what he thinks in the Ryuiya language. For example, if he invited an old guest at the inn politely 'I found a place nearby that has really great steaks. Would you like to go together tonight? I will introduce you to it.' what do you think would happen? I wonder how disgusted a look the old man will have on his face... I knew that the snake student communicated a lot about the daily life of the different people in the area, and he often argued with the innkeeper and couldn't say what he meant well. Moreover, the innkeeper is indian and for religious reasons is completely vegetarian, and since he knows what cows mean to that sort of person, I intentionally offered this example to the snake student. When I did that, he said "That is a good idea. Next time I see that old guy I'll politely invite him to the steak house."
• 部族 [ぶぞく] /tribe/clan/house/
• 忌み [いみ] /abstinence/taboo/
• 極端 [きょくたん] /extreme (an)/extremity/
• 発する [はっする] /to fire (a gun)/to emit/to give forth/
• 発作 [ほっさ] /fit/spasm/
• 錯乱 [さくらん] /confusion/distraction/derangement/
• 陥る [おちいる] /to fall/to trap/
• 失神 [しっしん] /faint (vs)/trance/swoon/stupefaction/
• I was able to find a lot out through this one example from the snake student about these sorts of cultural differences in the meaning and usage of words that (look/are) the same. I said this in front of snake student. Then, first, we talked about how the word "snake" brings up images of "nekuneku" in someone who was raised Japanese like me, but in swahili "snake" means the same thing as the word "straight." In some tribe, even if the word "snake" is a taboo word, it will not be said to people from other tribes. If you think about it that way, in Africa it might be the same example but, as an extreme example if you are seen by selfish Japanese Ainu people, and like the reaction a professor got a long time ago when presenting and called them "imu", if you shoot off the word "snake" (tokkoni) women in the vicinity might do things like have fits, fall into confusion, and in the extreme case, go to the point of almost fainting.
• 牙 [きば] /tusk/fang/
• 体内 [たいない] /inside the body/
• 血管 [けっかん] /blood vessel/
• 何如にして [いかにして] /in what way/どうやって/
• 生理 [せいり] /physiology/menses/
• 作用 [さよう] /action/operation/effect/function/
• 障害 [しょうがい] /obstacle/
• Summary: Also, there are things that indicate that there are differences in the method of selecting the subject with respect to a specific incident. If we take the example of finding a person that died from a snake bite, there are people from some areas in Africa that will, as is normal in our world, start with a conversation about where the poison entered the body from the fangs of the snake, then talk about in what way the poison was transmitted to the blood vessels, what effect this physiologically had on the body, and what obstacles there were for this person as they approached death.
• 時刻 [じこく] /instant/time/moment/
• 特定 [とくてい] /specific/special/particular (vs)/
• 指摘 [してき] /pointing out (vs)/identification/
• 展開 [てんかい] /develop (vs)/expansion (opposite of compression)/
• 背景 [はいけい] /background/scenery/setting/circumstance/
• チグハグ /odd/disagree with each other/
• 対話 [たいわ] /interactive/interaction (vs)/conversation/dialogue/
• Summary: However, in a village in this area near Nairobi, in the case of the conversation about the dead man, you can point out lines of people that ask questions like why did the snake come specifically to this place without going to other places, or why did the poison snake come here at this time instead of at some other time, or why did the poison snake have to bite specifically this man instead of some other people. The development of these kinds of questions into the logical questions was, naturally, a consequence of the extreme influence of European culture on the city people, and differs a lot with the other kind of questions. With this as a background, within normal everyday conversations there is the possibility of there being disagreement with each other.
• 話者 [わしゃ] /narrator/speaker/
• 別個 [べっこ] /another (a-no)/different/separate/another/
• 捉える [とらえる] /to perceive/to catch sight of/to grasp/
• 発表 [はっぴょう] /announcement (vs)/publication/
• Summary: Finally, I talked to the snake student about an American anthropologist who gave an example from Nigeria's Teibu tribe in a publication of someone that heard one side of the entire conversation (? vs heard the meaning of?) that there is the chance that the person completely perceived a different meaning for the conversation completely.
• 設定 [せってい] /establishment (vs)/creation/
• 悲劇 [ひげき] /tragedy/
• Summary: There is a thing about that in Shakespeare's Hamlet. (?) In this play also, the rumor that the king (?) was bit by a snake and died is established, so it is hard for us to say that there is no relationship to the snake at all. The problem here with that concerns that play's "tragedy."
• 識る [しる] /recognize/
• 小屋 [こや] /hut/cabin/shed/(animal) pen/
• 交替 [こうたい] /alternation (vs)/change/relief/relay/shift/
• 亡霊 [ぼうれい] /ghost/the dead/departed spirits/apparition/
• そこそこ /about/only/no more than/or so/
• 反道徳 [はんどうとく] /opposite morals/
• 不正 [ふせい] /injustice/unfairness/iniquity/impropriety/ irregularity/dishonesty/illegality/
• 成行き [なりゆき] /outcome/development/course of events/progress/result/
• 常識 [じょうしき] /common sense/
• Summary: The reason that American read Hamlet to the Teibu tribe is because they do not understand writing, and do not have the custom of reading and writing. Instead, they have the custom of gathering in a small hut at night and take turns telling stories. First he explained the development of the tragedy as: "The King was killed, and his ghost appeared, then the mother (in other words, the wife of the King) had an immoral marriage to her son for about a month. Then the younger son saw the death of the king and the marriage of the mother as an injustice." But the people of the Teibu tribe were not able to understand the meaning of the play in that way. For example, in tribes like the Teibu, it is common sense that when the older brother dies, the younger brother soon marries the older brother's wife (this is called liberate marriage) and it is also moral within the society so the immoral marriage of the younger son to the mother unfortunately became moral.
• 一夫多妻 [いっぷたさい] /polygamy/
• 見本 [みほん] /sample/
• Summary: Furthermore, the Teibu society is polygamous and different from our society, the role of women is to be married, and differences in age are seen as a cultural difference, and their views on death and ghosts are unusually different from European views. For the people that finally listened to all of Hamlet, they thought that it was not a tragedy but an example of how people should lead their home moral lives, Hamlet and the lover Ophelia's behavior, even if they were of the right age, because they didn't know the way of the world, they just acted as stupid rash impulsive kids.
• 驚く [おどろく] /to be surprised/
• 基盤 [きばん] /foundation/basis/
• 信条 [しんじょう] /creed/belief/article of faith/
• 流暢 [りゅうちょう] /fluent (language skill) (an)/flowing/
• 挑戦 [ちょうせん] /challenge/defiance/
• 成り立つ [なりたつ] /to conclude/to consist of/to be practical (logical, feasible, viable)/to hold true/
• 伝達 [でんたつ] /transmission (e.g. news)/communication/delivery/
• Summary: In most modern African cities, the foundation of living is different to a surprising extent, people with different creeds gather from various different areas, those people can fluently use a language that is not their own (normall, casually, daily?), and live with the fact that they must challenge themselves every day with a lifestyle that is not their own. Then, for people that are in a situation like that, I thought that it is really a big cultural problem for them to be able to transmit the meaning of what they say. For them in everyday situations to communicate they most often open their hearts up. (?) ??? I think that even though Japan is one culture one language, it might come to have this problem. (really having a rough time with these last two sentences.)