Mr. Kishida Should Use Adverbs Less 岸田さん、しっかりしてください

英語の後に日本語が続きます。I've been irritated by a Japanese word recently. The term is "しっかり (shikkari)," which is so convenient that you can use it to mean various things without specifying what it really means as shown below.  

• しっかり検討いたします。I'll consider it carefully/thoroughly.
• 手をしっかり握ってください。Hold our hands tightly/firmly.
• 彼はしっかりしている。He's reliable.
• その少女は年の割にしっかりしている。The girl is mature for her age.

See? The term "shikkari" is so versatile that it can mean "carefully," "thoroughly," "tightly," "firmly," "reliable," and "mature" or it means NOTHING! 

Because of its various or useless functions, however, Japanese politicians utter "shikkari" too often in their speeches, and that has irritated me. A case in point is Prime Minister Kishida, who reportedly used this term at the lower house plenary session on June 9 this year at least 1,805 times (in a day!).   

According to "Nabokov's Favorite Word is Mauve" by Ben Blatt or a data journalist, "books which had less than 50 adverbs in every 10,000 words were considered 'great' by critics two-thirds of the time." This data is about literature, but the same applies to politics, doesn't it? How can you believe that politicians using "shikkari," which means many things or rather nothing, that often can mean what they say and get things done? 

Another usage of "shikkari" is "しっかりしろ," meaning that "get one's act together"! I want to say to Mr. Kishida, "Shikkari shiro!" or "Get your act together"!!

P.S.

I counted the number of adverbs in this post and found three adverbs (excluding those used in example sentences) out of 212 words or 1.4%, far more than 50 out of 10,000 words (0.5%)😱! 

最近政治家がよく口にする「しっかりと」や「丁寧に」にイラっときていたので、ググったらなんと、6月9日の衆院本会議で岸田首相は「しっかり」という言葉を少なくとも1,805回使ったそうです。

アメリカのデータジャーナリストの Ben Blatt 氏の書いた「Nabokov's Favorite Word is Mauve」という本によると、1万語に含まれる副詞の数が50個より少ない本のうち、3分の2は「素晴らしい」本とされ、副詞の数が増えるほどその割合は減るとのこと。

政治家も同じではないでしょうか。「しっかり（＝副詞）」を1日に1,805回以上使うような政治家が本気で発言している、何かを成し遂げるとは思えません。しっかりしてほしいのはあなたですよ。岸田さん。

P.S.

自分の書いた英文に含まれる副詞の数を数えたら、212ワード中、3語（例文中の副詞は除きます。）でした。Ben Blatt 氏のいう1万語中50語（0.5%）よりはるかに多い～😱！

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