今後の翻訳業界について
今後の翻訳業界はどうなる？《第190章》
■翻訳家I氏：情報流通において、文字は主な手段である。グローバル化により、世界中の異言語の情報流通は国境を越えて展開してきた。 翻訳事業はその中欠かせない存在だと思う。 その一方、グローバル化とインターネットの普及により、人々は外国語を習う機会も急増してきた。 ある程度の外国語力のある人が増加し、翻訳事業は衰退するだろうと考えている人もいる。 個人的には、確かに衰退する部分もあると思う。たとえば、簡単なメールや書類など。 しかしながら、この現象に応じてより専門的な翻訳の需要が増加すると信じている。たとえば、精密機械の取扱説明書や商業契約など。 そのため、今後の翻訳業界はさらに専門的、分類が細かくなっていくと思う。
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今週の文法ワード【almost】
Today, I’d like to go over a word which my students usually use incorrectly: “almost”.
I’m not sure about other languages, but in Japanese and Korean the word for “almost” has a slightly different grammar than it does in English.
That is the reason why many people in those countries make mistakes when using it.
So, “almost” means “just less than” when talking about the quantity of something or the time. For example:
It’s almost 3:00 now.
The class is almost over.
There are almost 100 people who work in my department.
Almost all of the people at my company speak English well.
Almost nobody in the class could pass the test. I think only two people passed it.
So please note that if we use “almost” with a number, the number follows directly after “almost”.
However, if we use “almost” with a noun such as “people”, we have to put another word between them; such words are often “all”,
“every”, “no”, “none”, etc. We can also use it with words like “everyone” and “nobody”. However, we CANNOT say something like
“Almost people in Japan like sushi.” Instead, we have to say something like:
Almost all people in Japan like sushi.
Almost every Japanese person likes sushi.
Almost everyone in Japan likes sushi.
The second way to use “almost” is when we want to talk about something which came close to happening but actually didn’t happen. For example:
My mother was in an accident. She almost died, but she’s going to be alright.
Someone threw a rock at me. Luckily it didn’t hit me, but it almost did.
I was almost late for work today. I got to the office right at 9:00.
