I don't speak Kansaiben either, but a random googling turned up
a blog post which starts off with

Quote:やってもたという方言がわからないといけないので標準語に直すと
｢大変なことをしでかしてしまったっっ！！｣になるのかしら

pm215 Wrote:I don't speak Kansaiben either, but a random googling turned up
a blog post which starts off with

Quote:やってもたという方言がわからないといけないので標準語に直すと
｢大変なことをしでかしてしまったっっ！！｣になるのかしら

Makes sense. Thanks.

This is one of those times when I don't really understand women, lol.

Tzadeck Wrote:

pm215 Wrote:I don't speak Kansaiben either, but a random googling turned up
a blog post which starts off with

Quote:やってもたという方言がわからないといけないので標準語に直すと
｢大変なことをしでかしてしまったっっ！！｣になるのかしら

Makes sense. Thanks.

This is one of those times when I don't really understand women, lol.

No one does. Even women

Neither do I.

I guess we stumble upon rather strange Japanese women, or that there are a lot of them.

SendaiDan Wrote:

Gingerninja Wrote:Came across 立ち位置 in 2 different places today.

あなたの立ち位置は危ない = You are taking a dangerous stand

すこし立ち位置がずれてる = You are a bit off the mark


But like I said, please correct me if I am wrong :-)

Also part of the name of a song by Pornographic Graffiti? 痛い立ち位置

日本軍の捕虜になったイギリス兵の記録

how to read 兵 in this context?

へい (it's almost always へい; the ひょう reading is rare and the kun-yomi つわもの basically does not occur in modern Japanese)

Thanks for your help!

Gingerninja Wrote:Came across 立ち位置 in 2 different places today. The way I understand it, can be literally the place you're standing, or your standing within a social order.

Could I say basically..

あなたの立ち位置は危ない　 as in the place your standing is dangerous?
or if not, how would you use it in a sentence?

すこし立ち位置がずれてる。　
and それぞれの高校で同じ立ち位置。

Were the 2 sentences I saw it, Manga + TV Show. But to be sure I'd like another example, seeing as my dictionary's examples aren't great.

Okay, so I asked my professor about this one today too because it was bugging me. The etymology of the word is from theatrical performances, where it meant "where the actors are supposed to be on the stage at a particular time," or basically some sort of placement choreography.

That meaning is still in place, however there's also a metaphorical meaning that can be used separately. Basically it means "your current position in which people are expected to believe a certain way." It would be like if I said "Because of my position as regional manager at McDonald's, I can't comment on the quality of our food." Nothing is insinuated about your own opinion conflicting with your position's if you use the word, unless you express it in the sentence.

I'm only a beginner, so I can't give you any good sentences to use it in, just dictate what I learned today.

Es2Kay Wrote:日本軍の捕虜になったイギリス兵の記録

how to read 兵 in this context?

Though it's not always perfect, this site (http://language.tiu.ac.jp/tools_e.html) does a pretty good job of answering questions like this. Just use the "JP->EN" button once you've put in the sentence, and click on the kanji when it appears in the new screen.

I always feel bad about posting here as I feel as if i should have been able to find the answer myself, having not found it. I'm confused about part of a sentence from The emperor's new clothes "おしばいだって面白くありません" The part i'm not sure i get is the おしばい. Jim breen gives, flattened leaves. Which I dont really think fits :p. Its probably pretty simple but i cant seem to find the answer.
I tried the link above as well btw and got a different entry for おし and for ばい, both of which are, delightfull, comical, etc.

おしばい might be お芝居, a play/drama.

If a word starts with お it's quite often the case that the お is just added to make the word more polite/formal/whatever; if your search results don't seem to fit the context it's always worth searching without it.

briefly forgot about that, thanks for reminding me splatted, and i think you're right pudding cat

Can someone enlighten me as to what this verb form is? I keep seeing it in this textbook I have and have no idea what it is, and it's making me feel stupid!

ひらかれ　行われ　教え　etc.

eg. 江戸は徳川家康によってひらかれ、１６０３年には幕府がおかれました。

Surely it's not imperative? Is it passive with the ending dropped (why?)? (I think) I know what the sentence means but I don't understand what form that verb is, or why.

