Int. Japanese 1-2 学部、今度一度、そこの

Questions arising from daily study.

Translation work of this pre-conversation scene synopsis.
大学院生の池田が、友達のトム・ブラウンを他の大学院生に紹介する。
Direct: Graduate student Ikeda introduces his friend Tom Brown to other graduate students.
More 'Native': Ikeda, a graduate student, introduces his friend Tom Brown to other [graduate] students. (The fact that the others are also graduate students may be inferred?)

１）学部 - Difference between 大学 and 学部? Anything crucial? Sort of like in English how we have 'college' versus 'university'?
２）「今度一度やりましょうか？」- Referring to an invite to play tennis. Does kondo here function as 'sometime soon' and ichido 'a game', as in one game or a match? If I translate it as 'one time' it's a little clunky. 'Sometime shall we do it one time?' When it's that direct it's weird, so I have to play with it a little.
３）日本に興味を持ったのは・・・ Talking about someone's interest in Japan. I know 'kyoumi ga aru' is 'have an interest'. Is 'kyoumi o motsu' referring to 'take an interest'? 'Motta no wa' then makes the topic 'when you took an interest in Japan'?
４）そこの一郎くん - The preceding sentence described a neighboring Japanese family. The speaker goes on to talk about playing with their son Ichirou. What I'm wondering about is そこの. My guess is this: Soko is directly referencing 'that [family's son] Ichirou'.
５）それで - "because of that" ? As in, 'Ahh, so that's why ~'.
６）漢字を勉強しなければ、日本の新聞を読めるようにはなりません。 Wondering why the textbook has ようには instead of ように. Is it a contrast or emphasis or? What does the ni wa do for the sentence that just ni doesn't do?

よろしくお願いします。
Because my studies are often, I intend to post often with things like this. I hope my own questions and answers are helpful to onlookers. If this is all outrageous to ask, I will not regularly post.

1)
It's "university/college" vs "department/school/faculty (of a university)".
e.g.
東京大学工学部
the School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo

2)
一度 means "one time", and it doesn't always refers to "a game", for instance, it might be just a practice/training as a not-so-common example. If you understand this, I think it's no problem to use "a game" for natural English.

3)
Yes. It's similar to やる気がある vs やる気が出る/やる気を持つ.
の is a nominalizer, so 日本に興味を持ったの literally means "Your taking an interest in Japan". As you can see, there is no connotation of "when" just by this phrase. It might be "why", "what" "where" etc., etc. depending on the context.
e.g
日本に興味を持ったのは、何がきっかけですか？(= what)

4)
そこ basically refers to "the location the speaker is talking about". In this case, it's the family who lives there, as you interpreted.

5)
Yes. で indicates the cause/reason.
e.g.
事故で電車が遅れた。

6)
Yes, は is the contrastive marker. It connotes, for instance, you might become to be able to read manga for children with no kanji/with okurigana, but you can't become to be able to read newspapers.

ledojaeger said:

Because my studies are often, I intend to post often with things like this. I hope my own questions and answers are helpful to onlookers. If this is all outrageous to ask, I will not regularly post.

Click to expand...

There is no problem at all. This is exactly the place for that purpose.

Toritoribe said:

1)
It's "university/college" vs "department/school/faculty (of a university)".
e.g.
東京大学工学部
the School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo

Click to expand...

Ahh, that makes sense.

3)
Yes. It's similar to やる気がある vs やる気が出る/やる気を持つ.
の is a nominalizer, so 日本に興味を持ったの literally means "Your taking an interest in Japan". As you can see, there is no connotation of "when" just by this phrase. It might be "why", "what" "where" etc., etc. depending on the context.
e.g
日本に興味を持ったのは、何がきっかけですか？(= what)

Click to expand...

That's interesting to know.
In my textbook, it was a 'when'. I didn't postulate how far it could go with different types of questions. ~ta no wa is new on my radar.

6)
Yes, は is the contrastive marker. It connotes, for instance, you might become to be able to read manga for childern with no kanji/with okurigana, but you can't become to be able to read newspapers.

Click to expand...

Wow. That makes SO MUCH SENSE. Haha. Got a little excited when I read that. The scales fell off my eyes.

You probably know the general の for noun-ification (not a real word, sorry)

泳ぐのが好きです → I like swimming.

This is just another example of it. It's not a special thing with ~たのは but part of a wider pattern.

ledojaeger said:

More 'Native': Ikeda, a graduate student, introduces his friend Tom Brown to other [graduate] students. (The fact that the others are also graduate students may be inferred?)

Click to expand...

ledojaeger,

Great job with the natural ("real English") translation. You catch on quick!
Since the sentence explicitly states "...to other graduate students ("ta no daigakuinsei)," I would put that explicitly in the sentence.

Here's something interesting, though (well...interesting to me). The writer does not state at which school Ikeda studies, nor at which school the other grad students study. So, depending on the context of the situation and the knowledge of your readers, you may need to add more information not explicitly provided in the sentence (although I don't think it's necessary in this case). Japanese is notorious for introducing a subject and then not referencing it later, leaving the reader to infer. That can cause some rather confusing or poorly written English. Western readers want to know the 4Ws and 1H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How).

EDIT: 5Ws...oops.

Nekojita,
Yes, I have noticed the wider pattern! When I first learned it I only know that a plain verb + no noun-ified it. ~ta no wa, ~no mo, and others are things I'm noticing more and more and so far it's decently easy to infer the meanings.

butarox,
You're so right about what I look for/want as an English speaker. I've stumbled many times talking to Japanese friends who use casual language with me, because I find myself panicking and thinking 'what's the subject here!?' or 'Context?!' or sweating a little when I realize that a basic statement like 「今気づいた！」could be talking about himself, or me... and depending on who it is, the tone of the conversation can change.