大学入試「自由英作文」問題の深淵3.1.1
カタカナ語の深淵
カタカナ語は外来語‥‥という印象がもたれています。もとになっている外国語の単語と同義なのだろうという連想も働きやすいものです。
たしかに「ストレス」は英語でも stress で、この両者は（ちょっと使い方は違うものの）少なくとも「類義」とは言えると思います。しかし、外来語ではないカタカタ語もあります。
ハイテンション
真面目にやっても ストレス溜まるだけ
遊んで ただはしゃいで 明日はズル休み
WOW…もっと楽しみましょう
踊れ!
この歌で、AKB48の女の子たちは「間違い英語 関係ねえ」と歌いますが、私は「ハイテンション」は「間違い英語」ではないと思います。
「ハイテンション」は英語とは無縁の、純粋の日本語（秋元語？）です。日常的な日本語で《高揚した状態》《やる気に満ちた状態》を指すことばが他にあるでしょうか？ （もしかすると、あるかもしれないですけど‥‥。）
英語の high tension は全く別のもので、《ロープなどがピンと張っている物理的状態》のことです。これが心理的転用を受けて high-tension jobs（高い緊張の継続を強いられる仕事）のように使うことがあります。
グローバリゼーション
これとよく似た現象ですが、日本では駅の表示が多国語表示になるだけのことを「グローバリゼーション」と呼んだりすることがあります。「教育のグローバル化」といった謎の言葉も飛び交うようになりました。
英語の globalization は基本的に、経済が地球規模の単一体になっていく現象のことです。国や地域で独自の規格をもつのではなく画一化が行われます。市場に様々な国の企業が参入する市場開放や、移民・難民を含めて様々な背景をもつ人がともに働く労働環境への変化などがその中心です。国境を越えて安い労働力を探す資本は競争を加速させ、モノも労働力の低価格化が進み、一方で、廃棄物の増加や環境破壊が加速しています。また人的交流が活発化した副産物としてパンデミックが生じやすくなっています。
さて、ここで問題です。
問題４
Do you believe globalization is good for the world?
Provide your own explanations and reasons to support your decision. Your response should be 100 to 120 words.
白黒つけるのがなじまない社会問題
このような社会問題は問題３と同じで、白黒をはっきり言うことは難しいものです。指定語数にもよりますが、
〇〇の観点からはそう思うが、△△の観点からはそうでもない。
というように、賛否両論からアプローチするのがいいでしょう。
計画性が大切
是か非か、いずれかの内容について、まとまったことをひとつ書こうと思うと50〜70語は必要になります。もし80語くらいの指定語数なら、一方は割愛することになります。「是」か「非」かいずれかしか展開できないような語数が条件として課されているのですから、本来は答案を次のように始めた方がいいです。
In terms of sustainability, globalization has drawbacks not to be ignored. However, I’d like to discuss the benefits here. ………(19 words)
たとえば「是」を展開してやろうと始めたものの、論点整理もせずに悪あがきしているうちに残りがあと20語くらいになってしまったら、仕方がありませんからこう書いて締めくくるしかないでしょう。
……… However, unlimited globalization is by definition impossible. I’d like to discuss the drawbacks of globalization, but there’s no space left for it. (22 words)
もちろん、これは答案を未完成にしないための苦肉の策です。この２つを見比べると同じことを書いていても、全く印象が異なるのがわかると思います。できれば、このような結語を書かないで済むように答案の設計図をしっかり立ててから書き出すようにしたいものですね。
さて、今回は100語以上の語数が用意されていますから、両論併記で行くべきです。
英文を読んで材料の仕込み
例によって、まずは英文を読んでみましょう。少し長いですが、その分しっかりと経済用語の使い方が身につくと思います。
Globalization is a process wherein organizations or businesses build influence internationally or start their operation in various locations worldwide.
Globalization can mean the merging of national economies through technology, migration of labor force, the flow of capital, investment, and trade.
Globalization can also mean the dissemination of technology, values, and practices that have a worldwide impact on many people’s lives.
Globalization can be a process that is driven by different needs and purposes. It increases the flow and exchange of culture, information, people, money, services, and goods across geographical borders.
次はプラスの側面について
Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, an economist, said globalization brought economic benefits to many developing countries and provided cultural and scientific enrichment worldwide. The United Nations predicted that poverty could potentially be eradicated by globalization and global trade.
