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Need a word or phrase translated?

In the first case, you would probably say,

東京に住んでいるのはどう？
（とうきょう に すんでいる のは どう？）
Lit: How is it, living in Tokyo?

Or you can just omit all of that if the 話し相手 (person with whom you are speaking) just said he lives in Tokyo. Then you can just ask, どうですか？


In the second case you use this construction N1 は N2みたいです。 N1 is like/similar to N2. Or, N1 は N2のようです。 They mean exactly the same thing, and really I hear both in conversation so...no real difference.
 
If I heard that, my first reaction would be they're asking me "How about living in Tokyo?" as if it were suddenly my decision to make.

For like of the other party, maybe 東京に住んでいるのは、どんな感じ（ふう。。）ですか？
 
undrentide said:
another alternative:
東京での暮らしはどう（ですか）？
Click to expand...
Ok. So this sentence is sorta like "how is in Tokyo's living area place thing?" lol aka "What's it like (living) in Tokyo?"

So, would this be an ok convo for example

A： 東京に住んでいますね。
B： うん～
A： 東京ので暮らしはどうですか？
B： とてもにぎやかですよ！

...or something to that extent?

ok ok hm

how about the "It's like......."

Like, what is said before

"It's like a ham and cheese sandwich."

How would you say that?
 
In that case you use this construction N1 は N2みたいです。 N1 is like/similar to N2. Or, N1 は N2のようです。 They mean exactly the same thing, and really I hear both in conversation so...no real difference aside from the grammar.
 
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I always seem to mess up with a certain type of comparison although it seems like something I should have figured out long ago. Its when I try to say things like:

When I lived in Australia for one year, I traveled about the same amount as I had traveled while living in America for twenty years. (lamenting how complacent one becomes in one's own country) OR

Even though my Japanese is better than her English, she speaks to me in English.

I always feel clumsy or wrong when I come up with answers. Please give me recommendations/correct my own attempts.

１A 彼女の英語語能力より僕の日本語能力のほうがずっと高いのに、いつも英語で言われた。

１B 日本語で話す方がずっと楽だけど、いつも彼女に英語で言われた。

２ 一年間しかオーストラリアに住んでいなかったけど、二十年間ものアメリカにいた頃と同じぐらいあちこちに旅をしました。やっぱり。。。
 

These two patterns are a little bit different.

"Xみたいです" would mean "It's (something) like X". This would be good for comparisons.

"Xのようです" is closer to "It appears to be X". You'd use this if you were uncertain.

If you want to use よう, you could try something like "Xのようなもの", "something like X".
 
おろちへ：Yes, that is true about ～のようです。 After all, in kanji it would be written as 様. And thank you for correcting me, never too late to learn.
みたい is definitely more like 'like.'


Barkleyへ: Yeah, as far as I know ～と同じぐらい is how you would say that. You can also use ほど、but that is only for negatives. "not as ~ as"
 
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Barkleyへ: Yeah, as far as I know ～と同じぐらい is how you would say that. You can also use ほど、but that is only for negatives. "not as ~ as"[/QUOTE]

The problem isn't so much with the grammar points used for comparison as much as it is the length involved in constructing the comparisons themselves. I feel like, when it comes to these kinds of lengthy constructions, that mine are clumsy if not wrong.
 
Ah, well, for instance:
彼女の英語語能力より僕の日本語能力のほうがずっと高いのに、いつも英語で言われた。

I would change to
彼女の英語より僕の日本語の方が高度なのに、いつも英語でしゃべます。


...and if you really don't like the fact that she decides to speak in English you could use くせに instead of のに, but that is pretty strong.

Add whatever connotations you want to the sentence, of course.
 
Charles,

Something else you're leaving out of the equation here is context and the flow of dialogue before and after these utterances. Depending on what's been said (and what you plan to say or expect to hear), lots of stuff can just be modified or even ommitted.

So it's important to think in terms of Japanese rather than very literal translations
 
I don't think so in the least. You can certainly use よう for "seems/looks" like even in clearly metaphorical contexts. It's simply slightly more formal than "mitai." "Ni nite iru" is equally applicable.

She smiled like an angel.
From overhead, the island looks like a jewel. etc.

Sorry there isn't time for the proper translations now...

korewa dochira no imi nimo toremasu.
sono jyokyou ni yotte dochiratoshitemo tsukaerudesyou.
 
> She smiled like an angel.

