Chapter 45. [Blue Qualia]

“Umm, ‘I can’t read the QR code…’, isn’t it?”

“Ah. ……Ah, ah, hahaha, oh no, no! There’s no way you can even read the QR code. No matter how often you see it.”

>Hou.

>I’m surprised.

>I thought it might be possible with Iroha-chan. www

“Um, and better yet, Japanese is good too! The fact that the letters get divided into hiragana, katakana, and kanji makes it easy to read diagonally! Even if you only follow the kanji with dots, you can pick up the keywords and summarize them.”

“Yes, that’s right! It’s Japanese, after all!”

“In some languages, even if you understand the language, it may be difficult to pronounce it because of the difference in how to use the throat. And above all, I think the ‘qualia’ is different.”

I took a step.

One of the participating VTubers tilted his head at the unfamiliar word.

“Qualia?”

“How to explain this is a matter of opinion, but in this case, it can be described as culture or subjectivity.”

“Culture? The color of traffic lights is also called differently in different countries. In Japan, there’s a culture of calling green signals blue, right? In my home country, England, they call yellow traffic lights amber.”

“If you ask me, why do they call it a ‘blue’ signal?”

The moderator VTuber said, “Oh, that one?”.

She seems to know a lot of trivia due to her frequent projects.

“Was it because they wrote ‘blue light’ instead of ‘green light’ in the newspaper? I heard there are many other theories.”

“I see. I think the custom of calling the Japanese cultural green all together as blue also had an impact. To be more precise, ‘there was no concept of green in Japan’.”

“Oh, wow! There was no green?”

“It was a long time ago. Originally, there were only four colors in Japanese: white, black, red, and blue. That’s why green is also included in blue. That’s what the language still has today. [blue apple], [blue juice], [blue leaves], [blue lush], etc.”

“Wow, they’re all blue!”

“I’m getting pretty off track, aren’t I?”

“Go on, go on! That’s the kind of story I wanted to hear. That’s why I made this project!”

“Thank you very much. Then, please don’t hesitate. I have a question. Is it–‘Do perceptions make words or do words make perceptions’?”

“……? What do you mean by that?”

“In Japanese, for example, there is only one word for ‘blue’. But in Russian, there are two words for blue. And strangely enough, the Russians could “distinguish” the color blue.

“Wow! That’s amazing! Does that mean the ability to perceive changes depending on the language?”

Chickens first or eggs first?

I don’t know, but it’s true.

“In the other Guugu Yimithirr languages used in Australia, there are no words for the front, back, left, right, or right. Instead, everything is expressed with north, south, east, and west. …In other words, they have a special ability.”

“Wow, that’s super amazing! I always get lost, so I want that!”

“That’s right. I intuitively judge from the sun’s direction, but I don’t have that ability either. In other languages, depending on the thing, numbers don’t exist. So if it’s 3 and 4, it’s still good, but when it comes to 5 or 6, it seems they can’t distinguish the number of things.”

“You can’t live like that!?”

“In a capitalist society, yes. But in the first place, babies only recognize numbers up to 3. Me, you, and more.”

>Babies can count to 3?

>Are you smarter than Achishi?

>How did you find that out?

>Babies have a habit of staring at things they see for the first time, so it seems they investigated that.

“In the end, even if I try to use the language completely, I can’t use it if I haven’t mastered the culture. The only language I can essentially use properly is Japanese, after all.”

“Is that what you mean by qualia?”

“That’s how I see it.”

Is it language first or recognition first?

In other words, I think language is the “resolution” of things.

Suppose there are black and white.

How much of this is white, and how much is black?

Is it right in the middle?

No, no, the middle is gray, right?

That’s right.

Then what is the border between white and gray? What is the border between gray and black?

Don’t you see? I think it’s the qualia formed by language.

“Yeah. When I change the language I use. Sometimes, I get influenced by the culture and values of that country. So what you just said made a lot of sense to me. But then again, Iroha-chan is a very special person.”

“Huh?”

“Iroha-chan still seems to have only the qualia of a Japanese person. If I use a metaphor, yes, it would be – like a monolingual.

The sharp question took my breath away.

And that’s exactly the kind of point I was looking for.

“When we speak the language, we do a …… ‘brain switch,’ how should I say it, but you seem to be very constant.”

It’s called the English brain.

Instead of thinking in Japanese and speaking in English, he thought in English and speaks in English.

“Usually, though, people change their characters when they change languages.”

When Japanese people use English, their reactions become over the top. They lean toward a cheerful, upbeat character.

That’s what he means.

I was surprised when he pointed this out to me.

What language am I thinking of right now?

Is this Japanese? Or is it ……?

The answer was still not in my head.

＊　　＊　　＊

And so time passes.

Autumn is over, and winter is coming.

Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day.

The months passed in the blink of an eye.

Then comes February. The month of the battle comes.

I am not talking about Valentine’s Day.

–The entrance examinations begin.