The other day, my wife and I watched a recording of "Choic" of Heroes Special: Murasaki Shikibu: A Thousand Years of Solitude, The Truth of The Tale of Genji."
Waka poems appeared in the program, and a commentary on modern colloquialisms also came after the Waka poem.
Me: "This is our country's language, so Japanese people should be able to understand it without 'modern' colloquial' explanations.
Wife: "You could say that."
However, I don't understand any archaic language, so I cannot watch such a program.
Besides, I think the logic is a bit too painful.
As a student, I once traveled to Japan and encountered a dialect I could not understand in 90% of the conversations. In other words, this is a problem before learning ancient languages.
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I previously discussed trigonometric functions' "need/no need" in my Math Unnecessity column.
リカレント教育【前編】 三角関数不要論と個性の壊し方https://t.co/5zvbXfyBqZ pic.twitter.com/iREa9AlER7
? EE Times Japan編集部 (@eetimes_jp) June 24, 2019
At this point, I have concluded that at this time.
'The unverified past performance' is the only basis for the 'need' of trigonometric functions.'
In other words, 'I don't don't (why I should take trigonometric functions).
In contrast, the goals for ancient texts are more concrete.
Goal: To create Japanese people who will not need to use modern colloquial explanations of the contents of The Tale of Genji, The Hyakunin Isshu, and The Chronicles of Japan.
Of course, this is a tremendously high hurdle, but it is a clear goal to aim for.
I think understanding what used to be one's language, even if it is archaic, can be accepted (without logic) as a feeling.
In the same way, we can concretize our goals for English.
Goal: To create Japanese people who can enjoy foreign films without Japanese subtitles in movie theaters.
The goal is worthy of reaching a "joyful" life and a "prosperous life."
However, this is the same: it is a tremendous hurdle.
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I don't know how many years or even decades later, but all Japanese will say?
"Why should I read The Tale of Genji in a modern mistranslation?"
"Subtitles? What is it?
I think it would be a "good "future" if "Japanese people behaved like the above.