Suddenly NHK

午後、ケーブル放送のセットトップ・ボックスの交換があった。何で交換せんといかんのか、「交換に来た」と言われただけで、さっぱり理由はわからんが、ＮＨＫの国際放送が見られるのではないかという予感がした。そのとおりだった。しかし、ニュース/報道番組以外に見るもの多くなし。「天才てれびくん」見ても、しゃあないやん。もっと海外在留邦人が喜びそうな番組があるんとちゃうん？ただ、今日は「デジスタ」表彰番組があって、２年前はホーチミンでこれを見てたなと思い出し、少々感慨があった。

My Place Smaller or My Mind Narrower, Or Both?

I’m finding my place is becoming smaller and smaller. Often I have trouble to find where to be which makes me want to stay home. I mean that I have great difficulty to find like-minded people toward learning. Learning anything that is an intellectual stimulus in a slight sense is a life-long matter. In my case, one of such things is language. One has so many things to learn even with his first language. Or is this something particular about my first language and how I have learned it? And so many more when it comes to his non-first languages. Language learning lasts forever. Unlike learning how to bike, it never ends.
For this reason and because I know the pleasure to be had for communicating in a new language only verbally but also understating written words of it, I said “I don’t wanna quit now” when about a month ago someone saw me review some points of Russian. She then said, “Why?” I wondered what kind of question that was. The same person saw me do the same yesterday and asked, “Still learning?” Oh no… It seems so easy to be content for her about language. In this country, many people seem to believe they are competent, say, with English. But in many cases, their English doesn’t sound like English (keys are all wrong) and sometimes, even often, they ignore the established grammatical rules. I believe that they are in the same position as me as for many of them English is not the primary language spoken at home.
My view is reinforced when I see people who say they wanna learn Japanese. Many of them I’ve met say they don’t need the alphabet. Do they not see the shape of each basic letter interesting? Do they not wanna learn how each letter is pronounced and how they are combined to make words? From my experience with English, I don’t consider them seriously interested in learning the language. Not only making my place smaller, am I narrowing my mind thinking this way?

*

I bought yet another книжный шкаф and arranged it to be delivered on Thursday. I’ve been noticing that some of the shelves are bending because of the weight, just like when I was staying at Kim Tian.

“Москва Слезам Не Верит”

Yesterday, a package arrived from Amazon.com: a CD, a 3-CD set and a film DVD. I watched the movie, “Москва Слезам Не Верит” twice. I managed to understand some simple phrases…

Still "Central Over Pacific"

土曜日にパリーグ公式戦が開幕した。観客動員のためにセリーグとの同時開幕をやめてから久しい。しかし、世の中まだまだ「セ・パ」の順番のようで、あるスポーツ紙のウェブページではパリーグ開幕戦の結果の上にセリーグ・オープン戦の結果が表示されていた。

服装がどうとか、髪型がどうとかとうるさい日本プロ野球への関心は急降下進行中。ノムラさんは現場からいなくなったが、名誉監督に正式就任された。おかしいのは契約期間が３年と決まっていること。名誉教授なら生涯だろう。プロ野球だって、長嶋茂雄の例がある。３年後の契約更新交渉が楽しみだ。今年は来月４日に開幕するＭＬＢをしっかり見たい。

Another Disagreeable Character

Another disagreeable character is of those who love to project themselves far larger than they really are. The collapse of the intention is for many people to see, I guess. But they don’t seem to realize it making the character all the more pathetic. Though there is no reason why one has to belittle himself, when the opposite tendency is very much obvious, the credibility of the person evaporates quickly.

My New Neighbors

最近、隣に宿替えしてきた老年に差し掛かっているような夫婦と見られる人たちの生活音が気になる。バタバタを足音が聞こえる。上階からならわかるけど、隣からとは。どんな歩き方をしてるんか。それから、「コケコッコー」は朝６時に鳴り響く彼らの目覚まし時計だった。加えてけさは、「コケコッコー」の後に、リンリンリンと先日に続いて（昨日だったか）やかましい鈴の音。ガマンならず、うちのドアを開けた。おばちゃんが廊下に立っていたので、「Can’t you stop the noise?」と言うと、「Noise? He is trying to unlock the door」と。そんなこと聞いてるんとちゃうねん。その鈴リンリンリンを止めてとお願いしてるねん。で、ドアって、あんたとことうちとこと部屋の作りに変わりないはず。うちには入口のドアしかないけど……。タンスのドアのことかいな？それになんでそんな時間にやってんねん。はよ、鍵屋を呼んだらどないですか。 明け方、久しく使ってなかった耳栓をしてしっかり眠ろうとしたけど、さんざんな睡眠やった。何にもやる気がおこらんかった。

Rain Is Heavier Than a Decent Meal

I was determined quite strongly today not to work and to have a decent meal for dinner. I succeeded brilliantly in the former, but rain discouraged me to go out.

