Editorial
Guaranteed
satisfaction - where did a deep impression dissapear?
Poems
Lonely Humanity
Veteran
Guitar
inner child
Cactus I / II
Multilingual Page - English
Interview with Mr Robbie Petterson
Interviews with learners of
English as a second language
Film Review
Are dinosaurs getting
too old for Hollywood? - Jurassic Park III
Novels
Adonis Blue (3)
Guest Writers' Corner
Story of Strawberries:
Bedtime Story for My Sister
Yume Hatakeyama (Japan): I can't use different phrases to say the same meaning. I always use the same phrase. Itíll be cool if I can use various sentences like natives... Oh, and itís difficult to answer jokes in English.
Even if I tell a joke and natives make comments on that, I canít say anything. And when natives say something funny I can't say anything either. In other words I can play the role of neither "boke" (play the fool) nor "tsukkomi" (give a retort or "thrust" a response), ha ha ha...
Hiroko Khotaki (Japan): When I started to learn English it sounded like BGM. I was listening to a Kiwi friend, saying "ah-ha, ah-ha", without realising that she had asked me questions! (laugh)
Interpretation is difficult. When Japanese visitors come and I am to translate Japanese into English, and English into Japanese, I often have a hard time. These two languages don't have exact equivalents. Simultaneous interpretation must be extremely difficult.
What else...? Oh, I had no idea about slang and idioms when I first came
to New Zealand. Also trivial things around me at houses are difficult to
learn. I knew a "chair" or "table", but to mention other things, say, bloom,
I had to explain it with gestures. For example, I was told to "put the
jug on", but I was at a loss like "huh?"
Giannie Stichbury (Taiwan): I think it's grammar. I came to New Zealand when I was 10, so I didn't have a chance to learn grammar. What kind of problems in grammar? Perhaps prepositions. And when I write sentences I tend to make them too long.
Shahriyar Jafarov (Azerbaijan): In my case, when I could not communicate with native English speakers well, it was because more like cultural differences. I think languages reflect cultures as well. Basically English is a Western language, right? So it reflects Western culture, which applies to capitalism. I grew up in socialism, so when I talk to native English speakers from Western background, I feel that some people - of course not everyone - classify me as inferior. They think that they are right and Iím wrong. I suppose this kind of attitude and background strongly affect their English. So I sometimes find it hard to communicate with them.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Interviewer: Itsuka, Melange editor from Writersí Group The 8th Continent