Is this correct?? (in romaji)

[the mighty quinn]

Ok guys, my Japanese is pretty basic (only started learning recently) and I've got to do a presentation including a couple of Japanese phrases for a job interview next week. They're under no pretences about my standard of Japanese (they know I'm a novice), but I would like to get them right.

Is this correct? (sorry, it's in romanji as I haven't begun on the characters yet)

'Kannichi wa, watashi no namae wa Tom soshite Eikoku no Falmouth kara desu. Watashi wa Falmouth de yo-nenkan sumimashita. Watashi wa Graphic Design o benkyoo daigaku de ugokimashita.'

Which should translate as:

'Hi, my name is Tom and I'm from Falmouth in England. I was living in Falmouth for four years. I moved there to study Graphic Design at University.'

There are a couple of things in particular that I'm unsure about: the 'wa' use in the second and third sentence. And the conversion of the verb to past-tense that I've done.

Also, I have no clue what 'graphic design' translates into in Japanese! I'm working on that...

If anyone could give me any tips at all it would be great!

thanks

 

[Ryuk]

Hi Tom, not sure if I can help much but i'll give it a try. Oh, firstly it's "romaji" not "romanji"

Konnichi wa, namae wa Tom shoshite watashi no jitaku no jyuusho wa Falmouth ni Eikoku no naka desu. Falmouth de yonenkan sumimashita. Falmouth ni Graphic Design o benkyoushimashita ni tachisarimashita.

The first sentence i'm not so sure about, I may have accidentally butchered it (sorry!). "watashi no jitaku no jyuusho" is "my home town" and "Falmouth ni Eikoku no naka desu" is "Falmouth in(within) England".

Second setence looks mint.

Third, I wrote I moved (house) and studied Graphic Design (sorry don't know the Japanese for that either). I think if you say ugokimashita, that is more like moving around a small space, rather than travelling (I assumed you moved city or something to study this course).

Good luck with your interview! I would wait for a reply from a member who knows more Japanese than me, I haven't been learning for long.

 

[the mighty quinn]

Thank you Ryuk!! That all makes sense. In particular the bit on the 'moved' verb - that's a subtle thing that I probably wouldn't have picked up on.

I posted this thread on the 'translation' thread originally (before i realised that none of that is romaji ) and apparently 'graphic design' is 'gurafikkudezain'. So the final sentence should read:

Falmouth ni gurafikkudezain o benkyoushimashita ni tachisarimashita.

Cool. Is there any way to remove the 'Falmouth' reference though? I've already mentioned it in the last two sentences... how about:

Gurafikkudezain o benkyoushimashita ni daigaku de tachisarimashita.

I've included the reference to university here too.

 

[epigene]

Konnichi wa.
Watashi no namae wa Tom desu.
Eikoku no Falmouth kara kimashita.
Watashi wa Falmouth ni yo-nenkan sundeimashita.
Sokono daigaku de Graphic Design (or gurafikku dezain) o benkyo shimashita.

If you want everything in romaji,
Tom: Tomu
Falmouth: Farumausu or Farumusu (depending on how you pronounce the name)

HTH!

 

[Elizabeth]

Thank you Ryuk!! That all makes sense. In particular the bit on the 'moved' verb - that's a subtle thing that I probably wouldn't have picked up on.

I posted this thread on the 'translation' thread originally (before i realised that none of that is romaji ) and apparently 'graphic design' is 'gurafikkudezain'. So the final sentence should read:

Falmouth ni gurafikkudezain o benkyoushimashita ni tachisarimashita.

Cool. Is there any way to remove the 'Falmouth' reference though? I've already mentioned it in the last two sentences... how about:

Gurafikkudezain o benkyoushimashita ni daigaku de tachisarimashita.

I've included the reference to university here too.

"Benkyoushimashita ni" is not correct grammatically. Ni doesn't follow the past tense of a verb. But I'm really not sure where you're going with "tachisaru." That is the word for leave, and you're saying you came to Falmouth to study graphic design? :?

 

[the mighty quinn]

Ok, thanks a lot guys - I think I'm getting there!

So far, I think I've got the whole lot sorted, apart from I've got two variations on the final sentence -

Sokono daigaku de gurafikku dezain o benkyo shimashita. (Thanks epigene!)

or

Daigaku de gurafikku dezain o benkyou suru tame ni hikkoshimashita.

*I think* that the second one mentions moving as a verb, which is an important part of what I'm trying to say.

Sokono - does that mean something like 'there', or 'while I was there'?

 

[epigene]

Although using the "hikkoshimashita" sentence is closer to the English sentence, I think this faithful translation makes it awkward in Japanese (in terms of the flow and connection from the previous sentence). You'll have to mention the place where you were before moving to Falmouth, making the sentence a bit complicated. That is why I thought it's better to remove it in Japanese.

Of course, it is up to you to decide.

Please note also that I edited your title, changing "romanji" to "romaji."

 

[Elizabeth]

Ok, thanks a lot guys - I think I'm getting there!

So far, I think I've got the whole lot sorted, apart from I've got two variations on the final sentence -

Sokono daigaku de gurafikku dezain o benkyo shimashita. (Thanks epigene!)

or

Daigaku de gurafikku dezain o benkyou suru tame ni hikkoshimashita.

*I think* that the second one mentions moving as a verb, which is an important part of what I'm trying to say.

Sokono - does that mean something like 'there', or 'while I was there'?

Sokono daigaku de gurafikku dezain o benkyo suru tame ni hikkoshimashita.

Is fine if you want to say in "I moved to study graphic design at the university there."

Otherwise, unless the listerner is aware Falmouth is the place you have recently come from, it should be inserted as "there" in the final verb phrase. (....benkyou suru tame ni soko ni ikimashita/hikkoshimashita.)

 

[Charles Barkley]

Ok, thanks a lot guys - I think I'm getting there!

So far, I think I've got the whole lot sorted, apart from I've got two variations on the final sentence -

Sokono daigaku de gurafikku dezain o benkyo shimashita. (Thanks epigene!)

or

Daigaku de gurafikku dezain o benkyou suru tame ni hikkoshimashita.

*I think* that the second one mentions moving as a verb, which is an important part of what I'm trying to say.

Sokono - does that mean something like 'there', or 'while I was there'?

For clarity's sake, I will state it here as it may not have been stated explicitly earlier:

use epigene's version or elizabeth's version, not ryuk's. No offense to ryuk, it was a good effort and its important to try out one's Japanese, but there are many problems with it.

 

[the mighty quinn]

Thanks again guys, for the help on here as well as on the 'translation' thread.

I've now got a MUCH better understanding of how to talk about this topic and have learnt a few more things about Japanese grammar along the way!

Much appreciated

edit: also thank you epigene for correcting my thread title! (i noticed even on wikipedia that it says something along the lines of 'romaji is often mistakenly called 'romanji' by many westerners', so looks like i'm not alone!)