(2016-05-17, 9:22 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: I've just found this sentence in Tobira and I couldn't help but ask myself whether 考ながら was meant to be 考えながら.

漢字を書く時は、文字のバランスもよく考ながら、点や線をきちんと書いて下さい。

(2016-05-24, 11:02 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: I'm reading Tobira's chapter on education right now and I'm a little unsure about the meaning of a sentence. I'll include the previous sentence as well for context, but it's only the second one that really lost me. It goes like this:

つまり、学歴社会とは、その人がどんな学校を卒業したかによって人生が決まる社会、いい大学に入れば将来、幸せになる可能性も高くなるという社会なのだ。

そこで、親達は自分の子供を塾に行かせ、受験をしなくても有名私立大学に進めるエスカレーター式の小学校や中学校に入れようとする。

Help, please.

(2016-05-25, 7:35 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: I don't understand why it would be "or" rather than "and". Isn't 行かせ the same as 行かせて, but more common in writing? I don't see anything implies both options are mutually exclusive. I'd probably use something like 行かせたり to imply that, so I'm not sure what I'm missing here.  That being said, I haven't been working on production though, so that's just what my gut feeling tells me would suit this sentence if I wanted to mention things that people do as mere examples.

(2016-06-01, 1:07 am)HolyKotor Wrote: Hey guys, so I'm watching 宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック and at one point Harlock says, "幻と分かっていても縋らずにいられない時がある、人なら誰でも". I've seriously been thinking about this for over half an hour now, I don't know what my deal is, but my best guess is: Everyone has times when they can't let go of a vision they've seen?

I don't understand what the も is doing at the end of 分かっていて, I'm assuming the 幻 he's referring to is poking at the fact that the guy he's talking to has been talking to a holographic avatar of the girl he loves (who was basically comatose in a life support machine), while also working as a general statement about people's dreams, or a past that haunts them or something. I don't know why 分かる is the verb used, or even who the subject is supposed to be specifically (just a general subject I guess, or is 時 the subject? I don't know). Basically at this point my brain is just fried and I feel less confident about knowing what the heck is going on than when I first heard it, haha. Someone please save me!

(2016-06-01, 1:40 am)sholum Wrote: My best understanding is something more along the lines of:"Everyone has times where they have nothing to hold on to but an illusion." (going for meaning rather than form)
The first clause, 幻と分かっていても has ても providing contradiction to 幻と分かってい（る） so that the following clause 縋らずにいられない時がある being "there are times when you can't not cling to".

So, from the information you've provided, perhaps this character is telling the guy with the comatose love that it's understandable that he clings to an illusion of his love interest, whom he can't talk to in real life, because there are situations where anyone would do something similar.

Here's a rundown of that first part:
幻: an illusion or vision; this is something (almost?) strictly not real
と: here, quoting 幻
分かる: to understand (here in ている form)
（て）も: も can still be thought of as 'also', it's just being used to link something most people would consider a contradiction (that one would cling on to the idea of something they know isn't real); this is very common, and you'll likely recognize でも as something like 'but', this is kind of the same idea (someone might correct me on that, because I'm not a stickler for the specifics of grammar, so I might not know what I'm talking about; works for my understanding though)

Hopefully that helps; tell me if there's something I could explain better (or more likely, someone else, because I won't be back on for a good 16 hours).

EDIT: Just a few seconds late... Well, I think you have it.

Quote:異形の獣の群れだった。
…
前肢を振り上げ、小走りに駆ける。あるいは跳躍し、宙を旋回し、まるで陽気な祭りの行列でも近づいてくるようだった。陽気といえば陽気には違いなく、祭りといえば祭りには違いない。

(2016-06-02, 2:05 am)FlameseeK Wrote: I'm having a literally trouble following a few sentences, so I'd like to double check things.

