「長いようで、短く思われたホームステイ」

Mike92101

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I'd almost forgotten about great forums such as this one, but as sort of a dweeb, I hadn't visited here in 2 years or so.

Self-taught, I took up studying Japanese some 6 years ago, and regretfully stopped learning--methodically/progressively--a year and a half later. I'd call my library of Japanese texts and dictionaries respectable for a layperson, and at this point, I'd think I'm competent at an intermediate level in understanding Japanese. Or at least, written Japanese, that is.

I decided to start learning the language again, and so retried one of the yomimono from my intermediate level textbook, an excerpt written by a native Japanese student about her family's experiences with a foreign home stay student.

The very first sentence from it is one I turned around and around many times mentally, whose basic grammar and vocabulary I do get, but due to some sort of ellipsis in it, I could get no solid feel for.

The sentence is:
長いようで、短く思われたホームステイ。
So far, I have "It seems a long time, but it was a home stay [we] thought of for a short time."

?
 
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The home-stay seemed long, but felt short.

One could argue that those two notions somewhat contradict each other, but that's what the Japanese says.

思われる and 思える both mean "to seem ~" so 思われる is not just the passive of 思う. In fact most times when you see 思われる it will mean "to seem" (I just translated it as "felt" because using "seemed" twice is redundant).

And if you know home-stay is the subject, then that means both 長いよう and 短く思われる are modifying home-stay (in your translation, only 短く思われる is modifying home-stay).
 
Much appreciated, Tokkyo-san, the clarification. I was hesitant to use "seem" until you pointed it out, but wanted to do so.

Also just as important to me is your clarifying what modified what.
 
lol So, 「長いようで、短く思われたホームステイ。」 is now officially a sentence by popular vote! I'm outta here.
 
Grammatically speaking, it is "homestay THAT seemed long but felt short."
 
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