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Help with a sentence

Kinsao

Horizon Rider
8 May 2005
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Hi! :joyful:
I was studying Japanese for a while, and when my classes finished I did self-study instead and made quite good progress on kanji that way. :) But since September-time I slacked on my study due to other committments ;_;; but now my Japanese friend sent me a book of proverbs for Christmas so I am getting back into my study to try and read this book! 👍

Anyway there is a sentence that I would like some help about...

I am sorry I can't write it in Japanese script here >_< so I have to romaji it :sorry:

The sentence goes "Jinsei no samazama na 'shi-n' de odoroku hodo ooku no koto wo okuete kuremasu".
-- The word "shi-n" I put in inverted commas because it is written in katakana, but I can't find it in my dictionary or for the life of me figure out what it should be translated to in English! @_@
-- The word "koto" is written in hiragana, which also confuses me a little, because the meanings of "koto" that I know all have a kanji for them.

I can understand the meanings of the individual components, but can't figure out how they construct the sentence... if you know what I mean. 😊 Also, without the meaning of "shi-n" it makes things more complicated to work out. Is anyone able to help? 🙂
 
Hi, Kinsao!

What you're looking at is the Japanized form of the English word "scene." It should be written in romaji.
Unlike the English word, however, it is used in Japanese to refer to situation kind of "scene," and not the visual "scene." Please note that many Japanized foreign words carry meanings that are not exactly the same as the original.

"Koto" is used to mean "thing." "Ooku no koto" means "a large number of things."

HTH!

PS There is much that can be elaborated on the two, but I will refrain from going further at this point. :)
 
The sentence goes "Jinsei no samazama na 'shi-n' de odoroku hodo ooku no koto wo okuete kuremasu".
-- The word "shi-n" I put in inverted commas because it is written in katakana, but I can't find it in my dictionary or for the life of me figure out what it should be translated to in English! @_@
-- The word "koto" is written in hiragana, which also confuses me a little, because the meanings of "koto" that I know all have a kanji for them.

I can understand the meanings of the individual components, but can't figure out how they construct the sentence... if you know what I mean. 😊 Also, without the meaning of "shi-n" it makes things more complicated to work out. Is anyone able to help? 🙇

Hi Kinsao,

First, I write down the sentence in kana/kanji to make it easier to understand. :)

人生の様々なシーンで驚くほど多くのことを教えてくれます。
(じんせいのさまざまなシーンでおどろくほどおおくのことをおしえてくれます)
(I guess okuete should read oshiete.)

The subject of the verb is missing from this sentence. So it is about someone or something.

人生の様々なシーンで
シーン is a loan word from English "scene".
Here it means situation/event.
人生の: of (one's) life
様々な: various, many different
>>> On various scenes of one's life,

驚くほど多くのことを
驚くほど: 程(ほど) means the level, degree. To the degree that one is amazed
多くのこと: You can use 事 for こと、meaning things, matter, stuff (something abstract). It is very often written in hiragana, too.
>>> Astonishingly many things

教えてくれます
教える+くれる = 教えてくれる
くれる means to give, the action described from the receiving end or the third person. When combined with a verb, it implies that the person or someone is receiving a favour.
>>> teaches (someone - could be anyone, depending on the context.).

So the sentence goes something like:
On the various scenes of life, [something/someone] teaches astonishingly many things.

Hope this helps. :)
 
How did you get 教えてくれます from "okuete kuremasu?"

As for the translation, I was thinking that "life" was the subject: "Life teaches us so many things through its various 'scenes' that it's surprising."
 
How did you get 教えてくれます from "okuete kuremasu?"

As for the translation, I was thinking that "life" was the subject: "Life teaches us so many things through its various 'scenes' that it's surprising."

"Oshiete kuremasu" is an educated guess, and I agree with undrentide that it is the rational choice.

As undrentide points out, the subject is not mentioned in the sentence. So, your translation is not quite correct, although it certainly sounds nice. :)
 
I agree that it's rational too; it's just that it probably would never have occured to me. I was wondering how it occured to her. I'm impressed, actually. 😌

I'd like to know the context, because I want to know who or what is doing the teaching, but I feel like the only logical choice is life itself. Maybe that's just me though. :sick::p😌
 
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epigene san beat me again, and I did not realize it until now again...:p

okuete -> oshiete is a wild guess of mine.
I thought that if it is written in hiragana, く and し might look similar.
(But you never know - it might have been written in kanji!)
😅
 
Ooooh, thank you everybody for all your help! ^_^

Thank you Epigene for telling me "scene" - I would never have guessed it!

"Koto" as "thing" I had already guessed - I had rather expected it to have used the kanji for "koto", but "thing" was the meaning that seemed to me to make the most sense in the context.

My dictionary had also told me the use of "to the degree that...", so I had figured out that part of the sentence too. ^^

As for oshiete/okuete, damn, I wish I could input kanji into here! (It is not my computer so I don't have permissions to install language programs. >_>) Anyway, the root of the word was written in kanji, and I don't have the book in front of me now here either, so I can't make an analysis of the breakdown. >_< However, it was the kanji for "teach" and I'm pretty sure the "kuete" was in hiragana, but like I say I can't remember 100% offhand.

As for the actual meaning of the sentence, knowing the meaning of "scene" (and with confirmation that I was barking up the right tree with "koto", hehe), it would seem to mean something like "It's surprising how many things life teaches us through its various 'scenes'" (kinda like you already said ^^) -- without the subject stated explicitly, but with the book being a book of proverbs, the sentence does make sense to me - don't you think? :p
 
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