Sure, but there is a difference between:

天使のように微笑んだ。
and
天使の微笑みのようだ。

That's what I pointed out.
 
I am trying to translate some course of literature and I have a problem with this:

その門流は相継いで十三代におよんだ。

門流 is school in vogue (I think, not sure)

相継いで : didn't find at all...

十三代: the thirteen 's generation?????

およんだ is from およむ?

Hope you can help me!
 
相 acts either to mean 'together, mutually, each other,' or it is an emphatic verbal prefix. Are you sure you didn't mean 相次いで? It is pronounced the same as 相継いで. Of course, there may be some wordplay here. 継ぐ means either to 'succeed to a house, inherit' or 'to connect, link.'

十三代 would mean...yeah, thirteen's generation? I think it means people of 13 years of age - 'thirteen year olds.'

およんだ is definitely the past tense of 及ぶ, to extend to or reach (to reach a goal or extend over a range).

It is pretty hard to understand what is going on though, without the context.

門流...definitely something to do with schools. Got me here. To what 'monryuu' is it referring? Could you give some context.
 
Buckaroo Banzai: I know that you are trying to help and it its hard to criticize someone who clearly has good intentions. But I feel like you are perhaps giving advice here when you shouldn't be. I don't know what your history with japanese study is or what skill level you bring to bear (although your profile says you have never been to Japan), but it seems like you are trying to offer help on questions that are above your own level of japanese. There are a lot of people on this site of a lot of skill levels--some native speakers, some beginners. You will be able to help a lot of people, but there are some people, and some questions, that perhaps you would be better off leaving to the higher level speakers. Providing unsatisfactory or incorrect answers will only mislead people into thinking the wrong things, or perhaps cause more experienced learners to withhold their own advice, having skimmed the thread and thinking those questions have already been answered. Welcome to the site and I hope you continue to keep posting and helping people, but please, and I mean this only as advice, make sure you know the correct answer before offering advice.
 

With the australia one I wasn't going from a translation--it was something that came up in conversation yesterday. What I said was pretty similar to what I wrote in my post, and I believe they did get it, but as I said, I feel awkward when saying it. If there is a more natural way of thinking about the japanese there, then it doesn't exist in my brain, so I came here looking for suggestions. Obviously this kind of thing could come out smoothly through question and answer, but this came in the context of a short monologue on my part. One teacher said that when I seem to be participating in more japanese cultural activities than any of the japanese students and teachers. I then agreed and brought up my experience in australia, where, despite living there for only one year, I traveled around far more than I had when living back home, even though I had lived back home for 20 years.

I am not at all attached to the English there, so feel free to translate as you like, but I would really appreciate it if you (or someone else) could teach me how to say this in a more natural way. Thanks as always.
 
I might say:
オーストラリアにはたった１年住んでいただけだけど、アメリカに20年いたときと同じくらいたくさん旅行してあちこちを見て回った。
僕の日本語の方が彼女の英語よりはるかに上手なのに、どういうわけか彼女と話すときはいつも英語になってしまう。
僕の日本語の方が彼女の英語より上なのに、いつも彼女は英語でしか話してくれない。
 
その門流は相継いで十三代におよんだ

I am going to go against my own advice that I just gave buckaroo, since this reading is above my level, and say that this probably means something like:

That (clan/family/religious sect/tradition/practice) extended over (was inherited by and stretch on for) 13 generations.

門流 comes up in a 国語辞書 as meaning 一門の流派.
 

Once you post translations like this, it just becomes so obvious that I'm sad I didn't think of them before. But I guess that's language learning. Thanks for the help!
 
Charles Barkley: I have studied Japanese for six years at first independently and then at Guilford College and CU Boulder, and although I have not been to Japan (yet) I did study under a native speaker for four years in addition to my classes. It was never my intention to make it seem like I know everything, because I definitely don't. Yes, looking back at it, I shouldn't have offered help to the person in the literature class. I wasn't totally unsure, I mean I know precisely what 及ぶ and 継ぐ mean, but nonetheless I agree with you.

このことを気にせず、手伝いが要る人を手伝ってあげるといいと思います。
 
That was from the series of "いちばよ、ちおせよ！".
 
ハダカ said:
いちばよ、ちおせよ！
Click to expand...
I'm afraid that the above words do not make any sense at all in Japanese.
Maybe you've mis-spelt them or quoted incorrectly?
Otherwise they're written by someone who does not know Japanese language...
 
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