[Tamago86]

Hello x] I need help with some translation for a dialogue. I'm learning really basic Japanese so it's really hard for me to do this kind of thing. some of it will sound kinda stupid. =]

the dialouge is between the passenger and a 'talkative' taxi driver.. Can someone translate this as simply as he/she can. XD Because i guess ths is supposed to be really basic japanese.

P: konnichiwa
T: konnichiwa - where would you like to go?
P: I would like to go to the zoo.
T: Really? Why?
P: I really want to see the kangaroos. Especially the baby kangaroos.
T: Well, I have kangaroo! It grew so big. Its name is Cookie. It's brown and fat.
P: Wow. That's really cool.
T: Anyway, my name is _____. 40 years old. I live with my mother. I'm Korean, and I really like to eat steak and drink soju.
P: I see. I like steak too. Anyway, how much longer will it take to get there? (or just how long does it take to get there)
T: 10 minutes. Anyway, I love doing aromatherapy and going to hot springs.
P: I'm sorry, but I don't care. Oh, we're there! ikura?
T: Don't worry. It's free.
P: Really? Thank you. Bye.
T: Bye. I hope to see you again.

This is one of the weirdest conversations I've seen I put it in formal since you didn't say what form you wanted it in, except for a few parts

こんにちは
konnichiwa
こんにちは!どこまでですか?
konnichiwa! doko made desu ka?
動物園までお願いします
doubutsuen made onegaisimasu
え?動物園?どうしてですか?
e? doubutsuen? dousite desu ka?
カンガルー見たいんです!特にかわいい子カンガルー
kangaruu mitai n desu! toku ni kawaii ko kangaruu
実は私クッキーというカンガルー飼いました。茶色と太っています
jitsu wa watashi kukkii to iu kangaruu kaimasita yo. chaiiro to futotteimasu
すごいな
sugoi na
とにかく、私の名前は__で、40歳です。お母さんと住んでいます。韓国人で、ステーキを食べることとソジュを飲むことが好きです
tonikaku, watashi no namae wa ___ de, 40sai desu. okaasan to sundeimasu. kankokujin de, suteeki o taberu koto to soju o nomu koto ga suki desu.
なるほど。。私もステーキが好きです。ちょっと動物園までどのぐらいかかりますか?
naruhodo...watashi mo suteeki ga suki desu. chotto doubutsuen made donogurai kakarimasu ka?
十分。　ところで、温泉に行ったりアロマセラピーしたりすることも好きです
juupun. tokoro de, onsen ni ittari aromaserapii sitari suru koto mo suki desu.
失礼だけど、本当に構わんよ。あ!もう着いた?いくら?
sitsurei da kedo, hontou ni kamawan yo. a! mou tsuita? ikura?
いや、無料です
iya, muryou desu
本当?ありがとう!じゃまた
hontou? arigatou! ja mata
さようなら!
sayounara!

[orangecake]

This is one of the weirdest conversations I've seen I put it in formal since you didn't say what form you wanted it in, except for a few parts

こんにちは
konnichiwa
こんにちは!どこまでですか?
konnichiwa! doko made desu ka?
動物園までお願いします
doubutsuen made onegaisimasu
え?動物園?どうしてですか?
e? doubutsuen? dousite desu ka?
カンガルー見たいんです!特にかわいい子カンガルー
kangaruu mitai n desu! toku ni kawaii ko kangaruu
実は私クッキーというカンガルー飼いました。茶色と太っています
jitsu wa watashi kukkii to iu kangaruu kaimasita yo. chaiiro to futotteimasu
すごいな
sugoi na
とにかく、私の名前は__で、40歳です。お母さんと住んでいます。韓国人で、ステーキを食べることとソジュを飲むことが好きです
tonikaku, watashi no namae wa ___ de, 40sai desu. okaasan to sundeimasu. kankokujin de, suteeki o taberu koto to soju o nomu koto ga suki desu.
なるほど。。私もステーキが好きです。ちょっと動物園までどのぐらいかかりますか?
naruhodo...watashi mo suteeki ga suki desu. chotto doubutsuen made donogurai kakarimasu ka?
十分。　ところで、温泉に行ったりアロマセラピーしたりすることも好きです
juupun. tokoro de, onsen ni ittari aromaserapii sitari suru koto mo suki desu.
失礼だけど、本当に構わんよ。あ!もう着いた?いくら?
sitsurei da kedo, hontou ni kamawan yo. a! mou tsuita? ikura?
いや、無料です
iya, muryou desu
本当?ありがとう!じゃまた
hontou? arigatou! ja mata
さようなら!
sayounara!

