網の目のある惑星。 おーい、 と呼びかけてみよう。

こちらが原文。 ＊英語をぱしぱし使いこなしている方々へ＊ 「おいおいおい」という“つっこみ”どころ、 多々ありましょう。ごもっともでございます。 タニンの英語のスキルアップに貢献して下さる、 キトクなあなた！ 御指摘、赤ペン添削、ありがたく受け付けます。 こちらまで。 ---------------------------------------------- Hi Mika! Thank you very much for writing again. I did not realize we were in the newspapers in Japan. Anyway, thanks for the questions; I've included answers below. > Dear Ali, > > i'm very happy to say "hi :-)" to you again. > > well, > your site "nameTheDecade.com" was also given the > headlines in the japanese 'real' newspapers, > you know? > last year, > japanese mass media had so much attention to > "Y2K" bug concerns, > but they hardly directed their attention to this > topic; > how do we call "next decade" ? > of course, the general public,too !! > so your site impacted on me ;-) > but maybe we come to the reluctant conclusion > that we Japanese cannot directly use the name > because of not using English... > By the way, we become aware that we can see lots > of things in the "wider" world by using INTERNET. > i hope that readers of our site will also enjoy this > site. > i'd like to recommend THIS site to our readers. > > > All right, let's begin the interview via "internet". > Ready? > Q1// > first of all, > Why did you start this site? Answer: The idea started out very innocently. My friend Alan Shusterman and myself were having lunch back in early November, barely two months ago. We were discussing the new Millennium and all the hype there is around Y2K, and suddenly we realized that we didn't have a word to refer to the next era. The past decades have all had simple words like "the eighties" or "the nineties" to name the period, but there is no good English word to describe the next decade -- except perhaps the zeros. Well, we didn't feel good about "the zeros" -- we didn't want to be living in the zeros, listening to music of the zeros, and wearing the fashions of the zeros, for the next ten years! So, we thought somebody should help find a better name. We thought about it, and realized that there probably wasn't an official entity designated to make this decision. It didn't feel right to have the U.S. government, or any government, for that matter, decide this without giving the people a chance to voice their opinions. So, we thought it would be a perfect thing to do over the web, via a democratic vote. > Q2// > up to the present, how many people did "VOTE" for > this campaign ? Answer: Over 100,000 people have visited the site to vote since we launched in mid November. > Q3// > When are you going to declare the poll; the "next > decade" name? Answer: We've just recently announced the leading candidates in a press release (I'll send you a copy). We are planning on keeping the vote open until January 30th. > Q4// > How do you place the name, > which will be selected for? > For example, > are you going to holding a big celebration party > of _the name_ ;-) ? Answer: Well, we hadn't thought of a big celebration party, but since you mention it, maybe we'll do it! After all, it's always a good idea to have a party :) Our plan so far has been pretty simple: once we close the vote, we will call upon the help of all the thousands of people who helped us by voting -- we will send them the name, and ask them to tell their friends, and to start using the name. We'll announce the name to the press as well, and we'll hope that the name will start being used by the mainstream television, radio, and newspaper channels. > Q5// > Could you please tell us the name which is popular > among you all staffs, > if it's all right with you? > THAT is top secret??? Answer: Well, to avoid being biased, we try not to have a personal favorite. The only thing is, we'd be happier if it doesn't end up being "the zeros"! By the way, we don't really have a "staff" -- we are not a company, just a few friends who decided to spend some time and money making this happen, because we thought it would be a fun thing to do and something that might have an impact. > Q6// > Many japanese people, whom you never met, 　 > maybe, > is going to visit your site -just we hope they will. > is there a message for them? Answer: Well, we'd love as many people as possible to participate in the vote, and to tell their friends about it as well. We can only succeed with the help of thousands of individual people, like your readers. We care about what they think and their opinion will count if they vote. > Q7// > This is a last question. > What is the latest your favorite site -except your > own site? > Please tell us? Answer: Hmmm... my favorite site has always been Yahoo!, but I suppose it's not very creative to name that as my favorite. I don't know what to say. I have recently created another site myself, www.shusterbabies.com, which is the web site for my rock band (I play guitar and sing some of the vocals). I hope you visit it -- you can download our songs for free. Hopefully you'll like the music, but the web site itself is not very creative. > > > The interview is over. > > Finally, > thank you for your joining our site's project, > and your cooperation. > > We hope that this is a opportunity to create > a friendship between your site and our readers. Sincerely, Ali

2000-02-02-WED

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