日記

The Help Along The Journey・冒険の手伝い

投稿日:

Introduction

There is a saying, “Before you help others, you must first help yourself.”
How do I interpret this?

「人を助けようとする前にまず自分を助ける」とある名言があって、私にとってはどういう意味を取ったのでしょうか。

Level Playing Field

First of all, you both have the same problem that you are trying to solve, but if you can’t first solve it yourself, how else are you going to help the other person solve it?

まずは二人とも問題があって、自分で解決できないなら、どうやって他の人を手伝うんだろう?

For the first scenario, you are both in the same position, not being able to solve your problem. Going back to the quote stated above, it says that you must first help yourself. But this addresses a similar problem. So doesn’t that mean that you should share the problem together to solve it faster? Unfortunately, not all problems could be solved that way, even if they are similar.

上記に書いてあることけど、最初は自分を助けると言われている。もし、その問題は同じ問題だろう?同じ問題だったらお互いに解決すると解決の時間が短くなるんじゃない?残念ながら、全ての問題がそういう風に解決できないよ。

However, what you can do is share the knowledge that you have with each other in order to come up with a solution that would solve your respective problems. This is the power of the sharing of ideas. Sharing ideas allows the both of you to come up with your own efficient solution, or even the path to a solution that would be refined over time. I say this because solutions are just theories until proven wrong. And for some problems, solutions to a problem are shadowed by another that claims to be more efficient.

しかし、提案だけど、自分の知識をシェアしながら解決作戦を作れる。これは情報共有の強みだ!情報共有を使えばそれぞれもっと効率的なソリューションを作るというか、自分のソリューションを作って時間を経つ時、独特なソリューションを生み出す。私はこう言う理由はソリューションって理論のことだ。他の問題だとしたら、解決しても未来に他のソリューションが生み出すのを獲得しようとしてる。

A common example would be related to language learning. Especially where there are people learning the same language, but get stuck in the same area. Or if they are learning each other’s respective language, and struggle with one another.

外国語を勉強してることはそう言う問題だ。特に、同じ言語を学んで同じところに詰まってくる。それかお互いに自分たちの言語を学んで、コミュニケーションを取ることが難しくなる。だって、二人ともはネーティブではない。

Starting out

“You cannot go far alone. You enjoy your journey better if you have people by your side.” – Karan Patel

「一人で遠くまで行けないけど自分の冒険は友達がいれば一人よりもっと楽しめる。」

Everyone is going to come with their own set of experiences. One is going to know more about one thing, while the other know more about another. That does not necessarily mean that they are much further ahead. It just means that they are focusing on different things. Which brings me back to my previous post on motivation, going through the reasons as to why I’m learning something new. We are not going to have the same reasons to learn, but in the end, we are learning the same thing. Just may be with a different focus.

人はそれぞれ経験がある。誰かは日本語に対して一枚上手だとしても、他の人は他のことに対して一枚上手だ。誰か優れていてもそんなに優れているわけではない。他のことに対してもっと集中しているだけだ。前のブログだけど、モチベーションについてそう言うことに書いていた。人はそれぞれ学んでいる理由があるけど、同じことをやっている。

However, what I have noticed is that it is hard to continue a conversation with one another. Especially, with textbook phrases like:

話を変わるんだけど、会話を続けることが難しい。特に、教科書のフレーズを使うとしたら:

“How are you?”
“I’m fine, and you?”
“{Insert Response}”

… and then it stops there. There are many reasons for this, but one is being unequipped to deal with the almost endless amount of possible responses that one can use. Depending on that response, the conversation just goes flat, or it may unravel into a conversation that is way beyond the scope of this post.

。。。そこまでに会話が止まる。いろいろな理由があるんだけど、一つの理由は自分が無限があるみたいな回答に対して十分に準備を整えなかった。回答によって話が止まるか、思ったことない会話が飛び出してくる。

Just remember to enjoy yourself while you are improving. Since you are not improving alone, but with everyone you interact with on a daily basis. It may not be in your target language, but if it is, it would help you improve significantly. Understand, that it is not about how much you can get done in one day, but how many consecutive days you can get something in. Baby steps. Taking even the tiniest of steps is still regarded as progress, even if you or anyone else around you cannot notice a difference, it is still there.

