みたくて / 言われました / 感じていらっしゃる / 違うなと / もので

Hi,

1. あの人は日本へ行ってみたくてしかたがないのです。

Translation given: "He is dying to go to Japan."

a) Is みたくて from みたい from みる in the sense of "try" (thus literally "wants to try to go")?

b) Does みたい meaning "seems like" have any connection with みる and the みたい in (a), or is it etymologically unrelated?


2. 「これかわいい」とかよく言われました。

Translation given: "They often said something like 'this is cute'."

Why 言われました? Is it passive with the literal meaning "was (often) said"?


3. 今日は「ウチから見た日本」というテーマで、日本の社会とか日本人について日ごろ感じていら っしゃることなどを、いろいろお聞きしたいと思います ので、よろしくお願いします。

I understand most of this OK, but I'm not sure who is the subject of 感じていらっしゃる. Is it the person the speaker is addressing?


4. その人に、日本人は違うなと思ったかどうか、どんな点 が違う・・・

I fear this is a recurring question of mine, but anyway... does this mean 「その人に、日本人は違うな」と思ったかどうか・・・ ?


5. 自分の身近にあるもので、かわいいと思うものがありま すか。

Here I am unsure about the connection between the two parts of the sentence. Is もので = もの ("thing") + で, or is it も + ので ("because")? I'm guessing the former, so does the whole sentence literally mean:

かわいいと思うものがありますか = Is there something that you think is "cute" ...

自分の身近にあるもので = ... and that thing is something that you are personally familiar with?

?

1) It's a. Generally speaking, the みたい that means "seems" inflects as a 形容動詞 (and I suppose should be referred to as みたいだ), although some people, because of the い, will inflect it as a 形容詞. However, it will follow a verb's 連体形 (or 辞書形), not a connective form. That's the dead giveaway that it's the "try to..." auxiliary.

2) I assume so. But it's hard to know for sure without context.

3) Japanese people in general.

4) It's その人に、「日本人は違うな」と思ったかどうか・・・

5) It is the former, and you are correct.

1)
Dictionaries say みたい（だ） was from 見たようだ, so there's no relation between them except 見る. (They have different pitch accents as one of the evidence.)

2)
Doesn't これ refer to the thing the speaker had, something like "You have cute one"? (Another possibility is "honorific", but it doesn't seem to fit the wording.)

3)
I think eeky-san's interpretation is correct. It would be the addressee(s).

Thank you both.

Unfortunately there is no more context for #2. It is just an isolated example sentence in a textbook. The English translation is given in the textbook alongside the Japanese.

Oh, crap. And I had been feeling like I was getting better because of more concentrated reading lately. Ha. I guess I need to do that more...