ジェフリー・A・クロフト先生のコラム [1998年-現在] フリーランス・社内翻訳者
学術文献・研究論文・技術機関紙等の翻訳、契約書等の法律文書の翻訳、説明書・規格書等の技術文書の翻訳、手紙・通信文・企業案内・広告・ホームページ等の翻訳に精通。
[2001年-2002年] フリーランス通訳者
日英･英日同時または逐次通訳(主な顧客：富士通, ソニー, TBS等)
[学歴] 学士号：カリフォルニア大学、バークレー校　修士号：モントレー国際大学

第１２回：『A year in the life―a reflection on my columns in 2015』

1 Life Happens

Translation offers excellent opportunities for us to dedicate ourselves to achieving excellence every day, and great flexibility to do so from almost any location. My experience, even on the periphery, related to the tragic and historic events last month reminded me that we also need to stay flexible, focused, grateful, and proud that we are ultimately fostering communication.

2 Translators and bilinguals―a translation primer

In the same way that educated adults may incorrectly assume that professional writing is something that they could simply pick up and do, if they were so inclined, some may assume that anyone who is bilingual could simply pick up and work as a translator, but these assumptions are certainly off the mark. Writing is a careful and creative process that requires focus, time, and energy, and translation does all the more so.

3 In a word? No

The relentless pursuit to facilitate clear and smooth communication requires that we carefully choose every word, making sure that it is the most natural and appropriate, and the beauty as well as the added difficulty in doing so is that it can be nearly impossible at the word-level.

4 Language change, CALL for healthy change

It is clear that today, high levels of translation competence, foreign language competence, and native tongue competence are in themselves insufficient, albeit essential, features of the translator’s overall professional profile. But the translator’s marketability also depends on his or her ability to use the modern tools of the trade in a professional manner, to research new topics quickly and efficiently, to justify one’s work when necessary, to negotiate and collaborate with other translators and subject matter experts to accomplish tasks at hand. What is essential for graduates is that they be competent enough to tackle a wide variety of assignments and that they be confident enough to undertake new language-related tasks that may not have even existed when they were studying.

5 Interaction, A conscious effort; In the zone

Once learners find that they can take on a challenge and reach their goals they may come to enjoy the challenge and search for more of the same. Then again, they may not; not all learners respond in the same way to the same challenge, even in the same class. As Ohta (2001) puts it: “Two learners in the same classroom will learn different things depending on, among other things, how they engage with the affordances in the classroom setting” (p. 3). But I do believe that it is important to expose learners to such challenges in some form so that they can learn whether or not they enjoy the given challenge for themselves. We as teachers can guide learners to realize which learning resources are most effective for them by providing our learners with interesting and challenging tasks and resources in order to grow to the fullest extent in their ZPD.

6 The Primacy of Cultural Context; Language Change Revisited

I see the classroom not as a microcosm of the surrounding culture, but rather, as an integral part of the surrounding community. We are not teaching and learning a rarefied lingo for use behind closed classroom doors, after all, we are teaching and learning language to actively engage in many facets of society. We aim to develop tools and skills for the purpose of communicating with others, at a range of different levels, depending on individual learner needs and goals. It would be self-defeating, then, to isolate the classroom from the real-world interaction, or vice versa.

7 Comparative Analysis―Chinese/Japanese; Latin/English

The comparison of the influence on Japanese scholarship with the influence of Latin on Western scholarship may not be essential to the daily learning and teaching of Japanese and English, but for me it was certainly an interesting depiction of sociolinguistic development.
The careful use of honorifics―especially using humble or neutral forms to refer to self or in-group and polite forms to refer to outsiders―has been part of my daily life for over two decades. From classrooms to corporate offices to government bureaus, I have learned the importance of using such appropriate politeness levels in Japanese society.

8 Debunking folk-linguistic hyperbole, Revisiting Ebonics, Exploding myths

The Ebonics debate was a telling example of the importance of social context that emerged from our explication of the Ebonics debate. This debate, and Secret’s illustration of the true nature of Ebonics, point to the responsibility of lay people and language professionals alike to examine crucial linguistic issues arising in the media with a critical eye, rather than accepting newspaper headlines at face value. Debates such as this one can serve to underscore the importance of cultural context for us as teachers, linguists, language learners, and language professionals.

9 A reflection on complexity in Japanese―English Comparative Analysis

Through this data analysis grammar/structure project, I gained experience conducting a field survey; I was able to challenge and investigate a truism on the supposed greater complexity of written over spoken language; I was able to draw parallels between my first and second languages in both the popular perception and in the research; and I was able to expose the fallacy in the conventional view on the relative complexity of the spoken and written word.

10 A reflection on active approaches and learner differences--teaching Japanese with the direct method

The single most pronounced lesson that I learned through this experience was the importance of individual differences among language learners. As I mentioned above, some learners felt that this method was active and useful while others felt that it was not appropriate for visually oriented learners. Variety and balance in presentation, methods, techniques, and tools in the classroom are optimal. I would teach using this method again, provided that the learners felt comfortable, and that learning objectives were met.

11 On the authentic, reflective, and recursive learning, teaching, and practice of translation

Far from being more efficient, disembodied learning shuts down the physical, emotional and social channels for multi-faceted acquisition that human beings naturally bring to learning situations.
Five basic principles that reflect the personal, multi-channel nature of adult learning:
1. Adults learn best when they are involved in developing learning objectives for themselves which are congruent with their current and idealized self-concept.
2. The learner reacts to all experience as he perceives it, not as the teacher presents it.
3. Adults are more concerned with whether they are changing in the direction of their own idealized self-concept than whether they are meeting standards and objectives set for them by others.
4. Adults do not learn when over-stimulated or when experiencing extreme stress or anxiety.
5. Those adults who can process information through multiple channels and have learnt ‘how to learn’ are the most productive learners.

12 A year in the life

I hope that you have enjoyed reading these twelve columns as much as I have enjoyed writing them, and I thank you for your consideration.

ツイート

第１２回：『A year in the life―a reflection on my columns in 2015』

第１１回：『On the authentic, reflective, and recursive learning, teaching, and practice of translation』

第１０回：『A reflection on active approaches and learner differences―teaching Japanese with the direct method』

第９回：『A reflection on complexity in Japanese―English Comparative Analysis』

第８回：『Debunking folk-linguistic hyperbole』『Revisiting Ebonics』『Exploding myths』

第７回：『Comparative Linguistic Analysis--Chinese and Japanese; Latin and English』

第６回：『The Primacy of Cultural Context; Language Change Revisited』

第５回：『Interaction』『A conscious effort』『In the zone』『Teaching implications』

第４回：『Language change』『CALL for healthy change』『Found in translation』

第３回：『In a word? No』

第２回：『Translators and bilinguals―a translation primer』

第１回：『Life Happens』