Help Please translate this poster

[yaminohaka]

Please help me translate this poster. If you can't tell im looking for a tutor.

^^ Thank you so much. ^^

the line "or leave a voice message."
I would like say to say afterwords "thank you very much"
would this be oh kay?
"どうもありがとうございました"
is that too formal? should it be it be "ありがとうございました" should i go even more informal?

sorry, this is rough draft. thank you so much ^^

 

[nice gaijin]

always err on the side of politeness

 

[yaminohaka]

so.... how should i change around this poster???

 

[doinkies]

I'll try to translate the poster, but I might get some things wrong:

「日本語を話せますか？日本語の母語話者の家教を探しています。もし気乗りなら、下の電話番号を電話してアンドレーのことを聞くとかメッセージを言い置いてください。」

 

[yaminohaka]

日本語を話せますか？
日本語の母語話者の家教を探しています。
もし気乗りなら、
下の電話番号を電話してア ンドレーのことを聞くとかメッセージを言い置いてください。​

is it good to be broken up like that? or does it look funny? which one is tutor? can you write it out in kana if it's kanji? and whats the kana for the "日本語を話せますか" i don't understand all of it, but most of it at least.^^

 

[nice gaijin]

the question is: do you really want to give the impression that you understand that much Japanese? It's fine to have "Do you speak 日本語?" or even "日本語喋りますか？" and the rest of it in english with a "どうもありがとうございます" at the end. Having the whole thing in Japanese makes it sound like you're an advanced student looking for a conversation partner or something; it seems like a bit of a misrepresentation. I recommend keeping the first version, with "どうもありがとうございます" at the botom.

 

[Elizabeth]

the question is: do you really want to give the impression that you understand that much Japanese? It's fine to have "Do you speak 日本語?" or even "日本語喋りますか？" and the rest of it in english with a "どうもありがとうございます" at the end. Having the whole thing in Japanese makes it sound like you're an advanced student looking for a conversation partner or something; it seems like a bit of a misrepresentation. I recommend keeping the first version, with "どうもありがとうございます" at the botom.

The Japanese isn't completely grammatical either so if you want someone who is going to teach you in English I agree with nice gaijin.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

Nice Gaijin gets my vote, too!

 

[Elizabeth]

I'll try to translate the poster, but I might get some things wrong:

「日本語を話せますか？日本語の母語話者の家教を探しています。もし気乗りなら、下の電話番号を電話してアンドレーのことを聞くとかメッセージを言い置いてください。」

I'll just make one suggestions -- the part about asking whether anyone is interested is better as 興味のある方は (or a closing phrasing). 気乗り is more along the lines "to take an interest in." The other problem parts I'm sure will correct themselves soon enough.

 

[doinkies]

OK. I need to practice my Japanese more, it's been a couple years since I've been in a class so I don't remember everything.

 

[NANGI]

Konnichiwa Mina-san!

Do you speak 日本語

「日本語を話せますか？」 is good translation.

I'm looking for a private tutor
that speaks native Japanese.

"private" tutor is a "家庭教師" but not "家教".
And "母語話者" is not good, "日本語を母国語とする人" is better.
"日本語を母国語とする家庭教師を探しています" is good.

If you are interested

"もし気乗りなら" is not good. "もし興味があるようでしたら" or "もし関心がおありなら" is better.

[/quote]call this number and please ask for andr'e or leave a voice message.[/quote]
"下記の番号に電話して、アンドレーに尋(たず)ねるか、メッセージを残してください" is good.

NANGI

 

[Elizabeth]

Konnichiwa Mina-san!
「日本語を話せますか？」 is good translation.

There really isn't a difference to speak of between this and 日本語が話せますか is there ? For some reason, though, I had the impression that 'wo' + potential form was a newer usage and therefore still not quite as acceptable.

 

[yaminohaka]

I'll just make one suggestions -- the part about asking whether anyone is interested is better as 興味のある方は (or a closing phrasing). 気乗り is more along the lines "to take an interest in." The other problem parts I'm sure will correct themselves soon enough.

sumimasen (spelling?) but i don't know what part you want me to fix. can you explain a little more please. ^^

 

[yaminohaka]

hows this??? it's like the final copy.....

 

[Luthien Rogue]

sumimasen (spelling?) but i don't know what part you want me to fix. can you explain a little more please. ^^

If there are words you don't know, you can check them by using a dictionary such as this one: link.

You should be able to figure it out then.