勉強している時、楽しんでください。一人ではないし、みんなとコミュニケーションを取る時、その人も上達していくよ。いつもコミュニケーションをとる時は自分のターゲットではいかもしれないけど、うまくなるはずだよ。理解してほしいことは一日いろいろなことを勉強するより毎日ちょっとずつ進む方が良い。一歩ずつ。ちょっっっっとずつ進むことでも進捗を言えるよ。

Sparking Conversation

Now, in order for you to be equipped with taking the conversation beyond the textbook conversations, I’ll give you a couple of responses that are common to almost unthinkable.

では、教科書からレベルアップするため他の回答を紹介したいと思う。最初は簡単な回答から複雑な回答まで紹介する。

“How are you?”
“I’m doing (okay/good/sad/great/awesome/amazing/so-so), and you?”
“{Insert Response}”

Those are just common one word changes, yet, it can change the direction of the conversation depending on how one answers. These can be considered easy due to the words that are used, but not being exposed to different kinds of responses ramps up the difficulty exponentially. Especially if one adds an explanation to why they are feeling a certain way…

それは一つの言葉を置き換えても会話の雰囲気も変わる。上記の言葉は簡単に見えるけど、実際に聞いたことないなら何倍くらい難しくなるよ。特に、解説を付けたら…

“How are you doing today?”
“I’m doing great! I just got done thinking about how I should approach my next task. How about you?”
“{Insert Response}”

Small details are important when it comes to conversations. That doesn’t mean to add a bunch of little things that has little to do with anything, it means that you should also be aware of who you are speaking to also. Since the reason a conversation stops does not lie only on you, but on the person you are interacting with.

些細な情報まで大事だよ。まあ、たくさん無意味な情報を言うことなく、相手の言い方まで気付けば大切だ。会話とは独り言ではなく二人とも話してることだ。

I feel as though we sometimes forget that communication is a two-way street, where both parties have to interact with one another. And it is not possible to have a conversation with just anyone either, you both have to feel that you would be able to enjoy yourselves talking with one another in order to progress.

二人とも話すなんてみんなは時々忘れると思う。誰でもと話すことができない。ネーティブな人と話しても人によっては性格が合わない。

Varying Levels

“Remember to dream big, think long term, underachieve on a daily basis, and take baby steps. That is the key to long-term success.” – Robert Kiyosaki
「大きな夢を見、長期的に考え、一歩ずつ進んで。それは長期的な成功の解答だ。」

Another way to look at this is that you both are two completely different spots on your journey, yet somehow managed to connect with one another. You may be much more advanced than the other, but that does not mean that there is nothing you can learn from them either. Who knows, they may be able to catch up to you with their own perseverance and methods. Regardless of that, there is something to be learned from people of all levels because they may have taken a different approach than you have.

他の考えは二人とも詰まっているところが違うけど、相手の気持ちがわかる。自分は優れてるけど、相手から学べることがないわけではない。それか、相手が努力などで自分を超える。とにかく、誰でも学べることがある。

Their methods may be entirely different. Especially if they are learning your native language and you are learning their native language. The questions that they come up with, you may have never thought about before in your native language, so you would have to think about how to explain to them which way is more natural to say. This may not appease them to know what is more natural to say, but why?

やり方が違うかもしれない。特に、自分の母語を学んでる。相手からの質問を聞いてきたら、自分が考えたことない質問が出てどうやった答えるんだろうと思ってしまう。それはいつもこう言うけど、なず?理由が思い浮かべない。

We may have done something all our lives, but never questioned why it was done that way. This leads to a bunch of different perspectives on the topic, yet none of them are completely right, just a piece is.

いつもこういうようにやってたからこそ、考えてなかった。だから、みんなはいろいろな考え方があっても、100%に正確ではない。

Conclusion

What I would like you all to take from this is that, the best way to help yourself, is to help others along the way. It does not have to be necessarily towards language learning, but towards anything that you are pursuing. The varying perspectives that a person can bring to the table is something that you can add to your own knowledge reservoir and eventually apply that to future roadblocks. Understand that the best way to get started tackling a problem, is by sparking a conversation with another person.

一番自分を助ける方法は、進みながら他の人を助けてと覚えてほしい。外国語を学ぶだけではなく、他のことまでも。みんなは自分の道に歩いているからこそ、そんな経験が自分に対して役に立てる。問題に逢う時他の人と話してみてください。

-日記

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