Need a word or phrase translated?

[Elizabeth]

成る程. 有り難うございます

如何致しまして。By the way, back to the original question "Who did you receive a search for a house from?" is unnatural to use "receive" in Japanese, unless it was 'who wanted you to search for houses for them."

but if you reword it to say "Who searched for houses for you ?" 誰があなた（のため)に家を探してくれましたか？is more appropriate I think.

ところで。。。「誰かがあなたに家を探してくれるように頼んだ」場合は、「家を探してあげた」と言えるのかなぁ。。。この場合、「家を探す」というのはお願い例文じゃないと思いますね。

 

[Fuumei]

but if you reword it to say "Who searched for houses for you ?" 誰があなた（のため)に家を探してくれましたか？is more appropriate I think.

That definitely flows much better, and is easier to understand. Though they pretty much seem to mean the same thing, correct? There seems to be a very thin line separating the usage of kureru and morau. At least in my eyes.

ところで。。。「誰かがあなたに家を探してくれるように頼んだ」場合は、「家を探してあげた」と言えるのかなぁ。。。この場合、「家を探す」というのはお願い例文じゃないと思いますね。

"By the way, in the situation where 'someone is looking for a house for you' is asked, you can say "(subject) gave you the favor of looking for a house" I suppose... In this situation the phrase 'looking for a house isn't a 'onegai reibun' is it?" -- Did I read this right?

"お願い例文" - Requested Sentence? Not sure on this one. ご免なさい

 

[Elizabeth]

That definitely flows much better, and is easier to understand. Though they pretty much seem to mean the same thing, correct? There seems to be a very thin line separating the usage of kureru and morau. At least in my eyes.
"お願い例文" - Requested Sentence? Not sure on this one. ご免なさい

That was a phrase picked up through friends ("favor (doing a good turn?) example sentence ?").
I'm also not sure it means the same here but I was basically wondering if I should still use "あげた" as much with situations and events that are closer to fulfilling a request than showing a true act of kindness ? Ageru can never be used when the subject is the receiver.

 

[CryogeniC]

Hi guys, I recently managed to get a Japanese guy to join in my project and I would like to write to him in Japanese that "It is my honor to have you join". What will the kanji/hiragana be like for that and if possible, could anyone also give the romaji and english literal translation? Thanks a mil!!

 

[Fuumei]

お祖母さんやお祖父さんでも いくこと の出来るスポーツクラブをつくってほしいんです.

I've never encountered this kind of "いくこと" before, and I couldn't find a sufficient definition. The closest thing I've come to is that it means "grown up".
違いますか?

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

お祖母さんやお祖父さんでも いくこと の出来るスポーツクラブをつくってほしいんです.
I've never encountered this kind of "いくこと" before, and I couldn't find a sufficient definition. The closest thing I've come to is that it means "grown up".
違いますか?

Methinks you're thinking too hard!
いくことの出来る
いくことが出来る
行くことが出来る
行ける

Does this help?

 

[undrentide]

Mikawa Ossan already explained 「いくこと」 well, here's just my 2 yen.

～こと （～ is dictionary form of a verb) is form to nominalize a verb.
e.g.
行くこと
勉強すること
読むこと

「～ことができる」 means "be able to do___".
There's another form to express "be able to/can" but its conjugation is rather complicated.
「ことができる」 is much easier to remember and might be handy for the time being.

 

[Fuumei]

「～ことができる」 means "be able to do___".

Apparently I just couldn't put two and two together right from the start. As I read it a few times, it still didn't make sense so I naturally came to the conclusion that ikukoto had it's own special meaning.

お祖母さんやお祖父さんでも いくこと の出来るスポーツクラブをつくってほしいんです.

"Even the elderly men and women want to make a sports club they can go"? That's what i see. I know I'm missing something still.

 

[Elizabeth]

Apparently I just couldn't put two and two together right from the start. As I read it a few times, it still didn't make sense so I naturally came to the conclusion that ikukoto had it's own special meaning.
お祖母さんやお祖父さんでも いくこと の出来るスポーツクラブをつくってほしいんです.
"Even the elderly men and women want to make a sports club they can go"? That's what i see. I know I'm missing something still.

I want you to make a sports club where even the grampa and granny can go.

 

[Fuumei]

I want you to make a sports club where even the grampa and granny can go.

Just after posting my previous post, I realized what I wasn't seeing. Thanks for pointing out the "I want you" instead of "we want" since -te hoshii is a request you want someone else to do. Thanks to everyone for their help, again.

 

[Gaijinian]

what about this:
Kimi no koto wo kangaeru no wo taisetsu ni shite masu.
I don't like the two wo... what do you all suggest?

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

why not just

kimi no koto wo taisetsu ni shiteimasu

?

 

[Gaijinian]

Oh, cool. Why didn't I think of that?
Miakawa ossan no you ni, saikin nanka, kankei no mondai ga atte... Anyway, she can't read Japanese, so it really is not that important, I guess...

I hope I can figure all this out before I head off to Hualien...

 

[Glenn]

Gaijinian, you just really confused me. First, why are you typing in rômaji? Second, what do you have to get figured out before you head to Hualian? It looks like you're talking about Japanese. Also, were you responding to someone?

