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Japanese studies & reading comprehension

Sciurus

後輩
12 Mar 2017
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Hi!

I've recently started studying Japanese in my local uni and I'm currently at A2 going on B1 (not sure where that would fall on the JPLT scale). I've also been doing some independent reading comprehension on the side, so I'd like to ask if I've correctly understood the meaning of some of these sentences.

1. Context: dancer (a kid) is nervous before going on the stage, so his teacher reassures him:
大丈夫!私の見込んだ子なんだもの。。。いつも通りにね
My guess: It'll be fine. I expect you to perform well, like you always do.

2. Context: after reminiscing about her difficult past, a character says:
最後に私の夢が叶ってなかったら今ごろどうしていたか。。。
The ending is a bit unclear: If my dream hadn't come true at the end, ...?

3. Context: teacher expresses concern for her students ahead of a tough task:
みんな私の子だもの。。。心配なんて
and later repeats a similar phrase after the situation has resolved:
みんな私の子供達だもの。。。心配無いわ
The second half is a bit unclear again: They're all like my kids...
If I were to guess the second half, I'd probably think ...so I'm a bit worried and ...so I'm no longer worried or something, but I'm very unsure about this.

I'd appreciate if someone could check/confirm these sentences. Thanks!
 
Hi!
1. Context: dancer (a kid) is nervous before going on the stage, so his teacher reassures him:
大丈夫!私の見込んだ子なんだもの。。。いつも通りにね
My guess: It'll be fine. I expect you to perform well, like you always do.
Close but not quite. Consider 「私の見込んだ子なんだもの」 as its own short sentence, and notice that 見込んだ is describing 子, not 'performing'.

2. Context: after reminiscing about her difficult past, a character says:
最後に私の夢が叶ってなかったら今ごろどうしていたか。。。
The ending is a bit unclear: If my dream hadn't come true at the end, ...?
I'm not 100% sure without the full context, but I strongly suspect 最後に here is like prefacing the sentence with 'And one last thing... '.

Anyway, everything after the たら is 「今ごろどうしていたか」 ... the heart of which is どうする ; 'what do I do?'
In the continuous conditional past, that's something like 'what would I have been doing?'.

3. Context: teacher expresses concern for her students ahead of a tough task:
みんな私の子だもの。。。心配なんて
and later repeats a similar phrase after the situation has resolved:
みんな私の子供達だもの。。。心配無いわ
The second half is a bit unclear again: They're all like my kids...
If I were to guess the second half, I'd probably think ...so I'm a bit worried and ...so I'm no longer worried or something, but I'm very unsure about this.
Not 'like my kids', just 'they're all my kids'. (As a teacher, obviously this means 'my kids' as students not as her children, and if translating I would probably put it that way 'They're all my students' is less literal but clearer.)

I think both sentences are expressing the same idea; 心配なんて is saying 心配 is out of the question. Both lines are an expression of pride and confidence.
 
I think the former one 心配なんて expresses less confidence. The speaker wouldn't be able to say the following words (e.g. 心配なんてしてないわ) clearly because of her slight uneasy.
 
I think the former one 心配なんて expresses less confidence. The speaker wouldn't be able to say the following words (e.g. 心配なんてしてないわ) clearly because of her slight uneasy.
That makes sense to me.

Although, I kind of felt 心配なんて was short for 心配なんていらない (I don't need to worry!) which is of course less confident that 心配ないわ (I have no worries!)

I'm not so sure about that interpretation though so I didn't write it at the time. It seems though to, if not be exactly right, at least to match up with the idea of confidence levels.

In any case, I certainly appreciate your help in interpreting this!
(For OP, if you don't know, Toritoribeさん is a native speaker, and a pretty well read guy too boot, so you can certainly rely on his intuition in everything Japanese.)
 
Thank you both for the replies! You've been very helpful.

And yes, Toritoribe's explanation makes sense in the context that I posted (first being uneasy, then relieved). I also thought the same thing as SomeCallMeChris at first, so the meaning was a bit unclear to me.

Also, thanks for clearing up 最後に for me, Chris. I didn't even consider that usage.

I've got a couple more here, if you (or anyone else) have got some insight. No rush.

1. context: person shows up at a friend's house after a long absence and says:
ここは庭みたいなものです。
I'm guessing 庭 is used figuratively here as "a familiar place" or something, so maybe "This place is like a second home to me"?

2. context: mother returns home from abroad to surprise her young kid, and happily thinks to herself:
帰ったら彼驚いて泣いたりして
Is it something like, "When I get back, he'll be so surprised that he'll cry", "He'll start bawling from the shock of seeing me"?

3. context: a person cautions another:
私もうこれ以上軽率なことは。。。 (trails off)
My first guess: "I wouldn't do anything as reckless as that", "I wouldn't act too recklessly if I were you". Am I in the ballpark?
 
1. Context: dancer (a kid) is nervous before going on the stage, so his teacher reassures him:
大丈夫!私の見込んだ子なんだもの。。。いつも通りにね
My guess: It'll be fine. I expect you to perform well, like you always do.
Did you notice that いつも通りにね is another sentence, not an adverbial phrase of the preceding one, as Chris-san suggested?


1)
Yes.

2)
~たりして shows less probable guess, so "might" would be more appropriate.

3)
これ以上 means "anymore" there.
 
Thanks again, Toritoribe-san!

先に呼び捨てすみません。

So a better translation for the third one would be something like (loosely) "Don't act recklessly again/anymore" I guess?

