What do they mean? Please help...

maxchu · 25 Oct 2006

Hi,
In my text book there is a short conversation as below:

A: 夏休みは国へ帰るの？
B: ううん。帰りたいけど、
A: 小林君はどうするの？
B: どうしようかな。。。。
...

Anybody please help me see if I understand it correctly as below:

A says: are you going back to your country during summer vacation?
B says: no, though I want to go back (am I right about "けど"?)
A says: 小林君, what are you going to do?
B says: hm....what to do.....(no idea what しようかな means)

Thanks in advance.

cheapshot · 25 Oct 2006

you basically got it right.

かな as an ending means "i wonder..." so he is saying "hmmm,, what will I do I wonder..." or more naturally: "Yea, I'm not sure yet..."

maxchu · 25 Oct 2006

Hi Yorkii,
thanks for the reply. How about しよう in しようかな? What does しよう mean?
I looked it up in excite Japanese translator and it gave me the meaning "let's do". It doesn't make sense saying this in this context...shouldn't it be something like

どうするかな...

Thanks in advance.

--max

nice gaijin · 25 Oct 2006

しよう is the volitional form (short form of しましょう), but どうしよう is more like "what should I/we do." In this case, he's just wondering what to do.

どうするかな sounds like he already knows what he's going to do, but he's not going to tell the other person (like he's teasing or something). Or it means that he's talking about someone else (ie, 小林 [kobayashi] is referring to a third person, and he doesn't know what their plans are for the summer vacation). Due to the lack of pronouns, the use of どうしよう is the indication that B is referring to himself.

Elizabeth · 25 Oct 2006

nice gaijin said:
しよう is the volitional form (short form of しましょう), but どうしよう is more like "what should I/we do." In this case, he's just wondering what to do.
どうするかな sounds like he already knows what he's going to do, but he's not going to tell the other person (like he's teasing or something). Or it means that he's talking about someone else (ie, 小林 [kobayashi] is referring to a third person, and he doesn't know what their plans are for the summer vacation). Due to the lack of pronouns, the use of どうしよう is the indication that B is referring to himself.

どうするかな sounds like male language, or the way a boy would probably speak. The meaning is exactly the same as dou shiyou kana.

maxchu · 26 Oct 2006

Thank you guys for your responses. They are very clear and helpful.

What do they mean? Please help...

maxchu

先輩

cheapshot

後輩

maxchu

先輩

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

Elizabeth

先輩

maxchu

先輩

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