I think she's just saying "Next time your talking to a Japanese person about sushi tell them you make Kappa maki"

If this was a spoken conversation the punctuation should probably be more like:

鮨の話になったら、「かっぱ 巻きを作る」と日本人に教 えてあげてください。

Though if she wrote it herself I'd be more hesitant to correct it. Perhaps she wrote the first sentence and then added the second to clarify what she meant?

Splatted Wrote:I think she's just saying "Next time your talking to a Japanese person about sushi tell them you make Kappa maki"

If this was a spoken conversation the punctuation should probably be more like:

鮨の話になったら、「かっぱ 巻きを作る」と日本人に教 えてあげてください。

Though if she wrote it herself I'd be more hesitant to correct it. Perhaps she wrote the first sentence and then added the second to clarify what she meant?

Ah, that makes sense, yeah, she did write it herself. She probably was trying to clarify it, as you say (she was really great at trying to phrase stuff in a way I'd be likely to understand, think I was pretty lucky to come across such a patient conversation partner). Thanks! : )

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:[...]

Thank you for the explanation

[s0apgun]

オレ達が何のために命を使うのかをな

Can someone explain what the をな at the end of this sentence means? Its popped up a couple times in a manga I'm reading. Thanks! Maybe a full translation of the sentence would help too.

s0apgun Wrote:オレ達が何のために命を使うのかをな

Can someone explain what the をな at the end of this sentence means? Its popped up a couple times in a manga I'm reading. Thanks! Maybe a full translation of the sentence would help too.

parse the を and な separately. the を must be referring to something previously stated. i googled to get the rest of the dialogue:

知っておくべきだ。エレンもオレ達も、オレ達が何のために命を使うのかをな・・・

the を goes with the first sentence there. so it can be read as オレ達が何のために命を使うのかを知っておくべきだ。

then the な is just a sentence-final particle. rikaichan defines it as an indicator of emotion or emphasis, mainly masculine.

[s0apgun]

thanks that makes sense... the sentence was left at を to refer to something previously stated and the な is just emphasis

I was reading a Japanese book with illustrations based on the movie 「千と千尋の神隠し」 that I got for Christmas and came across a sentence I didn't understand. The sentence was part of a dialogue, and the character said:
「すんで、みやこにするしかないさ」

Basically the context is that they are moving to a new home, and the mother says 「やっぱり、いなかねえ」 ("It's a suburb, as I thought.") when the father responds with the above sentence. I'm not sure what すんで means and all I can get out of the second part is something like "There's nothing we can do but do towards the capital"?
I'm really confused and I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.

Xにする means "decide on X" or "make something X". Based on the context it sounds like すんで should be some kind of connector meaning something like "In that case", but I don't know what it is. Possibly a slang or dialectical form of something else.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Xにする means "decide on X" or "make something X". Based on the context it sounds like すんで should be some kind of connector meaning something like "In that case", but I don't know what it is. Possibly a slang or dialectical form of something else.

i thought the same thing about すんで at first, but after seeing this page, apparently すんで is just 住んで. the page explains the line as: they'd live there and "make" the new place into the city -- it's like the expression "home is where you make it." that's according to that webpage anyway, but that's what makes most sense to me.

Yeah, that makes more sense because otherwise it sounds like they're planning to move to the capital instead.

headphone_child Wrote:

yudantaiteki Wrote:Xにする means "decide on X" or "make something X". Based on the context it sounds like すんで should be some kind of connector meaning something like "In that case", but I don't know what it is. Possibly a slang or dialectical form of something else.

i thought the same thing about すんで at first, but after seeing this page, apparently すんで is just 住んで. the page explains the line as: they'd live there and "make" the new place into the city -- it's like the expression "home is where you make it." that's according to that webpage anyway, but that's what makes most sense to me.

Apparently it's an aphorism. Thanks for the help ^_^ I'm surprised you were able to find such a relevant website, haha. The dialogue in my book is slightly different, but that sentence was there luckily.