 

[Elizabeth]

hows this??? it's like the final copy.....

If you are going to put it in Japanese and use NANGI's corrections, doesn't it seem better to use them all ? Anyway, there are still mistakes in this version.

 

[KrazyKat]

I would just like to say that I agree with NiceGaijin that you should write most of it in English. There's no point in trying to pretend you can speak more japanese than you can when you are looking for a tutor.

 

[Elizabeth]

I would just like to say that I agree with NiceGaijin that you should write most of it in English. There's no point in trying to pretend you can speak more japanese than you can when you are looking for a tutor.

If this is set to do in Japanese, why not try asking if they speak both English and Japanese ?
You should also include a line on fees on the flier so they won't get the idea this is a free language exchange -- that it is negotiable or how much you're willing to pay. I personally wouldn't put my name alongside my number either but I guess that is an individual judgement....

 

[yaminohaka]

If this is set to do in Japanese, why not try asking if they speak both English and Japanese ?
You should also include a line on fees on the flier so they won't get the idea this is a free language exchange -- that it is negotiable or how much you're willing to pay. I personally wouldn't put my name alongside my number either but I guess that is an individual judgement....

the reason i want it in japanese, so i attract native 日本語 speakers. I don't want a 外人 teaching me 日本語。 is that silly??? i want to be pushed into 日本語、no stepping stones... you think i shouldn't put my name up??? and even number? how would they contact me?

 

[J C]

I don't want a 外人 teaching me 日本語

I would have to disagree - being taught by someone who has learnt Japanese as a second language themselves is probably the best way to start off. When you're confident in your Japanese and you can hold a decent conversation then that's when you need a native-speaker to help you out, IMHO - to make your language more natural and improve pronunciation, listening and general conversational skills.

Having someone who has gone through the same learning experience that you are going to go through is very helpful. They can explain in clear English how to use grammatical structures and can offer advice on how they went about learning and maybe pass on notes, study aids, etc.

A native Japanese speaker who hasn't done Japanese teacher training will probably not be very good at explaining Japanese grammatical constructs in a way you can understand. Think about it the other way around. How would you explain to a Japanese person who doesn't understand English very well when to use "a" vs. "the" in front of nouns. Language exchanges only work well when you're both up to a good level.

Maybe the ideal situation would be to have a native Japanese speaker who is proficient in English and has done teacher training.

What are other people's opinions?

 

[bentenmusume]

the reason i want it in japanese, so i attract native 日本語 speakers.

This makes perfect sense. Because of course, no native Japanese speaker could understand an ad written in English.

I don't want a 外人 teaching me 日本語。

Call me crazy, but if you say specifically that you're looking for a "Japanese native speaker", I imagine that the people who will respond to your ad will be... Japanese native speakers.

is that silly??? i want to be pushed into 日本語、no steping stones...

It's not necessarily "silly", but you're obviously operating under naive misconceptions about how one goes about learning a language. Just finding a Japanese person to ramble on to you in incomprehensible (to you) Japanese will not result in you magically "picking up" Japanese by osmosis.

If you're thinking you're going to learn Japanese without "stepping stones", you're sadly mistaken. On the contrary, for the first year or two, especially, it's going to be all stepping stones. It's called the learning process.

(And I agree 120% with what JC says in his post above. At the early stages, what's most important is that you find someone who knows how to teach Japanese as a foreign language.)

 

[Luthien Rogue]

I'm not going to bother responding to most of this, since jt_ and J C took the words right out of my mouth...

you think i shouldn't put my name up??? and even number? how would they contact me?

Please read carefully:

I personally wouldn't put my name alongside my number...

 

[Elizabeth]

There really isn't a difference to speak of between this and 日本語が話せますか is there ? For some reason, though, I had the impression that 'wo' + potential form was a newer usage and therefore still not quite as acceptable.

言語によって違うんでしょう。日本人にとっては、「英語が話せますか？」のほうがよく使われるけど、
「日本語を話せますか」、「日本語が話せますか」の使い方の違いはなさそうです。

 

[yaminohaka]

I'm not going to bother responding to most of this, since jt_ and J C took the words right out of my mouth...
Please read carefully:

sorry i missed read that

thanks jt_ and J C for the advice

 

[Elizabeth]

sorry i missed read that
thanks jt_ and J C for the advice

If this is going up around a university or local Japanese school you shouldn't have that much trouble finding a bilingual student or experienced tutor.