今朝徒歩で銀行へいきました。アメリカ人はどこでもへ徒歩で行くことがちょっと変だ思うけど、今日いい天気でしたよ。涼しくて晴れだったよ。
この高いビル新しいです。オーステンはオースティンで一番高いビルです。きれいだと思います。小さくて古いビルも好きです。このビルはパブです。
この写真は何か変ですか。下町です。水曜日です。９時半です。人がない。変ですね。
What I meant to say
This morning I went to the bank on foot. I think it's a little strange for Americans to go anywhere on foot. But today was such a beautiful day. It was refreshingly cool (down to 76F/24C!) and the skies were perfectly clear.
The tall building (in the background) is new. When it opens (next January) it will be the tallest building in Austin. I think it's beautiful. I like the older, small buildings (in the foreground), too. These are pubs and restaurants.
Do you notice anything strange about these pictures? It's downtown. Wednesday morning. 9:30AM. And there are no people. Strange, huh?
質問とコメント
1. In America, we used to go drink at a bar. Now, we have a lot of places styled after English pubs (short for public house--to distinguish them from private clubs). They are more upscale and serve food and lots of varieties of beer, especially Irish and English beer. In the 1990s, we had a lot of "brew pubs" which brewed their own beer on site. But now that the economy is in recession, many of these have closed. These buildings used to be warehouses, but they have been converted into restaurants and pubs.
Permalink.
きれいな写真ですね。本当にみんなどこにいっちゃったんでしょうね。
A little bit of おせっかい (butting in):
I didn't have any trouble understanding your Japanese except for this part:
アメリカ人はどこでもへ徒歩で行くことがちょっと変だ思うけど
I think it would be better if adjusted this way.
アメリカ人にしてはどこでも徒歩で行くことはちょっと変だと思うけど
Oh, and 「オーステンは一番高いビルです」 sounds like "Austin is the highest building." So, it should be 「オーステンで一番高いビルです」. (By the way, you stick to 「オーステン」, not 「オースティン」, don't you? ;))
Posted by: Kiyo on November 21, 2003 11:45 AM
I'm always glad to get your comments. Is it just my imagination, but...I sense that when one native speaker of Japanese comments here, then everyone else refrains from contradicting. In contrast, on your blog, all the various English speakers around the world get into great arguments (discussions) on how they speak English in their part of the world. I love that.
Now that you mention it, I can "hear" how the way I wrote the sentence sounds like I said "Austin is the highest building". And no (in answer to the question you posed on your blog), you probably don't want to hear me try to speak Japanese. Whenever I try to talk to my teacher, she sits with a puzzled expression on her face, as she tries to guess what I might be babbling about.
Damn the katakana spelling of Austin! My online dictionary spells it the old way. My teacher spells it the new way. And I always end up with some hybrid spelling because I can't remember which is which. Maybe I should write it on a post-it note and pin it to my computer.
Posted by: M Sinclair Stevens on November 21, 2003 12:02 PM
As always, there could be several versions of Japanese translation for any English sentence.
I think Kiyo-san's is an excellent translation of:
I think it's a little strange for Americans to go anywhere on foot.
Another version could be:
どこへ行（い)くにしてもアメリカ人（じん)が
歩（ある）いていくor
徒歩（とほ）で行（い）く
（という）のはちょっと変（か）わっていると（は）おもいます．
or
どこかへ行くのに
アメリカ人がor
アメリカ人として
徒歩で行くのはちょっと変わっていると（は）おもいます
But today was such a beautiful day.
でも今日（きょう）は
とてもいい天気（てんき）or
とてもいい日和（ひより）
でした．
It was refreshingly cool
すかっとさわやかでしたor
すかっとするような涼（すず）しさでした
Posted by: s naka on December 4, 2003 09:27 PM
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