日本語を自然に話すための鍵 は「視点」/ The Key to Speaking Natural Japanese: Perspective

One of the most important things to keep in mind when speaking Japanese is perspective.

Here, "perspective" means whose point of view you are using and what you are focusing on.

English often describes a situation from an overall, objective point of view, almost like a security camera observing the whole scene. Japanese, on the other hand, often chooses one specific perspective and describes the situation from that point of view.

You can see this from one of the first things you learn in Japanese: kore, sore, and are.

• これ refers to something close to the speaker.

• それ refers to something close to the listener.

• あれ refers to something far from both the speaker and the listener.

The verbs 来る,(to come) and 行く ( to go) work in the same way. If someone or something moves toward you, you use kuru. If it moves away from you, you use iku. The choice depends on your current location as the reference point.

Another example from beginner-level grammar is ～てもらう and ～てあげる.

For example:

I received a watch from my father.

From an objective point of view, you could also describe the same event as:

My father gave me a watch.

However, in Japanese, the sentence is usually expressed from my point of view, so もらう(to receive) is normally used instead of あげる (to give).

When talking about two people who are not related to you or your family, the situation is described more objectively, so あげる is commonly used.

Perspective is also closely related to intransitive and transitive verbs.

Imagine a baseball player hitting a home run.

When the batter hits the ball, the announcer says, "He hit it!" This uses the transitive verb うつ(打つ).

Then, when the ball goes into the stands, the announcer says, "It went in!" This uses the intransitive verb はいる (入る).

The announcer would not normally say, "He hit it! He put it in!"

This is because the perspective shifts from the batter to the ball.

As you can see, to speak natural Japanese, it is important to always be aware of perspective.

说日语时，最需要注意的一点就是**“视点”**。

这里所说的“视点”，是指以谁为基准以及关注的是哪一部分。

英语通常会像监控摄像头一样，从整体、客观的角度来描述事情；而日语则经常先确定一个视点，再从这个视点来表达。

这一点，从初学日语时学习的**「これ・それ・あれ」**就可以看出来。

• これ：离说话人近的东西。

• それ：离听话人近的东西。

• あれ：离说话人和听话人都远的东西。

**来る（来）和行く（去）**也是如此。

朝自己所在的位置移动时，用来る；离开自己所在的位置时，用行く。两者都是以说话人所在的位置为基准来选择的。

初级语法中的**～てもらう和～てあげる**也是一样。

例如：

（我）从父亲那里收到了手表。

如果客观地描述这件事，也可以说：

父亲给了我一块手表。

但是，在日语中，通常会从**“我”的视点来表达，因此一般会使用もらう**，而不是あげる。

如果谈论的是与自己和家人无关的两个人之间的事情，则会采用较客观的表达，因此会使用あげる。

自动词和他动词也与“视点”有着密切的关系。

请想象一下击出全垒打（Home Run）的场景。

当击球员挥棒击中球时，解说员会说：

「打った！」（打中了！）

这里使用的是他动词「打つ」。

随后，当球飞进观众席时，解说员会说：

「入った！」（进去了！）

这里使用的是自动词「入る」。

解说员不会说：

「打った！入れた！」（打中了！放进去了！）

这是因为，表达时的视点已经从击球员转移到了球。

因此，要说出自然的日语，始终意识到**“视点”**是非常重要的。