What's new

Translation help needed asap!

Well, that is understandable, but as a student who started late into this course and is very behind, I'm not yet at the level the rest of my class is, and cannot yet translate hiragana, so I was hoping someone might be able to give me an idea as to what the question is asking. If you do not wish to help, then that is fine, but please dot accuse me of asking you to do my homework. I didn't ask for the answers, I asked for translations to the questions :/
 
It's a reading comprehension question. The top line is a message from Mr. (or Mrs.) Tanaka.
The three questions are about what he said. So essentially by telling you what it says, we would be doing doing half the homework for you thus setting back your learning even more. You must have a hiragana chart handy. http://www.japanorama.com/images/hiragana.gif
Write down the romaji and then you can look up the words in a dictionary.
 
It's a reading comprehension question. The top line is a message from Mr. (or Mrs.) Tanaka.
The three questions are about what he said. So essentially by telling you what it says, we would be doing doing half the homework for you thus setting back your learning even more. You must have a hiragana chart handy. http://www.japanorama.com/images/hiragana.gif
Write down the romaji and then you can look up the words in a dictionary.
Okay, thank you very much! I do have a chart but it was lacking a large portion of the hiragana symbols, which is why I was struggling to translate it. I take online courses and they aren't always very helpful at providing those.
 
What sort of school offers a course and doesn't even provide a full hiragana reference for you?

Is this for school credit? Did you pay money for it? What texts or learning materials do they provide?
 
What sort of school offers a course and doesn't even provide a full hiragana reference for you?

Is this for school credit? Did you pay money for it? What texts or learning materials do they provide?
Each lesson they give you a portion of the hiragana symbols, but nowhere does it give me a full chart of them all (and further into the course, they dont even give you the english sounds they make, they just give you the Hiragana and a audio sound that you click on- not a great way for me to memorize how to write them in Romaji). So I got a chart offline that left out the extra symbols (pe, bi, ga, za, and so on). It's an online school, so yes, it's a school credit. I was switched into the class three weeks late and I basically have to make up for those twenty-something lesson days I missed before the quarter is over- not to mention it's an extremely vigorous course for a beginner, and each lesson day you have to memorize quite a good bit of information. It's just super stressful for someone who is terrible with memorization :/ I can speak Japanese quite well, but writing it is another story.
 
I did my best to translate the Hiragana, but now I'm having a hard time translating the Romaji to English. I get the feeling I may have mis-translated a few of the Hiragana, as some of the letters do not seem to fit very well- but here's what I got: Konnichiwa, Tanaka-desu (Hello, Tanaka ?) Toukiyouni (Tokyo-ni ?) sunyoubi-desu kiyouha terebiomasu (like Television?) benkiyouo (study) shikisen

kind of at a loss here...I can pick out from this the teacher is asking what I like to do, but still having a hard time stringing this together, as I feel I have messed up the translation.
 
Konnichiwa, Tanaka-desu (Hello, Tanaka ?) Toukiyouni (Tokyo-ni ?) sunyoubi-desu kiyouha terebiomasu (like Television?) benkiyouo (study) shikisen

It's fine (only one or two wrong) but you skipped over some stuff completely.
Konnichiwa, Tanaka-desu (Hello, Tanaka ?) Toukiyouni (Tokyo-ni ?) sun @@@@.@@@@@@ youbi-desu kiyouha terebio@masu (like Television?) benkiyouo (study) shi@sen
Once you think you know a word, you can use a dictionary to check it. If you don't have a paper one you can use WWWJDIC: Word Search . For example, check the "Search using romanized Japanese" checkbox and type in terebi and see what it says.
 
I wouldn't worry about how to write them in romaji, I'd concentrate on what they sound like and mean in Japanese. Skip the romaji translation, it's not any more useful than hiragana or katakana since they're all just phonetic writing systems. Use it just to learn the sounds and then ignore it from then on. Instead, spend that time drilling into your mind the sounds of each hiragana and katakana.

