Home Forums The Japanese Language The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread.

This topic contains 966 replies, has 85 voices, and was last updated by  Hello 1 year, 7 months ago.

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  • #22940

    Gigatron
    Member

    I think you’re right about the “implied verb”, that’s a better way to describe what I was thinking.

    The singer hasn’t “told” you what the action is, per se, but by the context, one can automatically know that they’re “giving” or “extending” the pleasant song/kiss.

    I don’t know that it’s necessarily poetic language (though there’s a lot of that in Japanese songs), because I’ve heard “wo” being used like that a few times in normal speech (mostly in informal situations).

    #22947

    Armando
    Member

    Ok that makes more sense, an implied verb that’s not mentioned at all.

    And while I’m at it just a quick question or rather confirmation…
    信じたものは都合のいい妄想を 繰り返し映し出す鏡
    「都合のいい妄想を繰り返し映し出す」 is just modifying 鏡, right? So “The things I believed in are a mirror that repeatedly reflects convenient delusions” would be a possible translation? If I’m right, I should really stop using translations since they just change everything and confuse me… >.<

    #22950

    Gigatron
    Member

    What my ignorant gaijin ear gathered from that was something along the line of: “The mirror that repeatedly reflects the delusion that the thing I believed in is convenient.”

    Or rather, that’s the best way I can try to translate that into English. Might make better sense to break it down.

          信じたものは都合のいい        妄想    を繰り返し映し出す     鏡
    [the believed in thing is convenient][delusion][repeatedly reflecting][mirror]

    I’m curious to know if I’m even close to right on that. :/

    #22956

    Joel
    Member

    Armando wrote:
    > If I’m right, I should really stop using translations since they just change everything and confuse me… >.<

    I try not to think too much about song lyrics. Even in English, song lyrics tend to not make a great deal of sense. =)

    #22964

    Elenkis
    Member

    Armando, your translation looks fine to me. You could also use something like “wishful fantasy” for 都合のいい妄想, but that’s where translation gets subjective :) I don’t see anything wrong with how you translated it.

    Gigatron, 信じたもの is the topic of the sentence. 都合のいい is an adjective that’s modifying 妄想.

    #22979

    Vincent
    Member

    Why is 一人 pronounced hitori when 一 is hito and 人 is pronounced jin/nin for Kun’yomi??

    I feel like i might’ve skipped through the explanation too quickly, but if I did, I can’t find where this is explained :[

    #22985

    Joel
    Member

    It’s one o’ them weird exceptions, like how 今日 = きょう even though neither kanji has anything like that reading. Also, 二人 = ふたり. After that, it’s more normal. 三人 = さんにん, 四人 = よにん, et cetera. Unfortunately, when it comes to the weird exceptions, you’ve just gotta memorise each of them as they come.

    #23557

    missingno15
    Member

    it was hard to understand this

    週末の日テレの「世界一受けたい授業」で外人の英語の先生が出演されて、ネイティブには通じない和製英語の授業をしていました。授業自体は参考になったのですが、気になったのはその先生のペラペラな日本語の発音の下手さでした。よく聞くような、ワタシーノーナマエワー、XXデース式のものでした。周囲の人は彼にあの発音を注意してあげることはなかったのでしょうか。私は米国で働いていたとき、親しい米人が電話をかけてきて、ふざけて「ドモ、アリガト、ゴズアーイマス」とかいうと、「そうじゃなくて、どうもありがとうございます、ですよ。言ってみなさい」などと、お節介をやいていました。勿論初対面の人でせっかく頑張って日本語を片言で話そうとしている人をdiscourageしたり、失礼になるようなことのないように極力状況をわきまえることはしていますが、もう日本語だって、極東の見知らぬ島国の難解な言葉という時代ではないのですから、おかしな発音の外人さんに、合わせたり(向こうがおかしな発音で話すと日本語ネイティブの人も合わせておかしな発音で答えたりするのはなぜでしょうか)迎合したりするのではなく、ちゃんと教えてあげることがむしろ礼儀ではないかと思うのですけど、みなさんはどう思いますか?また、どう接していますか?

    http://alcom.alc.co.jp/questions/show/11084

    can someone help me?

    #23577

    Elenkis
    Member

    My rough attempt at the first half of that:

    A foreign English teacher appeared on the TV show 「世界一受けたい授業」this weekend and gave a lesson on loanwords that aren’t understood by native English speakers. The teaching itself was useful as a reference, but the poor pronunciation of the teacher’s fluent Japanese has been on my mind. よく聞くような、ワタシーノーナマエワー、XXデース式のものでした。 I guess the people around him probably didn’t warn him about that pronuncation. When I worked in America, a close American friend would call and just for fun, when he said things like “ドモ、アリガト、ゴズアーイマス”, I would meddle with things like “That’s not it, try saying どうもありがとうございます、ですよ。”

    This was really a complete guess for お節介をやいていました, but お節介を焼く seems to mean “to meddle/to interfere”.

    I left よく聞くような、ワタシーノーナマエワー、XXデース式のものでした as I wasn’t sure on that one, aside from the katakana which is basically mimicing the way the guy spoke. I left the quotes in Japanese too, because again, the writer seems to be using katakana and hiragana to show a difference in the way of speaking.

    I may try doing the rest later, but I’m really not sure of my translation.

    • This reply was modified 12 years, 10 months ago by  Elenkis.
    #23578

    @missingno15: You can’t even understand all of that? Pfft! Pathetic, really. I’d tell you what it means but, y’know, it’s better if you work it out yourself.

    #23585

    missingno15
    Member
    #23594

    Elenkis
    Member

    Well the monster sentence that forms the second half of that post is still beyond my abilities. My guess is that it starts something like:

    “Of course, meeting someone for the first time, to the best of my ability I keep in mind the circumstances in order to not be rude and discourage a person that’s putting effort into trying to speak broken Japanese, but…”

    After that I can make out fragments, but can’t put it into a cohesive whole :(

    Missing is probably just trolling the thread anyway.

    #23598

    missingno15
    Member

    no just bumping it because there are too many introductions

    #23705

    Elenkis
    Member

    It’s a new day and I decided to make another attempt at translating that block of text. Disclaimer: It could be totally wrong (and probably is in places). If anyone else has any input or corrections then please go ahead and share.

    A foreign English teacher appeared on the TV show 「世界一受けたい授業」this weekend and gave a lesson on loanwords that aren’t understood by native speakers. The teaching itself was useful as a reference, but the poor pronunciation of the teacher’s fluent Japanese has been on my mind. It was the often heard ワタシーノーナマエワー、XXデース style. I guess the people around him probably didn’t advise him about the pronuncation. When I worked in America, a close American friend would call and just for fun, when he said things like “ドモ、アリガト、ゴズアーイマス”, I would meddle with things like “That’s not it, it’s どうもありがとうございます! Try saying it.”
    Of course, meeting someone for the first time, to the best of my ability I keep in mind the circumstances in order to not be rude or discourage a person that’s putting effort into trying to speak broken Japanese. But because this is no longer an era where Japanese is known as an unintelligible language from some unknown far eastern island country, I think that isn’t it better manners to give proper teaching to foriegners with odd pronuncation, rather than to match (I wonder why when the other party speaks with odd pronunciation, native Japanese speakers also reply with odd pronunciation?) and cater to them? But what does everyone think? Also, how do you deal [with such things/people]?

    #24419

    Hatt0ri
    Member

    Can someone help me with this one: 手紙が届くのに三日かかりました。

    I’m confused by のに and か part.

    • This reply was modified 12 years, 10 months ago by  Hatt0ri.
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