Episode 22: My Favorite Writer
Weekend English Club
Hello 大家好！国庆假期临近结束了，大家过得怎么样呢？这一期我们来聊一下我们主播 Daniel 最喜爱的作家 -- 夏目漱石。希望可以对你们用英语表达自己最喜爱的作家有所启发！
Hello everyone and welcome to episode 22 of Weekend English Club. Here in the Netherlands the autumn weather has really arrived and it's starting to get colder, which makes it a good time for staying inside and reading a book. With that in mind, today I want to tell you about my favorite writer: Natsume Soseki.
Natsume Soseki was born in 1867 in what is now Tokyo, the capital of Japan. While he was still in school he fell in love with Chinese literature and started to feel like one day he might become a writer. Eventually he studied English literature and became a teacher, while also publishing poetry on the side. The government even gave him the chance to be one of the first Japanese people to travel to England to study there, and although he did not enjoy living there he did develop his understanding of English literature even more.
He took all this knowledge back to Japan and in 1903 his career as a writer really began. I really like one of his first books, called I Am a Cat in English. It is a pretty long book and the whole story is told by a cat living in the house of a teacher, and he always thinks about the behavior of humans he sees. What I like about it is that Natsume Soseki kind of uses the cat to criticize silly habits and behaviors of humans through the eyes of someone who is not a human. It is a funny book and really made me think about human behavior sometimes. This is actually something I really like about all his books, that he uses his stories to really make you think about human behavior and the way we experience our lives.
His style of writing is often very beautiful, and even though I am sure his books are even better in Japanese, I still love the English translations I read. He has a way of describing emotions such as love and sadness in a way which really makes me feel a connection with his stories. I think some of the things he writes about are easier to understand when you are a bit older and have experienced similar things yourself, but this is also what makes them such good stories.
My favorite novel is called Kokoro, which means heart, and was also written by Natsume Soseki. It is a story that talks about life, relationships and sadness, and the first time I read it it made me very emotional. I think because of this, Natsume Soseki is really my favorite writer.
To this day Natsume Soseki is still one of the most famous and important writers in Japan and almost everyone there will know at least one of his books. I wonder if some of you have read his stories, and if not, I hope you might become curious to read something he wrote.
* Tokyo：东京
* Fall in love with：爱上
* Eventually：最终
* Understanding：了解，认识；理解
* Career：事业，职业
* Behavior：行为
* Criticize：批评，指责
* Translations：翻译（复数）
* Emotions：情感，情绪（复数）
* Sadness：悲伤
* Connection：关系，联系；连接
* Emotional：情绪激动的；情感的
* At least：至少
* Curious：好奇的
主播：Daniel
校对：nan_nan
