Asahi Press’s Dictionary of Japanese–American Colloquial Expressions and Me

English translation

AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.

Originally published: 2021-01-18

This is material published on the Japanese website. Dates and notices describe circumstances at the time of its original publication.

Asahi Press's Dictionary of Japanese–American Colloquial Expressions and Me

Seishu Hamano

A Work to Be Proud Of

At any rate, this is a book from which one can learn English. Colloquial language is a means of communication used frequently in everyday life; the more of it one knows, the more useful it becomes. Even knowing that, Japan could scarcely be at a greater disadvantage. Its territory lies in a corner of Asia far from Europe and America, and we never become familiar with the colloquial expressions that one ought to acquire naturally simply by living as a foreigner in the United States. It is sad, painful, and a source of endless feelings of inferiority.

In my own case, my father often invited many members of the occupation forces to dance parties at our home when I was a child. Colloquial expressions flew back and forth, and they proved useful, leading to the work I do today. Apart from my high-school years learning at a church visited by foreign teachers, and exchanges in a steakhouse with GIs living outside the base, however, it was a continual struggle until I went to America. That is why this book is a work to be proud of. Buy it, keep it in your bag every day, and do not limit yourself to an hour: whenever you have time, say the expressions aloud and learn them.

Choosing the Right Expression Matters

One can improve, with a little ingenuity, at writing an academic paper in English without recourse to Japanese. Colloquial usage is another matter. Eventually I threw myself into the ACLS competition, a test exclusively for university teachers said to be harder than the Fulbright, and was selected at the top. It took me to a visiting professorship at the State University of New York. But the English I spoke there was terribly polite and refined, always in the proper register. Expressions using the subjunctive, such as Would and could, were commonplace. Lunch conversation should normally be relaxed, but when people call you Professor Hamano all the time, you find yourself confined to speaking only proper English. You avoid expressions such as Wanna, and even avoid get in touch with in favor of make contact with. That was how adult society worked.

So I suppose I was solemnly speaking English equivalent to saying in Japanese, 'Our esteemed goldfish is most energetically engaged in swimming.' That is what being a foreigner is like.

The Books I Have Written about Learning English

I published a three-book set with Kenkyusha called the 'Passing-Grade Series,' covering vocabulary, idioms and English grammar, and the vocabulary book was a million-seller. The books intertwined memories of debates at the State University of New York and of a fierce argument on the telephone with a lawyer-in-training over whether or not to sell a car, followed by a trip downtown through heavy snow to settle the matter and have a long conversation. I will never forget that it was at almost the same time that I was teaching postmodern American literature to graduate students at the State University of New York at Buffalo. I interviewed more writers than I could list—Malamud, Barthelme, Fiedler, Brautigan, Vonnegut…—and serialized the interviews in their original language in Kenkyusha's 『英語青年』, as well as publishing in Chuo Koron's monthly literary magazine 『海』. Even I marvel at it, but that was my life in English. Did I use a great deal of colloquial language? Not so much.

Using This Book to Learn

Use the Dictionary of Japanese–American Colloquial Expressions as a textbook, not as a dictionary.

Let me teach you how. Do everything in Q&A form, aloud. It will not do to sit and think slowly: say the English without a pause until you can answer within 0.1 seconds. Speak loudly. Mumbling under your breath will get you nowhere. It is not enough to work only through the headwords. There are plenty of example sentences, are there not? Read the Japanese first, then make the English yourself, aloud. I thoroughly trained my students in this instant spoken Q&A method when I taught part-time at Hitotsubashi and Waseda. I took students who had done nothing but study for entrance examinations and made them capable of interpreting in just one year. Surely you can do that much.

Use It with the Time, Place and Occasion in Mind

To the authors and everyone in the editorial department: thank you for your hard work. It may be unfair to associate the completion of this book with my own long yet short life, but in America I brought the undefeated spirit of postwar Japan to a fierce argument with a man who had served in the Korean War, and beat him in debate. This book contains plenty of the expressions I used for that sort of thing, so be mindful of the time, place and occasion when you use them. Tonight I feel like having a drink.

Visiting Professor, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies