Quote:
Originally Posted by YuriTokoro
Hi, OzukakiBurasuki. Thank you.
I should have written “When I got on the underground train in New York, I tried to sleep out of habit, and then I reminded I wasn’t in Japan, opened my eyes quickly.”
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Couple of notes. First, "to remind" is passive—think 思い出させる. For some reason, Japanese-English dictionaries provide 思い出す as a translation for "to remind." This is pretty much incorrect. If you want to use "to remind" upon yourself like 思い出す, you need to say "I am reminded." However, I think this only works with nouns, such as "I am reminded of the summer" or "I am reminded of rain." It doesn't work with verbs, or at least it sounds awkward.
In your case, you should use "to remember." 思い出す is "to remember."
Just to provide a few examples,
私は日本にいないと思い出す。
I remember I am not in Japan.
He reminded me that I am not in Japan.
彼は私に日本にいないと*思い出させた。 <-- *not sure if I should use と or ことを there.
Second note:
I assume you want to say the English equivalent of something like
ニューヨークで地下鉄に乗った時に、習慣で寝ようとし て、日本にいないと思い出して急に目を開けた。
If so, I think it would be better to say
When I got on the
subway in New York, I tried to sleep out of habit,
but then I
remembered I wasn’t in Japan,
so I opened my eyes quickly.
The subway change is because we call it a subway in the US and this particular tikatetu is in NYC. I suppose you could call it the underground or the tube, but I think it would sound funny since that's not what it's called in NYC.
The and->but change is because "and" sounds like a plain old laundry list of actions (I woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast, went to school, studied, came home, etc.), but in this case you are contrasting two things. You tried to sleep. You opened your eyes. These actions are opposites, so "but" sounds more natural here. It makes it sound more like a story and less like you're just listing boring stuff you did.
I already explained the remind->remember change. You could have said "but then I was reminded that I wasn't in Japan," but that sounds like something caused you to remember. Maybe someone told you or you heard someone speaking English or something.
The "so I" is added because the remembering caused you to open your eyes, so you need a conjunction there. "So" is the correct conjunction here because you're showing cause and effect. "But" shows opposites, "and" shows a list of things, etc.
As an interesting mnemonic, the way schoolkids in America are taught the main conjunctions is by remembering the term
FANBOYS, which sounds a lot like ヲタク (do オタク still use that ヲ like that in Japan?).
For (kind of like "because") He and Janie danced, for they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
And (a list) He went to the store, and he bought a newspaper.
Nor (the opposite of "or") He is not smart, nor is he funny.
But (shows an opposite) He is not smart, but he is funny.
Or (shows options) I will go to the store, or I will stay home.
Yet (kind of like "however") He is tall, yet he does not play basketball well.
So (shows cause and effect) He is tall, so he plays basketball well.