English Translation
Americans spend most of their lives working, being productive.
「生産しながら過ごす」
Is this a common and natural way of saying “being productive”? How does it differ from 「生産的になっている」？
@ericaw
Americans spend most of their lives working, being productive.
The Japanese-English pair doesn’t match. And the Japanese original one sounds very unnatural…
アメリカ人は人生のほとんどを働き、生産しながら過ごす。= “Americans work during most of their lives, and they spend a spare time while producing something.”
生産しながら過ごす suggests that the speaker of this sentence regards Americans as a machine or a chicken to lay eggs :b My alternative translation is:
アメリカ人は生産性が高く、人生の大半を仕事に費やす。（アメリカじんはせいさんせいがたかく、じんせいのたいはんをしごとについやす）
生産的になっている (proposed by ericaw) also sounds unnatural. ～的になっている means “a person is becoming more ～” (i.e. illustrate the ongoing change). Also, アメリカ人 + 生産的になる is not the right collocation for the same reason as the machine/chicken analogy.