Japan Through Foreign Eyes Part 3 Practice 1

Dear native English speakers,
I made a new translation exercise. Would you check my sentences?

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Lesson 1 Japan Through Foreign Eyes Part 3 Practice
１ 次の文を和訳しなさい。
①In the BBC survey, most people have positive views about Japan but, of course, some people have negative opinions about it.


②Many Japanese people are too shy to speak English. They often don't try to speak English even when they know some English. (try to V = Vしようとする)


③I find that few American people try to learn foreign languages probably because they think they can make themselves understood in their language no matter where they go.


④It's not that they keep their feelings to themselves, but it's just that they need time to
build personal relationships.


⑤Ms. Hitt, from America, says that Japan is safer and more peaceful than many other
developed countries. (developed country = 先進国)


⑥Mr. Yamada, my English teacher, pointed out that my English compositions had a lot of spelling mistakes.


⑦It's important to always be honest and sincere to those around you.


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Thanks in advance.

Hirashin

An American person corrected some of the sentences above.
For ①, he corrected it into:
In the BBC survey, most people had positive views about Japan but, of course, some people have negative opinions about it.

He said that he didn't know why, but "had" would sound right to him.

For ③, he corrected it into:
I find that few Americans try to learn foreign languages probably because they think they can make themselves understood in their language no matter where they go.

Would "few Americans" sound better than "few American people"?

I feel that sentence 3 is a run-on sentence. "I find that few Americans try to learn foreign languages" is an independent clause. I feel it could be fixed with a semicolon. "I find that few Americans try to learn foreign languages; probably because they think they can make themselves understood in their language no matter where they go." I'm not certain on this though, input from others may be helpful in this instance.

Run-On Sentences and Sentence Fragments - Grammar - Academic Guides at Walden University

For number 3, using a semicolon as suggested would be incorrect. When using a semicolon in this type of role, both parts before and after the semicolon need to be complete sentences. In this case, though, the latter part is not a complete sentence, so a semicolon cannot be used, unless that part is rewritten to be a complete sentence. The best punctuation mark to use in this case is the em dash (like a long hyphen), but that may be too complicated for your students. A comma would be acceptable, and is simplest for your students, I think.

Thanks for the help,OoTmaster and joadbres.

Would #1 sound right as it is? Or should I change "have" into "had"?
①In the BBC survey, most people have positive views about Japan but, of course, some people have negative opinions about it.

hirashin said:

Would #1 sound right as it is? Or should I change "have" into "had"?

Click to expand...

Either one can be OK, depending on the context.

For example, if the survey was conducted a long time ago, and most of the people who were surveyed are no longer living, then using past tense would be more natural.

If the survey was conducted quite recently, present tense is more natural, because presumably the people who were surveyed still hold these opinions. But past tense is OK, too.

Also, it depends on what the author of the sentence wants to stress (emphasize). If the author wants to stress that these opinions are still applicable (i.e., the people who were surveyed still feel this way today), then using present tense is better.

In short, I would recommend the following:
- if you want to stress the results of a survey at the time it was conducted, use past tense
- if you want to use the results of the survey to show how people still feel today, use present tense.

I understand.
Thank you for the detailed explanation, joadbres.