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Originally Posted by sarvodaya
Despite all that, yes, I love my country; and yet I find myself mourning for its past — not for imperialist reasons, but because I believe we used to care, we used to live and die for something, we used to take pride in our country and our community in a way that we don't seem to any more. Nowadays we hardly stand for anything, but I think we used to. In some ways we are still recovering from the '60s, but we are so apathetic that we cannot make any headway in doing so. I hope things change from the way they are now, and in that regard, yes, I am a true patriot. Having said that, if things don't change in the next ten years or so, I'm emigrating to Canada!
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Really!?
I know that Vancouver is the best place to live.
Yes! They have delicious Japanese rice in their stores. Try it if you move to Canada. However, I hope you won’t need to emigrate there.
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NB: pig-headed is more common.
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Thank you. I will remember that.
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Wow, that's really helpful ゆりさん. There are some very illustrative examples there. Quite a few kanji, but it's ok to practise!
I think I understood it all, and I have put it in my book. It will take a while to assimilate!
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I know. Learning foreign language takes you time.
I make same mistakes many times.
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Hmmm. You can say that, but it is better to say "They talked about how to determine what is morally correct behaviour" as Koir rightly says.
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I see. Thank you.
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"Do you know what the time is?"
"Do you know what time it is?"
"I want to know what morally correct behaviour is."
These are perhaps a bit more colloquial, and still give the impression of an incomplete thought, but here it is deliberate — we want the listener to complete the thought for us.
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You mean these three above give the impression of an incomplete?
What are the complete sentences?
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PS: ゆりさん, please publish your response to my comment on your blog!
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Yes. I have published.
I start a short story here!
1
イギリス人の覚は、日本に引っ越してきました。隣の家 に住む刺氏さん（Sashmister）に挨拶に行きました。
「はじめまして。隣に引っ越してきました覚です。どう ぞよろしく」
「はじめまして。刺氏です。助(すけ)と呼んでください� ��こちらこそ、よろしく」
To be continued.
（刺氏is not a common Japanese family name. I just translated Sashimister into Japanese.）
The sentences above may be a bit difficult at first.
These sentences below are written in easier way and in only present tense, on purpose.
《普通体》in present tense
★覚はイギリス人だ。日本に引っ越す《にほん に ひ っこす》。
Kaku is English. He is going to move/is moving in Japan.
隣の家に《となりのいえに》刺氏さんが(住んで)いる。
There is Mr.SashiMister in the next door.
[c.f. 刺氏さんは 隣の家に 住んでいる。
Mr,Sashimister lives in the next door.]
覚は挨拶《あいさつ》に行く。
Kaku is going to go/is going to say hello to him.
These three sentences above are odd with the conversations. I wrote them in 普通体《ふつうたい》in present /future tense on purpose.
丁寧体《ていねいたい》in present tense:
★覚はイギリス人です。日本に引っ越してきます。
隣の家に刺氏さんが（住んで）います。
覚は挨拶に行きます。
In past tense.
★覚はイギリス人で、日本に引っ越してきました。
（Kaku is an English man who has moved in Japan.）
隣の家に刺氏という人が住んでいました。
(There was Mr.SashiMister in the next door.)
覚は挨拶に行きました。
(Kaku went to say hello to him.)
If you write; 覚はイギリス人でした。日本に引っ越してきました,
you mean like Kaku isn’t English any more in this context.
Note!
Japanese don’t go like this; 覚はイギリス人だった人で、日本に引っ越してきました or 隣の家に住んだ刺氏に挨拶に行きました。 This is odd.
The sequence of tenses is different from English’s.
Today, I just want you to know that the English tense sense and the Japanese’s are very different. The sequence of tenses is completely different.
You don’t need to memorize all the sentences above as for now.
My explanation must be complicated.
If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask, please!
I’m sorry, I have written too long.