Int. Japanese 1-1 Verification

Chapter 1, part 1 of my Japanese textbook. There is no answer key and many times sentences go untranslated. I want to verify the meanings I picked up on and see if I am correct, as well as the ask the odd grammatical question. If anyone could help me by verifying my translations I'd be grateful.

１・いつから - 'from when?' or effectively 'how long?'.
２・（所）はどちらからですか？- Where in (place)? I.e. アメリカはどちらからですか？Where in America?
３・（V）たいと思っています。- "I'm thinking I want to ~"
４・〜に入れていただきました - used in context of joining a class. Is itadaku just a keigo'd up iru (making a ５・more casual version, 'I joined ~' '~ni irete imashita')
６・「あのクラスは宿題が多いですよ。」- "That class has a lot of homework."

７・〜て困る - Wondering about this. One sentence had 日本語がわからなくて困りました。'I had trouble understanding Japanese'. Can ~te komaru be used in more places to express that 'I have/had trouble (doing this)'. Perhaps （僕が）よくあのお料理をちゃんと作って困まりました。(intended meaning: I used to have trouble making that dish properly). I'm sure there's other ways to express what I meant to say, but I want to know if ~te komaru can be/IS used like this.

８・あの人、どうしていますか。"How is that person doing?" Just wondering if this どうして is the same as the どうして I know as 'why?'.

９・The text scenario and my translation: 高校で二年間日本語を勉強して大学に入ったばかりのキャロル・ベーカーが、日本会のパーティーで日本語の石山先生に初めて会う。"Carol Baker, who studied Japanese for two years in high school and just entered university, meets Japanese professor Ishiyama for the first time at a Japanese company party.

That's all in chapter one ?!?!?!

What textbook is it?

This is An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese by Akira Miura and Naomi Hanaoka.

There's many things to each chapter. Since I am not yet in a classroom setting, I'm driving myself to work through this textbook at a decent pace as though in class, and divvy out the workload through the weekdays.

To be fair, a lot of my questions weren't direct subjects in the textbook. The only things it seemed interested in talking about were 〜たばかり and あの(noun). What happens is, throughout example sentences and readings, I observe smaller things (like ~te komaru) that the book doesn't go into detail about, and I want to expand on them and learn as much as I can from the material I have.

Here I posted 9 separate inquiries as to the accuracy of my understanding.
If that's outrageous to ask for (especially since I'll be studying this textbook all semester and will likely have more), then I won't burden the forum with them and I apologize. I don't want to treat this place like a free answer key, after all - I just really want to understand what I'm doing.

No, I just thought that was from chapter one of a beginning textbook.

Oh, hahaha.
Yea, that would have been a bit overkill...

ledojaeger said:

Oh, hahaha.
Yea, that would have been a bit overkill...

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We've actually had people with beginning texts that included that much stuff and I thought we had found another one. Usually it is some well-intentioned text put together by an amateur for a country where there are no other Japanese texts available in their language.

2)
It's valid only in a specific context/situation that the topic(= place name) is already mentioned in the conversation and they both clearly know what they are talking about.
e.g.
A: どちらからいらっしゃったんですか。
B: アメリカです。
A: アメリカはどちらからですか。（＝アメリカのどちらからですか。）
B: ミネソタです。

A: どちらへいらっしゃるんですか。
B: アメリカです。
A: アメリカはどちらへですか。（＝アメリカのどちらへですか。）
B: ミネソタです。
(They both clearly know they are talking about where A comes from / will go to. Notice that you need to change the particle following どちら depending on the context.)

4)
いただく is a polite verb of もらう.
入れていただきました ＝ 入れてもらいました

7)
Notice that the subordinate clause is negative わからなくて, not affirmative わかって. The -te form indicates the cause/reason of the main clause, thus, it literally means "I had trouble because I couldn't understand Japanese." You need to use negative form; あの料理をちゃんと作れなくて困りました。 / あの料理をちゃんと作れないことが多くて困りました。.

8)
どうして【如何して】の英語・英訳 - 和英辞書 - 英語辞書 - goo辞書

For instance, どうして来たんですか can have two different meanings "why" and "how/by what means" depending on the context.