I've been in classes with people who had to go through the hiragana to romaji translation in their mind every time and, honestly, it's absolute torture when they read their part of the script because of the translation and cognition lag. Not only that, but it never got any better and the pronunciation was awful.

My opinion, though I'm still a beginner, is that one needs to be able to fluently read aloud hiragana and katakana even if one doesn't understand it all. Because a tiny sound change makes a massive semantic change. If one sees て and thinks た one will get the sentence wrong.

I look at it like this: If you're learning addition you don't see 4+5 and convert it to "fourplusfive" before you try to solve the problem. You just accept that 4 is the right way to write 4, that it sounds like 'four' and that it expresses the concept of 4. Numbers are the symbology of math in the same way that hiragana, katakana and kanji are the symbologies of Japanese.

Here's an Anki deck with hiragana with audio:
Anki - friendly, intelligent flashcards

I welcome corrections on my opinion on this.
 
There *is* one point where being able to correctly transliterate kana to romaji is needed, namely when typing Japanese on a computer (e.g. to do a dictionary lookup). Unless, of course, you have a Japanese keyboard with actual kana buttons...
 
There *is* one point where being able to correctly transliterate kana to romaji is needed, namely when typing Japanese on a computer (e.g. to do a dictionary lookup). Unless, of course, you have a Japanese keyboard with actual kana buttons...

Good point, well noted.
 
I agree to everything you're saying except that the original poster said that this was urgent which implies she needed to get this assignment done asap.

I'm curious about the Japanese learning backstory on someone who claims to be able to speak Japanese quite well but apparently never bothered learning hiragana and whose ability to speak quite well is apparently no help for spotting errors in reading hiragana.
 
Yeah, the OP seems not to be able to recognize the difference between the large and small よ in the first place.

とうきょう toukyou VS とうきよう toukiyou
きょう kyou VS きよう kiyou
べんきょう benkyou VS べんきよう benkiyou
 
It's fine (only one or two wrong) but you skipped over some stuff completely.
Konnichiwa, Tanaka-desu (Hello, Tanaka ?) Toukiyouni (Tokyo-ni ?) sun @@@@.@@@@@@ youbi-desu kiyouha terebio@masu (like Television?) benkiyouo (study) shi@sen
Once you think you know a word, you can use a dictionary to check it. If you don't have a paper one you can use WWWJDIC: Word Search . For example, check the "Search using romanized Japanese" checkbox and type in terebi and see what it says.
My bad! It got cut out by accident. The actual translation was: Konnichiwa, Tanaka-desu. Toukiyouni kinyoubidesu kiyouha terebiomasu benkiyou shikisen. I can't translate some of these, though I did try using the word search.
This is what I have so far: "Hello Tanaka. I live in Japan."
Kinyoubi means Friday, terebio means Tv, and benkiyou mean to study. But I can't figure out what kiyouha or shikisen mean ?? i've looked them up and can't seem to find a translation, so did I maybe translate it wrong?
I'm assuming from what I know he (the teacher) is telling me things he likes to do.

Also thank you for the tips everyone!!
 
I'm curious about the Japanese learning backstory on someone who claims to be able to speak Japanese quite well but apparently never bothered learning hiragana and whose ability to speak quite well is apparently no help for spotting errors in reading hiragana.
I never intended by that statement that I am fluent in Japanese?? I meant i'm familiar with the language, and that I can understand it verbally to some extent, but I have never taken a course on it, let alone studied hiragana, until now.
I dot understand why you have to be so rude? I have only been learning Hiragana for a couple of weeks, I'm a high-school student, and just wanted a little help with translating something. If you have a problem with me then please just take your leave. I'm kind of sick of being bullied for asking for help over a homework question.
 
How is one meant to interpret "I can speak Japanese quite well"?

You're confusing ま and き. Look at "shikisen" again.

You also need to go back to whatever introduction to hiragana the material contained and read about the difference between large よ and small ょ. It isn't きよう, it is きょう. ("Kyou", not "kiyou").
 