こんなタクシー運転手はいやだ～～～～～。
でも実際、こんな運転手は・・・・時々いるよ。
お願いだから黙って運転して～とか、お願いだから前を向いて運転して～～～っていう人が・・・。
もっとも、無料にはなんないけど。

それでは、重箱の隅をつっつくように、若干の提案をいたしましょう。

P: I really want to see the kangaroos. Especially the baby kangaroos.

口語では、「子カンガルー」より、「子どものカンガルー」もしくは「赤ちゃんカンガルー」の方がよく使われると思う。

T: Well, I have kangaroo! It grew so big. Its name is Cookie. It's brown and fat.

この場合、今現在も飼ってるってことになると思うので、「私はカンガルーを飼っています」の方がいいよ。あと、「茶色」と「太っている」をつなげる場合は、「と」じゃなくて、「茶色で太っています」もしくは「茶色くて太っています」。

T: Anyway, my name is _____. 40 years old. I live with my mother. I'm Korean, and I really like to eat steak and drink soju.

ソジュは日本語だと「焼酎」。でもこのドライバーは韓国人だから、ソジュのままでいいのかな？

T: Bye. I hope to see you again.

この場合、お客さんに対してよく使われる表現は「さようなら。またどうぞ」。
これはタクシーの運転手だけじゃなくて、お店の店員とかもお客さんの帰りぎわによく使う言葉。
日本人相手のお店なんかでバイトすることがあったら、ぜひ使ってみて！

[animagelet]

Ahaha =D Thx sooo much!! I know it's really weird X.x;; Aww. Orangecake- I wish I could understand your comments on the conversation.

I have some questions. What does "made" mean really? What part of speech is it? I know you use it for time like in .. kara... made.. You can use it for traveling too?

onsen ni ittari aromaserapii sitari suru koto mo suki desu
Are they in 'tari' forms because it's present progressive tense or something?

and what do you mean when you say tokoro de.... how come you used different words for 'anyway'

muryou - is this a na-adjective?

Sorry for asking so much. I'm just curious.

[Tamago86]

She says that's a weird type of taxi driver but she runs into them occasionaly..but she's never run into one that'll give you a ride for free. haha

The part of speech 'made' is depends on which English speaker you ask (har har), but to Japanese people it's a 副助詞(fukujoshi) - adverbial particle. 'made' has a few functions. One is time like you said, and the other main use is travelling and for direction, or to indicate the endpoint of something or where something stops.

列車で京都まで行った ressha de kyouto made itta "I went until Kyoto by train" OR "I went *to* Kyoto by train"
50まで数える 50 made kazoeru "Count up to 50"
目の届く範囲まで me no todoku hani made "As far as the eye can see"
彼はドアの所まで走って行った kare wa doa no tokoro made hasitte itta "He ran to the door"
水は腰まできた mizu wa koshi made kita "the water was up to my waist"

You can also use it to express "even X" like you would with でも or でさえ, this usage is considered somewhat colloquial, so maybe don't use it in class for now, haha..For example one time I was telling this girl about the summer house I stay at and how there are bears in the woods and she goes
熊までいるんだ!kuma made iru n da "There are even bears there?!"

