[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by sarvodaya

ゆりさん、こんばんは。

覚さん、こんばんは。

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:


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.

I think I’ve got that.
When you say “Or you would go mad”, you just have said some advice. On the other hand, when you say “Or you would go insane” with bland or serious expressions, you say the advice joking. Is this right?

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?"

Yes, いただけませんかis ”いただく＋negative form ＋question.”
When you say 「胡椒をとっていただきたい」(I want you to pass me the pepper.), you sound arrogant. So you add the negative form ません and the question form か.

However, literally, it is not "Can't I get the pepper, please?"
It may be “Can I get you pass me the pepper?” (I’m not sure if my English is correct. It means like “I’m sorry to bother you, but may I make you pass me the pepper?”) I mean it’s not just “get the pepper”, but “get you …..”. My English is too poor to explain!


This is also good and polite expression. 「胡椒をとっていただきたいのですが」

Useful examples:
「(僕と)お付き合いしていただけませんか/（ぼくと）おつきあいしていただけませんか」「僕とお 付き合いしてくださいませんか」Be my sweetheart. (I’m sorry; I don’t know the polite version of this expression. The Japanese sentence is very polite. )
「（僕と）結婚していただけませんか」「僕と結婚して くださいませんか」Will you marry me?(I’m sorry; I don’t know, again. The Japanese sentence is polite.)

You can also say ：「僕と付き合ってください(casual)」「彼女になってく� ��さい(young people)」
彼女 usually means “she”, but sometimes means “ female lover”.

「(僕と)結婚してください(polite)」「（僕と）結婚して� �れ」「俺の女房になれ(Be my wife!)」


There are another いただく as you have written "Can't I get the pepper, please?".
You know, you say いただきます before you eat, remember? I think it means “I receive this boon.
“いただく” can mean “receive” and “get”, and its casual version is “もらう”.
助さんに、本を一冊いただくI receive a book from Sukesan.(However, I know that you would say “Sukesan gives me a book.” That would be 助さんが、本を一冊くださる)

Casual; 「助さんに、本を一冊もらう」「助さんが、本を一冊く れる」

Note!
There is a very important difference between English and Japanese.
We usually say「助さんに本をいただく」｢助さんに本をもらう｣「 助さんが本をくださる」「助さんが本をくれる」.
We don’t mention about the number except when the number is important.
So, 「助さんが本をくれる」should be “Sukesan gives me a book/books.”
If you don’t like “/”, I don’t know how to write.
Basically, most Japanese sentences can’t be translated into English to be exact.

Let’s imagine. You just arrived at Tokyo airport. You have spent many hours on the airplane. You meet me at the lobby, and say about your flight.
“I read a book in the plane.”
That’s「飛行機の中で本を読んでいました」.
If you say「飛行機の中で、私は一冊の本を読みました」, I would misunderstand that you have finished the book and that the flight must have been too long.

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

Thank you. I will write something about Sakoku(Kaikin), maybe next time.

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!

I see! We say “My stomach is ‘パンパン’”. But it’s not drumming, but means the condition is full. When you put too many things in your bag, it’s also ‘panpan’.
The sort of expression is “オノマトペ(from onomatopoeia)”.

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

Many elderly Japanese people really love this song. They wish to sing it in English, but most of them can’t, because singing in English is difficult to them.
After you finish 「ああ人生に涙あり」, I believe this song is very good to you. What do you think?

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."

I see.
Japanese people tend to prefer to say “my way”, not “your chosen path”, because the song is too popular. I will remember “your chosen path”.

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

なんにもしないdo not lift a finger
なんにもしないでwithout doing anything
よりthan

Which gives us...

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

Let’s live seeking for something rather than to live without doing anything.
Is this grammatically correct?