Enlighten me please....

１。東京のある会社の課長である山田に英会話を教えているスティーブが、一緒に音楽を聞いている。

課長である　= what is the meaning of である　here? why it is put in front of a noun? shouldn't it be いる?

Does the first clause simply introduces two subjects, as in 山田さんとスティーブは...? This long clause really confuses me.

２。先週注文したおすしの上 がとてもおいしかった。
what does 上 here mean? I looked it up but don't know which one does it refer to. Perhaps "as a matter of (e.g. fact)"?

３。ご丁寧にありがとう
I corrected a mistake I made and this is what my Japanese friend responded. What does it mean and when to use it exactly?

４。今は帰国されてるんですね. 知っているかとは日本は思いますが.
I have seen 知っているかと思いますが but not when there is a additional noun in between. What does this phrase mean?

５。母はインディアンであった。
I am so confused with the usage of ある。Since "mom" is a person, why don't use いる? Is there any site where I can find a concise summary of its usage?

Some of these may sound too easy, too silly to ask. But they really confuse me. Please don't be annoyed with my lack of knowledge. In any case, thank you very much for all the answers and your kindness.

1. である=です or だ. It's just the literary form.

2. I don't know. 上 can be used for a number of purposes, like marking the more costly goods on a menu. Might be related.

3. My best guess would be "That's for clearing that up.", more or less. "Thanks for being careful", more literally.

4. The placement of the phrases is arbitrary, to some extent, in Japanese.

5. Past tense of #1

One short question please. Does 辛めに修正した reads からめに...?

Yep.

Thank you for your prompt reply. But I still don't quite understand the first sentence. Does it structure can be re-written as:

東京のある会社の課長です、山田に英会話を教えているスティーブが ???

Is it possible to have です in the middle of a sentence? 教えて下さい

tnattawat Wrote:Thank you for your prompt reply. But I still don't quite understand the first sentence. Does it structure can be re-written as:

東京のある会社の課長です、山田に英会話を教えているスティーブが ???

If you were going to rewrite it to lose the である then you'd do it by using の instead:
東京のある会社の課長の山田に英会話を教えているスティーブが

Basically you can turn a である sentence into a subclause modifying a noun in the same way that you do for any sentence that ends in a verb:
山田が本を読んでいる ー> 本を読んでいる山田
山田が事務所にいる ー> 事務所にいる山田
山田が東京のある会社の課長である ー> 東京のある会社の課長である山田

It's noun + だ/です that's the special case:
山田が東京のある会社の課長だ ー> 東京のある会社の課長の山田

PS: did you catch the distinction between 東京のある会社 and 東京にある会社 ?

There is a difference between のある　and にある too? Please enlighten me on this point too. I have a feeling that I read about this some where but can't recall it. Sorry to bother you.

One more thing please. I recently heard がんばれ, 日本 very often (like everyday). I suppose it has the same meaning as 頑張って right? It is a result of some conjugation?

tnattawat Wrote:One more thing please. I recently heard がんばれ, 日本 very often (like everyday). I suppose it has the same meaning as 頑張って right? It is a result of some conjugation?

It's the 'command form' from http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/requests

Similar to 頑張って but a bit stronger, it's what you hear at sports matches to cheer on teams.

tnattawat Wrote:There is a difference between のある　and にある too? Please enlighten me on this point too. I have a feeling that I read about this some where but can't recall it.

Hmm, when I wrote that hasty postscript before going out to work it seemed very clear to me, but I've had a sudden access of doubt. I'll write this anyway and if I'm wrong I'm sure somebody will say :-)

OK, so in 東京にある会社の課長, the subclause modifying 会社 is 東京にある, which would correspond to the straightforward 会社が東京にある.

In 東京のある会社の課長 it breaks down more like (東京)の(ある会社)の(課長). "あるX" is a pattern meaning "an X, a certain X" (ie not "the X").

(Modifying clauses can have の used in place of が, but we can discard that intepretation here because "東京がある会社" doesn't make sense.)

