英語検定ライティング準１級（第131回）

課題「異文化理解は東南アジアだという話」

職場で高校生と話していたら、宿題が大変なんだと。日本語でいいのだが、文化の違いについて思うところを書けと。具体例を含めて400文字ということで、代筆することにしたわけだ。
A few hours ago, I was talking one of my student in my workplace, and he said that this assignment was tough and challenging for him, so I helped him with it.
The theme was that he must write an essay about cultural differences between Japan and another nation, including several experiences of his with 400 letters.
He didn’t asked me to help him, but I wanted to help him because I would become useful for my student.

文化の違いなら、インドなんかいいよなあとか思いながら、彼はアメリカ文化をすでに心に決めていたらしく、しかし全く構想はないと。というわけで代筆した内容は以下になってます。
When it comes to cultural differences, what hit on me first was the subject about India because those traveling there should return to their mother country with a different outlook on life.
But he wanted to write the difference between America and Japan, but he couldn’t have any structures about the theme, which is inevitable for a high school student.
Considering this, I wrote about it in Japanese in five minutes instead of him like the following.

日本社会は縦社会と呼ばれる。目下の者は目上の者を尊敬しなくてはならない。クラブ活動において１歳しか年齢が変わらないのに先輩に対して丁寧な言葉使いをしなくてはならない。納得できない指示を出す先輩に抵抗してはいけない。理不尽な命令にも背いてはいけない。楽天の安楽投手がパワハラで球団を解雇されたのは、その悪しき習慣をプロ野球の世界に持ち込んだからである。集合写真を撮影する際に、背後から足で蹴ったりする動画も流出しているので証拠もある。尊敬を強要する縦社会に全くメリットがないわけではない。しかし尊敬される要素のない人間にも尊敬の念を見せなくてはならない。それが表向きだったとしてもだ。しかしその感覚は差別を助長する。
A vertical society stands for Japan’s characteristics, where subordinates must respect their supervisors without any conditions : we must talk to them in polite way while they are only one year seniors, we mustn’t resist their unreasonable indication, we mustn’t oppose their unpersuasive order and so on.
Last year, a certain pitcher of Rakuten Eagles was dismissed for his disgusting power harassment because he brought such a vicious tradition into the professional baseball business world.
We could watch the decisive evidence where he kicked another player’s back with his dirty right foot, which has been left in the archives.
There are a few advantages in the old vertical society, which might prevent our society from being a disorder one, but we might see several supervisors whom we mustn’t respect absolutely without fail, but we must pretend to be an obedient younger brother.
However, such an atmosphere like this never fails to make negative contributions to Japan, we agree.

その反対にアメリカ社会は横社会と呼ばれる。尊敬は重要ではない。親密さ、つまりフレンドリーが重要視される。初めて出会った時に、握手ではなく肩を引き寄せられてハグをするような雰囲気に違和感を感じた。しかしアメリカ文化に慣れていくうちに、尊敬よりも親密さの方がしっくりくると思うようになった。アメリカ人の友人との間には縦の関係はない。一緒にいてとても安心感がある。何かに怯える必要もない。だが親しき中にも礼儀はある。お互いが親切にするのも、年齢が上だとか、これは仕事だからとか、そういう感覚はない。この地球上に生きる同じ人類だから、困っている時でも自然に助け船を出すことができる。
On the other hand, a horizontal society stands for America’s characteristics : even supervisors fail to request “respect” from their subordinates because such an attitude isn’t emphasized in their culture.
What matters in their culture is a close relationship, in other words, “friendliness,” for example, they tried to do physical contacts with me even when we encountered each other for the first time, the behavior of whom was strange to me at first, but I became accustomed to such a cultural tradition little by little.
My head is filled with the sense that “friendliness” outweighs “respect for a senior,” which is so absurd and meaningless that this unpleasant tradition should vanish from our globe, which is my absolute belief.
There isn’t a hierarchy between an American friend of mine and me, and we feel secure about our company, where nothing uncomfortable exists, but there is a “politeness” between our close relationships.
We could be kind toward one another without the sense that he is a senior, this is my duty and so on.
We could help each other because we are the same being living on the same planet.

どの文化圏にも良い伝統はある。そして逆も同じだ。悪い伝統は消滅した方が良い。例えば、自民党の裏金問題とか。
All the cultures have brilliant traditions, and vice versa.
However, the uncomfortable conventions should disappear from our precious earth : LDP’s “secret money” could be a critical negative heritage, we agree.