-tari is a somewhat complicated form, you use it for example when you want to list off things you did, but there are other things you did as well that you're not listing. In English we'd say "Oh I went to the mall and the movies and stuff". So you could say
趣味は音楽を聴いたり友達と遊んだりすることです shumi wa ongaku o kiitari tomodachi to asondari suru koto desu. "My hobbies are listening to music and playing with friends and stuff"
To form this you just put り at the end of normal past tense verbs
食べる -> 食べた -> 食べたり (taberu -> tabeta -> tabetari)
飲む -> 飲んだ -> 飲んだり (nomu -> nonda -> nondari)
見る -> 見た -> 見たり (miru -> mita -> mitari)
After the last たり you use you must put some form of する on the end of it, "YたりXたりする"
食べたり飲んだりする (tabetari nondari suru)
And remember that できる is a form of する, so if someone asked you what you're good at (as a joke) you could say
アルファベットを逆さまに言ったりできる (arufabetto o sakasama ni ittari dekiru) I can say the alphabet backwards and stuff!
You can see that with only one たり this often leads to colloquial usage, and is used alot in non-formal conversation, like if your friend asked you what you did over the weekend you could say
彼氏と遊んだりしてた (kareshi to asondari siteta) I was hanging out with my boyfriend and stuff

I used a different word for 'anyway' because you used it 2 or 3 times in the same skit and it sounded redundant ところで means 'by the way'

No 無料 is not a na-adjective, it uses の like a regular noun

[Tamago86]

I have to do a presentation/skit for Japanese class this week with my partner, and I'm all out of ideas.. we keep doing the boring calling + meeting each other up routine.. bahhh.
Anyone have any creative/fun ideas? + I have to use the new stuff we learned, like the -ba form, giving directions (ex. walk straight, turn at the third corner..).

Use your imagination young grasshopper How about doing a scene where you're trying to think of a scene? haha..it's so crazy it'd work! You could say something like いいアイデアを思いつけば家に来てください (ii aidia o omoitsukeba ie ni kite kudasai) "If you come up with a good idea come over to my house" (and then proceed to give directions on how to get to your house)

[genki]

^ Haha, my other friend always calls me young grasshopper as well
Thanks Tamago!! I think your idea will work! I've got 4 midterms coming up, so this Japanese presentation is like the last thing on my mind right now =/
Thanks again - you're always a big help in this thread

Oh yeah! When are you going to the yuki matsuri? Looking forward to reading your xanga on it =); can't wait to see what kind of crazy things they come up with this year!

[Tamago86]

^The matsuri happened like a month ago =P My latest xanga entry from then has lots of pictures and stuff of it

[animagelet]

Wow. Thank you so much! =] It's nice to know the extent of how a word can be used. You're REALLY helpful. XD Thx so muchhh. the tari-form and "stuff" were completely new to me. thx again. hehe-- tamago no youna nihongo ga jouzu ni naritaiyo. aha. is this right? Sry, my Japanese is extremely lacking.

ANd ohh hahahah. ^-^;; about the taxi driver ohohohoh. i don't know. it takes place in austrialia.. and for some reason, i imagined everyone to be all cordial and friendly. XD

[megaSTEPxo]

what does this mean: になってぇ ?

[Tamago86]

Wow. Thank you so much! =] It's nice to know the extent of how a word can be used. You're REALLY helpful. XD Thx so muchhh. the tari-form and "stuff" were completely new to me. thx again. hehe-- tamago no youna nihongo ga jouzu ni naritaiyo. aha. is this right? Sry, my Japanese is extremely lacking.

ANd ohh hahahah. ^-^;; about the taxi driver ohohohoh. i don't know. it takes place in austrialia.. and for some reason, i imagined everyone to be all cordial and friendly. XD

It's almost right..kind of hard to explain, but in
tamago no youna nihongo ga jouzu ni naritai yo
na is an adjective so it connects hooks up to nouns, so the youna is connecting with nihongo, but you want it to connect with naritai, because tamago no youna nihongo means "Japanese like Tamago's" so the full sentence here would mean "I want Japanese like Tamago's to become good" or something like that
So to connect 'you' with a verb you have to use ni, which hooks up to verbs
tamago no youni nihongo ga jouzu ni naritai yo
tamago no youni = Like tamago
nihongo ga jouzu ni naritai = I want to become good at Japanese
I want to become good at Japanese like tamago
たまごの日本語は上手じゃないけど