So there's not much difference in meaning here, I guess, I was just wondering if you'd twigged that they parse differently. (To me the のある version retains the "a, not the" flavour, but don't necessarily trust my feelings :-))

tnattawat Wrote:２。先週注文したおすしの上 がとてもおいしかった。
what does 上 here mean? I looked it up but don't know which one does it refer to. Perhaps "as a matter of (e.g. fact)"?

上 in this case is a type of sushi order. There's also 特上 which is more expensive, and 並 which is less expensive. You also see this at Yoshinoya for the sizes of the beef bowls. [I see bertoni already gave that answer]

Quote:３。ご丁寧にありがとう
I corrected a mistake I made and this is what my Japanese friend responded. What does it mean and when to use it exactly?

This is just a formulaic phrase that means "Thanks for your help" (literally "thanks for being kind/polite")

Quote:４。今は帰国されてるんですね. 知っているかとは日本は思いますが.
I have seen 知っているかと思いますが but not when there is a additional noun in between. What does this phrase mean?

You can put other things between the と and the 思います. In this case it would seem that 日本 is the subject of 思う but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

tnattawat Wrote:There is a difference between のある　and にある too? Please enlighten me on this point too. I have a feeling that I read about this some where but can't recall it. Sorry to bother you.

Yup, 或る is a different word to the ある you know. Well, they're possibly the same word, but it's probably safer to think of them as different words.

yudantaiteki Wrote:

Quote:４。今は帰国されてるんですね. 知っているかとは日本は思いますが.
I have seen 知っているかと思いますが but not when there is a additional noun in between. What does this phrase mean?

You can put other things between the と and the 思います. In this case it would seem that 日本 is the subject of 思う but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Wait, so what does that mean? I can't make sense of it at all.

What's the context? I'm honestly not sure what it means.

Thank you for all the answers. Most of the problems I had earlier finally makes sense to me now.

yudantaiteki Wrote:What's the context? I'm honestly not sure what it means.

Basically, I sent my friend a message saying that I am back in my country for the meantime but will go back to Japan when things look less worrying.

知っているかとは日本は思いますが

Can it be broken down like (知っている(か)(と)(は)(日本は)思いますが ?
I'm not so certain about the grammaticality of the structure. But it sounds to me like "Japan [as in Japanese people as a whole] know [the reason why I 帰国する for this meantime].
Please say if I'm wrong. Just try making a guess.

Wait I thought this was from IAIJ text; this is an e-mail you got from a Japanese person?

Honestly I'm not entirely sure what the meaning is.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Wait I thought this was from IAIJ text; this is an e-mail you got from a Japanese person?

My Apology. I starting making a draft for this topic a few days back and realize just now that I forgot to change the title. Questions #3 & #4 are not from the text. Sorry for this.

tnattawat Wrote:I have seen 知っているかと思いますが

What did it mean? That's the part of this which doesn't make sense to me

I've seen it used sort of like "You probably already know this, but..."

fakewookie Wrote:

tnattawat Wrote:I have seen 知っているかと思いますが

What did it mean? That's the part of this which doesn't make sense to me

I am not mistaken, I think it means something like: in a situation when a person is trying to guess if the other party know what he/she is thinking. I know it sounds silly still, but just try to make some sense of what I read.

I have encountered another question actually. Please please.

私たちはお互いにより仲良くなることができた。

I can't quite understand whether it is particle より or により?

に　would be connected to お互い　right? I still don't really understand the meaning very well though.

Is it something like: We were both able to get along better.

より仲良くなる means "become even better friends", so this is the usual 互いに.

I still don't quite get what does より do here?

tnattawat Wrote:I still don't quite get what does より do here?

It's what gives you the 'comparison/comparative' bit:
仲良くなる : become friends
より仲良くなる : become better friends

The thing being compared against is implicit here; you can also state it explicitly:
前より仲良くなる : become better friends than before

はるほど。Thank you very much for all the comments answers. I appreciate it.