[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

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.

Hi. KyleGoetz. Thank you!
I didn’t know “to remind” didn’t mean 思い出す, or “to remember” meant 思い出す。
I think “remember” is a basic word and today I got to know I didn’t know the word.
Thank you for telling me.

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.

I wanted to say 日本にいないと思い出して急いで目を開けた。
Is “quickly” good in this case? Do you have any other suitable words?

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.

Yes. I should have written subway. Somehow I remembered the train in London when I wrote the composition, but that was about NY, so I should have written subway.

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.

This problem always bothers me. I confess I believe I will manage to make the same mistake in the future, no matter how I don’t want to. As you know, Japanese people say だけどandが without any meanings. I don’t understand what opposites are.

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.

“So” is difficult to use too, because I tend to use “so” too many times, so I tried avoiding the word. I don’t know when I should say “and” and “so”. I believe I need much practice.

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?).

That’s ヲタク orヲタ.

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.

KyleGoetz!! This is very, very, very helpful!!! Too great!!!!
I don’t know how to say. Thank you very much!