Relative pronoun's obsession

The professor said that relative pronouns are the most grammatical difficulty, which was left over behind the conquest for second language learners, and I totally agreed with that. Especially for Japanese, the style of modification in English is distinct from what Japanese normally construct the sentences.

We manage this long sentence: “the beautiful woman who lives in Japan” in Japanese as well. But if the sentence goes this long: “the beautiful woman who had dinner with me yesterday lives in Japan”, that would be hard to memorize about what was supposed to modify at the very beginning. I am not a grammarian, but something is significantly different from English on this point.

Many people, however, do not remember the differences between “which” and “,which”.

The book I learned today about the chapter of relative clauses says that the latter (with comma) gives us extra information about the person or thing, which means you already know which thing or person signify the “which”.

The example, “the beautiful woman who had dinner with me yesterday” does not tell who she is without the relative clauses because there are thousands of beautiful woman (including myself, perhaps) in the world. This is why we connect the clause with “who”.

If the sentence is as “She is Jane’s sister, who had dinner with me yesterday,” Jane’s sister is already identified as the woman whom you know in the sentence before at the relative clause. Then the following sentence after the relative pronoun “who” takes a role of extra information.

Both two are confusing, for it favors the grammar test. I sometimes forget “that” is not allowed to use in this case. After today, I will banish those mistakes from my writing forever.

June wedding

I have been struggling with old literary expressions in a novel these couple of days. Especially the killer is adjectives. “Shiny” turns to be glistering, resplendent, dizzily, burnishing and more. Each of them may not differ much, but they are different. It is true headache, but I need to keep doing until it ends. I cannot abandon it since this novel is going to be my graduation thesis anyway. The author concealed humongous theme behind her intricate language. Therefore, it is a clue to consider the reason she drew each words. That is not easy for a second language leaner.

 There was a line mentioning a season.

“It was fragrant early June.”

This sentence may not sound realistic to Japanese because our June does not a fragrant month. It always drizzles and even cold, and it is mere chance to see blue in the firmament. I tried to imagine which month is fragrant in Japan. It probably is April or May, definitely not June. From this sense, wedding in June becomes the least suitable choice for couples, however it is still popular here. How influential the Wetestern myth is.

A writing teacher in internet

Reading through the books page of the New York Times is becoming my intellectual habit. It would be the best if I could print them out and check the verbs they use, which clears off the given language to anybody. Using the appropriate verbs is most difficult yet worthiest approach to improve writing. Theoretical truth, however, is often inaccessible for elemental leaners. Nonetheless, I throw myself in such category on English writing.   

Giving an answer to the life-test, I continued reading book reviews for time to time in about a month.  A month ago, since the professor advised me to find the literature critic whom I want to copy the writing style from, I was looking for such a person in the articles. It looked very long journey and looked impossible forever. But there, I found the best person, Michiko Kakutani.

Ms. Kakutani is a well-known book reviewer of the NY Times, which I did not know her name until yesterday. Once I read her article, every words seemed vivid and holding the power that stretch the arms to grab the reader’s neck, so did my neck. I did not realize her name when I read it on my PC screen, and then the familiar Japanese name Michiko jumped in my sight when I read it in my smartphone in the train. She is a second generation of Japanese-American, living in NY. And more surprisingly what I found was she made a lot of critiques to Philip Roth, John Updike who are all familiar to me. Knowing her background more on internet, I had to admit my ignorance here again.

Now she was nominated to my writing teacher. How wonderful the internet age is!

I hope someday, soon would be much better though, one of the professor comments as, “Your writing is quite similar what Michiko Kakutani does”, would be the great compliment on my writing.

You can check all her current articles in this URL.

Remember, you are odd.

There are some simple but difficult words leaning English for Japanese. Commonly we have gotten through the words in junior high by grammatical approach. The word “remember” is one of the perfect examples to measure how they understand verbs. And it is often tested like this format: (1) I do not remember taking photographs, (2) I do not remember to take photographs, asking which one actually did take photographs. And we will be learning these two differences. But I was long thinking why this type of verb seem to be difficult for us. Why does “remember” is not as easy as think, check, ask, or even support?

The word “remember” does not exactly equal with what Japanese use as in remembering something. In Japanese, most of the people frequently use like, “I do not remember you”, or “I remember what I did”, which conveys to keep the memory you just had with you. When I was self-studying with a grammar workbook this morning, there is a sentence like this, “He can’t remember going to Miami when he was eight.”

This sentence reads the person (he) cannot recall his memory that he went to Miami when he was eight.

Here comes the difficult part. There is a great distinction in Japanese between “to keep the memory” and “to recall the memory.” In fact, they are two unique words. The former means to have learned something, which becomes the memory soon, in Japanese Kanji. The latter means pulling out something by thinking of. Therefore for Japanese, the English word “remember” firstly emphasizes what has kept in their memory already not what is going to pull from their memory since they connect “remember” to what they have learnt. On the other hand the meaning of “recall” tends to be forgotten unless they just use recall instead.

How could “keep” and “recall” denote that they are in “remember?” Another example might be inadequate to use here, however eliminating any political meaning, “Remember Pearl Harbor” does not only mean to keep it in your memory. It probably stresses to recall it from your memory, which rather dynamic and reachable.

Remembering “remember” needs extra work for Japanese.

In the above sentence, “He can’t remember going…” does not instantly appeal that he cannot recall his memory instead it throws an odd feeling as if this person has a serious brain damage to keep his memory or amnesia. If anyone who use “remember” in meaning of recalling to Japanese, it might be good to pay attention whether they were ready to recall it.

Being faced with...

A small confession.

I was avoiding touching English, especially in written English for a coulple of days. Speaking and writing cannot be improved both at the same time. Writing English stretches our literacy tremendously, which I knew it already, but there always be some steps in front. And I knew that confronting those steps would help me with not winding up the valley to the English. Sometimes Spoken English annoys me.

Some people are easy to be influenced by others. I am a kind of the one. And I am giving you some reasons. Yesterday, I have started reading Beloved (1987) of Toni Morrison. It is told a genuine work, but I fear to face with the language that Morrison uses. It made me completely forgot what the grammar should be, and I was about to write, "I don't know nothing." It is a part of culture of English. Yes, English is a cultural consequent which enable more than two people communicate each other, yet it is a different story to practice English. Therefore it is crucial paying full attention to the sentences.

Beloved is a story of black woman who lived as minority in America, and who had wounded by long suffering slavery. The reason I picked up this book in my reading lists, and it has become almost an assignment that I owe to myself, was that if there are any similarities and differences which may precondition among the minority writer’s writing: specifically between Afro-American’ and Jewish-American’. So far, my choice of the books should be consistent. Starting from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), passing through Faulkner’s Light in August, not forgetting The Awakening (1899) of Kate Chopin (1851-1904), the southern journey landed at Toni Morrison. I read in the original English except The Awakening, and I realized how important reading in English is since the greater part of the story of The Awakening is lost from my memory.

Today, I am going to organize a stack of books in front of me.
There is nowhere to walk without thrusting my way.

Weakness

The essay was returned from the professor. According to her comment, I should state the topic sentences strongly and clearly especially in subject-object relationship. Probably my sentence do not say the subject clearly first, then the reader will have a problem where to land as the object. And composing strong topic sentence requires to choose the right verb in there. Her comment put me in the writing chaos again, but it made me be aware of my weakness.
Tough, tough, tough.