1 - 自動販売機はどこの国でも発達しているわけではなく、１００万台以上ある国は世界でもアメリカと日本、そしてドイツだけだ。
(a) 自動販売機はどこの国でも発達しているわけではなく

(b) １００万台以上ある国は世界でもアメリカと日本、そしてドイツだけだ


2-　日本の自動販売機は、夏には冷たい飲み物、冬には温かい飲み物というように、気温の変化に合わせて、飲み物を冷たくしたり、温かくしたりして出してくれる。

(2016-06-02, 1:16 pm)shaydwyrm Wrote: This is a passage from the first chapter of 月の影影の海 by 小野不由美.  The last sentence is what I'm having trouble with.  The second-to-last sentence is saying that the animals are approaching in what seems like a cheerful festival line; is the last sentence basically saying that this really is the case?  Or is there some nuance of "once you start to think of them as X, they become unmistakably X," as if the scene is being shaped by the observer's thoughts?  Or am I over-interpreting.

For context, this is a dream sequence (although the reader would not know that for a couple pages yet).

Quote:異形の獣の群れだった。
…
前肢を振り上げ、小走りに駆ける。あるいは跳躍し、宙を旋回し、まるで陽気な祭りの行列でも近づいてくるようだった。陽気といえば陽気には違いなく、祭りといえば祭りには違いない。

(2016-06-02, 2:05 am)FlameseeK Wrote: 1 - 自動販売機はどこの国でも発達しているわけではなく、１００万台以上ある国は世界でもアメリカと日本、そしてドイツだけだ。
(a) 自動販売機はどこの国でも発達しているわけではなく

Does this mean something along the lines of "It's not the case that vending machines have become popular/widespread (i.e. have 'grown') no matter what country..."?
I'm not sure how to put this. At first I thought 発達 was about the act of developing/manufacturing vending machines, but I guess this word means development in the sense of 'growing and reaching a certain stage'  instead?

Quote:(b) １００万台以上ある国は世界でもアメリカと日本、そしてドイツだけだ

"The countries that have more than 1 million vending machines are only Japan, the USA, and Germany." Right? I feel I'm missing something here in the nuance though. I don't quite understand the choice of saying でも instead of just で.
Isn't this usually just a way to emphasize what comes before the particle? I feel there's no need to emphasize 世界 in this sentence at all, unless perhaps it means something like "out of all countries in the whole world". Is that what it means here?

Quote:2-　日本の自動販売機は、夏には冷たい飲み物、冬には温かい飲み物というように、気温の変化に合わせて、飲み物を冷たくしたり、温かくしたりして出してくれる。

I don't recall ever seeing というように being used like this. The closest thing I've seen is probably ように being used to say something like "in order to / in such a way that" referring to a verb that precedes the expression. But here, there's no verb so I don't know. Is という used to compensate for the lack of a verb?

Quote:Either way, this sentence sounds pretty damn redudant. It seems like they're saying something like "in order to have cool drinks in summer and warm drinks in winter, the vending machine 'does things like cooling and warming' (duh?!?) according to changes in the weather".

(2016-06-05, 7:17 pm)HolyKotor Wrote: I have a question about this sentence: 皆様にご迷惑をおかけしまして大変申し訳ございません.

I'm assuming the おかけしまして is one of the 50 uses for かける, but when I asked if it should be おかけてしまして instead on HiNative (with a て)I was told that would be wrong, basically because the kind of set phrase is おかけする.

My question is why would かける become かけする? I think I might be missing something here or thinking about it the wrong way, but I'm not sure.

(2016-06-07, 12:00 am)HolyKotor Wrote: それでこそ私の兄だ！

I don't think I've ever really heard of or at least recognized それでこそ before, is it basically the same thing as using さすが in this sentence?

(2016-06-07, 12:13 am)SomeCallMeChris Wrote: I suppose that's likely.

Fundamentally, it's just a stronger version of それで, so it should have a causative meaning. 'And that, precisely, is why he's my older brother!' doesn't make a lot of sense but is what it should mean. If the 兄 in question is not actually a blood-relation, then it makes sense that this is why the speaker looks up to 兄 as a brother. If it is actually a brother, then I would take it as meaning 'this is why my brother is great' or 'this is why I think highly of my brother', even though those modifiers are only implied.

(2016-06-07, 12:24 am)HolyKotor Wrote: Ahh, ok. That makes sense. I guess I didn't really understand それで. That's a really good explanation, thank you!