日本語の「まで」と英語の「until」について

下記の日本語をどんな英語に翻訳しますか。

「そのお店は月曜日まで閉まっています。」

おそらく、多くの日本人は The store will be closed until Monday. のようにuntilを使って翻訳するのではないでしょうか? 英検や日本の英語の試験ではOKかもしれませんが、ネイティブの世界では、誤りになります。

Barking dogs, safe grammar, and until

When you were small, did you go for walks with your mother or father? Was there any place that you didn't want to go? Was there a house with a dog that barked or something else that scared you?

If there was, you may have selected another way to walk, avoiding the problem. In fancy teacher talk, this is called error avoidance. For example, if I know that the word 'まで' in Japanese can cause confusion when it is translated into 'until' in English, I can avoid it. This will help me to avoid any possible mistakes.

'まで' is used fairly widely in Japanese. Let's take a look at some English sentences that could have been translated from Japanese sentences that used 'まで.' At the same time, let's see how they could be better said in English.

I need it until Friday.
In English, I would probably say, "I need it by Friday."

The store will be closed until Monday. (This is the incorrect translation of the Japanese sentence in the example above.)
I would probably say, "The store will open on Tuesday."

Forgetting about Japanese, the store will be closed until Monday has a different meaning. It means that the store will open on Monday.

Be careful when you translate 'まで' into 'until.' 'まで' and 'until' are not always used in English the same way.

英文法の学習はあまり役に立ちません

英語でのコミュニケーション能力の向上には、学問的な英文法の学習はあまり役に立ちません。伝えたい内容を正しく伝達する手段として文法をとらえ、英文法 学習に取り組むことをお勧めします。日本人が何年も英文法を学習するにもかかわらず、なかなか英語を身につけることができないのは、伝えるべき考えや意味 を軽視した文法学習を続けてきたためではないでしょうか？リーディング、ヒアリング、ライティング、スピーキングのどの英語活動を行うにも英文法知識は必 須です。しかし、英文法知識の習得は、これらの英語学習活動、特に多くのリーディングとヒアリング活動を通して、自然に習得していくのが理想だと考えま す。

Try not to.

Yes, we repeat, try not to.

Grammar is everywhere. When we read, we use grammar. When we speak, we use grammar. When we write, we use grammar. When we listen, we use grammar.

Without grammar, you could not understand or communicate.

Grammar does not exist by itself. Grammar is used to understand and communicate meaning. That is, we use grammar when there is context.

Definition of context: Context is ideas and meaning and thoughts and feelings and commands and suggestions and orders and greetings. Context is what happens before and after we say or do something. Context is the circumstances that create the setting that we are using. Context is communication. Without context, we lose much of what is happening.

Most Japanese have studied grammar for years and years and years. However, the many years of grammar study do not help much in using English. This is because studying grammar does not usually include context. Grammar study alone is a purely academic study, not especially helpful to successful English communications.

Think of driving a car. You would not need to understand how a battery works. You do not need to inspect the belts and hoses because you probably will not be replacing them yourself. A mechanic would do such work for you. You just need to have an owner's manual, so you will know when to take your car to a mechanic. Plus, you would not take a course in combustion mechanics to understand the engine so that you could drive. You just need to know how to be a safe, responsible driver.

Let's get back to grammar. Like driving your car, you just need to know how to use English. You need to know where the dictionary is just like you need to know where your car manual is. You need to know where to go for help just like you need to know where to find a mechanic to work on your car when something is wrong. You need to be able to use your English just like you need to know how to drive your car.

Nonetheless, we do not recommend that you completely stop studying grammar. Indeed, we even provide some grammar work here on our site. However, you will notice that all of our grammar work at the Aaron Teaches site happens within a context. If you study grammar, you need to study grammar that takes an approach based on ideas and meaning.

Your grammar will improve through ideas and meaning. If you listen and read enough, you will internalize correct grammar. Your grammar will get better. This is the best way to improve your grammar. Read and listen.

英文ライティング

英文ライティング力を高めるには、文章を書くことと英語で文章を書くことの二つが必要です。書く分量を増やすには、毎日リストを作るとよいでしょう。リス トを作る習慣ができれば、必然的にリストに加える項目も増えていきます。たとえば、一日に行うライティングのリストを作ってみれば、自分のライティング量 を知ることができます。この量を増やしていきましょう。二番目に、英語で書く文章の量を増やします。今度は英語でリストを作ります。英語でリストを作れ ば、英語で物事を整理して考える訓練ができるとともに、英語の力を伸ばすこともできます。毎日いろいろなリストを作る習慣をつけてみませんか？

To improve your English writing, you need to write, and you need to write in English. If you take a minute to think about all the different kinds of writing you do in a typical week, you may realize that much of the writing you do has nothing to do with sentences or punctuation or paragraphs.

Suppose you start by making a list of all the different kinds of writing that you did today.

Here is the first part of my list:
1. a short piece on getting started
2. a list of questions to ask the technician at the Apple store
3. an errand list
4. a list of books to get at the library
5. an email to a friend about where to meet
6. an email to a friend about going to a concert
7. an email to a chorus asking if they are looking for new members

Maybe your list is shorter than mine. The length of your list is not important. If you get into the habit of making lists every day, the number of items in your list will get longer. The purpose of making your writing list was to get you to realize how much writing you now do and to help you to increase the amount of writing you do in the future.

The next step in getting organized is to see how many of the lists you could do in English. For me, making lists is a brief daily task. Sometimes, I make a list at night for the next day. Other times, I make a list early in the morning to get my day organized. Plus, a list helps to prioritize my goals and to make sure I remember everything.

Suppose I made my list of things to do today in English. Here's my list:
1. Buy a pair of black pants with pockets
2. Return my books to the library and get two new ones
3. Pick up my package at the post office and buy some international stamps
4. Make a dentist appointment
5. Finish editing the piece on the TH sound
6. Practice my song for tonight's chorus
7. Buy a Hawaiian music CD to find a new song to work on
8. Call the software technician to ask about iChat

Making lists is part of getting organized, and making lists has additional benefits. Making a list to help you get organized in English will help your English.