コーヒーを2つお願いします。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Koohii o futatsu onegaishimasu.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Two coffees, please.

上記のタイトル見てお気づきと思うが、コーヒーをオーダーする時、日本語では英語のように「２つコーヒー」と言わない。コーヒーと言ってから注文数を言う。物が先で数量は後。これは日本語の基本となる非常に大事なルール！どうやら日本人は物事を理解する時に、頭に絵が描ける必要があるようだ。二つと言われても何が二つかわからない為に頭に絵が描けない。コーヒーと最初に言われると、すぐコーヒーを頭に描ける。それから二つと聞くと、コーヒーを2つ描く。頭に絵がすんなり描けていく。この特徴は住所の書き方にも現れる。英語は番地から始めるが、日本語は東京の住所なら先ず東京都から始める。日本人は番地が先に来ると、何の数字なのか分からず頭に状況が浮かばない。なので、 東京都→区名→町名、そして最後に番地がくる。日本人は「東京」と聞くと、すぐにその場所が頭に浮かぶ。全体像から入り一点に焦点を絞っていく、大から小へ、という感じ。この順序が日本人には物事を理解し易いのである。英語は番地が最初で最後に州名がくる。日本語と全く逆。更に年月日の順序も、日本語は「年→月→日」、英語は「年」が最後にくる。他にも、この英語と日本語の真逆の違いは、「部屋の机の上にあるペン」という文にも現れる。日本語は「部屋→机→ペン」という語順に対し、英語は「ペン→机→部屋」 の順。日本語は全体像から入り最後にペンがくるが、英語はペンから始めて全体像へと広げていく。他にも興味深い話を聞いたことがある。熱帯魚の水槽があった場合、日本人は水草や石があるかは見ているが、どの魚が一番大きいかは必ずしも見ていない。アメリカ人は水草や石があったかどうかは必ずしも見ていないが、一番大きい魚は見ている、とか。これも、全体像から入る日本人と、真逆な英語ネイティブのそれぞれの特徴を表しているのではないか。又、日本語がペラペラなイタリア人ソムリエが、試飲会でのワインの説明がわかりにくいと日本人社長に怒られたと言ってきた。何がわかりにくいのか一緒に分析してみると、彼のワインの説明順序はワインの名前→ワイナリーの名前→町の名前→州名→国名、だった。これだ！説明順序が日本人と逆なのだ！日本人のソムリエなら、先ず国名→州名から、つまりワインの背景説明から入り、最後にワイン名を紹介するだろう。ご紹介した各事例の決して見落とせない一連の関連性は、日本語に多くある「コロコロ/ゴロゴロ」「トントン/ドンドン」等の擬態語・擬声語に日本人が一定の決まった情景・状況を思い浮かべることとも深く関係しているのではないか。                  では又次回！
As you may have noticed by looking at the title above, when ordering coffee, in Japanese you don't say "twe coffees" like in English. After saying coffee, say the number of orders. Things come first, quantity comes later. This word order is a very important rule that forms the basis of Japanese! Apparently, Japanese people need to be able to draw pictures in their minds to understand things. Even if Japanese people are told two, they can't draw a picture in their minds because they don't understand what the two are. When Japanese people hear the word coffee first, they can immediately draw coffee in their minds. Then they hear “two”, they draw two coffees. They can draw a picture smoothly in their minds. This characteristic also appears in the way addresses are written. English starts with the house number, but Japanese starts with Tokyo if it is an address in Tokyo. When the house number comes first, Japanese people have no idea what the numbers is and cannot picture the situation in their minds. Therefore, Tokyo Metropolis (prefecture) → ward name → town, and finally the house number comes. When Japanese people hear the word 'Tokyo', they can immediately picture the place in their mind. It's like starting with the big picture and focusing on one point. In other words, it goes from big things to small things. This order makes it easier for Japanese people to understand things. In English, the house number comes first, and the state name comes last. Completely opposite to Japanese. In addition, Japanese date order is "year → month → day", but in English the "year" is the last. Also, this diametrically opposite difference between English and Japanese appears in the sentence "The pen on the desk in the room". In Japanese, the word order is "room → desk → pen", whereas in English it is "pen → desk → room". Japanese starts with the big picture and the pen comes last, whereas English starts with the pen and expands to the big picture. I've heard other interesting stories as well. When there is a tropical fish tank, Japanese people see whether there are water plants or stones, but they don't necessarily see which fish is the biggest. Americans don't necessarily see if there are waterweeds or stones, but they do see the biggest fish, I heard something like this. This may also represent the respective characteristics of the Japanese, who enter from the big picture, and native English speakers, who are the exact opposite. Also, one day, an Italian sommelier who is fluent in Japanese said he was scolded by the Japanese president because the explanation of the wine was difficult to understand at the tasting party. When we analyzed together what was difficult to understand, we found that the order of his explanation of wine was wine name → winery name → town name → state name → country name. This one! The order of explanation is the opposite of that of the Japanese! A Japanese sommelier would start with the name of the country and then the name of the state, that is, the background explanation of the wine, and lastly introduce the wine name. I have introduced many examples, but the series of connections that cannot be overlooked in each case may be deeply related to the fact that Japanese people always imagine certain scenes and situations with onomatopoeia, such as "korokoro/gorogoro" and "tonton/dondon", etc., which are many in Japanese.                        　　　
See you next time!