9)
日本の会社のパーティー

In practical usage, Bte as a conjunction is used tremendously often. As toritobe san says, in many cases you can infer (or imply, when you're the speaker) cause/reason. Note that Bte form for adjectives is used like this as well.

kagi ga hairanakute, komatta (the key wouldn't go in, so I had trouble [getting in]) ... verb case (hairu)
hon ga furukute, peeji ga hirakanai (the book is old, so I the pages won't open) ... adjective case (furui)

As you get more familiar in real-world situations, you can even leave off the second part after Bte in the conversation:

Doushite okureta no? (why were you late?)
Sumimasen. Takushidai ga nakute... (Sorry. I didn't have cab fare, so...[inferring that you walked or found some other way to get there])

Next, item:
You said:
高校で二年間日本語を勉強して大学に入ったばかりのキャロル・ベーカーが、日本会のパーティーで日本語の石山先生に初めて会う。
Carol Baker, who studied Japanese for two years in high school and just entered university, meets Japanese professor Ishiyama for the first time at a Japanese company party.

Sounds like from the context that Carol is still a U student...assuming 日本会のパーティー isn't a typo...then Nihonkai = Japan Club (the school's club)?

If, some day, you want to become a standout translator, think about your translated product a bit more. Aside from "nihonkai," your translation is technically correct. As a matter of fact, nine out of ten translators would write it just the way you did. Well, maybe eight out of ten. The other two would go one step further and attempt to put "translated English" into more natural English. Something like the following [from the context...this is setting up a conversation that will take place between Carol and the professor, right?]

"Carol Baker just entered university [the name of the U would be better] after two years of high school Japanese. She is meeting Professor Ishiyama for the first time at a party sponsored by the school's Japan Club. Professor Ishiyama is a professor of Japanese at the university."

Of course, there are all kinds of ways to write that, depending on your preferred style.

"Carol has just enrolled in the university after taking two years of Japanese in high school. She is meeting Professor Ishiyama, a professor of Japanese, for the first time at a party sponsored by the university's Japan Club." [you could even switch the order of these two sentences to talk about the party first and then the conditions of Carol's enrollment in school]

Which is better?

Who's to say? I like the first one (three sentences). Some would prefer the second version. Some will prefer your version, because it's easier to track from the original (more of a direct translation).

Sorry for getting all philosophical...just a pet topic of mine.

Toritoribe, thank you.
Can I assume that numbers you didn't address were correct definitions?
It's good to know the context required of 2.
To be honest, I'm woefully unskilled with the use of morau in any sense (4). I don't know why it's taken me so long to learn such a basic idea.
As for 7, that makes perfect sense. Thank you.
And as for 9...

Butarox helped me a lot with that. It's interesting to hear about the different 'types' of translation. It's also encouraging to know that I almost hit the mark. I suppose I assumed when I said 'Japanese company party' and that Japan club would probably be better. I really do need to think a lot more before I go ahead and say something. It's very trying and there's many who can do it better than me, but I really want to learn, so I will do my best. I'll probably stick with trying to do the more direct translations, and maybe make 'play' translations that are more native-sounding.

Every time I am helped here, your help really sticks in my brain. I can recall it later and use it to avoid mistakes. I'm very grateful.

ledojaeger said:

Can I assume that numbers you didn't address were correct definitions?

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Yes.

4)
The following thread might be somewhat helpful to understand the concept of ～てあげる（＝やる）/もらう/くれる(so-called やりもらい動詞 in Japanese grammar).

Please help me understand these two sentences! ～てもらう、～てくれる | Japan Forum

9)
I misunderstood that the English sentence was the original and 日本会のパーティー was the translation of "a Japanese company party". Sorry for that.
Is there anything following 会う at the end of the sentence, something like 場面です or シーンです? The awkwardness of the sentence is another reason I judged it's not the original.

Toritoribe said:

I misunderstood that the English sentence was the original and 日本会のパーティー was the translation of "a Japanese company party". Sorry for that.
Is there anything following 会う at the end of the sentence, something like 場面です or シーンです? The awkwardness of the sentence is another reason I judged it's not the original.

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Thank you for the link. I'll read up soon.

The sentence was the original. I think it's meant to serve as a brief synopsis before jumping into 会話 between characters. It seems it will be a pattern before every 会話 section.

ledojaeger said:

I'll read up soon.

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Please do not hesitate to let us know if there is something you don't understand.

ledojaeger said:

The sentence was the original. I think it's meant to serve as a brief synopsis before jumping into 会話 between characters. It seems it will be a pattern before every 会話 section.

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I see. Then it's something like a stage direction/explanation about the scene of a screenplay.

Toritoribe said:

I see. Then it's something like a stage direction/explanation about the scene of a screenplay.

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Right! That's the air I immediately got from it, especially when it cut off with 会う.