[Koir]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Hi, Koir. Thanks as always!


This sounds like the assistant’s mother was much like me(Yuri).
Can I write it “The assistant said that her mother was much like my aunt.”?

I didn’t go with my aunt or see the shop assistant. Doesn’t “The assistant said that …..” sounds like I saw the assistant?

That clears up my confusion. The way it was worded originally was like you were there with her, not hearing about it from your aunt after she came back.

Your revision is correct. It shows that you are telling what your aunt said to you about the assistant's words.

Should I write the fact that I didn’t go with her?
My aunt told me the story after she came back to Japan.

Yes, that is a good idea. Without it, the story is difficult to understand.

The flow of words is difficult to me. I will see to avoid too long sentences.

It will come with practice. Even I have trouble writing overlong sentences because splitting it into more makes it difficult to understand.

I considered indirect discourse, but “My aunt told me that the assistant liked my aunt, the assistant said to my aunt that the assistant’s mother was much alike my aunt, and the assistant wanted to exchange letters with my aunt, but my aunt didn’t like the assistant because the assistant called my aunt ‘Mama-san’ many times. My aunt felt as if she was a bar hostess.”
For one thing, I wasn’t with her when she met the assistant.

Thanks, again, Koir!

Suggested revision:

"My aunt told me that the assistant liked her as she reminded her of her mother. The assistant wanted to exchange letters with my aunt, but my aunt didn't like how the assistant addressed her as 'Mama-san'. It made my aunt feel like a bar hostess."

The first sentence appears very difficult and confusing to understand, so here's how I analyze it.

"My aunt told me that the assistant liked her.."

The "her" refers to "my aunt" in this section.

"...as she reminded her of her mother."

"She" in this section again refers to "my aunt". It is the subject of the second complete sentence in the compound sentence (a sentence made up of two or more complete sentences sharing the same idea).

"Her" refers to the assistant herself. It cannot refer to "your aunt" as there is already another reference to her (the "she" earlier in the sentence).

Finally "her mother" refers to the assistant speaking about her mother.

I apologize for any confusion from my explanation. English is very technical when it comes to pronouns and what people or group of people they are referring to in a sentence.