木村：今度入って果た吉田さんは、頭の良い女性ですね。
加藤：まさに、打てば響くという感じですね。
木村：彼女はA女子大学の生徒会長をしていたそうですよ。
Uteba hibiku
Kimura: Kondo haitte kita Yoshida-san wa, atama no yoijosei desune.
Kato: Masani, uteba hibiku to iu kanji desu ne.
Kimura: Kanojo wa "Ei"joshi daigaku no seito-kaichoo wo shite ita so desu yo.
Kimura: That Ms. Yoshida, who joined us recently, seems like a bright woman.
Kato: Yes, you definitely get the impression that she's on the ball, don't you?
Kimura: Apparently, she was the head of the student council at "A" University.
The expression uteba hibiku, meaning bright, quick-witted, sharp, and quick to react, is used to describe a character of a person on the ball.
The U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton, as a competent attendant and partner to President Bill Clinton, is very much in the American spotlight at the moment. People who have met her say that kanojo wa uteba hibiku yoo na henji wo kaeshite yokosu. (she is al- ways on the ball and ready with a quick intelligent response.)
Apparently, she was educated at Wellesley College, one of the top women's colleges in the United States. In Japan there are plenty of women's colleges, but many of the students who go to women's rather than co-ed schools have traditionally been viewed as hakoiri musume (girls who have had a sheltered upbringing).
They have been kept wrapped in cotton wool probably because their parents, who are concerned about their daughters' integrity, are unwilling to approve their association with the opposite sex before marriage. Recently though, this parental attitude has begun to change.
At co-ed colleges, the women always seem to end up taking a subordinate role to the men. Uteba hibiku yo na taipu no hito demo, hatsugen no ba ga kagirarete shimau. (Even for the quick-witted women, oooortunities to speak out are limited.) It of- ten happens that the post of chairperson in a student committee is assigned only to male students and female students have to make do with the position of vice-chairperson.
At women's colleges, however, all of the leading roles have to be played by women. Such women-dominated circumstances are much more likely to foster the growth of atamano haiten ga hayaku, uteba hibiku yoo najosei (a quick-minded and very responsive woman), like Hillary Clinton.
Perhaps in the near future, we may see an increase in the number of women in Japan with this degree of sophistication.