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遠田和子さんの新作タイトルが上記のように決まりました。

よしざわ　ようこさんのイラストもここで「予告編」をお楽しみ下さい！

最初のイラストは小さいけれども、本で活躍するキャラクターを紹介します。左から、会社でクライエントとの英語やりとりを担当するハルミさん、工学者で英語論文を励むケンジさん、大学生のユリさん、とユリさんを教えているボッブ先生です。

親友の遠田和子による新作英文ライティングの本が発売間際！『英語なるほどライティング』著者の次の本はグーグル検索を使った英文ライティングテクニックのご披露です。

遠田さんのキャリアの始めの頃（私もそうですが）ファックスとワープロは技術の端でした。単語調べのためにたくさんの辞書を買い集めて、ひざの上に何冊も載せて仕事をこなせたわけです。しかし、現代ではインターネットを使って、ひざを痛むことなくになんでも調べることができます。しかし、それにもやり方があります。

個人的に、私はこんなに楽にできる方法を教えてもいいのかなと思うことがありますが、遠田さんはもっと心の広い人なので、読者の皆さんは幸せです。

タイトルが決まり次第またお知らせします。

今回のイラストは遠田さんと私のもう一人の友達、版画家のよしざわようこさんが担当です。

現実的ですくに役立つ本プラス夢にあふれたイラストです。ご期待下さい！

今年の３月中におおきなプロジェクトをいくつか仕上げて、４月いっぱいはちょっとした大学授業とちょっとした翻訳業でのんびりと過ごしました。しかし、５月になったら、残されたプロジェクトをいくつか「思い出して」また昨日までダッシュでした。

「忘れた」仕事は何かというと英文和訳チェックでした。今までにやったことのない作業です。その分野はまた医学という全く慣れぞみのないものでした。若い翻訳家と仕事をするのが楽しみだったなのか、いつの間にかその立場にいたわけです。

とても難しくて、自分の能力の限界を 感じてしまった仕事でしたが、不思議なことに医学用語をある程度なれて、新しいものを身につけることができました。こんな年（どんな年？！）になってもまだまだ新しいものを学習するには遅くないなと実感しました。うれしいですね！

そんなところで、宣伝です。『英語なるほどライティング』を 一緒に書いた園田和子さんが只今新しい本を仕上げている最中です。題名はまだ聞いてないですが、Google検索をどのようにして自分の英文能力をいかに上げるかについてです。遠田さんが本のための調査を しながら、内容について一緒に話したり、聞いたりしましたが、これはまた新しいものの勉強になりました。医学用語を覚えるよりずっと楽で楽しい学習ですよ。はやく出版され、はやく学校の授業に使いたい本です。

ご期待ください！

Suzanne Kamata’s latest book is Call Me Okaasan, Adventures in Multicultural Mothering, published by Wyatte-MacKenzie Publishing and due out in May 2009. Having read her previous two books, Losing Kei, (Leapfrog Press 2008) and Love You to Pieces (also Leapfrog Press 2008), a collection of literary works on raising children with special needs, I was excited about delving into this one to find in it shared experiences and new inspiration.

Although located in Japan herself, Kamata managed to find a wide range of female writers located in Japan, Israel, Australia, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Iran, the Philippines, South Africa and Kyrgyzstan, among others. Some of the stories are about women in the US or Canada who are the product of international marriages, have an international marriage, were born and raised in another country, or who have children adopted from other countries.

About half of the stories–interestingly enough the first and last handfuls–were beautifully written, honed-down vignettes of multicultural mothering experience. They were what I was expecting and looking forward to; something simple and significant. The ones in the middle, however, were disconcertingly subjective and jumbled. At the beginning of each story in this group, the writer appeared to have a theme she meant to be writing about, but all the other details of her life got in the way by the second or third page, and at the end, the theme would be trotted out again. By then, though, I was exhausted by the other parts of her life I’d been privy to and ready to be on my way.

I wondered whether this could just be the part of my own life that I wanted to ignore and hoped to overcome. Multicultural mothering is messy and confusing! I wanted the stories to be summed up neatly and tied with a bow. I wanted to use them as a way to make sense of my own chaotic life, and instead I’d been presented with more of it on a platter. In the end, though, I believe short stories need to have a simple theme that is adhered to and expanded on. In that way, while the stories in Okaasan succeed in presenting an alarmingly accurate portrait of raising children in more than one culture, some of them lacked in literary quality.

Having said that, there were a good number of stories that I enjoyed for both content and style. Leza Lowitz in “Like the Lotus,” “Eleven Snapshots for Your Baby Book, Reconstructed in Blues” by Susannah Pabot, and “A Hundred Years at Fifteen” by Xujun Eberlein each eloquently tells the story of several generations of family, leading up to the youngest. A topic of personal interest that ran through many of the others—language—is arguably the biggest point of potential guilt and regret for parenting in a multicultural situation. The mothers here have struggled with whether to raise their children in two languages, give up the effort, or resist the temptation to do so in the first place. “Two Names for Every Beautiful Thing” by Violeta Garcia-Mendoza, “I Am Mutti” by Corey Heller, “Promises to Myself” by Devorah Lifshutz, and “So Are You American or Malaysian?” by Juli Herman all wrote about this dilemma and, much to my relief, came up with various results and conclusions, all of which were presented coherently and convincingly.

