こちらの英文を読みといてみましょう。
Her very soul, her grave, indignant, and fantastic soul, seemed to drowse like an exhausted traveller surrendering himself to the sleep of death. But when I asked her again to lie down she managed to answer me, "Not in this room." The dumb spell was broken. She turned her head from side to side, but oh! how cold she was! It seemed to come out of her, numbing me, too; and the very diamonds on the arrow of gold sparkled like hoar frost in the light of the one candle.
英語力をつけるには読解力も必要です。
"He died of fever, didn't he?" muttered Carlier, stopping short. "Why," retorted Kayerts, with indignation, "I've been told that the fellow exposed himself recklessly to the sun. The climate here, everybody says, is not at all worse than at home, as long as you keep out of the sun. Do you hear that, Carlier? I am chief here, and my orders are that you should not expose yourself to the sun!" He assumed his superiority jocularly, but his meaning was serious.
和訳はこちらです。
英文を読みましょう。
Kayerts was moved almost to tears by his director's kindness. He would, he said, by doing his best, try to justify the flattering confidence, &c., &c. Kayerts had been in the Administration of the Telegraphs, and knew how to express himself correctly. Carlier, an ex-non-commissioned officer of cavalry in an army guaranteed from harm by several European Powers, was less impressed. If there were commissions to get, so much the better;
以下、訳。
英会話の習得の為に英文を読みましょう。
He held the paper before his eyes and looked at half a dozen lines scrawled on the page, while he was stunned by a noise meaningless and violent, like the clash of gongs or the beating of drums; a great aimless uproar that, in a manner, prevented him from hearing himself think and made his mind an absolute blank. This absurd and distracting tumult seemed to ooze out of the written words, to issue from between his very fingers that trembled, holding the paper.
And suddenly he dropped the letter as though it had been something hot, or venomous, or filthy;
以下、日本語訳文―。
All these imaginary personages became subjects for gossip as if they had been living friends. They discounted their virtues, suspected their motives, decried their successes; were scandalized at their duplicity or were doubtful about their courage. The accounts of crimes filled them with indignation, while tender or pathetic passages moved them deeply. Carlier cleared his throat and said in a soldierly voice, "What nonsense!" Kayerts, his round eyes suffused with tears, his fat cheeks quivering, rubbed his bald head, and declared.

I hung my head. It was a crushing illustration of the sad truth he advanced. The world is full of such people. And that instance of the French aristocracy before the Revolution was extremely telling, too. I could not traverse his statement, though its cynicism--always a distasteful trait--took off much of its value to my mind. However, I admit I was impressed. I felt the need to say something which would not be in the nature of assent and yet would not invite discussion.
日本語に変換
私は頭を掛けました。
彼が進んだのは悲しい真実の圧倒する実例でした。
世界はそのような人々でいっぱいです。
また、革命の前のフランスの貴族のその実例も非常に伝えていました。
その皮肉(常に不快な特性)は私の心にその値の多くを取り除きましたが、私は彼のステートメントを横断することができませんでした。
しかしながら、私は、感動したことを認めます。
私は、同意に、およびまだ性質にないだろうものが議論を招待しないだろうと言う必要を感じました。
英会話上達への近道
The first time we got into conversation was in the National Museum in Naples, in the rooms on the ground floor containing the famous collection of bronzes from Herculaneum and Pompeii: that marvellous legacy of antique art whose delicate perfection has been preserved for us by the catastrophic fury of a volcano.
以下、和訳文―。
私たちが会話に入った最初のときは、ヘルクラネウムとポンペイからのブロンズの有名なコレクションを含んでいる一階の部屋でナポリの国立博物館にありました:
その微妙な完成が火山の破滅的な激怒によって私たちのために取っておかれた古代美術のその不思議な遺産。
日本英語
実際に海外に出ると
日本で習った英語というのは
けっこう通じてくれなかったり
ということはとてもよくある。
紙に書いて
ようやく「あぁ、そういってたのか。」
と理解してくれる
ということも多いだろう。
これというのも発音の問題。
もちろん、他の国外の言語を持つ人々も
同じように訛りは存在する。
インド人にはインド人の
中国人には中国人の。
日本人が英語の発音が
なかなか上手くできないその理由として
カタカナの存在が大きいと言われている。
物心付く前から
ネイティブスピーカーを前に
英語を話す環境があると
よりネイティブに近い発音を
モノにすることができるというものの
しっかりと取り組めば
正しい発音を身につけるのは
それほど難しいことではないという。
自分が発することができるようになれば
聞き取ることができるようになる。
人間の脳とはそういう風にできているそうだ。
ということはスピーキング力とともに
リスニング力の向上も見込めるわけだ。