Don't kanji make things easier to comprehend? ;p

There is a proverb 住めば都. As already mentioned, a common explanation is: no matter how inconvenient the place seems at first, if you live there long enough and get used to it, it will feel easy to live in and you won't want to leave. There appear to be a few variations of it. I'm not sure to what extent it's limited to inconvenience or whether it can encompass perceived provincialism or backwardness.

Some of the suggested English equivalents seem slightly different:
A man's home is his castle.
Home is where the heart is.

Does anyone know if it's also used metaphorically to describe situations unrelated to location?

Incidentally, about translating:

I think people generally use words like 首都　for "capital" rather than 都 these days. Perhaps the proverb originated at a time where people resided either in rural communities or a regional capital? Or perhaps 都 meant both "capital" and "city" then too? But the linked translation, "It'll be great once we get used to it", conveys the meaning without any direct translation.

To me, いなか　typically has either a neutral or positive sense of "rural", "country", "small town"; or, if used pejoratively, something like "the sticks", "hicksville". "Suburbs", on the other hand, makes me think of districts on the immediate periphery of a urban center (which would include once-separate towns as well as instant residential developments.) Whether "suburbs" is also used pejoratively probably depends on the city (akin to "bridge and tunnel people" used by Manhattan snobs.) I wouldn't translate いなか　as "suburb" here, though. If she is describing an actual suburb, いなか　is probably meant as an exaggeration.

Thora Wrote:To me, いなか　typically has either a neutral or positive sense of "rural", "country", "small town"; or, if used pejoratively, something like "the sticks", "hicksville". "Suburbs", on the other hand, makes me think of districts on the immediate periphery of a urban center (which would include once-separate towns as well as instant residential developments.) Whether "suburbs" is also used pejoratively probably depends on the city (akin to "bridge and tunnel people" used by Manhattan snobs.) I wouldn't translate いなか　as "suburb" here, though. If she is describing an actual suburb, いなか　is probably meant as an exaggeration.

You don't think there's a lot of overlap? The word いなか gets used in Japanese waaaay more than words like 'countryside' in America, including places that we in America would call suburbs. If there was a city like Kyoto in America, and then next to it a small city like Kameoka, we would probably call it a suburb. In Japan it's usually just いなか.

みやこ has always meant the capital, but in that proverb (especially with the older term みやこ) I think it evokes the image of the Emperor's palace and residences of all the noblemen and women.

Hello everybody, i write from italy and i am interested in japanese culture.
i received as gift a kakejiku, unfortunately i do not know what it mean what there is wrote and i did not found help for the moment, i hope this forum can help me.

here there is the image

http://imageshack.com/a/img34/1272/8ltm.jpg

thank you very much in advance

新聞社に何千ものメールが寄せられたよ。
is もの necessary in this sentence?

彼女が怒るのも当然だ。
could someone explain the のも part to me?

Thanks

ryanjmack Wrote:彼女が怒るのも当然だ。
could someone explain the のも part to me?

Thanks

The の followed by the verb normalized it. The も is a particle on its own, it's meaning would depend on the context.

For example
日本語を教えるのは~~
As for teaching Japanese/ teaching japanese is

ryanjmack Wrote:新聞社に何千ものメールが寄せられたよ。
is もの necessary in this sentence?

You can't just say 何千メール so you need something there; の would be possible if this were an actual number but that's not the case here. Here they are using question word + も; when the question is a counter like 何枚 or in this case 何千, it means "lots of". So "many thousands of e-mails."

It would also be possible to write this sentence as 新聞社にメールが何千も寄せられたよ。

I'm reading 窓ぎわのトットちゃん (a really good book for Japanese learners I think--I recommend it!), and a couple of sentences at the beginning of a chapter confuse me. I have a lot of questions about them, to be honest, haha.

