木村：息子さん、私立の小学校受験なさるそうね。
加藤：ええ、でも並大抵の努力じゃ受かりそうもないわ。
Nami Taitei
Kimura: Musuko san shiritsu no shoogakkoo juken nasaru soo ne.
Kato: Ee. Demo nami taitei no doryoku ja, ukarisoo mo naiwa.
Mrs. Kimura: I hearyour son is going totake the entrance exam for a private elementary school.
Mrs. Kato: Yes, but since it takes more than ordinary effort to pass, it doesn't look like he'll make it.
* * *
Nami taitei as used above carries the negative
meaning that something can't be done with just an ordinary amount of effort. Made up of nami (the most ordinary) and nami taitei is then, "the greater part of
the most ordinary."
I turned on the TV the other day and was surprised to see that one of my daughter's grammar school teachers was on the news; the media had covered a public lecture titled "The Role of Parents in Helping Their Children Gain Entrance to Famous Elementary School" in which he had participated. Famous private elementary schools it turns out not only require children to take an entrance exam but also require that parent(s) be interviewed. The lecture had been geared at helping parents prepare for their interviews. And it all reminded me of when my own daughter was trying to enter school and I had to go alone to the interview because my husband couldn't get off from work. I still remember how disheartening it was to see a number of couples sitting in their best clothes in the waiting room; a friend had said that no one passed unless both parents came to the interview.
Fortunately for my daughter, my friend was wrong and somehow or other she did get accepted.
Even though a friend praised my daughter with, "Sore demo ukatta nante nami taitei no atama ja nai" ("If you got accepted even after that, then you're no ordinary student"), I don't think 6-year-olds differ that much in intelligence. Indeed, if anyone deserved praise it was me for having passed my interview!
Though I really didn't do anything to help my daughter prepare for her exams, I still feel sympathetic whenever I see parents and children preparing for their interviews. After all, "Shiken ni ukaru no mo nami taitei no kuroo de wa nai" ("Passing exams requires more than just ordinary hard work").
I recently said to a British friend, "I don't think we can really tell a child's ability by giving an exam at age six," to which he replied, "Be that as it may, I still think the exams should be given." It turns out that when this young British lawye's wife was four months pregnant, the couple went to see a doctor to find out the child's sex. They wanted to reserve the baby a place in the eminent public (fee-paying) Harrow School if it turned out to be a boy! Do children whose schools are chosen before they're born really consider themselves lucky? Clearly, nami taitei no katei de wa harozu ni irenai (ordinary families do not put their children in Harrow School). It looks like Britain's class system might remain unchanged into the next century.
The TV is still broadcasting scenes of students preparing for interviews. They are being taught that it is better to answer in a way which pleases the questioner rather than answer truthfully. Whether it's passing an employment exam or winning a presidential television debate, it seems success is more and more simply the result of practice.
Nami taitei no koto de wa shakai no shikumi wa kawari so ni nai (It looks like society is not about to be changed by anything ordinary).