Hi,
1. The writer has been describing how Americans who speak good Japanese can be frustrated when Japanese people don't speak to them in Japanese.
これはこのごろ少しよくなってきて、日本語で答えてくれる日本人がだんだん増えてきたようであるが、まだまだ、日本語で答えようとしない日本人の方が多いという。
My translation: "Recently this situation has improved a little, and the number of Japanese people replying in Japanese (when addressed by Americans) is apparently gradually increasing. However, it is said that the number of Japanese who decline to do so is still large."
a) In なってきて, is きて just re-emphasising the "becoming" sense of なって? Would the meaning be much different if きて was deleted?
b) In 増えてきた, does きた have a sense something like "has come about"?
c) In this case, do you think that という really means someone said this, or is it just a rhetorical device? Is it reasonable to translate it as "it is said", or would it be better just to leave it untranslated?
2. それから、日本語で答えてくれる場合でも、普通の日本人の使わないような、変な日本語で答えられることも多いそうだ。
My translation: "And even when (Japanese people) do reply (to Americans) in Japanese, they often reply in a kind of strange Japanese that Japanese people do not normally use (amongst themselves)."
What form is 答えられる (passive, honorific or potential), and why is it in that form?
3. バーバラさんのそばに、なにがいますか。
Is this sentence correctly formed? Are なに and います compatible like this?
4. A teacher is talking to one her students who has not been feeling well:
どうですか。少しはよくなりましたか。
Here I am interested in understanding the use of は in the second sentence (which I assume is parsed as 少し + は + よく + なりました + か).
At 日本でも / かなり前から... / は / 指定席券 / 入れてみます / くる I asked about the sentence 少しは高くても、物のいいほうが得です, and Toritoribe explained that は acts as a contrastive marker connoting that 少し高い is OK but かなり高い is not.
This sentence seems similar in structure, except that getting a lot better is presumably preferable to getting a little better, so I think the meaning of は must be slightly different somehow?
1. The writer has been describing how Americans who speak good Japanese can be frustrated when Japanese people don't speak to them in Japanese.
これはこのごろ少しよくなってきて、日本語で答えてくれる日本人がだんだん増えてきたようであるが、まだまだ、日本語で答えようとしない日本人の方が多いという。
My translation: "Recently this situation has improved a little, and the number of Japanese people replying in Japanese (when addressed by Americans) is apparently gradually increasing. However, it is said that the number of Japanese who decline to do so is still large."
a) In なってきて, is きて just re-emphasising the "becoming" sense of なって? Would the meaning be much different if きて was deleted?
b) In 増えてきた, does きた have a sense something like "has come about"?
c) In this case, do you think that という really means someone said this, or is it just a rhetorical device? Is it reasonable to translate it as "it is said", or would it be better just to leave it untranslated?
2. それから、日本語で答えてくれる場合でも、普通の日本人の使わないような、変な日本語で答えられることも多いそうだ。
My translation: "And even when (Japanese people) do reply (to Americans) in Japanese, they often reply in a kind of strange Japanese that Japanese people do not normally use (amongst themselves)."
What form is 答えられる (passive, honorific or potential), and why is it in that form?
3. バーバラさんのそばに、なにがいますか。
Is this sentence correctly formed? Are なに and います compatible like this?
4. A teacher is talking to one her students who has not been feeling well:
どうですか。少しはよくなりましたか。
Here I am interested in understanding the use of は in the second sentence (which I assume is parsed as 少し + は + よく + なりました + か).
At 日本でも / かなり前から... / は / 指定席券 / 入れてみます / くる I asked about the sentence 少しは高くても、物のいいほうが得です, and Toritoribe explained that は acts as a contrastive marker connoting that 少し高い is OK but かなり高い is not.
This sentence seems similar in structure, except that getting a lot better is presumably preferable to getting a little better, so I think the meaning of は must be slightly different somehow?
