[sarvodaya]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

覚さん、こんばんは。

ゆりさん、こんばんは。

Indeed! So it’s very hard to me to say things in English, because I always need to think what I should say. In Japanese, you would have some formal set phrases most always.

If I can read English very quickly, I would read magazines or news papers to know how you play such roles. I can’t now, but one day, I will!


I don’t know!!! Please, let me know!

The word insane is quite extreme and serious, especially compared to words like crazy or mad. This gives your expression something called a deadpan delivery. We have a nice quotation for this in the OED:

"For what is known as 'dead pan' humour no one can challenge Miss Jean Mann, whose facial expression gives no warning of the thrust to come."
Sunday Times, 1957, 3 March.

Deadpan describes just the delivery of a joke — that is things like the tone of voice, facial expression, register and wording.

Essentially, deadpan delivery heightens the comic effect by taking the audience by surprise. There can be other effects depending on context or the particular mix of register and content, but that's more complicated.

Yes, when the things can be passed.

Could you pass me the pepper, please? = 胡椒（こしょう）をとっていただけませんか？
Could you pass me the remote control? = リモコンをとっていただけませんか？

ありがとうございました。
They are now in the book!
So this a variation of いただく? So is it literally something like:
"Can't I get the pepper, please?"

Could you pass me a roll of toilet paper? = トイレットペーパーをとっていただけませんか？（This situation must be a kind of urgent. I wish you would not say this. If you say this, you must be in an individual cabin… ）

Erm...
Perhaps the less said the better?!

Sorry, I don’t understand.
You mean the term is not that new?

That's what I meant, but I'm just going by what it says on Wikipedia:

[quote]"The term most commonly used contemporaneously to refer to the policy was kaikin (海禁, Sea restriction)...Trade in fact prospered during this period, and though relations and trade were restricted to certain ports, the country was far from closed. In fact, as the shogunate expelled the Portuguese, they simultaneously engaged in discussions with Dutch and Korean representatives to ensure that the overall volume of trade did not suffer. Thus, it has become increasingly common in scholarship in recent decades to refer to the foreign relations policy of the period not as sakoku, implying a totally secluded, isolated, and "closed" country, but by the term kaikin (海禁, "maritime restrictions") used in documents at the time, and derived from the similar Chinese concept hai jin."[\QUOTE]

They cite Ronald Toby in the Journal of Japanese Studies — I'll look it up for next time.

I didn’t know saying いただきます is called Grace.

I probably wouldn't strictly say that いただきます is called Grace, but certainly Grace is the closest analogy. Perhaps it might be appropriate to call いただきます a particular type of Grace.

rub-a-dub-dub… What’s that?

It's imitative of the sound of a drum being beaten. Sometimes when people say "rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub!" they make a gesture to imitate mildly drumming on their stomach. I suppose this must be to emphasise that they are so full that their stomach has become like a large drum!

Here are a couple of quotations we use in the OED:

"The drum advanced, beating no measured martial tune, but a kind of rub-a-dub-dub"
Scott's Waverly (1814), Vol.II, p185

"I am always hearing..the ear-piercing fife and the rub-a-dub-dub of the drum."
Melbourne Argus (1887, December 24th), p4.

"The wheels began to beat time. A rub-a-dubdub, a rub-a-dubdub, the wheels went."
By the Shores of Silver Lake, L. I. Wilder (1939)

Why don’t you begin to say 「いただきます」and 「ごちそうさまでした」 today?

I will! I will have to explain the meanings to people the first time though!

Don’t you say 「ごちそうさまでした」to your mother or your wife?

Well, I'm not married, and my mother doesn't speak Japanese, so no. However, I do always thank my host and the cook and compliment the food.

I don’t agree with you. I’m positive, I’m sure you are talented!
When you catch glimpses of the meanings of what I say, you would be able to communicate.

ありがとうございました。
I am honoured that you think so!

“Your chosen path” sounds right.
Don’t you say “your way”?
I don’t see the difference between “your chosen path” and “your way”.

We do say "your way". In fact there is a well-known song popularised by Frank Sinatra called "My Way" .

And now the end is near,
And so I face the final curtain;
My friend I'll say it clear,
I'll state my case of which I'm certain:

I've lived a life that's full,
I traveled each and every highway,
And more, much more than this:
I did it my way.

Regrets, I've had a few,
But then again too few to mention;
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each charted course,
Each careful step along the byway,
And more, much more than this:
I did it my way.

Yes there were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off more than I could chew,
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out, I faced it all
And I stood tall and did it my way.

I've loved, I've laughed and cried,
I've had my fill, my share of losing;
And now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.

To think, I did all that,
And may I say not in a shy way;
Oh no, oh no, not me,
I did it my way.

For what is a man? What has he got?
If not himself, then he has not
To say the things he truly feels,
And not the words of one who kneels;
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way.

Yes it was my way!

However, in the case of "My Way", the meaning is clear from context. In our translation "your chosen path" sounds better to me; perhaps it's because we're talking about keeping your foot firmly etc. I think if we wanted to say "your way" it would have to be something like:
"Keep going steadily; do it your way and do not waver."

何もしないで　生きるより　何かを求めて　生きようよ
Maybe this will make sense.

Ok, I think it's like this...

なんにも = nothing
しないで = doesn't ~become
いきる = living
より = from

Which gives us...

<It is not the case that> <from> <living> <comes> <nothing>

Which can be paraphrased as...

From Living, something great can come.

Is that any good?

It’s not when, but while. I believe when you say when, you mean a short time. On the other hand, when you say while, you mean longer than when. Is this right?

I know what you mean. However, when and while are a bit more flexible than that.

"While..." can be used to mean "during the time that..." or "for as long as..."

As for "when", that does indeed usually mean a shorter time or "at the instant that...", as in:

"When the cock crows..."

or

"When the clock strikes midnight..."

However, it can also mean "during the time that..." in particular contexts such as using the present tense to talk about the general case:

"When the weather is nice, I'm happy."

"Sing when you're winning!"

"When you're away, I'm lonely and sad."

If we took these sentences out of the "general-case" sense and particularised them thus:

"I was happy while the weather was nice, but now I'm sad."

"He sang while he was winning."

"While you're away I will be lonely and sad."

Then "while" is more appropriate. Have I explained that well?

So, when you are talking about the general case, say "when"!

Thus, since we are talking about a general case here, I think we can say "when":

When you have lost something dear and feel like giving up,

覚さん、it’s not 生きます, but行きます.
You will be able to understand the meaning of this sentence by yourself.

You have translated this:
泣くのが嫌なら　さあ歩け　　（なくのがいやなら　さ ああるけ）- If it is unpleasant to weep, come now and walk.

後から来たのに　追い越され　泣くのが嫌なら　さあ歩 け
If you don’t want to be overtook by someone who came after you and don’t want to weep, come now and walk.

Ok, so it's:

あと <after>
から <from>
きた <came>
のに <nevertheless>
おいこされ <be surpassed>
なくのが <to weep>
いや <unpleasant>
なら <if>

さあ <come now>
あるけ <walk!>

So...

If it is unpleasant to be surpassed by your successors, if it is unpleasant to weep, come now and walk!