常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

gawp

日本の歩きスマホについて述べた記事になります。日本のスマートフォン利用者は,人口の半数に上るほど急速に普及してきました。他国と比較してスマホが利用されるのは遅かったにもかかわらず,凄まじいスピードで伸びていったそうです。日本人は,公共機関で電話をするケースが少ないし,違法ダウンロードも比較的少なく,筆者は日本人の携帯に対するエチケットを賞賛しております。しかし,歩きスマホについては,"gawp"と述べております。この意味を『Wisdom英和辞典第三版(三省堂)』でしらべると「口をぽかんと開けて見つめる」という意味がありました。さらにODを見ると"Stare openly in a stupid or rude manner"とあります。呆気にとられながら見るというニュアンスだと思います。(Ume)

Japan enters the era of smartphones and 'dumbwalking'

Japan has been a late adopter when it comes to smartphones, but it's catching up quickly - already more than half the population owns one. But Tokyo is a crowded city, and warnings are being issued about the risk of mass collisions among phone-using pedestrians at one busy crossing.

It's 5pm on a Friday and I'm standing in a coffee shop above Shibuya crossing - one of the most famous intersections in the world.

It's a place where every two minutes, more than a thousand of Tokyo's smartly dressed commuters and fashion-making teens gather at eight points, ready to cross - then rush straight for each other.

It looks like they must crash, this sea of people, but they swerve and swing around each other, like dancers pirouetting, and they all get to the other side safely.

It's awe-inspiring, so much so that at times it leads people - including myself - to say rather trite things about how it's the perfect symbol of Japanese society: the many individuals acting together for the greater good.

But the reason I'm here, isn't to gawp in amazement, it's in the hope that I'll see people crash.

http://www.tfd.metro.tokyo.jp/lfe/topics/201403/mobile.html
texting #5 - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心:言葉の森から

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28208144