How is one meant to interpret "I can speak Japanese quite well"?

You're confusing ま and き. Look at "shikisen" again.

You also need to go back to whatever introduction to hiragana the material contained and read about the difference between large よ and small ょ. It isn't きよう, it is きょう. ("Kyou", not "kiyou").
I shouldn't have worded it that way, so I apologize, but I'd really appreciate it if everyone could keep things friendly? It's not like I'm sitting here badgering you to do my work for me or presenting myself as a fluent speaker. It's a little hurtful to see so many people teasing me, you might as well call me stupid. I have six other honors classes to complete each day, Japanese isn't my number one priority, so I'm sorry if my translation isn't adequate enough but seriously.

Thank you for that, I will make sure to go back and review the differences.
I've already figured out the translations for the most part, so I'll be leaving now.

Thank you to those who offered help. I won't bother you all anymore.
 
You're not a bother to anyone here. But you have to try to realize that we do get quite a few people who come through wanting us to do their homework for them, typically after not bothering to learn the material or bothering to keep up with the class. Someone playing mad catchup after joining the class late is a new one on us.

We're happy to help where, when, and how we can. But there was little to nothing we could ethically have done with the original request. After you gave it your best try, then we could come in and try to help you spot errors. Our usual policy on almost all requests for help or translation is "give it your best effort first". Even if your best effort is loaded with mistakes that's alright. The crucial thing is that you show your request is "help me do x" and not "do x for me".
 
You're certainly welcome here. Don't let anybody's comments get to you. We don't know your background and you don't know ours. Generally people are happy to help if it's clear you are trying. Unfortunately your first post looked like you were looking to complete an assignment last minute without trying. And, really, you're learning your ABCs essentially. There's only so much help to be had at that stage.
 
The actual translation was: Konnichiwa, Tanaka-desu. Toukiyouni kinyoubidesu kiyouha terebiomasu benkiyou shikisen.
Here's the correct transliteration.
こんにちは。たかなです。
Konnichiwa, Tanaka-desu.
Correct.

とうきょうに すんでいます。
Toukiyouni --> Toukyou ni
(You completely missed すんでいます.)

きょうは きんようびです。
kinyoubidesu --> kin'youbi desu
(You completely missed きょうは. The apostrophe is used in order to distinguish the difference between きんようび and きにょうび.)

きょうは てれびを みます。
kiyouha terebiomasu --> Kyou ha/wa terebi wo/o mimasu.

べんきょうを しません。
benkiyou shikisen. --> Benkyou wo/o shimasen.

You need to pay more attention to the difference between the large and small や, ゆ, よ and つ. The meaning of the word completely changes depending on the size of these kana.
e.g.
とうきょう toukyou: Tokyo
とうきよう toukiyou: for speculation/disposal/winter season

きょう kyou: today
きよう kiyou: appointment/skillful

べんきょう benkyou: study
べんきよう benkiyou: for toilet stool

びょういん byouin: hospital
びよういん biyouin: hair salon
 
http://s10.postimg.org/s3aaaxlp5/Screen_Shot_2015_10_14_at_1_42_06_PM.png

Hi! I'm currently taking Japanese and I'm having a very hard time with this. I just need help translating the passages, as I'm still trying to memorize Hiragana and struggling to translate what is being asked of me. Any help is appreciated!!
ありがとう

今日は、田中です。東京に住んでいます。今日は金曜日です。今日はテレビを見ます。勉強をしません。
Hello this is Tanaka. I live in Tokyo. Today is Friday. I will watch television today. I will not study.

17.Q: 今日は、何曜日ですか。A: 今日は金曜日です。Today is Friday.
18.Q: 田中さんは、金曜日に何をしますか。A: 田中さんは、金曜日にテレビを見ます。Tanakasan will watch television on Friday.
19:Q: 田中さんは、金曜日に何をしませんか。A:田中さんは、金曜日には勉強をしません。
Tanakasan will not study on Friday.
 
Back
Top Bottom