Differences

"Do you know what the verb of regret means?"

 

I was asked this question by my teacher in my English class.

Can you answer it? I think it's easy to answer it in Japanese. 

The answer is 「後悔する(koukai suru)」

But if you have to answer in English like me in the class, what would you explain?

My quick answer was that "to feel that I want to change the past."

hum.

When I was asked the question, I came up with an idea that I should ask myself "when do I regret?"

 

Something have happened in the past and I want to change it.

That makes sense.

These are the definision of the verb of regret.

Okay, now, I know what regret means.

But why do I write about it?

It's not because I want to share the definition of regret but because I want to share the interesting point to learn English. 

Do you know what I mean?

When I have to explain English words in English, I usually think about definition of words even if I know the meaning of it in Japanese or I know paraphrases.

Have you ever thought about what "koukai suru(regret)" means? 

If I speak just Japanese, I seldom do.

I'm learning English so I could do it.

I used to want to be born as Native American or school student who have returned from abroad(帰国子女/kikokushijyo).

By the way, there is no word to express kikokushijyo in English because there is no idea of them. 

Anyway, I'm really glad to be born as a pure Japanese because, as I already wrote, I can have the chance to think about words deeply which I usually use without thinking in my life.

It's really interesting.

And this is why I'm learning English even though there are a lot of people who speak English much more fluently than I do.

This is one of my interests to master English. 

It's not only this one but also to know what is differences between Japanese and English. 

For example, there is no word to express wabi-sabi in English. There is no word to express God in Japanese. 

Maybe you are wondering there is a word "神/kami(Gods) ". 

But, technically, these two words are different because 神 can be plural unlike God.

The ideas of God and 神 are different they seem same though.

It's just the tip of the iceberg. 

There are tons of interesting differences. Culture, languages, and ideas.

They can't stop making me be into them.