皆さんこんにちは。図書委員です。やっと暖かくなっきましたが、花粉も飛びはじめ、苦しんでいる人も多いのではないでしょうか。
(Roughly) Greetings from the library committee. It's finally starting to get warmer, but pollen has begun to fill the air, too. Are many of you suffering from allergies?
This one is from the beginning of this week's newsletter from the school health center:
寒い冬もやっと終わりに近づき、暖かな日差しが戻ってきています。
The cold winter is finally coming to a close, and the warm sun is beginning to return.
When writing a letter or greeting in Japan, it's customary to comment on the weather or the season. I've been noticing this a lot lately, and thinking about it a bit. On one hand, I think it's kind of BSey. No one needs to tell you that it's getting warmer - you already know. And in cases like this season, it can be a little asinine. People have been writing these little "it's spring!" intro's for weeks now, and though the days are in fact getting longer and a little warmer, the friggin winter just won't give up. In fact, it's not finally warm here. Tomorrow is slated to be around 40 F, give or take a few degrees. Spring my ass.
On the other hand, although I think we're a little more "straight to business" in the West, we have our niceties, too. If you're writing to someone you haven't spoken to, you usually ask them how they've been, even if you aren't interesting in long-winded answer. It's just being polite. This is similar, and it's actually kind of easy to fall into after you've been here for a while. I imagine when I go home, I'll be commenting on the weather more often than I used to. And that's fine. It's just the canned parts of these greetings that usually annoy me. Sure it's spring, but it's not warm yet. So how about an intro like this:
皆さんこんには。やっと春なってきましたが、冬の寒さがまだなくなりませんでしたね。花粉も寒さも大変ですから頑張りましょうね！
Greetings, everyone. Spring is finally coming, but the coldness of winter is still here, isn't it? The pollen and cold are tough, so let's do our best!
