Being Japanese what does it mean?

[letslearn]

Hi All,
I was wondering. In English we often ask things like... What does it mean to be Australian? What does it mean to be British? etc.

Does Japanese have a similar expression?

Would it be something like.

にほんじんいることがどう言ういみですか。or にほんじんいることがなにを言ういみしますか

or is it a thought? as in what do think it means?

にほんじんいることがいみとおもいますか。

Thank you.

 

[Morphling]

I'm not too sure what it even means in English but I'm going to expand it as what does it mean to be born Japanese.

日本人として生まれたことの意義はなんですか。

Grammatically speaking, You can't use 意味 as it is quite literal. So 日本人の意味 i would imagine would be to be born in Japan and a holder of a Japanese passport.

意義 is a deeper meaning, as in what is its meaning of existence in society, ones function expectations etc etc.

But I reckon you can use either in real life.

 

[eeky]

I remember I had a question a while ago about the grammar of でいる. On reading this post, the question came to my mind as to whether 日本人でいるのはなんですか is correct Japanese?

 

[letslearn]

I see what you mean by not knowing yourself. It probably is a very abstract concept. It may be comon to all cultures and nationalities.
e.g in Australia we might say that we generaly Fair and resonable. Very proud of our acheivments etc. A big one is the term "easy going" which can mean we don't always take life to seriously or we try to separate work from play etc.

Maybe a better question to ask is: Can you express in a few words what it feels or "means" to be Japanese, e.g patiance, loyalty.. もてなし。。

 

[letslearn]

It is a weired one that one. 日本人でいる as 日本人 is japanese person and not sure it would need to be ている as in a state of being a japanese person?

彼は日本人ですか。
はい、日本です。

 

[Morphling]

I thought about でいる as well but it's the same as である but can only normally be used with 形容動詞 or na-adjective.

Not sure if it can be used with 日本人.

I'm not taking about the verb version of ている・でいる which can express state of being.

 

[Toritoribe]

日本人であること / 日本人であるということ is an appropriate translation. ～である can also be attached to nouns. (で is considered a particle in this case. The etymologies of these two でs are the same, though.)

I would say 日本人を日本人たらしめているものは何か. This expression is very common for that kind of question and has no ambiguity, which 日本人であるとはどういうことなのか / どういう意味なのか / 何を意味するのか has.

 

[Morphling]

Well thank god toritoribe is here.

たらしめるというのは「である」という意味の「たリ」と使役の「させる」という意味をもつ「しム」の組み合わせですよね。

漢文だと、使…為…。横文字だとWhat makes Japanese Japanese.

これ一つの慣用句として覚えとけば無難でしょうね。

 

[Glenn]

Ah, good ol' ﾂ〜窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｵ窶堙溪?堙ｩ. Just to break it down:

[窶督ｼﾅｽﾅ綻窶堋ｽ窶堙ｩ -- showing the qualifications of <noun>
ﾂ〜窶堋ｵ窶堙溪?堙ｩ -- classical causative suffix
ﾂ〜窶堋ｽ窶堙ｩ+窶堋ｵ窶堙溪?堙ｩ -- ﾂ〜窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｵ窶堙溪?堙ｩ -- to cause to show the qualifications of <noun>

[Edit] Apparently my internet's a bit slow.

 

[letslearn]

Hi All
昨晩は「日本人を日本人たらしめているものは何か」とって使いました。
とても面白いでした。
言葉なんて「我慢，忍耐と伝統」と言いました。
皆さん有難うございます