I recently started working through An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese. Right now, i have finished working my way through the first 読み物 section of the book.

それから、中年の女性と英語で話した。お互いの家族について話していたら、その人が „I have three beautiful daughters.“ と言ったのでびっくりした。日本人は「私は美しい娘がいます」なんて、英語でもとても言えないと思う。

My first question is: Why does the speaker think [or believe] that a Japanese person cannot say [or isn't able to say] things like "I have a beautiful daughter" even in English?

If it is the case that someones daughter is indeed beautiful, why should this person not say so, to someone he or she is talking to? It is quite common to speak about ones offspring in other countries in this way, so why not in Japan?

I also have some questions about the following sentence.

去年日本語のクラスで自己紹介の仕方を習ったので、使ってみたかったのだそうだ。

As far as i understand this sentence says: "[He] learned how to introduce himself in his Japanese class last year, and he said he wanted to use it." But i have to admit that i don't fully understand the last part of the sentence. I can't find out what みたかった means exactly. What i know is that みた is the inf. past of みる but what does this かった do there? I know  見なかった or is みたかった and みなかった basically the same? Could someone please break down and explain the second half of this sentence for me?

Last edited by Nagareboshi (2011 June 02, 11:55 pm)

Japanese culture is based on modesty so people generally don't talk to much about themselves, especially in positive terms. It goes to the point that when someone gives you a compliment, you (by standards) should negate it and say it isn't so, even if you think another person is right. Here author assumes that English culture is more open about this and Japanase person speaking English should feel more free to say such things, but even then he just can't, it's so deep in him.

You got the meaning right. 使ってみたかった is past form of 使ってみたい. te-from+みる means "try to ...", so here he "wants to try".

Last edited by Rayath (2011 June 03, 3:03 am)

貨物船に密航してエストニアに来ればいいじゃん。

Are you sneaking pretty Japanese girls to work in up-market former soviet Eastern European brothels..?
Times have really changed...

Taurus wrote:

Anybody know what this means? It's from Donna Toki (I think), and even my wife is struggling to understand it.

彼の厳しい性格は、社会的に受け入れられなかった不満と相まって、ますますその度を増していった。

I guess it means 'his harsh character gradually got worse' but I don't really get what the clause in the middle means.

My take on it is something like:

"His harsh personality combined with the dissatisfaction of not being able to be socially accepted increasingly exacerbated things (the degree of his harshness)."

edit: と相まって is a grammar term for which that example sentence is presented. It basically means multiple things coming together to become more effective/severe.

「あることがらに、〜という別のことがらが加わって、よりいっそうの効果を生む」と言う意味。

Last edited by FooSoft (2011 June 04, 9:05 am)

FooSoft wrote:

edit: と相まって is a grammar term for which that example sentence is presented. It basically means multiple things coming together to become more effective/severe.

Yeah, it wasn't the と相まって that was tripping me up - it's more that I wasn't sure how to translate 社会的に受け入れられなかった不満 but I think I get it now.

Cheers!

PensukeD wrote:

航空機 vs. 飛行機

Little bit unsure here. I'm guessing they're synonyms but have a difference in nuance? From the dictionary it seems 飛行機 is used more often when actually talking about the plane we take in the airport while 航空機 seems to be used for descriptive purposes like an air mechanic.

I'd say 航空機 is aircraft and 飛行機 is aeroplane.

Sowwy for my late reply, but I didn't feel very well the last couple of days, that's why this reply comes a little late. Alec_xvi, Rayath thanks for answering my questions, the little culture lesson, and the explanations you have given me! This really was exceptionally helpful for me in understanding that dialogue.

Es2Kay wrote:

それは翼の全長がや約４インチある。

ｗｔｆ is や doing here?

That's a tanaka corpus sentence. My vote is "typo".

Spread legs

Es2Kay wrote:

いーかガキども、ビッチはたけー酒じゃねーと股開かねー
tnx in advance.

I don't know the context of this sentence, but it means something like this:
"Okey, listen up kids, if (a) bitch doesn't (get) expensive alcohol (she) won't spread (her) legs."

I saw this phrase and translation in my textbook:

成績はどんどん良くなっていった。
My grades rapidly improved.

I was wondering how the "いく" part of "なっていった" changes the meaning of the sentence.  I don't think that the given translation captures the entire meaning of the phrase.  All help is appreciated.

tylerdevlin wrote:

I saw this phrase and translation in my textbook:

成績はどんどん良くなっていった。
My grades rapidly improved.

I was wondering how the "いく" part of "なっていった" changes the meaning of the sentence.  I don't think that the given translation captures the entire meaning of the phrase.  All help is appreciated.

From Rikaichan:

良くなって    良くなる    よくなる    (exp,v5r,uk) to become better; to improve

ていった form can also mean ‘had done the action’ (see JMW p. 153), e.g.:

“the past form kiite ita can be either ‘was/were listening [at a particular time]’ or ‘had heard [before then]’... ”

(Another example in that section is 読んでいた can mean either ‘was reading [at a particular time]’ or ‘had read [before then]’, depending on context.)

Last edited by nest0r (2011 June 07, 10:49 am)