When I teach English to the adults, I often hear these words, “I think I’ve translated properly as I studied English at Jr and Sr high schools…”. However, still you see good translation and ??? translations. Here I introduce you such a story.
Many of them actually don’t read English properly
Let’s check it with a simple example sentence.
She makes it clear once again how she feels about sexual harassment at work.
1. “She once again made it clear. Why does she feel sexual harassment at work?
If you have translated something like this, unfortunately, please review English grammar again.
The correct answer is like this.
2. “I will clarify once again how she feels about sexual harassment at work”
OK, let me explain
Don’t laugh at this translation. It is hard to draw the meaning in the English-Japanese dictionary and put it in order.
First, we need to look up the grammar “make A B = set A to B” in a dictionary. If you carefully go through the items in the dictionary at clear, you will find an example that “make it clear that … = clarify …”. When reading an English-Japanese dictionary, please read carefully to the example, and be sure to hit your mind that a translation hint will be found.
Also, do not capture once and again separately. Once again, it’s a group of idioms.
And what, when, who, which, how? You should have learned in high school English that there is a way to use it If you say, “We are not good at remembering relative pronouns and remember very well”, let’s carefully review.
It is not “it”, but pointing to the contents after “how” will be taken up several times in high-level English interpretation. It points to “how she feels about …”. In grammatical terms it is a formal object. It is not “it”.
Lastly, it is work, but it is proper to consider it as “work” “work place”.
Difficulty to study English as adults
What tends to be the learning of English by adults is the view that “Why do I see a simple book that your child can read now?” This is not good. Even in the reference book of English grammar that was frustratingly difficult at the time of junior high school and high school students, if you read it as an adult, it seems like “How easy is it!?”
Studying makes some hope
Also, when I am teaching, I often hear complaints such as “It’s awful to read the textbook again. There is no such time.” If it is extremely difficult to read a book, write an example sentence and a translation where it seems important or where you do not understand it yourself, or write it on a smartphone notepad. If you keep going a little bit every day, it will be a little bit, but you will gradually find out where and where you are connected and which words and expressions you should keep in mind.
Study English properly
Those who are going to study again will be disappointed at the continuation of “article” if they read English grammar book. Focusing on the areas that you were not good at first and reviewing them is also recommended as a way to proceed with your studies. The biggest “trouble” in English grammar is the phrase and verse. If you do not understand the difference between phrases and clauses, be sure to check again. By understanding this, you will be able to read a lot of complex sentences.
Have some excitement!!
When you study, I understand that you want to go fast. However, when looking up a word in the dictionary, it’s awkward, so please read it carefully. Instead of jumping to the first translation, you will learn the meaning of the word by knowing various meanings. This feels like a roundabout, but in my experience I think it will eventually be easy to establish in memory and a quick way to memorize words. Suddenly, it is said that you should try to find out the meaning of one word with a search mind.
Conclusion
Learning English again is not an easy task for working people. Busy people do not have time to review what they learned in junior high and high school. However, if you really want to improve your English, it is important for you to improve your English just to find out what you have not done and forgot.
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