Technical information

Some of you are having trouble putting the audio and video files I have made into your smart phones and portable listening devices.  These web sites should help with two problems I have heard about.

• Using an iPod with more than one computer
• Playing mp4 files on an Android smart phone

Reasonable doubt

Download the audio (right click)
Download the video (right click)
Download the text (right click)

The first movie we will study in this class is called "12 Angry Men." It came out in 1957 and shows how 12 men decide whether or not a 17 year old boy is guilty of the crime of murder.

I'd like to begin by talking about the some of the judge's instructions to the jury at the beginning of the movie.

You've listened to the testimony. You've had the law read to you and interpreted as it applies in this case. It's now your duty to sit down and try and separate the facts from the fancy.

Now, let's look at each sentence.

You've listened to the testimony.

"You've listened to the testimony." The judge is not speaking very clearly here. He sounds a little bored. I think he must be saying "You've listened to the testimony" but I can't hear him say "you've." The Longman English Dictionary says that the word "testimony" means "a formal statement that something is true." When people speak in a court of law about what happened in a case like this one, their speech is called "testimony." One important job of a juror is to listen to testimony.

You've had the law read to you and interpreted as it applies in this case.

"You've had the law read to you and interpreted as it applies in this case." Ordinary people become jurors. Unlike judges and lawyers, they are not experts on the law but they must make very important decisions based on the law. It is the job of the judge to make sure that the jurors have had the relevant laws read to them and that the laws have been explained properly. The jury system is based on the idea that, in a democracy, ordinary citizens are smart enough to understand the laws. In other words, ordinary citizens may not have broad knowledge of the law but they have the ability to understand the laws if they are explained properly.

It's now your duty to sit down and try and separate the facts from the fancy.

"It's now your duty to sit down and try and separate the facts from the fancy." A duty is something that someone must do. Longman says that it is "something that you have to do because it is morally or legally right." "Fancy" is something that is imagined but is not true. Longman says that fancy means "an idea or opinion that is not based on fact." So, in other words, the jurors must sit down and decide what is true and what is not true.

Now, let's listen to this part of the judge's instructions again.

You've listened to the testimony. You've had the law read to you and interpreted as it applies in this case. It's now your duty to sit down and try and separate the facts from the fancy.

Soon after this the judge tells the jurors that they must make their decision on the basis of "reasonable doubt."

If there's a reasonable doubt in your minds as to the guilt of the accused -- a reasonable doubt -- then you must bring me a verdict of not guilty. Now if, however, there's no reasonable doubt, then you must in, good conscience, find the accused guilty.

"If there's a reasonable doubt in your minds as to the guilt of the accused -- a reasonable doubt -- then you must bring me a verdict of not guilty." Longman says that "doubt" is "a feeling of being not sure whether something is true or right." The phrase "not sure" is important. Even if we think that it is likely that something happened, we may still have some doubts about it. It is also important to think about why we do not feel sure. The judge uses the phrase "reasonable doubt." "Reasonable" is based on the word "reason." If a doubt is "reasonable" there are reasons for it. It is possible to doubt anything. We might doubt, for example, that the sun will come up again tomorrow. However, if we don't have a reason to doubt that the sun will come up, our doubt is not a reasonable one. When the judge says "If there's a reasonable doubt . . . you must bring me a verdict of not guilty" he is saying that the jurors must consider whether or not there is a good reason to think that the boy might not be guilty. This is very different from considering whether or not the boy is probably guilty. This idea of "reasonable doubt" is at the heart of the jury system and this movie. Let's listen to the judge talk about reasonable doubt one more time.

If there's a reasonable doubt in your minds as to the guilt of the accused -- a reasonable doubt -- then you must bring me a verdict of not guilty. If, however, there's no reasonable doubt, then you must in good conscience find the accused guilty.

The "verdict" is the decision that the jurors make. They will either say "guilty" or "not guilty." "The accused" is the boy. He has been accused of murder so he is called "the accused."

Then, the judge tells the jurors that their decision must be unanimous.

However you decide, your verdict must be unanimous.

"However you decide, your verdict must be unanimous." Longman says that "a unanimous decision, vote, agreement etc is one in which all the people involved agree." Everyone must agree. This, too, is a very important idea in the American jury system and in this movie. If one or more people on the jury do not agree with the other jurors they must talk more. The requirement that the decision be unanimous often forces the jurors to talk more than they would if it were only necessary that a majority or the jurors agree. It also makes it harder to find the accused guilty. In order to find the accused guilty, all twelve jurors must agree that there is not a reasonable doubt about the guilt of the accused.

