Nihongo Speech Files #1: On ‘Lettting Go’
September 17th, 2009
Not quite anime/manga related, but I thought I’d share this anyway. This is not the first Nihongo speech I delivered in the office, but since this is the most ‘ready for posting’, I decided to have this published first 
Lengthy Intro
LISTEN TO MY SPEECH
We have this ‘daily Nihongo speech’ activity in our department where all the members take turns in delivering a speech in Nihongo, supposedly to enhance our communication skillz, and the topic can be just about anything under the sun. While many of my colleagues think of this as a total pain in the ass (thinking about what to talk about, not to mention in Nihongo, is no easy task, not unless you ask someone else to translate it ^_^), I consider this to be a “chance to shine and allow the people to show the ‘other sides of you’, either to entertain, inspire, or to simply let other people get to know you better” :3
The day before my flight back home, it was my turn to speak, so I still had the chance to give my ‘last speech’. Yayyy!
The night I was cramming making my draft, my housemates/colleagues and I still didn’t know if the initial plan to let us go home by Wednesday that week would push through, and that’s like two days away gee whiz. The feeling was not unlike a cliffhanger, so to speak, and since I was being trolled by/trolling Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 during that time, I actually thought of giving a speech juxtaposing the ‘cliffhanger feeling’ I had with Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. But then there’s not really much of a point in talking about that, especially if the news regarding our departure would be confirmed the following morning. As such, I decided to talk about ‘letting go’ instead, a topic that would be totally relevant to my situation if we’re indeed going home that week.
I usually share my speech in Nihongo alone, explaining just a few words and phrases in English, but this time around, I thought the best way to do this would be to go Japlish, Japanese then explain whatever I said in English so that all people could understand what the heck I’m saying.
The Speech Proper
And, the speech… (feel free to correct my Nihongo please, I know I still need a lot of help, especially coz I just go about saying whatever without really paying attention to consistency and all that, shifting from semi-polite to not-so-polite form every so often .__.)
間違いがあったら教えてください。
「成長のために’Letting go’が必要だ」と私は最近実感しました。
“‘Letting go’ is necessary for us to grow”, as I’ve realized as of late (I’m so quoting otou-san on this)
英和の辞書で、「Let go」という言葉はいろんな意味を持っています:
The English-Japanese dictionary shows us the various definitions/Japanese equivalent of [the multi-faceted] ‘let go’, which are as follows:
手放する[tebanasu-suru]。。。 To part with
解放する、自由にする[kaihou-suru, jiyuu-suru]。。。 To let something/someone free
捨てる、あきらめる[suteru, akirameru]。。。 To throw away,To give up
自制心から自由になる、自分を解き放つ[jiseishin kara jiyuu ni naru, jibun wo tokihanatsu]。。。 To free oneself
どれもこれも本当のことを表します。
Each and every one of which speaks the truth (doh)
こんな「Letting go」の経験があるでしょうか？
I wonder if you’ve ever had this kind of ‘letting go’ experience?
例えば:
For example:
（一）物事がうまくいかない場合、自分とほかの誰を責める代わりに、「まあ、しょうがない」を考えて、改めて新しい始まりをします。
When things go wrong, instead of blaming yourself or other people, just think/tell yourself “Well, can’t be helped”, and start anew.
（二）失恋した時、「自分は何かをするべきだった」とか、「もう少し時間があったらできたと思う」とか、「時間を戻すことができればこんなこととする・しないか」。。。「もし～だったらどうなるか」という”What ifs”を考える代わりに、「しょうがない、神様の意志ではなかった」を考えて、諦めます。そして、感情的なお荷物を運ぶより、自分の経験から学んで、成長します。
When you experience heartbreak(s), instead of thinking “I should’ve done something about it”, “It would’ve been possible if only I had more time”, or that “If only I can turn back time I would’ve done this / wouldn’t have done that”, instead of thinking of any other “What ifs”, simply resign and tell yourself, “It can’t be helped, perhaps this wasn’t the will of the Lord / wasn’t meant to be” — bringing with you not ‘emotional baggage’ but rather learnings from the said experience, and be able to grow in the process.
頑張ってるより、簡単に諦める方がいいという訳ではない。最後まで一生懸命やり遂げる方がいい場合もあります。でも、手放すする方がいい場合もある。
Not to say that we should just give up instead of doing our best in what we do; there are times when we should exert utmost effort to finish what we’ve started, but then we’d have to understand that there are also times when the best thing to do is to not really do anything, and just let go.
「letting go」はもちろん簡単ではない。大抵、私達は「何かできるはずだ」そして「できないはずはない」を考えます。それにしても、手放す/let go が必要だ。
It’s not easy to let go of course. More often than not we’d like to think, “there has to be something I can do about this”, “there’s no way there’s nothing else I can do about this”. But we need to let go… we have to.
手放す戦った後のみ、重責から解放して、自由になる。そして、強くなる。生き返った気分でありながら、新たな困難に直面する覚悟を持ってます。
It’s only after the hard-fought struggle with letting go that we’d be freed from the heavy burden we’re carrying, and be stronger in the process. We’d feel alive/reborn/refreshed, ready to face new challenges ahead.
そういえば、今朝私達は明日マニラに帰ることになる、と上司がおっしゃってました。また新しい「Letting go」の経験です。心残りが少しあります。ほかの同輩達と話す機会がほとんどなくて、話す機会も作らなかった。「Team Building活動があるといいなぁ」と時々思います。
Speaking of which, earlier this morning we were told that we’re going back to Manila tomorrow, and this is once again, another ‘letting go’ for me. I have a few regrets during my stay here, I never had the chance to talk to most people in the group, and I never really did make those opportunities myself. I also thought that it would’ve been great if we had a teambuilding activity, but alas 
*sigh*
Oh well, such is life… have to ‘let go’~
(adlib in English yeah…)
人生は、問題と解決の繰り返し（のサイクル）だといいます。そして、頑張ると「Letting go」の繰り返しだと言っていい。
Life is said to be a repetitive cycle of problems and resolutions. I guess we can also say it’s a cycle of ‘doing your best/hanging on’ and ‘letting go’.
And now, for something random and cheesy (something I found in alc as I was looking up words/phrases for my speech):
より楽な愛を選び、困難な愛をあきらめるのは何も悪いことではありません。
There is nothing wrong with choosing a less draining love and letting go of a tough one.
- end of speech -
…and that’s about it
I was looking at my audience as I shared about this, and was glad to see people nodding in response, or going “ouch” or other responses that’s enough to tell you it struck a chord with them. It was OZM desu 
Funny thing is, there’s this “letting go meme” that was born out of my speech, as people were using the “let go” phrase in a whole lot of different contexts, as tongue-in-cheek lulz. Later in the afternoon, our superiors gave us a mini farewell party, the invitation email to which read as: “In response to the call to let go, we’re gonna have a pizza chow time later in the pantry, to ‘let go’ of our teammates who will be going back to Manila”
One of my colleagues thanked me for the speech during our pizza chow time, and I can only hope they really appreciated it!
Credits to もか and あとり for the wonderful images
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