And as for いつも通りにね、am I correct in guessing that it's just omitting the verb here and basically means いつも通りにしてね?
 
先に呼び捨てすみません。
Oh, no, no. You don't need to apologize. There's no problem with 呼び捨て. Here's a related thread.
What do you think about calling a person by his/her name + san? | Japan Forum

So a better translation for the third one would be something like (loosely) "Don't act recklessly again/anymore" I guess?
It totally depends on the context what is omitted after ことは. It might be しないわ as in your initial interpretation, or could be 見たくない if the person who cautions is the speaker. It can't be a negative imperative "Don't act~" since 私 is there.

And as for いつも通りにね、am I correct in guessing that it's just omitting the verb here and basically means いつも通りにしてね?
Exactly. You got it right!👍
 
Hi! Some more questions have popped up, I hope someone can help.

(from a monologue): ボクにはまだこの後に起こるコトなど予測も出来なかった
My guess: I couldn't yet predict what would happen (to me?) from this point onward.

(context: dance school teacher is talking about an upcoming recital/performance and telling the students that they have to work hard, adding this little comment:
そしてその演目は私と校長の共演作でもある。
Does he mean that he "co-created/co-wrote" or "had (previously) co-starred in" that piece? I'm thinking both might fit in terms of context, but I'm unclear on 共演作.

(another monologue): 私は昔から欲しい物は何でも手に入れて来たんですよ
My guess 1: I've always been able to get anything I wanted.
My guess 2: I've finally acquired the thing I've wanted for a long time.
Again, contextually, I guess both would fit, but I'm not really sure about this sentence at all.
 
Hi! Some more questions have popped up, I hope someone can help.

(from a monologue): ボクにはまだこの後に起こるコトなど予測も出来なかった
My guess: I couldn't yet predict what would happen (to me?) from this point onward.
Yes, but you can strike the (to me?) ; it's just saying the speaker could not yet predict the incident that would happen.
I'm thinking both might fit in terms of context, but I'm unclear on 共演作.
I don't know how to make sense of it in your sentence, but AとBの共演作 is a work that A and B both appear in.

(another monologue): 私は昔から欲しい物は何でも手に入れて来たんですよ
My guess 1: I've always been able to get anything I wanted.
guess 1 is correct.
 
Thank you, Chris-san!

I guess the に in the first sentence just confused me a bit, thanks for clearing that up.

In the second one, I got confused by associating 作 with make/create. Your explanation totally makes sense in the context (speaker + 校長 both having appeared together).
 
I guess the に in the first sentence just confused me a bit, thanks for clearing that up.
は and the position of まだ is the key. The topic usually rules the whole sentence, so ボク is interpreted as the subject of 予測も出来なかった. If the sentence is ボクにこの後に起こるコトなどまだ予測も出来なかった, the meaning is ambiguous, and your two interpretations are both possible.

In the second one, I got confused by associating 作 with make/create. Your explanation totally makes sense in the context (speaker + 校長 both having appeared together).
共演作 means 共演した作品/共に演じた作品, as Chris-san wrote, whereas a work they co-created is 共作(=共に作ったもの).
 
One more phrase that's giving me trouble, the following question:

歩くどころか立ってるのもやっとでしょ?

I understand the meaning of the どころか construction but I don't understand what's being asked here. So far, I've got: "___ stand, let alone walk, right?" If I were to make a wild guess, maybe it means "you can barely stand, let alone walk, right?" but I'm confused by the grammar. Can anyone clarify?
 
Aどころか should be "far from A", "let alone A" or something similar, right? Or am I wrong?
 
Yes, you got it right. "You can barely stand, let alone walk, right?" is correct.👍 Seems like I misunderstood something.🤦
 
Thanks for always being so helpful, Toritoribe-san! Here's another one:

(said to a foreigner): この国には「場の空気に呑まれる・空気に酔う」ってのがあってね

From what I gather, 場の空気に呑まれる is a fixed phrase in Japanese, so is the meaning of the whole sentence something like: "It is said in this country that the air around these parts is so intoxicating that you'll get drunk on it." or am I bungling something here?
 
場の空気に呑まれる and 空気に酔う are two different expressions of the similar meaning. "・" means "and/or" there.

The interpunct ・ (中黒 nakaguro, "middle black") or "katakana middle dot" (as the Unicode consortium calls it) is a small dot used for interword separation.
Uses include:
  • To separate listed items, instead of a comma: 小・中学校 (elementary and middle school) versus 小、中学校
Japanese punctuation - Wikipedia
 
Ah.

So, simply "It is said in this country that the air around these parts is intoxicating" then?
 
Ah.

So, simply "It is said in this country that the air around these parts is intoxicating" then?

Almost, but not exactly.

X には Y がある is essentially what we're looking at here.

In this country, there's a place (or places) where they say the air is intoxicating.

The difference is larger than it looks.
 
Two more sentences giving me trouble.

Context: a person is acting like a third wheel and his friend says:
もうちょっと空気読んでよ
Does this mean something like "just try to take a hint"? I'm making an assumption on the literal "reading the atmosphere" translation here.

Context: girl suddenly breaks up with boyfriend, who's shocked and says:
そんな。。。じゃあいままでのは全部。。。演義。。。
The ending is unclear. So far I've got: "No way! Then, everything up to this point ____". These kinds of sentences where parts are omitted or implied just drive me nuts :)
 
Yes, for the former one.

As for the latter, 演義 is a typo of 演技.
演技だったの?/だったっていうの?/だったっていうこと? makes sense?
 
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