Globalization has many benefits, and some of the more important ones include:
■ Globalization comprises the integration of cultures, information technology, investment, and international trade.
■ Corporations acquire a competitive advantage through globalization. It helps them lower their costs of operation.
■ Governments worldwide incorporate free-market economic systems due to foreign trade agreements and their economic policies.
■ Globalization has increased awareness among global consumers of different opportunities for investment, economic trends, and new products.
■ Socially, globalization provides populations around the world with better interconnectedness. Culturally, it promotes the increase in the exchange of values and ideas.
■ Globalization enables developing countries to draw level to industrialized countries via economic growth and expansion, diversification, and manufacturing.
■ It gives the outsourcing industries a big boost, bringing technology and more jobs to other countries.
■ It encourages many companies to specialize, increase their capital, improve their research and development efforts, and help them innovate.
■ It provides more employment opportunities, especially in the export and import sectors.
■ The household income gains an increase through globalization. It reduces inflation rates and increases workers’ take-home pay because the cost of consumption is lower.
■ Globalization allows many goods to be more affordable and available to more parts of the world.
■ It helps improve productivity, cut back gender wage discrimination, give more opportunities to women and improve working conditions and quality of management, especially in developing countries.
次はマイナス面です。
Joseph Stiglitz and Chang Ha-Joon, both economists from Columbia University and the University of Cambridge, respectively, think globalization causes inequality. In 2007, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that foreign capital investment in other countries and introducing new technology might have brought about inequality levels.
Some developed countries like France, for example, do not trust globalization. They believe that globalization makes employers take jobs away from them and move them to overseas locations where labor costs are cheaper.
Here are more disadvantages:
■ Globalization is a threat to national and local economies. Global companies coming into emerging and developing nations have the tendency to impose their ways, practices, and culture onto the target nations.
■ It can lead to the implementation of foreign concepts and ideas. In countries where Islamic culture dominates and other countries with different practices and beliefs, imposing Western culture and ideas could be detrimental. In some cases, it can lead to the question of national identity.
■ Although globalization exposes other languages to more people, it can also cause some minority languages to disappear.
■ Automation and technological advancements displaced workers, leaving them unemployed.
■ As more cities, communities, and countries become industrialized due to globalization, it also brought about the loss of biodiversity, growth of the local population, and climate change.
■ Free trade poses more significant risks to small, family-owned, and private companies competing in the global market.
■ They have to face stiff competition from companies with huge resources.
最後にglobalization の将来像について
Current forecasts indicate that international flows will start growing again as the COVID-19 pandemic comes under control. Although 2020 has been a low point for many globalization metrics, leaders are finding clues about the future of globalization and actionable implications for their companies by focusing on a few key drivers. These include:
■ Global growth patterns – International flows tend to swing dramatically with macroeconomic cycles. Real growth can only be restored once the pandemic is fully brought under control.
■ Supply chain policies – Shifting approaches can reshape trade, but the focus now falls on redundancy versus reshoring.
■ Superpower frictions and fragility – Before the pandemic, this driver already destabilized international business. But COVID-19 added a few fresh layers of complexity. There has been a vast extension of state power that drove the need for ideological competition. This could possibly shape a more regionalized world, but nothing is set in stone yet.
■ Technological shifts – The adoption of e-commerce, videoconferencing, and the use of A.I. have all been supercharged by COVID-19. Before the pandemic, most leaders focused on how tech could reduce global flows.
■ But now, organizations are considering how tech trends can change their standing vis-à-vis their competitors, customers, suppliers, etc.
■ Public opinion – The public’s opinion on globalization might be negatively impacted due to the pandemic scaling back the strong support for trade and immigration. International travel, for the most part, accelerates the spread of infectious diseases, and economic stress could boost calls for trade protectionism.
■ The pandemic is a “bend but won’t break” crisis for globalization, but it will continue to present business opportunities and challenges. Attention needs to be paid to the drivers of globalization’s future so organizations can navigate through and even profit from the turbulence.
■ In a world of partially connected national economies, the possibilities for expanding global strategies are more abundant now, albeit complicated. By harnessing the best of the world’s capabilities to end the pandemic and bolster recovery, now is the best time for global corporations to show their value to the world.
お疲れさまでした。
では、globalization は是か否か、自分なりの咀嚼と自分なりのことばで解答を書いてみてください。（解説は次回）