ニュースで英語〜Asahi Weekly

I’m not one for watching TV, but it is a good way to learn a new language; one can almost unconsciously assimilate the grammar, phonology and syntax of a new language.

So when I came to Japan eager to enrich my vocabulary and understanding of Japanese pop culture, I bought a TV set.

But when I turned on my small screen, all I could hear were three plain words: “umai,” “oishii ” and “yawarakai”, all exclaimed with excessive enthusiasm .

These series of mantras were accentuated and made even more ridiculous by huge colored subtitles.

I tried to change the channels, but the programs were so similar I began thinking my remote control was broken. But no, there were only cooking programs! Was it because of the Japanese obsession with food?

Japanese families often eat while watching food programs. While the housewife dutifully but lovingly serves an often delicious meal, other family members sometimes pay more attention to the food presented on TV than on the food under their noses.

They’ll energetically comment “oishiso!” while almost ignoring what lies on their plates.

Once I even heard a hurt mother say to her husband and children, “You don’t appreciate my cooking.”

This reminds me why I stopped watching TV to begin with ― I prefer the warmth and complex beauty of direct human experience to its cold, simplified, virtual, small-screen counterpart.

■手が荒れる
one’s hands get rough

この洗剤を使っていたら、手が荒れてしまった

⇒My hands got rough from using this detergent.(注)get roughは皮ふが「ざらざらになる」の意味。roughenという動詞もあり、洗剤を主語にThis detergent roughened my hands.という表現もできます。「庭仕事で手が荒れた」＝My hands got rough from gardening.

■かさぶたができる
get a scab

木から落ちて右ひじにかさぶたができた

⇒I got a scab on my right elbow after I fell from a tree.(注)A scab has formed over the wound.（傷口にかさぶたができた）という表現もあります。「かさぶたがはがれる」＝a scab falls off、「かさぶたをひっかくと傷口が治らないよ」＝The cut won’t heal if you pick at the scab.

■にきびがたくさんある
have a lot of pimples

私の13歳になる息子は、顔ににきびがたくさんある

⇒My 13-year-old son has a lot of pimples on his face.(注)pimpleは「にきび、吹き出物」のこと。形容詞がpimply（にきびのできた）で、He has a pimply face.（にきびだらけの顔だ）のように使います。「にきびをつぶす」＝ squeeze pimples。「顔ににきびができた」＝Pimples broke out on my face.

■あざができる
get a bruise

ジャックはテーブルに足をぶつけてあざができた

⇒Jack got a bruise on his leg from bumping into the table.(注)bruiseは「打撲の跡」のことで、生まれつきのあざはbirthmarkです。殴られて目の周りにあざができることを、He had a black eye.と言います。He was bruised all over his body after the fight.（殴り合いをして、体中にあざができた）のように動詞用法もあります。

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DOHA, Qatar ― Developing nations and an apparent push from China led to a rejection of a proposal to ban international trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna by a margin that surprised even Japan.

The decision at a meeting on March 18 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), also known as the Washington Treaty, brought sighs of relief to fishermen, wholesalers, sushi restaurants and millions of tuna lovers in Japan.

About 80 percent of bluefin tuna caught throughout the world is supplied to Japan. Japanese officials, fearing a tuna shortage and higher prices as a result of the trade ban, furiously lobbied other countries to oppose the proposal.

“We are relieved with the results,” Japanese fisheries minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said at a news conference on March 19. “Japan now has a responsibility to take the lead in managing marine resources because we insisted (the ban was not necessary).”

The CITES meeting voted on two proposals to ban trade in Atlantic bluefin, including those caught in the Mediterranean Sea.

First, Monaco proposed a ban to list Atlantic bluefin tuna as an endangered species in Appendix 1 of the Washington Treaty. Twenty countries voted in favor of the proposal, 68 opposed and 30 abstained .

Then the EU, which favored a trade ban, revised Monaco’s proposal to delay the start of the ban until May next year. Forty-three countries favored the modified proposal, while 72 countries opposed. Fourteen abstained .

Toshio Katsukura, head of an association of bonito and tuna fishermen in Miyagi Prefecture, said a ban on Atlantic bluefin trade would have been unreasonable.

“None of us think that bluefin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean will become extinct,” he said.

Japan had doubts about its chances heading into the meeting because the EU, the United States and Switzerland supported the ban. South Korea and Australia backed Japan’s stance.

But the key might have been China, which is believed to have voted against the ban. China’s growing wealth has led to higher consumption of tuna in the country while increasing the nation’s influence around the world.

“If African countries opposed the ban, I feel that China’ s power worked,” an official of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.

Many African countries facing the Mediterranean Sea that export bluefin tuna, as well as fishing nations of Asia and Africa, opposed the ban.

Under the proposals, countries could consume the Atlantic bluefin tuna they catch but would be prohibited from exporting it. However, trade of the fish among EU members would be permitted.

That stipulation angered Libya, which sought to close deliberations and immediately vote on the proposals.

“The EU is asking developing countries not to export bluefin tuna while securing bluefin tuna fishing and trade among its member countries. I have never heard of such an unfair opinion,” a Libyan representative said.

Concerns about depleting stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna are shared internationally, but countries differ on how to protect the species.

Japan has insisted that the issue should not be discussed in the framework of the Washington Treaty but in frameworks for marine resource management, such as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas .

(The Asahi Shimbun)