Some examples

ように

鳥のように飛びたい! tobi no you ni tobitai
I want to fly like a bird
何も起こらなかったように言った nani mo okoranakatta you ni itta
He said it like nothing happened
彼女の顔は粉のように白くなった kanojo no kao wa kona no you ni shiroku natta
Her faced turn white like(as) flour

ような

子供のような顔 kodomo no you na kao
A face like a child's
恐竜のような動物 kyouryuu no you na doubutsu
An animal like a dinosaur
大人になると東京のような所に住みたい otona ni naru to toukyou no you na tokoro ni sumitai
When I grow up I want to live in a place like Tokyo

what does this mean: になってぇ ?

It depends on the context..This looks like it was just cut out off a sentence because it doesn't really make sense...なる means to become and になって would mean "become ----" (as in a command). Because it has に that means the sentence is missing the other part about what the person needs to become..Like 犬になって would mean "become a dog!" where 犬(inu) means dog, the に in になって needs something to connect to

There's also the verb niau になう(担う), which means to bear a burden..So I guess in some context it could also mean 'bear the burden!'...Really need the full context to know though

[TrainDriver]

my japanese is rusty, very rusty. tamago san wa nihon ga ski desuka?

[Alice]

This is really easy but I forgot -__- (in urgent need for test):

maybe/maybe not in Japanese. Thanks!

[Tamago86]

my japanese is rusty, very rusty. tamago san wa nihon ga ski desuka?

daisuki

This is really easy but I forgot -__- (in urgent need for test):

maybe/maybe not in Japanese. Thanks!

umm..what? did you forget to post what you actually needed help with?

[Alice]

No =.= "maybe" and "maybe not" in Japanese but I got it now..
I want to make sure "moiidesu" for "maybe" and "moiijanaidesu" for "maybe not". Right?

[Tamago86]

No =.= "maybe" and "maybe not" in Japanese but I got it now..
I want to make sure "moiidesu" for "maybe" and "moiijanaidesu" for "maybe not". Right?

No...Who told you that? mou ii means something like 'it's fine' or in some contexts 'whatever' and mou ii ja nai desu is grammatically incorrect as you can't use 'ja nai' to make adjectives like 'ii' negative. (the negative of ii is yokunai)

To say "maybe" in Japanese you put kamo shirenai at the end of a plain sentence. It's always kamo shirenai or kamo shiremasen (formal), whether it signals "maybe" or "maybe" not depends what comes before it.

店に行くかもしれない
mise ni iku kamo shirenai
I might go to the store

学校に行かないかもしれない
gakkou ni ikanai kamo shirenai
I might not go to school

So in the first sentence you can see positive verb (iku) + kamo shirenai = maybe/might X(go)
And in the second sentence negative verb (ikanai) + kamo shirenai = maybe not/might not X(go)

かもしれない can also be shortened to just かも

店に行くかも
mise ni iku kamo
I might go to the store

You should use the longer version in class though, the shorter form is for friends and family and people your age or younger.

Now if you just wanted to say "maybe" or "maybe not" you could say そうかもしれない (sou kamo shirenai - "maybe") or そうじゃないかもしれない (sou ja nai kamo shirenai - "maybe not")
And remember you can use short form too such as そうかも and そうじゃないかも

However for your class I would use
そうかもしれません sou kamo shiremasen "maybe"
そうじゃないかもしれません sou ja nai kamo shiremasen "maybe not"
Because it's formal, unless the teacher doesn't care if you use informal

Understand all that?

[Eso]

e"
彼はドアの所まで走って行った kare wa doa no tokoro made hasitte itta "He ran to the door"
水は腰まできた mizu wa koshi made kita "the water was up to my waist"

Hey Tamago!

I've always wondered about examples like these where のところ is used. Why is it that ドア has のところ attached to it but not the other sentence? Is it because the movement to the door is shown by the place of the door (if that made any sense )


You're awesome, by the way.


