木村：会社の社員寮を留学生に開放してほしいと言われているんですよ。
部長：前向きに考えてはどうだろう。留学生にとっても社員にとっても、良いことだと思うので。
Maemuki ni kangaeru
Kimura: Kaisha no shain-ryoo wo ryuugakusei ni kaihoo shite hoshii to iwarete iru n 'desu yo.
Buchoo: Maemuki ni kangaete wa doo daroo. Ryuugakusei ni totte mo shain ni totte mo, yoi koto da to omou no de.
Kimura: I've got someone asking if we'll let rooms in the company dormitory to foreign students.
Boss: Why not look at it positively; it would be good for the foreign students and good for our employees, too
Maemuki ni kangaeru means to think about something in a positive or constructive way.
Actually, I don't really like this expression. When politicians want to avoid giving a direct "yes" in answer to a question, they often escape the issue by using this phrase. In the dialogue above, however, we can tell from the way the boss uses the words,...kangaete wa do daro, that unlike the way the government uses it in news announcements, he is genuine in his attitude.
About 200 Japanese companies are letting out rooms in their dormitories to foreign students, and 790 students from 90 different universities are now living in company dormitories.
In the words of one company boss, "Shain-ryoo wo ryuugakusei ni kaihoo suru no wa, kokusai-kooken wo maemuki ni kangaeta kekka desu (Opening company dormitories to foreign students is the result of thinking constructively about how we can contribute to international relations).
"It's good for employees to share meals and baths with the foreign students. It fosters a closer, more intimate relationship, and they get to know the customs of other countries," he says. Kare wa maemuki no kangaekata wo suru hito da (He has a good, positive attitude).
A common attitude in Japan often seems to be that "foreigners don't follow Japanese rules of disposing of their garbage, and they're not willing tojoin in and help with the communal cleaning; that's why we see them as a problem."
I wish people would give up this narrow-minded way of thinking.
Foreigners are quite capable of separating their garbage into burnables and non-burnables. And once they understand the rules of communal cleaning, they'll join in and help, too. I'd like to see more and more companies opening their dormitories to foreign students.
Maemuki ni kangaereba, samazama na koto ga kanoo ni naru (Anything is possible if we approach things constructively). Let us try and use this expression in a different sense than politicians use it.