 

[Elizabeth]

Gaijinian, you just really confused me. First, why are you typing in rômaji? Second, what do you have to get figured out before you head to Hualian? It looks like you're talking about Japanese. Also, were you responding to someone?

I think he was talking about the subject of his sentence (the relationship), which also appeared related to MO's problems...

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

It's pretty clear to me what Gaijinian is saying...although by the looks of it, our problems are opposite! And yet two side of the same coin....

 

[Gaijinian]

Sorry, the computer I was using did not have the ability to write in Japanese...
もしGlennさんが欲しければ、文を換えて日本語に書きnaoせるよ (That sentance seems wrong...といっても、伝わると思うから大丈夫かな～)
Anywho, I was responding to Mikawa's idea, and also adding that I too am having relationship problems (I was reading his blog...)
I hope that clears it up

It's pretty clear to me what Gaijinian is saying...although by the looks of it, our problems are opposite! And yet two side of the same coin....

Well, maybe... and maybe not... The last e-mail ended with:

...I'm forgiving you, but I have trouble with the whole "forget and move on" part.

等... So, yeah. That's been my life for the last month-ish.... Aiyaiyai... I can't even think anymore...
BTW, can you use 関係 the same way you can in English?

 

[smasraum]

OK, I have what may be an odd request. I have an old soroban that's probably from the early 1900's. Unlike modern soroban it has characters on the middle bar at each row of beads. I'd love to know what the characters are. I know a couple of the easy ones, 十、百、千、万, but the others are a mystery. I've drawn them out very as well as I could on the computer, but I'm no calligrapher.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. They are in the order that they are on the soroban starting from the left. I then got to the right end and didn't have enough room so I carried down.

I put the note on the drawing because I had someone from a soroban yahoo group email me asking for any translation that I could provide, so that's for his benefit.

Thanks again

 

[Gaijinian]

As I see it:
百 十 右 手 ？ 合 ヲ 文 十 万 十 田・口・日（？） 十 友達（？） ？
万 十

 

[smasraum]

Thanks, that helps, but what do they mean. I've started with Pimsleur, so my kana and kanji are weak. I'm getting a couple things to help learn the kana and kanji in a couple of weeks for my birthday. Specifically, 右 手 ？ 合 ヲ 文 田日 友達

Thanks again.

 

[Gaijinian]

右手=right hand
合=meet/join
文=text
田=rice field
日=sun
友達=friend

 

[smasraum]

I found this page, http://www.rikai.com/perl/KanjiMap.pl?kanji=%B9%E7, which seems to be translating them.

右 it says comes from ichi and mouth. Since that comes before ju on the soroban, I'm going to assume that it is a specialized form of "one"

It says 手 means "hand". I have no idea how/why that would be on a soroban.

合 means join (as in sum) or .1. It doesn't come directly before 右 so I think it may be "sum" instead of .1

The page didn't have anything for ヲ, so I don't know. I guess that's "wo"?

Nothing useful for 文

友 comes from ichi and "or again" and means friend. Again, since part of it's base is ichi, and it is the column to the right of ju, I'll assume that it's a representation of one.

so it looks like we've got
万 千 百 十 右 手 ? 合 ヲ 文 _ 十 万 千 百 十 田? 十 友 ? ?

10000, 1000, 100, 10, 1, hand, ?, sum or .1, ?, style/art/text
then
10, 10000, 1000, 100, 10, rice paddy, 10, one, ?, ?

I'm way ahead of where I was before, and I found that great site.

 

[Glenn]

Sorry, the computer I was using did not have the ability to write in Japanese...
もしGlenn さんが欲しければ、文を換えて日本語に書き直せるよ (That sentence seems wrong...といっても、伝わると思うから大丈夫かな～)
Anyhow, I was responding to Mikawa's idea, and also adding that I too am having relationship problems (I was reading his blog...)
I hope that clears it up

At this point, I'm not sure if that was clear from the context of the thread. Your post looked pretty out there to me. Whatever, I don't care about much right now....

 

[Elizabeth]

Sorry, the computer I was using did not have the ability to write in Japanese...
もしGlennさんが欲しければ、文を換えて日本語に書きnaoせるよ (That sentance seems wrong...といっても、伝わると思うから大丈夫かな～)
Anywho, I was responding to Mikawa's idea, and also adding that I too am having relationship problems (I was reading his blog...)
I hope that clears it up
Well, maybe... and maybe not... The last e-mail ended with:
等... So, yeah. That's been my life for the last month-ish.... Aiyaiyai... I can't even think anymore...
BTW, can you use 関係 the same way you can in English?

If you were talking with someone who didn't understand from the context you may need to add 人間問題。My first interpretation of just 関係の問題 was that Gaijinian meant to say you had a problem related to his.

最近、三河おっさんのように、人間問題の問題があるんです。 は
変な日本語という感じがしないと思いますよ。

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

If you were talking with someone who didn't understand from the context you may need to add 人間問題。My first interpretation of just 関係の問題 was that Gaijinian meant to say you had a problem related to his.
最近、三河おっさんのように、人間問題の問題があるんです。 は
変な日本語という感じがしないと思いますよ。

It seems rather redundant to have 問題 in there twice like that.

By the way, I believe that 関係 is an "oyaji kotoba". I'll leave what it means to your imagination....