Please help me to read this English sentence:

[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!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

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.

No problem. If you go over to the Japanese Language subforum here, there's a thread where I screw up really bad. Really, really bad. And I've been studying Japanese for a long time, including attending university over there. It was really embarrassing, and I'm thinking about never helping people with Japanese again because it seems I'm not qualified to. (English, on the other hand, is my native language, and I used to be an ESL teacher.)

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?

"Quickly" is fine. If you want to be a bit more "descriptive," you can say something like "I snapped my eyes open" or "I snapped open my eyes" also. They sound more like you'd find in a novel, I think. More like storytelling because they are more visual. It is commonly taught in story-writing classes that you should never use an adjective where a verb would do. In other words, if you're writing a story, use a descriptive verb instead of an -ly word. In this case, we could switch "quickly opened" with "snapped open."

Keep in mind I'm not saying using the adverbs are wrong. I'm just saying that in storytelling classes, it's considered "better" to use descriptive verbs instead.
Other examples of what I'm talking about:
Tom loudly spoke --> Tom shouted
Tom quickly went --> Tom dashed
Tom sang a song loudly --> Tom belted out a song

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.

Conjunctions are a tricky part about English, especially the rarer ones.

I think the order of frequency of the FANBOYS words are
A,B,O > S > F,Y > N

It's interesting because a lot of native English speakers use "nor" incorrectly. Here is a good description of English conjunctions. Linda Bryson's List of English Conjunctions

Ignore the advice on punctuation, though. There is confusion among native speakers as to whether to always put a comma before a conjunction. I was an editor on an academic publication, and this is the rule we used, basically:

When you have two complete sentences joined by a conjunction, use a comma before the conjunction.
Tom is happy, and he is tall. ("Tom is happy" and "He is tall" can be complete sentences)

However, otherwise, do not use a comma:
Tom is happy and is tall. ("Tom is happy" is a sentence, but "is tall" is not)

The link I provided said to always use a comma, which I think is wrong.

But that is writing style. The grammar description in that link is good I think.

[girigiri]

Doesn't 急いで目を開けた translate as "quickly opened my eyes", rather than "opened my eyes quickly."?

That is to say; rather than referring to the speed of the action, does 急いで目を開けた imply さっそく ?

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

No problem. If you go over to the Japanese Language subforum here, there's a thread where I screw up really bad. Really, really bad.

KyleGoetz: 猿も木に落ちる。There are, in essence, two ways to respond to an error. The honourable one is to post a retraction together with an apology, as you have done. The other is to throw a hissy fit, and impugn the integrity of the person who pointed out the error.

[Koir]

Originally Posted by girigiri

KyleGoetz: 猿も木に落ちる。There are, in essence, two ways to respond to an error. The honourable one is to post a retraction together with an apology. The other is to throw a hissy fit, and impugn the integrity of the person who pointed out the error.

If this is a disagreement, the truly honourable one is to keep it solely between the both of you via personal message, and not clog up the forum with additional unnecessary drama.

If this is simply a grammatical disagreement over context, disregard the previous statement.

[girigiri]

Koir: Duly disregarded.

[Koir]

Originally Posted by girigiri

Koir: Duly disregarded.

*slightly unconvinced look*

Okayyyy...just trying to head off possible problems....

[girigiri]

Koir: Apologies: I see the problem. My post has been amended so as to prevent mis-understanding. (I am, unfortunately, not a gentleman.)

[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

No problem. If you go over to the Japanese Language subforum here, there's a thread where I screw up really bad. Really, really bad. And I've been studying Japanese for a long time, including attending university over there. It was really embarrassing, and I'm thinking about never helping people with Japanese again because it seems I'm not qualified to. (English, on the other hand, is my native language, and I used to be an ESL teacher.)

Japanese language is very different from English. Learning Japanese is hard to native English speakers, and learning English is hard to Japanese.
My American friend started studying Japanese about ten years ago, and he used to say he would learn Japanese soon. But two years ago he came to Japan, and he was not able to speak a word in Japanese. He is a lawyer, and he must have believed he was smart, but he didn’t say a word in Japanese here. He seemed to have been shocked, and then he quit e-mailing me.

"Quickly" is fine. If you want to be a bit more "descriptive," you can say something like "I snapped my eyes open" or "I snapped open my eyes" also. They sound more like you'd find in a novel, I think. More like storytelling because they are more visual. It is commonly taught in story-writing classes that you should never use an adjective where a verb would do. In other words, if you're writing a story, use a descriptive verb instead of an -ly word. In this case, we could switch "quickly opened" with "snapped open."

I see. I understand what you mean.
Many of my favorite novelists don’t write many adverbs.

Conjunctions are a tricky part about English, especially the rarer ones.

Ignore the advice on punctuation, though. There is confusion among native speakers as to whether to always put a comma before a conjunction. I was an editor on an academic publication, and this is the rule we used, basically:

When you have two complete sentences joined by a conjunction, use a comma before the conjunction.
Tom is happy, and he is tall. ("Tom is happy" and "He is tall" can be complete sentences)

However, otherwise, do not use a comma:
Tom is happy and is tall. ("Tom is happy" is a sentence, but "is tall" is not)

The link I provided said to always use a comma, which I think is wrong.

But that is writing style. The grammar description in that link is good I think.

I will need a long time to read the rink. I will try.
KyleGoetz, thank you very much.
I’ve been studying English for many years, but my English is still poor. However, I will keep doing my best, for very good people help me here.

[YuriTokoro]

Hi.
Could you correct my English?

"General Election"

The Prime Minister Aso dissolved the Lower House on July 21th, and a general election will be held on August 30th in Japan.
As you may know, Japanese prime ministers change one after another. Mr. Aso took the seat of prime minister after two former prime ministers’ resigns.
He was elected by LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) members. Almost all the people can’t vote when a prime minister is elected, but only ruling party legislators can.
They elect their boss, and then drag him down. I guess you would think Japanese people are packs of mutts.
Japanese people don’t attempt a coup d’état nor an assassination. Japanese people are meek, docile and quiet. I sometimes watch people in other countries rise against wanton treatment on TV. If that energetic people immigrated to Japan, Japan would be occupied by them. I think Japanese politicians may know that, so they ban immigration from other countries.

Thank you.

[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by girigiri

猿も木に落ちる。

?? "A monkey fell down on a tree."?
You were joking, weren’t you?