00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
OK, this one.
This is from Jackie-sensei.
OK.
Kevin-san, Yamachan-san, thank you for always providing us with the joy of commuting.
Thank you.
Every time I hear a conversation with an English conversation teacher or a host while studying abroad, I have a strange feeling.
歌唱に関するニュアンス
Can you sing?
Can you ski?
Can you play the piano?
Oh, can you sing?
Foreign singers are much better than Japanese singers.
Generally speaking, Japanese singers have a poor image of singing.
Therefore, Japanese singers tend to distinguish between singing and not singing.
Or, is there a different nuance in the expression of 「Can you 〇〇?」 that everyone knows?
I see.
Like, do you consider singing something that you're good at?
Like, yeah.
So, they're asking you...
Well, they're not necessarily asking you if you're actually really, really good at it or not.
Do you consider yourself a good...
Like, do you enjoy singing?
That's a better way to rephrase it.
I see.
Yeah.
Do you enjoy singing and do you think you're good?
Kind of.
So, it is kind of blurry.
But like, yeah.
It's not like, is it possible that you sing or not?
It's definitely not that.
I see.
It's closer to like, do you consider yourself...
Like, do you...
Are you...
It's somewhere between, are you okay with singing and do you consider yourself a good singer?
Somewhere between that.
Between that.
Yeah.
Can you sing?
Yeah.
True.
It's a good question because it's all the same structure.
Can you ski?
Can you speak Japanese?
All those, everything.
That's right.
But...
When it comes to can you sing, the nuance kind of changes and that's a good question, good point.
True, true.
Yeah.
質問の解釈の重要性
Do you have any other, like, example like this?
Can you...
Not like, directly asking if you like...
Could be like, I don't know, maybe like, can you cook?
Do that.
Yeah, that could sometimes mean like, are you able to cook?
Are you able to like, make good dishes?
I see, I see, I see, I see.
Not just random, just you put everything in, just those ones, but you can make a dish, like, decent.
Right, right.
True, true, true, true.
That's nice.
So you have some, I guess, some of those examples, I guess.
Even if you, for example, you're abroad and you are asked, like, can you...
And someone isn't asking if you, like, literally you can do that or not.
But if you like it, or like, if you're good at...
You have to change interpretation.
That's right.
Because in Japan we only learn this, like, can you...
And that's the only interpretation we learn, and we learn it at, like, very first step, so...
Right.
It's like, kind of, big statement.
So you're going to have to rewrite that, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Right.
Okay.
Any other examples?
Can you...
Can you teach?
Can you teach?
Huh.
That's the same...
Yeah, same vibe.
Okay.
Yeah, something like that.
Something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can you play basketball?
That sort of has a nuance of, like, are you good at basketball or not?
True.
Can you play soccer?
I guess that goes for Japanese as well.
Can you play soccer?
That kind of has a nuance of, like, are you good at it or not, right?
So that's similar in Japanese.
True.
So if you start thinking like that, like, every phrase can be like that.
Like, at least, like, tiny percent you have, like...
For example, can you play the tennis?
スキルの表現とニュアンス
Well, yeah, I can play the tennis, like, with the racket, and I can, but it's, like, it's not only that.
Like, are you...
Do you like that?
Or, like, are you familiar with that?
That kind of...
An example of, like, when that's not going to work is, like, can you snap your finger?
Huh.
You know?
True.
Like, there's a clear distinction between being able to do it and not.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So in those cases, you've lost the nuance of, like, how good you are or not.
True, true, true.
Right.
So, like, if you put, like, can you...
Like, if it's more, like, not, like, sports or, like, music or, like, those, like, general things, but more, like, specified, like, can you...
Like, do this or, like, I don't know, like, specified move, specified version of anything, you usually, like, 何々できますか?
But beside that, it's not only, like, 何々できますか?
But you kind of are asked, like, are you...
Do you like it?
Kind of.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, that's something we don't know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We've...
Yeah, okay, okay.
Yeah.
Right, right, right.
What about can you speak English?
Can you speak English?
That's, like...
Do you still feel that essence?
Can you speak English?
That's, like...
When you say can you speak English, I think you're asking, like, can you speak English?
Like, are you able to communicate with English or not?
Instead of, like, how good you are.
It's more like, can we establish a communication in English because I don't speak English and we need communication happening right now.
Do you think that's possible?
Is kind of the nuance I'm getting.
Okay, okay.
Yeah.
So there's no, like, do you like it or, like...
Yeah, you're not really asking if you like it or how good...
コミュニケーションの特異性
Kind of how good you are, but, like, are you at a point where you...
Are you at a good enough point where communication can happen?
I see.
Yeah.
That's a very special example.
Okay, okay, okay.
Speaking English.
Yeah.
I see.
I guess it's clear.
Like, snap your finger.
Like, this is you can do this.
Like, this you cannot do this.
There's no middle.
It's really clear.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, football, like, swimming, singing, everything, you've got, like, very wide middle part.
That's right.
So that's why you kind of...
Those nuance kind of getting inside of those questions.
エピソードの締め
That's right, that's right, that's right.
That's a good question.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for listening, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