EDIT: I have another question. What is the difference between using　たり　and とか? I'm thinking that とか is used for nouns where as たり　is for verbs.

[aquapoppie]

alright, I don't know if anyone can help me, but I'm giving it a shot.
I have trouble understanding a certain word from this poem.

よし野山
うへも櫻の
さかさらむ
みみかの峯は
ゆきもけすけり

Yoshino yama
ue mo sakura no
sakasa ramu
mimika no mine wa
yuki mo kesu keri

Ok, so I'm having trouble finding out what the heck "mimika" is... like as in a place name, a thing, anything! Yes, this is in classical style of writing... from the Yoshino Hyakushu (100 poems of Yoshino) by Motoori Norinaga. Any suggestions will be appreciated! Thanks~

[Tamago86]

Hey Tamago!

I've always wondered about examples like these where のところ is used. Why is it that ドア has のところ attached to it but not the other sentence? Is it because the movement to the door is shown by the place of the door (if that made any sense )
You're awesome, by the way.

Good question, haha...I kind of typed it without thinking, so I guess 腰のところ would be good too, that actually might even be more natural than just 腰. The problem is it translates funny into English (if translated literally), but since Japanese is more specific than English it should just translate to "waist" in English.

alright, I don't know if anyone can help me, but I'm giving it a shot.
I have trouble understanding a certain word from this poem.

よし野山
うへも櫻の
さかさらむ
みみかの峯は
ゆきもけすけり

Yoshino yama
ue mo sakura no
sakasa ramu
mimika no mine wa
yuki mo kesu keri

Ok, so I'm having trouble finding out what the heck "mimika" is... like as in a place name, a thing, anything! Yes, this is in classical style of writing... from the Yoshino Hyakushu (100 poems of Yoshino) by Motoori Norinaga. Any suggestions will be appreciated! Thanks~

I'm guessing mimika is a mountain or part of the mountain (basically, a name), because 峯 (峰 in modern Japanese) is 'peak' or 'ridge', which would make mimika no mine 'the peak of mimika' or 'the ridge of mimika' So that would be:
Yoshino yama
ue mo sakura no
sakasa ramu
mimika no mine wa
yuki mo kesu keri

I wonder if the sakura flourish
Even on the top of mount Yoshino
The snow on the peak of Mimika
Has begun to fade away

(^My translation so might be a bit rusty)

sakasu (栄す) is flourish right? I'm currently studying classical Japanese as well You will have to help me sometime because compared to regular Japanese 古典 can be hell, seriously it's like modern Japanese on crack

[aquapoppie]

^ seriously, I hate classical Japanese... it's too much for me right now, especially since I didn't take any language classes in awhile... the outdated vocab is not that bad, but the kanji and grammar is like

...death by kanji... especially the Man'yoshuu... *pulls out hair*

[Tamago86]

^You're doing the man'yoshuu? Do you have to learn the man'you-gana?! Seriously that's so old that it'd be easier to just learn Chinese than try to learn the ancient Japanese grammar for it, lol. That's what I think about kanbun, that I should just skip kanbun and wait until I study Chinese to decode it, and to even be able to translate kanbun you still need a strong base of classical Japanese, so yea I'll work on that first..

The hardest thing about classical japanese is that like 99% of the learning materials for it are written in Japanese itself, so basically you have to learn one of the most obscure dead languages through one of the hardest modern languages...めっちゃbrainf00k >_< And oh god don't get me started on the Classical Polite & Humble forms, those are insane... Quite amazing how this jumble of sporadic grammar and random words called classical Japanese evolved into modern day Japanese

By the way in the poem shouldn't it be 消しけり (keshikeri) instead of 消すけり ? Because I thought in classical Japanese that けり could only attach onto the 連用形(base-stem) of a verb, such as
なり -> なりけり
使ひ -> 使ひけり
あり -> ありけり

枯れ枝に鴉のとまりけり (kareeda ni karasu no tomarikeri) "A crow resting on a dead branch!"
(from Basho)