Miscellanea

The "Electricity Daily" newspaper in Japan published some years ago a Glossary of Nuclear Energy. The only English you will find in this little pocket book is the title. Like those buildings in Tokyo with names featuring the word "international" 国際, an English title with no English inside is a sign of how grey and rheumatic the context of the industry is. Incidentally and to clarify, most of the "International Something" buildings in Tokyo are old buildings, and if you are an architecture buff like me, there are some real gems of kitsch to absolutely visit in business districts while they are still there. Most are disappearing.

The classification of words in this booklet following the kana rules, it is sour and ironic that the first word listed is a "borrowed" word that reads "Accident management" ... .

Where else in the world is "Interpreting" so mundane a dream concept and job for the rest of us than in Japan? Interpreting and more specialized vocabulary elsewhere appears in laymen books that cater to the national complex of quasi-genetic "incompetence at English". Being taught as Latin, a set of grammar rules, and not as a mean of communication, there is not much surprise that the massive English learning business meaning slew of ever new books to start at long last learning English for something entertains and maintains the domestic incompetence, which is not so unique to Japan by the way.

In this lucrative market of book publishing, Interpretation - the technics "taught in interpreting school applied to unlocked your frozen capacity at blurting something in English" is a niche in itself. Not only is the word "interpreting" mundane, but now comes "reproduction", nothing less. This recent cool and tamed book is just about that : quick response, shadowing & repeating, sight translation and reproduction. What a wonderful hard learning world.