*

Christiane Amanpour moves to ABC News at the end of August.

Too Tired Even for Водка

Late afternoon, I delivered the last file of the work that I had been working on for the past week. I have no idea as to who is going to use these school-education curriculum guidelines for the handicapped…

*

I went out thinking about having dinner and some пиво и водка, but feeling tired, I change my mind and came back home after eating a Korean dish, and buying a pair of slippers, some food stuff and three cans of beer. I also thought about taking a seat at кафе for reviewing some русскии словарь. I didn’t do so either. Instead on bus, I did review some and I found myself stupid.

*

福島瑞穂さん、どうやら人格の分裂か多重人格のようですね。民主党から誘われたんだろうけど、連立１与党の党首になってしまって、現実の場が厳しいことを痛烈にお感じになっていることでしょう。先日の参院予算委員会で「自衛隊は合憲なんですよね」の質問に、「閣僚としては答えられません」から「そうです」まで、さんざん時間をかけ、結局「合憲」という言葉は一度も口にしませんでした。心中お察し申し上げます。

How Lucky It Is to be a Hatoyama

自民党を離党した鳩山邦夫元総務相に対して、共産党の穀田国対委員長が「何回離党されましたか。ずいぶん数えきれないほどあったと思う」（産経電子版）。自分も全くそのように思っていたところ。自由に行動できますね、失業してもカネに心配ない人は。いつかわからんが、自民党が党勢を盛り返すことがあれば、きっと復党するでしょう。今、「鳩山ブランド」は評判が悪い。ただ、しばらく前に偶然見たＮＨＫの討論番組での穀田さんは、ストライプの上着にストライプのシャツにストライプのネクタイで、かなり異様だった。

*

連日、長時間の仕事（読・想・打字）で脳内が酸欠状態になりかかっているようだ。さっき、近所の店でビール代を払っている時、頭の中が揺れた。毎日、しっかりロシア語の復習をしようと思っているのに、10日以降は全くやっていない。余裕がない。昨日まで3日間、仕事を終えてやったのは、落語ＤＶＤを見ること。それはそれで有意義だが、本当は優先上位にはない。

Another Inquiry and No Day-off for a Few Weeks

An inquiry came in from Japan this afternoon about a familiar topic. It is not possible to start it now as I’m going through another volume that is rather large. I hope the client understands the situation. It is always nice to receive an inquiry and even nicer if it is confirmed. But then I haven’t had a day off for almost three weeks. Io can’t say No so casually as heavy rain and snow can come at any time. These days I feel guilty and insufficient not to review the lessons of Russian, especially when the next class is not firmly scheduled and this is a very good time to review and fix it.

Cock-a-doodle-doo from Upstairs

日本の学習指導に関する資料（数学）で、次のような記述を見つけた。
「金銭や時計・暦などの正しい使い方がわかる」
「生活に必要な金銭や時計・暦などを工夫して使う」
「や時計・暦など」を省いた内容にすると、年齢にかかわらず「正しい使い方」がわかってなかったり、「工夫して使う」ことのできない人はそれほどめずらしくない。

*

For the past several days, vivid dreams come almost every night, or early morning. Seeing them, I thought, “Well, I should write it down now.” Without bothering to get out of bed to do so, however, most parts of those dreams disappeared from memory.

*

And several mornings ago, I heard cock-a-doodle-doo. I was deceived by it that made me think that a live chicken was around in this neighborhood, a very unlikely, if not impossible, prospect. This morning, I heard it again. It was from the unit upstairs. Apparently their alarm clock.

Willy Davis

昨日、朝日、毎日（ともに電子版）にウィリー・デービス（元中日、クラウンライター）の訃報を見つけた。69歳だった。「ロサンゼルス郊外の自宅で遺体で見つかった」という。息子を「Shonin」と名付けたほどの人だから掲載されたのだろうか。そうだとしたら、マスコミへの「そうか」の浸透度のすごさゆえだろう。

Fuck Translation Memory Software

10 Март (среда) 2010
Translation memory software certainly and definitely changes my way of work, adversely. I’ve used only one of them, but I say that it is not a tool for reading and writing/translating. It is only for creating a database for future references. As it impedes my processing of information, naturally the resultant should not be satisfactory, as far as I’m concerned. A problem is that working on whatever that is prepared by this program, it is quite difficult for me to notice how unsatisfactory my work may be because it divides all into individual sentences, which is not the way to process written information. Though the program allows multiple sentences to be connected, I wonder why I have to connect them in the first place by the operation of keys. It is still a pathetically very different thing when I work with it that separates me from a natural flow of reading. Ok, you provide me the original document. And you may say before complaining I should refer to it. What you don’t understand is that it takes me doubly long to complete my work that way. Anyone who designed the product doesn’t seem to have any sense of how the reading process works in the mind. Guys, read more, then you understand.

Is This Some Kind of Friendship??? & Виктор Имантович Алкснис

It seems something I cannot agree to is happening to me. And I’m hoping I’m wrong. I FEEL one of my friends (“P”) has been behaving in a way that I never expected or wished. It may just be the way he speaks in Japanese. But beyond language, the behavior is strange to me, to say the least. Some weeks ago, he “couldn’t wait” for me while I was meeting another friend at a restaurant though he was there too. There was no reason why he had to “wait” for me when there was no secret talk to do between him and me and I didn’t understand why P didn’t join us at our table. I believe that I invited him to join.
A similar thing took place last night. I accidentally learned P was at the same bar through a common friend. I was drinking with three friends. We didn’t arrange any meeting. Nor was the gathering planned. We just came one by one. P was at another table and never joined us though my friends should be familiar faces to him. Then when our moderate boozing session was over and I remained at the table as the last one preparing to leave, P came over to “go home together.” Well, the direction from the bar to our places is the same. Therefore it is economical to ride a same taxi. And P also told me that he came to the bar because “It was Friday when I met last you. And I thought you would come again.” It seems very strongly that he is trying to be ALONE with me. That is so when there is not any kind of reason to be TOGETHER ALONE. He could say straight like “want to join me at such and such place?” A different kind of friendship or something else? I’m truly hoping I’m wrong thinking this way.

*

佐藤優の著作で「黒い大佐」として描かれているラトビア出身のビクトル・アルクスニス空軍大佐が、TIME誌にも登場している。1990年12月31日号の“Broadside from the Right”だ。
“One of the loudest reactionaries in parliament, Air Force Colonel Viktor Alksnis has called for the abolition of the presidency and formation of a National Salvation Committee to restore order.” “Alksnis is a leader of Soyuz, as is a follow colonel named Nikolai Petrushenko: Shevardnadze contemptuously described the pair as “boys… with colonel’s shoulder stripes” (both are in their 40s; Shevardnadze is 62). They have talked wildly of such things as an alleged CIA plot to unite national-front movements from the Black to Baltic Seas into a single anti-Soviet confederation. Soyuz claimed credit for Gorbachev’s sacking of the country’s liberal Interior Minister last month, and brazenly announced that the Foreign Minister was next on its hit list.”

Rare "Family" Event and Disagreeable Personalities

Thanks to my friends for letting me experience a family atmosphere last night. It was very nice.

*

In the meantime, I have to say that I have recently encountered, disagreeable personalities. One is that can only see materials, objects and more than anything else money. If something does not create money, it must be judged worthless. It is a raw power of money he displays seemingly happily. There is nothing here that even suggests a semblance of culture.
Another is a personality that is so narrowly set that it seems unable to go beyond in terms of gestation and tolerance of pain. It was, may I say, a sight that astounding to me. I am not talking about eating snake meat or live insects. And I am not talking about cutting one’s own limbs. I may be wrong, but any grownup, young and old, sometimes endeavors to try something unfamiliar especially if that is almost universally considered harmless and even tasty.
I am getting tired of these people.

*

Strobe Talbott, later to be a Clinton aide, writes in TIME’s “Man of Decade” issue of January 1, 1990, “[the Soviet] system is such an abomination against basic human aspirations, against human nature…” Was that really so? To me, it seems that there were people who were aspiring to be very human, good human beings against human nature that often drives us to the course of greediness. It is only that the Soviet system was ahead of human spiritual evolution.