Look Ma! I can translate
Right, translation time. Here it goes, first the original Japanese text. Everyone out there who can’t read Japanese just marvel at the complexity and my inherent brilliance at being able to understand it before skipping to my English version. This article is all about coffee by the way.
コーヒーは今から２００年ぐらい前にオランダ人が日本へ持って来ました。明治時代の初めまでコーヒーを飲む人は少なかったですが、今日本人は1年に1人３００杯ぐらいコーヒーをのみます。ところで、コーヒーは体に悪いと思っている人はいませんか？。じつはコーヒーはいろいろいい働きがあります。
まず疲れたとき、眠いけど仕事や勉強をしなければならにとき、コーヒーを飲むと元気になります。頭の働きがよくなります。日本の大学でコーヒーの働きについて調べたことがあります。トラックの運転手が長い時間車を運転してから、簡単なけいさんをしました。眠かったですから、まちがいがたくさんありまっした。コーヒーを飲んでから、もう一度計算をしました。まちがいは少なくなりました。次にコーヒーを飲むとリラックスすることができます。ですからわたしたちは喫茶店で友達と話すとき、よくコーヒーを飲みます
また熱いコーヒーを飲むと体が暖かくなります。コーヒー１杯は2分のジョギングと同じ働きをします。
皆さんちょっと休んで、コーヒーで飲みませんか。
Coffee was brought to Japan by the Dutch about 200 years ago. In the beginning of the Meiji Period* there weren’t many coffee drinkers but now on average one Japanese person drinks about 300 cups of coffee per year. By the way, are there any people here who think coffee is unhealthy? The truth is that coffee has many beneficial effects.
First when you are tired and sleepy but have work or studying to do; drink some coffee and you become more energetic. The beneficial effects on the head are many. At a Japanese university** they have a lot of experience talking about coffee. After truck drivers spent a lot of time driving they did some simple mathematical calculations. Because they were tired they made many mistakes. After drinking some coffee they did another set of calculations. The number of mistakes decreased. Next it helps you to relax. This is why when we talk with friends in a cafe we often drink coffee.
And when we drink hot coffee our bodies become warmer. One cup of coffee has the same effect as two minutes of jogging.
Everyone, why not take a little break and have a cup of coffee.
* About 1868-1912. Read more about it here, ** Unnamed
Phew, it is very hard to type Japanese when you aren’t totally up to speed on it. You have to recheck every Kanji that the computer changes the normal characters to. I have to say, though, that the computer is almost always right.
There was only one time when the Kanji wasn’t what I wanted (and I hadn’t made a spelling mistake which confuses the computer). I tip my hat to whoever programmed the Kanji conversion algorithms.
