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Thursday, June 19, 2008

一致団結

いっちだんけつ
icchi danketsu

I was looking for something that I could use when I was talking about the "Monster Parent" epidemic in Japan, cause recently, I've been having a lot of conversations about it. I'm really glad that the ridiculous attitudes of some of these parents have started to draw international attention, even if the attention is not much more intense than "Oddly Enough" blurbs on Reuters. See, the school where I work has a pretty serious "monster parents" problem, and a lot of my teachers are miserable about it. Whenever some ヤンキ disrupts the class, or the class next door, or starts a fight, or breaks something, the kid's ヤンキ parents get angry at the school, and want to know why the teachers are bullying their child. They don't seem to understand the idea that discipline is not bullying.

This isn't the way it always was in Japan though. Which brings us back to the point:

Definition:
多くの人々がある目的に向かって心を合わせ、まとまって事を行うこと。
Translation:
1. Complete and total unity and cooperation.
2. Banding together for a common cause.

This is the yoji that your average person would use when they talk about the relationship parents and teachers should strive for. I know because I've been corrected when I tried to use this very, very similar yoji:

大同団結
だいどう だんけつ
daidou danketsu
Definition:

たくさんの人がそれぞれの意見を捨てて一緒になること
Translations:
1. Presenting a united front
2. A big and important merger (governmental as well as business)

This one's more appropriate for talking about things like military movements, government decisions about foreign policy, and business consolidations.

When you want to talk about less structured things, like sports, community activities, or relationships among 一般人, you would use 一致団結する, as in the following:

例文:日本の「モンスター・ペアレント」問題は本当に、深刻ですよ。親と先生は一致団結して、子供を育てないとだめですよ。
The "Monster Parent" Problem in Japan is really quite serious. Parents and teachers have to work together to set kids on the right path.

1 comment:

lisze said...

一致団結しなかったら、勝てない。

If we do not work together (if we are not united in our cause), we cannot win.