As the stories show, parenting over cultural borderlines rarely makes for a neat narrative or happily-ever-after ending. But in the abject wish for such, I choose in a totally subjective manner, my favorite character from the stories. The award goes to Connor, in “Some Olympic Wisdom for My Home Team,” by Rose Kent. Born in Korea and adopted into a family with Irish, Korean, Black and American Indian background, Connor embodies the joy and ability to embrace life and his own diversity in a way that is perhaps our most fervent hope for our multicultural children. While watching the Beijing Olympics, the thirteen-year-old exuberantly manages to find a connection between himself, real or imagined, and almost every gold medal winner. “Check this out, Mom!” he calls out “One of ours is catching up!”

1. Do you remember the first book you ever read on your own?

2. Do you remember how you felt? If not, maybe you remember how you felt seeing a child read for the first time?

3. Do you remember a book that you read again and again as a child?

4. Why that book? Have you read it again as an adult? If so, was it like you remembered?

5. Why do you read?

These are the questions proposed by Katia on her blog “Scribbly Katia.” She suggests people answer them on their blogs and to get a discussion going.

1. I don’t! Like Suzanne Kamata, I only remember Dick, Jane and Spot.

2. As far as I remember, I always loved reading. Weekly trips to the library were sacred, and we even actually BOUGHT books if we got Christmas money. My dad wouldn’t let us get up until 7 a.m.(!) and I was usually awake much earlier doing what I called “sneak reading.” I remember reading Heidi and the Five Little Peppers series, mostly during the early morning hours. Being poor, I guess I enjoyed stories about people who were even worse off–they saved their darning threads for re-use (sob!) My mom gave me a vintage edition of The Wizard of Oz, which unfortunately disintegrated in cardboard box “storage.”

3&4. Books I “read” over and over would include all the books read on Captain Kangaroo, which my siblings and I watched religiously for many long years. I also remember borrowing and reading everything I could get my hands on by Beverly Cleary. She had such a perfect notion of how children think, and her books kept me in stitches. Her character Ramona was always in trouble, but it all made sense to me. Ramona wanted to know how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom that day he managed to dig the entire foundation for a building with his famous steam shovel in Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (a Captain Kangaroo favorite). Finally! Someone to ask those questions I’d always wanted answers to.

Many years later, I found all of the Beevus and Ramona, and Henry Huggins and Ribsy books translated into Japanese, so I enjoyed them all over again with my daughters. Did Ramona make sense to them, too? Suffice it to say that we once took a trip, and after we were in the car and on our way, the two girls joyfully peeled off their clothes to reveal their pajamas–a chapter right out of the book! (Ramona hated the bother of changing her clothes in the morning, and once went to school with her school clothes over her pjs.) And weren’t they pleased with themselves!

5. Why do you breathe?

Having moaned and groaned about WaMu (see below) I would now like to say a word about an up-and-coming translation. The book will be a combination of the two above titles, English title yet to be decided. They were both written by Tadahiko Ito, who is also my latest hero. Ito worked for Sumitomo Bank for many years before being assigned president of Kansai Bank , a small local bank on the brink of closure due to the many loans it made during the “bubble” economy years to people making a living off of buying up real estate and then selling it again for a quick profit. (Sound familiar?)

Within seven years, Ito had turned the bank completely around, and it is now one of the top regional banks in Japan. As you may guess, the books tell the story of his amazing work getting the bank back up on its feet. Following the collapse of so many banks in Japan and in the US due to unstable real estate markets, you may not be surprised to hear that he completely revamped his lending process. Instead of putting the emphasis on collateral (what the bank gets if a borrower defaults on its loan), he began to take a good look at the businesses he was financing. In a nutshell, Ito saved a bank based on altruistic business practices. The idea was to save the bank, take care of the employees, take care of the customers and benefit society as a whole.

Amazing but true. Look forward to a book that lets you know how Ito succeeded and his advice on how anyone can succeed. This book isn’t The Secret and it is certainly no get-rich-quick scheme–be prepared to have your notions of “success” turned upside down!

近所の紀伊国屋に行ったら、『英語「なるほど」ライティング』はもう１冊の本と並んでありました。どう思いますか？

携帯の写真で分かりにくいでしょうが、異様に本のタイトルも色もデザインも似ています。（著者はもってのほか、出版社もちがう。） ここで態度を決めないといけない。「ぱくり！」と怒るか「Imitation is the highest form of flattery」と思って、開き直るか。どうしましょう？皆さんがどちらにしても、左の方を買ってね。よろしくお願いします！

Vertical publishing has announced Translucent Tree by Nobuko Takagi and translated by yours truly. Read an entire chapter for free!

サンフレアーキャンペーンで「英語なるほどライティング」がプレゼント中

I am a great fan of the Kenkyusha Online Dictionary, and I keep it open while I work. Not only is it less cumbersome than an enormous analog dictionary, but the accommodating people at Kenkyusha are always adding new words to it. All that and I can subscribe to it for years and still not pay as much as I would for the heavy-duty doorstop versions. Today as I was doing a small amount of uninteresting work, I was distracted by a little “newsbar” on the KOD top page that was running samples of some of their latest entries.

不思議ちゃん

I couldn’t resist. I looked it up.

ふしぎちゃん【不思議ちゃん】 (fushigichan)
	〔何を考えているのかわからない, 一風変わった少女〕 an eccentric [a strange, a spacey] girl; Little Miss Spacey.

And there was more.

こうしょへいきしょう【高所平気症】 (kshoheikish)
	《have》 no fear of heights.

The last one was great because it included so many words all lumped together. You can look them up at one time and not have to bother memorizing the bits and pieces!