Women jurors

I received this question in an e-mail:

審員の１２人は全員男性でしたが、あれは当時のアメリカの風潮のようなものなのか(男性優位のような)、脚本上の理由なのかが気になって仕方がありません。

Good question!  Here's a simple answer that I found on Answers.com:

Q: Why is the jury all men in 12 Angry men?
A: Because the times dictated that women were not included in juries. Women did not start playing a role in juries until the late 60's.

The movie was made in 1957, before women began to serve on juries.  For more detail about women on juries in America, click here.

Room change

We will meet in Room 1231 next week.

How things work

About Podcastsの最初の文に関する質問がありました。

In this video I try to help you understand what podcasts are and how they work.

この文は２つの内容を一緒にまとめています。

1. In this video I try to help you understand what podcasts are.
2. In this video I try to help you understand how podcasts work.

この投稿では２つ目のworkについて考えてみたいと思います。これは「労働する」という意味ではなく、私のバソコンにある『プログレッシブ英和辞典』で調べると

〈機械器官などが〉働く, 作動する, 有効に作用する［働く］, うまくいく
My stomach is working badly today.｜きょうは胃の調子がよくない
The machine will not work.｜機械がどうしても動かない
This TV works by remote control.｜このテレビはリモコンで操作する.

という定義や例文がhow podcasts workという使い方に一番近いと思います。しかし、近いことは近いけども「how podcasts work」は「podcastの作動」などと言ってもちょっとピンと来ないし、英語のニュアンスと違うと思いますので、Longmanの定義を見てみたいと思います。

 "if a machine or piece of equipment works, it does what it is supposed to do"

この説明を日本語で表現するなら、

機械などがworkする場合には、その機械が「やるべきことをやっている」ということになります

「How 何々works」というのは、どのようにして、その「やるべきことをやる」か、ということです。言い換えれば、「how 何々 works」 というのはその仕組みです。「how podcasts work」を説明することは「podcastの仕組み」を説明することになります。

私のバソコンにある『プログレッシブ英和辞典』には「仕組み」という訳語はworkの項目にありませんし、gooにもworkの訳語として「仕組み」は出てきません。しかし、英辞郎には次のような例文をはじめとして、workを仕組みと訳す例がたくさんあります。

how things work
物事の仕組み

How does the Internet work?
インターネットというのは、どういう仕組みになっているのですか。

英辞郎と通常の簡単な英和事典を比較するなら、英辞郎が断然いいと思います。しかし、「要領のよさ」で言うなら、やはりLongmanの英英辞典だと思います。日本語と英語はまるっきり違う言語なので、１つの英単語でも、状況によっては実にさまざまな日本語に訳されることになります。その関係で、英辞郎には実に多くの訳語が載っています。しかし、基本的な発想・概念で言うなら、そこまで多くはありません。ものなどがworkするというのは「やるべきことをやる」という発想だというのがわかれば、事前にたくさんの和訳を暗記しなくともいいと思います。発想がわかれば、自分で日本の表現を考えれば良いわけです。このような意味で、英英辞典を使うのはたいへんなようですが、実は長い目で見て「楽」だと思います。是非、英英辞典を使うように心がけてほしいと思います。

最後に、このworkの使い方をよりわかりするだめに、The New Way Things Workという本（日本語版は『道具と機械の本』）を紹介したいと思います。

次のようなわかりやすい図でさまざまなものの仕組みを説明する本です。

If you read this book, you will learn how many different things work.

受信／拒否設定

p1nkではじまるメールアドレスからの質問が届きましたが、返信しようとするとメールが戻ってきます。私は携帯でメールのやり取りをしませんので、この学生にどうしたら連絡ができるかがわかりません。私のメールを受信できるように設定を変更してから改めてメールを送ってほしいと思います。なお、ドコモの利用者なら、受信／拒否設定というページが多少参考になるかと思います。

Nothin' at all

Q: フォレストガンプのA4サイズプリント16行目の got nothin' in all のnothin'はnothingの短縮形でしょうか?

A: I made a mistake. I should have written "got nothin' at all". "nothin'" is the same as "nothing" but Forrest didn't pronounce the "g" so it's written "nothin'."

私の打ち間違いがあり、最初は「nothin' in all」と打ってしまいましたが、正しくは「nothin' at all」です。ブログとpdfで訂正しましたが、mp4はまだ訂正できていません。すみません。

nothin'はnothingの"g"の発音がないことを示しています。もちろんnothingが正しいですが、nothin' と言う人がいます。「そうですか」を「そーっすか」と発音するようなことです。