The passage is descriptive and touching. I work with speakers of English who are from all corners of the world. The phrases they construct often make me see and think about a subject in a new light. Sometimes they are translating literally what a person from that culture would say in a similar circumstance or about the specific topic. I think word choice gives insights into the speakers' cultures...if one just listens.

IMHO, oneof the problems learners of English must have is that there just *is* no way on English to express some of the concepts in their first languages. For instance:

"... the place which builds poetry for the beautiful yard with a view calmly from ancient times here"

(I think) I know just what the writer means, but doubt that I could express it in fully standard English even if I tried for a year (nor would I ever even have thought of this concept, if the writer and Herb had not brought it to me).

It makes me wonder whether, once an non-native speaker becomes fluent with standard English, they just give up trying to express things like this in it at all.

- Evelyn

Evelyn,

I very much doubt I could express it adequately in English either. But I bet Shakespeare could have come pretty close to it.

Herb

I think it sounds nice because it sounds sincere.

But if that person lived in an English-speaking country they'd encounter many problems because of their limited English skills.

Some friends in Japan speak this way and usually have no problem communicating their thoughts or requests. Interestingly enough, consumption of sake has been shown to improve both Japanese English and American Japanese!

Please to have open mind for in order to comprehend on such occasion. : )

All of language is an obstacle ... words are "limatations and qualifications" ... when we are new to a language we are not bound by it ... we fumble and create .. when we master it .. we become rigid in it's application.

Poets can break from the rules of a language .. perhaps .. but a gardener works without language ... a garden is not limited by boundaries.

Good Day ...

The Mohaved Kid, you are philosophical and remind me to Socrates, and later on to Immanuel Kant.

Words are symbols, i.e. substitutes, of the reality which appears to us, not the way around (Kant). Socrates was(is) sure that truth and wisdom canÂt be replaced by words, hence he refused(s) to write a single word because writing and reading mislead us further from truth. Lao Tze, Descartes, and Jezus Christ did the same. Lao Tze was forced to write down his philosophy in order to die peacefully. Descartes wrote down his philosophy, but this had to be read after his death. Jezus never wrote a word.

From Kant we learned that the truth of the reality is inside our heads, not outside there. We can not grasp fully the reality as a objective "ding anzich". We are living in the Phaenomena, and know nothing or very little about the Noumena, the real world (do you hear Plato here ?). Hence, "beauty is always in the eye of the beholder". ThatÂs fine, letÂs just talk about the Noumena than. We are not even looking at the Phaenomena. Now, can we communicate feeling ? Can you know what I feel when I look at a garden and I sniff itÂs atmospheer for example ? Can you express your feeling in words ? Are you satisfied with the results ?

IÂve read that Japanese has a rich vocabulary of what David Slawson called "feeling tones". In his specific case, I think, for rocks and stones. He mentioned Japanese words like: aware, okashi, yugen, sabi. Is it possible to describe these feeling tones in English ? Who dares ?