It's the same as the て form, used in written style. It's the -masu form, minus -masu (or the "stem" form or however you want to call it).

yudantaiteki Wrote:It's the same as the て form, used in written style. It's the -masu form, minus -masu (or the "stem" form or however you want to call it).

Ah thank you That makes sense.

Can someone explain what this sentence means? It's from http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/maegaki.html, which is the introduction to a grammar guide in Japanese.


しかし、古典語が現代語と違うとはいっても、多
くの部分、日本語としての基本的な部分は、当然のことながら共通しているのです。


The first section (しかし、古典語が現代語と違うとはいっても) seems to be "But even if we say that classic and contemporary language is different", but that's exactly how I would've translated it without the は. I feel like the use of とは, rather than just と, gives it a more formal, literary feel; is that right? I can't shake the suspicion that it's actually doing something that I don't understand.

In the second section (多
くの部分、日本語としての基本的な部分は、) I'm guessing that 日本語としての基本的な部分は is just defining what is meant by 多
くの部分

The last bit (当然のことながら共通しているのです。) is what's really confusing me; My initial reaction was to read it as "an obvious thing and similar", but that seems wrong so I'm wondering if it actually means "obviously similar".

That would mean the complete sentence means something like "But even if we say that classic and contemporary language is different, much of it, the basics of the language, is clearly similar."

Thanks for any help.

は often does not translate well into English; in general you should not feel like being able to translate something into English is necessary for your understanding. In this case, it's just the contrastive use of は -- this contrast is already present in the ても structure following, but redundancy is common in natural language.

I think your understanding of the rest of it is correct.

Thanks a lot Yudanteiteki.

I'm having some problems with the last sentence here, could someone explain it (especially how そこだけ is used?)

部屋の中で、男が、背を向けたまま、ゆったりと革椅子に座っている。
「群の能力を見抜く男は、本物の猟犬だ」
　そう言いながら、立ち上がって、にっと微笑んだ。白い歯が浅黒い肌によく似合った。シェルと同じ人種だったが、非人間的なほどの生気を放っていた。ぴんと背筋を伸ばし、髪は短く、こめかみに刺青があった。この人種独特の、甘ささえ感じさせるマスクに、そこだけ異様に鋭い目が、ボイルドを見つめていた。

My best guess is something like (I'm having a pretty hard time trying to make an English sentence out of it too, haha):

"From behind this race's characteristic mask of generosity, correspondingly unusually sharp eyes stared into Boiled."

「自己欺瞞とは、間違った事柄や無効な事柄を、恰も事実か有効な事だと信じてしまう、プロセスや現象である。詰まり、自己欺瞞は誤りを自分自身の為に正当化する方法である。」

is it 正当 + 化する or 正当化 + する ??

Es2Kay Wrote:「自己欺瞞とは、間違った事柄や無効な事柄を、恰も事実か有効な事だと信じてしまう、プロセスや現象である。詰まり、自己欺瞞は誤りを自分自身の為に正当化する方法である。」

is it 正当 + 化する or 正当化 + する ??

It's got to be the latter, right? If 正当 was the object of 化する it would need an を...

It's definitely the latter. It would need an を to be the object in written-style Japanese (in addition,　正当を化する doesn't make any sense in the context).

Semantic confusion: Could someone please explain the difference(s), if any, between 秀才, 人材 and 天才?

I realize they're similar, but I'm looking for the specifics. Here's what I've found:

秀才 非常にすぐれた学問的才能。また、その持ち主。 (brilliant person, bright person)
人材 才能があり、役に立つ人。有能な人物。人才。(talented person, able person)
天才 生まれつき備わっている、並み外れてすぐれた才能。また、そういう才能をもった人。 (genius, gifted person, prodigy)

Would you say they express different degrees of intelligence? Or are they pretty much the same, except for their usage in different contexts?

Any help is appreciated, since I can't fully understand the monolingual definitions to sort out the differences myself. Thanks in advance.

Well, according to your japanese definitions:
秀才 - scholarly genius/talent
人材 - talent when it comes to... talented person for a post
天才 - born genius/talent, gifted person

Looking at the example sentences, it seems pretty accurate.

人材 is more of "being good at" than "genius", so it is not as strong as the other two I think.