Totto-chan is an elementary school girl, and one day walking along the road she sees what she thinks is a pile of sand. Then, it says,
すっかり嬉しくなったトットちゃんは、一回、ポン！　と高くとび上がってはずみをつけると、それからは、全速力で駆けて行って、その砂の山のてっぺんに、ポン！！　と、とびのった。

What's up with はずみをつける?

(And, I assume とびのった is 飛び乗る, which I mistakenly thought meant 'jump on something and ride it', since I've heard 自転車に飛び乗った. Rikaichan says 'jump on (a moving object).' I guess in can mean just 'jump on top of.' I'm not so familiar with this word.)

It continues:
ところが、砂の山と思ったのは間違いで、中は、すっかり練った、ねずみ色の壁土だったから、「ズボッ！」という音と同時に、ランドセルに草履袋という形のまま、トットちゃんは、そのネチャネチャの中の銅像のように、胸までつかってしまった。

My main question here is about 草履袋--I get that ぞうり are sandals, and I guess it's a sandal bag shape, but what's going on here with that and the backpack?

練った is interesting here. Does it mean something like 'slimy' in this usage? I assume it's pronounced ねった from 練る.

(I assume that ねちゃねちゃ is a variation on ねちねち, or 'sticky.' Sounds like she is using it to refer to the sticky plaster.)

As for 草履袋, she mentions it again after explaining that she was worried about becoming complete submerged and drowning. It says だから、トットちゃんは、左手の草履袋もネチャネチャの中に入れたまま、ずーと立っていた。

@Tzadeck

Google 草履袋 for images - it's quite clear what this one is. (I do feel somewhat awkward to instruct a guy who passed JLPT1...)

Inny Jan Wrote:@Tzadeck

Google 草履袋 for images - it's quite clear what this one is. (I do feel somewhat awkward to instruct a guy who passed JLPT1...)

That's kind of what I imagined (actually, it was useful to Google though. I didn't know that it was those types of slippers that are called 草履). I understand the sentence now I think, but I'm not sure about the grammar to be honest. "ランドセルに草履袋という形のまま" just means that she jumped into the plaster "still wearing her backpack and with her zouri bag." But I don't understand exactly what the に is doing here.

And I guess the other sentence with the zouri bag just means that she was holding the bag in her left hand, and it was submerged in the plaster.

(Btw, I try to remind myself to let go of language pride and ask stupid questions even though I passed N1 )

Tzadeck Wrote:すっかり嬉しくなったトットちゃんは、一回、ポン!　と高くとび上がってはずみをつけると、それからは、全速力で駆けて行って、その砂の山のてっぺんに、ポン!!　と、とびのった。

What's up with はずみをつける?

弾みをつける　encourage; stimulate; add [give] momentum 《to…》; give a push 《to…》; boost; 《口》 kick-start
・1, 2 で弾みをつけて 3 でぽーんと跳んでごらん.　Try gathering momentum on one and two and then jumping on three.

Passing the N1 makes others feel awkward to help you? Best argument for not taking the JLPT I've ever seen.

Tzadeck Wrote:still wearing her backpack and with her zouri bag." But I don't understand exactly what the に is doing here.

Is not that に there to make a pair out of the noun zouri bag and backpack? It is the same as the に in 鬼に金棒 I think and the same one like in 新郎に新婦. Socks に shoes and fish に chips, pairs.

Thanks guys! Besides the 練った that covers most of it.

I'm still a noob (1 year now), so I hesitate but:

Re すっかり練った

Seems to mean 'refined' rather than 'thickly kneaded/well mixed' (my first guess). Used in describing handbags/jewelery/etc.

While searching, happened upon this usage, which seems to be a customer review for a ring or something:

そのリトルこの痛みは耐え難い gucci メンズ 指輪
gucci メンズ 指輪,においをかぐと山梨の教団施設まであなたを呼ぼうとしました,すっかり練った元気よその睾丸を蹴り上げる技術を

A severe challenge to my still meagre powers of comprehension, but the phrase よその睾丸を蹴り上げる技術 had me snorting with laugher nonetheless