入れて / と / ところ / 学期末になって / 勉強がよくできる... / 勉強しても...

Hiya,


1. 日本でホームステイをしたことのある人を一人ずつグループに入れて、その人にホームステイについていろいろ聞きなさい。

This is part of the instructions for a class exercise. I'm not sure what 入れて means here. Do you get the impression that students from outside the class are being brought in to talk to the students in the class? (I am self-studying, so I am not myself doing this exercise in a class.)

Also, why is it したことのある人 and not したことがある人? What is the difference in meaning between those two?


2. 日本人とスリッパ

This is the title of a story. The story describes a foreigner's difficulty in understanding how to properly use different types of slippers in Japanese homes.

How would you translate と in the title? Although I don't trust Google Translate at all, and it often produces garbage, I was curious to see that it translates the above as "Japanese Slippers".


3. うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩といったところですが...

My translation: "Uh, well, Mr Larsen said that you needed to make a little improvement in your kanji, but..."

I'm unsure about ところ here. Is this purely a grammatical nominaliser, or does it carry some additional time-related meaning?


4. この調子だと、学期末になってどうなるか心配です。

I believe this roughly means something like "If this situation continues, I'm worried about how I'm going to make it to the end of term."

Is the second part like: 学期末になって (reaching the end of term) + どうなる (how this comes about) + か (question)?


5. そして、アメリカの高校生の多く（八三パーセント）が「勉強がよくできる生徒」になりたいと考え ている...

I'm stuck here on 「勉強がよくできる生徒」. What does this mean?


6. また、勉強しても必ずしもいい将来があるわけではない という気持ちが強くなっているのかもしれない。

I am struggling with this sentence. This is what I get:

また、= Also,
(の)かもしれない = it might be the case that
(という)気持ちが強くなっている = the feeling is getting stronger that
勉強しても必ずしもいい将来があるわけではない = ???

I guess I get a flavour of the last part, but I don't properly understand how it works.

1. I'm not sure what the "group" is exactly, but I assume the students are supposed to form some group and then one by one "insert" people into it who've done homestays in Japan.

が can be replaced by の in relative clauses with just a subject and verb, without a difference in meaning. This comes from older Japanese (don't remember which era... classical, maybe?) where their roles were reversed. You can still see it in phrases like 我が社, 我が家, 我が国, and in place names like 関ヶ原. All the above cases are が as a genitive marker, like の in 私の家.

2. "(The) Japanese and Slippers"

3. ～といったところだ is a set expression. It means something like "around the area". Well... uh... it's not so easy to put into English.

4. Yeah, but I think か should go with どうなる, i.e., どうなるか ("what will happen" or "how it will turn out"). That's what the worry is about.

5. "Students who study well".

6. "Also, it may be that the feeling that just because you study doesn't mean you'll have a good future is getting stronger." 必ずしも is a negative polarity item (NPI) and means "not necessarily".

Thanks @Glenn .

eeky said:

3. うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩といったところですが...
My translation: "Uh, well, Mr Larsen said that you needed to make a little improvement in your kanji, but..."
I'm unsure about ところ here. Is this purely a grammatical nominaliser, or does it carry some additional time-related meaning?

Click to expand...

"Yeah, but, I would say Mr Larsen needs to make a little improvement in his kanji..."

いった desn't mean "said" here, as Glenn-san mentioned. Thus, 漢字はもう一歩 is not Mr Larsen's words.

Toritoribe said:

"Yeah, but, I would say Mr Larsen needs to make a little improvement in his kanji..."
いった desn't mean "said" here, as Glenn-san mentioned. Thus, 漢字はもう一歩 is not Mr Larsen' words.

Click to expand...

This is a teacher talking to a student. I can't find the student's surname now; if it was ever mentioned then I've forgotten it. However, the only way the sentence seems to make sense with this new interpretation is if her surname is Larsen, and the teacher is addressing her like:

"Well, Miss Larsen, you need to make a little improvement in your kanji..."

Would that work?

Yeah, that works. Whatever the case, someone named Larsen needs to work a little on their kanji. (I can't believe I totally missed that. Did I even read it?...)

Yeah, both are possible that they are talking about the third person named Larsen and the name of the addressee is Larsen.

Glenn said:

Yeah, that works. Whatever the case, someone named Larsen needs to work a little on their kanji. (I can't believe I totally missed that. Did I even read it?...)

Click to expand...

OK, thanks. Looking back at the original sentence:

うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩といったところですが...

What would be the minimum changes necessary to make this mean that Larsen said some stated words? (It doesn't matter what the words are; replace 漢字はもう一歩 with anything you like, as necessary.)

I think うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩といったところだと言って いますが would do it. We wouldn't know who Larsen is talking about, though (unless it were clear from the context, that is).

eeky said:

OK, thanks. Looking back at the original sentence:
うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩といったところですが...
What would be the minimum changes necessary to make this mean that Larsen said some stated words? (It doesn't matter what the words are; replace 漢字はもう一歩 with anything you like, as necessary.)

Click to expand...

for example
うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩と言っていました/言いましたが...
うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、ちょうど「漢字はもう一歩です」と言ったところでしたが...

Glenn said:

I think うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩といったところだと言って いますが would do it. We wouldn't know who Larsen is talking about, though (unless it were clear from the context, that is).

Click to expand...

Oh, sorry, that's not what I meant. I wanted to make the いった that's already in place have the meaning of "(Larsen) said (such and such a thing)", rather than adding a new と言って.

I just thought of another use of 〜といったところだ... or maybe I should say another example. I was just thinking about the word 編集 and how the second character was chosen as a substitute after the orthography reform for 輯, and then I was trying to remember how to write 輯 and it took me about a minute. Then I thought ああ、道理でその書き方をすぐ思い付かなかったんだ。あの「咠」という部分はあんまり見かけないからな。「葺」という字といったところかな。

Of course, if that's mistaken in any way please let me know. I already had initially included 茸 as a character that included 咠, and then I saw it and realized it was exactly the same character as my second example (and I was remembering it wrong). I don't know why I didn't realize that before, but I assume it's because 茸 and 葺 are kind of linked in my mind.

eeky said:

Oh, sorry, that's not what I meant. I wanted to make the 窶堋｢窶堙≫?堋ｽ that's already in place have the meaning of "(Larsen) said (such and such a thing)", rather than adding a new 窶堙?陳ｾ窶堙≫?堙?

Click to expand...

Oh, sorry. Then have a look at Toritoribe's examples, as he got it right.

Toritoribe said:

for example
うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、漢字はもう一歩と言っていました/言いましたが...
うん、でも、ラーセンさんは、ちょうど「漢字はもう一歩です」と言った ところでしたが...

Click to expand...

TThanks. One final question if I may. In the idiom in the original sentence, is it mandatory to write いった rather than 言った? In your sentences above, is it mandatory to use the kanji 言? Is there any rule governing this? For example, does the kanji form show that someone literally said something?

Yeah, the general trend is to use kanji for their original meanings, so 言 tends to be used only when someone has actually said something (although there are people who don't follow this guideline).