たむなすさんの おぼえた日記 - 2022年8月26日(金)

ラジオビジネス英語
Interview 5
Peter Barakan(6) 2022年8月19日放送

今月はブロードキャスターのピーター・バラカンさんのインタビューをお送りしています。
50年近く日本に住んでいるバラカンさんに、日本がどのように変わったか、また変わらない点はどこかについて伺います。

==========

[Listening point]

1. How did electrical appliances change around 1980?
1980年頃、電化製品はどのように変わりましたか？
--They changed color from either red or white to gray.
電化製品の色が赤や白からグレーに変わりました。

2. Why does Mr. Barakan think the Japanese mentality hasn’t changed much over time?
バラカンさんは、なぜ日本人のメンタリティーは昔からあまり変わっていないと考えているのでしょうか？
--He thinks that’s partly because the education system hasn’t changed.
教育制度が変わっていないことが一因だと考えています。

==========

Shibata: So fifty years in Japan… the majority of it in broadcasting.
Through your ever deepening understanding of Japan, what changes have you seen in the minds of the Japanese people over the years?
On the contrary, what elements remain the same?

Barakan: You know, society changes so gradually that looking back over… it’s going to be 48 years this year… It’s sometimes hard to remember what changed and when.

Japan was much more Asian when I first came here in 1974.
And things changed actually quite a lot right around 1980.
I remember industrial designs suddenly seem to go through a big change.
Things which have been… I can remember when I first came here, televisions tended to be red or white plastic.
And vacuum cleaners tended to be red or white plastic.
And a lot of things either red or white plastic.
And suddenly around 1979, 1980, you got a lot of very cool-looking modernistic gray-toned either TVs or you know, other electrical appliances.
Things started to look cool, there was a whole new kind of Japanese aesthetic.

In fashion as well, you got a lot of the now iconic fashion designers started to become talked about a lot.
And then, of course the music scene changed a lot in the 1980s as well, for better and for worse from my point of view, but things did change.

I think Japan got a lot more cosmopolitan, perhaps.
People’s attitudes opened up quite a lot more.
Of course, now there’s an exponentially larger number of non-Japanese in the country compared with what it was like in the 70s.
I would go sometimes a couple of weeks working in Kanda without seeing another foreigner or without seeing another non-East Asian face anyway.
So those things have changed.

The Japanese mentality in other ways hasn’t changed that much, I think.
And that’s partly because the education system hasn’t changed.
And I guess there’s a political element to that, which probably we shouldn’t get into too much.
But I do find Japan is still… despite being probably most democratic Asian country, still very conservative in a lot of ways.
.
.==========

[単語・表現]

● aesthetic 美意識
“Aesthetic” refers to the basic rules or philosophies about art or creating things, referring to something’s beauty or artistic value.

● iconic　 伝説的な、象徴的な
An icon is someone or something that is viewed as a symbol or highly significant, worthy of respect and admiration.
“Being iconic” means that a person or a thing is or will be known throughout history.

● for better, and for worse いい意味でも悪い意味でも、良くも悪くも
Usually this phrase is “for better or for worse.”
It means in either good situations or bad ones.
However, Mr. Barakan says “the music scene changed for better AND for worse” to emphasaize that it was not an “either-or” situation.
There were good changes as well as ones he didn’t like.

● cosmopolitan 国際的な
International, worldly, or global.
A common example of a cosmopolitan area is New York City with its diverse population of people from all over the world.

● exponentially　飛躍的に
If something increases exponentially, that growth becomes more and more rapid over time.


==========

[Upgrade your questioning skills]

今回のインタビューに関連して、次のような質問を英語で言ってみましょう。

戦後、日常生活のさまざまな場面が欧米の影響を受けてきたと思いますが、それでも日本人のメンタリティはあまり変わっていないということでしょうか？
In the postwar period, I think many aspects of everyday life have been influenced by the west, but are you saying that the Japanese mentality hasn’t changed much despite that?

メンタリティが変わっていないというコメントに意外な感じがした時には、このようにその点に絞って確認することができます。
この時、なぜそう思ったのかを盛り込むといいですね。
今回の解答例では欧米の影響があったのではないかと推測しています。
“despite 〜”は”in spite of 〜”と同様に、「〜にもかかわらず」と言う時に使える便利な言い方です。

==========

[今日の言葉]

I do find Japan is still… despite being probably the most democratic Asian country, still very conservative in a lot of ways.
日本はアジアで恐らく最も民主的な国ですが、多くの点で今なお非常に保守的であると思います。

==========

[コメント]

今回は比較的聴き取りやすかったのですが、細かいところが違っていたらすみません。

昔のテレビは紅白よりも茶色（木目調）のイメージだったのですが、欧米人から見れば紅白のほうがアジアっぽい感じで印象が強かったのかも知れませんね。
外から見る日本は、中から見るのとは色々な点で違っていて、面白いと感じました。