More about Mendou, and Obama as English Teacher

Following up to the previous post, here's more about that word 面倒　mendou.

Since it means burden, responsibility etc, it can have negative connotation as I have explained. It can also have a positive meaning as banana pointed out in the comments.

面倒を見る　めんどうをみる　mendou o miru - to take care of something or someone.

Example: 私は病気の母の面倒を見ます。　わたしはびょうきのははのめんどうをみます　watashi wa byouki no haha no mendou o mimasu. - I take care of my sick mother. (Wasn't this the sob story of one of the American Idol wannabes this year? Anyway.)

Here's another positive usage of 面倒:

面倒見が良い　めんどうみがよい mendoumi ga yoi - to be considerate, caring （面倒見の良い、面倒見がいい、面倒見のいい　are also used)

Example: 聡はとても面倒見が良い男だ。さとしはとてもめんどうみがいいおとこだ。　Satoshi wa totemo mendoum ga ii - Satoshi is a very considerate guy.

There's a fine line between being 面倒見が良い　and being お節介　おせっかい　osekkai, which means being a meddler, busybody.

Obama as English teacher?

Previously, I expressed my skepticism about a report that a manga version of Das Kapital was a bestseller in Japan. There is however something else that is a bestseller: Barack Obama speeches. The book-with-CD sets published by CNN Express are dominating the English learning category on Amazon Japan for instance. The books contain the English text and Japanese translation of his speeches. The reviews say that Obama's speeches are great for learning, since they don't use a lot of very difficult words and his enunciation is very clear. (He also has a Middle America bland accent, which is easier than other accents for many non-English speakers to pick up on.) I guess this could be considered as part of the whole Obama-mania thing, but imagine the influence his speeches will have on a whole generation of Japanese kids who use them to learn English! It's either inspiring or scary, depending on which side of the political fence you stand on.

It's hard to imagine any Japanese politician with the same sort of universal appeal being used for Japanese learning materials though.

Comments

[yoko]

In the English lessons in iKnow, they also have lessons using Obama's inauguration speech, using sound clips with him speaking. Pretty cool!