A子：「ねえ、どうしてスコア書いてるの？このボーリング場、スコアは自動的についてくるのよ」
B子：「私、自分でスコア数えるの好きなの」
A子：「そんなの、二重手間じゃない？」
Nijuudema
(Booringujoo de)
A ko: Nee, dooshite sukoa kaiteru no? Kono booringujoo, sukoa wa jidooteki ni tsuite kuru no yo.
B ko: Watashi, jibun de sukoa kazoeru no suki na no.
A ko: Sonna no, nijuudemaja nai?
(At a bowling alley)
Girl A: Hey, why are you writing up the score? This bowling alley keeps track of your score automatically.
Girl B: I just like to keep score myself, that's all.
Girl A: We don't really need both you and the machine keeping score, do we?
* * *
Nijudema means to do twice what could just as easily be done once; to take twice as long as is really necessary.
Though Japan's bowling boom ended some 20 years ago and the sport is hardly as fashionable as it once was, it's nevertheless still a popular sport among young people. Every town, no matter how small, seems to have a bowling alley nearby. These days one's score is automatically projected onto a large screen so that when you bowl a strike or a spare, the whole screen lights up a bright red. This can't help but make bowlers happy. A score sheet is also automatically produced at the end of each game. Girl B still diligently calculates the score herself. Tashika ni nijudema desu (She's definitely doubling the labor
involved. )
Everything seems to be automatic these days. A ko no iu yo ni tema ga kakaranaku natta (Just as Girl A says-things no longer take very long. ) With the score automatically calculated, waiting time is reduced, customer turn-around is increased, and the time it takes to play shortened. Bowling alleys are able to use each lane more efficiently and profitably.
The tendency for subete no koto ni tema ga kakaranaku natte kiteiru (everything to take less and less time) is not, of course, limited to bowling alleys.
We take it for granted now that taxi doors will open and close automatically and that light switches will be accessible as soon as we walk into a room. Indeed, perhaps it's time to start thinking about ningen wa nani ni tema wo kakerubeki na no ka (what things we humans ought to be taking our time at) In this regard, I think I can understand what people like Girl B are feeling when they go out of their way to expend double the effort knowing full well that that is what they're doing (wazawaza nijudema to shirinagara tema wo kakeru hito.)
One finds that this desire to "double-check" causes people in various situations to act in much the same way as Girl B. Think for a moment about the girl behind the counter at your local bank. Have you every noticed how after using a calculator she'll then check the figure using an abacus? Though one might think it should be the other way round (1), kore nado akiraka ni nijudema no tenkei desho (this is nevertheless a clear example of an unnecessary sort of double-checking.)
Every morning my mother does the same thing--afler using a duster to dust the shoji and fusuma ( as was done years ago), she then vacuums the room with a vacuum cleaner. She explains to us every morning.
"If I don't do it this way, I just don't feel like I've done the cleaning. Nijudema to wakatte iru'n desu kedo..." ("I know I'm just doubling the amount of work:, but...")
Most of us, of course, will often unconsciously do the same thing twice. I sometimes use the same idiom twice, for example. Nijudema wo kakete shimau koto mo yoku arimasu (I often expand twice as much energy and time doing something than I really need to.)