'IF'

now the word 'if' is quite a powerful word, i think we all underestimate the significance of this small 2 lettered word... for example, 'if president bush launches a nuclear attack on iran, we will have world war 3'. imagine the consequences of deleting the word 'if' from that sentence, it would be the difference between a hypothetical political discussion point and having a full blown global nuclear war culminating in the destruction of the entire human race, quite a significant detail you would imagine.

i only mention this as i received a lovely card from my japanese sensei today. i have been taking japanese lessons now since september, twice a week for a couple of hours a time...after a long day at work...and in the city, so quite an effort i can tell you. anyway, we finished our course last week, hence the card from our sensei. now something i have found in asia, is when someone leaves a job, they write an email around saying thanks blah blah blah, and always 'if i have offended anyone, i sincerely regret it...' kinda a nice sentiment i think...

anyway, back to my point (albeit a laboured one), inside the card from my sensei was the text as shown in the photo, all very nice and typically japanese politeness. the sentence that started this rather long and quite possible now pointless blog entry, was the one that reads 'i wanted to help your japanese life through the studying japanese language - because i am a japanese language teacher, however, i couldnt help you much, i regret it'.

now, i have been thinking a lot about this (slow work week), and i am personally convinced that she meant to write 'IF i couldnt help you much, i regret it'. other wise, it reads like i was completely useless in my japanese lessons, and she regrets not being able to teach me a thing..i mean, im not fluent, but i can get around, and havent starved to death yet... im sure she meant to write IF in that sentence but missed it by mistake or translation error (her enrish is not all that great to be fair)

so the card is either a thanks for attending her lessons, or a complete derogatory slur on my nihongo abilities....

not quite as significant as total global destruction...but not far off in my book...