Teaching is learning

My co-workers often ask me to correct their English. I always try to make the most of what they've come up with or written but it's sometimes difficult. And I find the higher the person is educated, the more it gets difficult for me to make the most of what the person gave me. Well-educated people tend to translate their Japanese sentences directly to English word by word. Which often surprises me because they create an English text full of originality! I mean, it doesn't make sense at all but it is so amazingly original that I would never be exposed to otherwise. Of course I have to re-write the whole text so that the receiver won't be confused. But I always feel sorry about that.

I respect their efforts to learn English to communicate with English speaking people. The thing is, however, I'm not a good teacher. Grammar has been my soft spot - learning Chomsky's transformational generative grammar at college was the one final push to hate it! - that I just cannot explain even simple things like the preposition or the article. I'm sort of sentient of how to speak and write English. So I get puzzled whenever they ask me why a certain order of putting words is right. To be honest, I cannot explain Japanese grammar, either, because I don't understand it at all... (>_<)

Some ask me to tell them a "cool" way to say a certain thing in English. But you must be aware that you've got to know "cool" Japanese before learning "cool" English. Uncool Japanese speakers only speak uncool English and vice versa. Language is just a tool to show your personality and character. No matter what word you choose to say, it always carries a meta-message and/or a non-verbal message based on who you are and how you feel at the exact moment you say it. If you want to be cool to impress other people, all you have to do is just staying cool all the time. That simple!

Well, I'm not interested in coolness of people and I cannot teach any cool ways of saying things because I'm absolutely UNCOOL. But there's one useful tip to translate Japanese to other languages. Which is, trying to strip what you want to say to the bones and translate the extract. Then, you will be surprised how many modifiers you usually use without knowing the real meaning of them. That certainly will open your eyes to a new perspective on your mother tongue. Trust me (^_^)b

Meantime, please do not ask me why when I help you correct your English, my friends. Otherwise, I would quit doing it for free for you guys... just kidding!