Are my English-to-Japanese translations right-on/good?

JapaneseLanguageStudent · (#1 (**permalink**))

Hi. I'm an American studying Japanese. From using the Genki textbook's lessons, I translated the following from English into Japanese. I tried really hard to get my translations correct. I feel confident on many of them. Nonetheless, I desire that my work is looked over by more competent Japanese language speakers/writers. What do I have translated wrongly? What are my mistranslations? Which needs to be changed to match the English?

I used the kanji that I already know, and hiragana for the words that I haven't yet studied the kanji of. Also, the text in the parentheses wasn't translated and didn't need to be.

Lesson 7

VERB ている
Present tense of verbs

1. Ms. Yamada is singing a Japanese song.
山田さんは日本のうたをうたっています。

2. My little sister is sleeping (right now).
いもうとはねています。

3. My father is cleaning the house (right now).
父はうちをそうじしています。

VERB ている
To describe an occupation

4. Mr. Tanaka teaches English.
田中さんはえい語をおしえています。

5. My mother is employed at Honda.
母はホンダにつとめています。

VERB ている
To describe changes from one state to another

6. Ms. Yamashita is married.
山下さんはけっこんしています。

7. Mr. Kawaguchi is a little overweight.
川口さんはちょっとふとっています。

8. My friend went to Japan (and is still there).
私のともだちは日本に行っています。

Describing physical attributes

9. Ms. Suzuki has long hair.
すずきさんはかみがながいです。

10. That dog’s ears are cute.
そのいぬはみみがかわいいです。

11. My older sister has small feet.
あねはあしが小さいです。

Te forms for joining sentences

12. My little sister is cute and smart. (joining multiple adjectives)
いもうとはかわいくて、あたまがいいです。

13. Grandfather is 75 years old and healthy. (NA adjective and I adjective)
おじいさんは七十五さいで、元気です。

14. I am a student and am busy. (noun plus adjective)
ぼくは学生で、いそがしいです。

Going somewhere with a purpose

15. I went to the restaurant to eat sushi.
ぼくはレストランにすしを食べに行きました。

16. My older brother went to the library to borrow a book.
あにはとしょかんに本をかりに行きました。

17. Ms. Yamada went to the convenience store to buy a magazine.
山田さんはコンビニにざっしをかいに行きました。

Counting people

18. There are six people in my family.
私のかぞくに六人がいます。

19. There are five thousand people in this town.
このまちに五千人がいます。

20. There are 40 people in that small company.
その小さい会社には四十人がいます。

Lesson 8

Short forms – Express the following using informal Japanese.

21. It will rain the day after tomorrow.
あさっては雨がふる。

22. Mr. Tanaka is singing at the party (right now).
田中さんはパーティーでうたっている。

23. I will not go to work tomorrow.
あしたしごとに行かない。

24. This town is quiet.
このまちはしずかだ。

25. My mother is a teacher.
母は先生だ。

Quotations

26. Ms. Suzuki said that she likes Karaoke. (Literally, “Ms. Suzuki said ‘I like Karaoke.’”)
すずきさんは、カラオケをすきだと言っていました。

27. No, father said that the day after tomorrow is the barbeque.
ううん、父は、あさってバーベキューをすると言っていました。

28. Grandmother said that she dislikes cleaning.
おばあさんは、そうじがきらいだと言っていました。

Expressing an opinion

29. Yes, I think this disco is boring.
うん、このディスコはつまらないと思います。

30. I think that Ms. Nakamura doesn’t like tomatoes.
中むらさんはトマトがきらいだと思います。

31. I think that my little sister is a good student.
いもうとはいい学生だと思います。

Negative request (“Please don’t ~”)

32. Please don’t stare at me.
私にじろじろ見ないでください。

33. Please don’t sing on the train.
電車の中でうたわないでください。

34. Please don’t drive.
うんてんしないでください。

Verb phrases

35. Studying Japanese is easy.
日本語をべんきょうするのはやさしい。

36. Eating with chopsticks is difficult.
はしで食べるのはむずかしい。

37. Taking pictures is fun.
しゃしんをとるのがたのしい。

38. Mr. Murata is good at speaking English.
むら田さんはえい語をはなすのがじょうずだ。

Particle Showdown: は vs. が!!!

39. Who is wearing glasses?
だれがめがねをかけている？

40. Ms. Suzuki is wearing glasses.
すずきさんがめがねをかけている。

41. The train is here. (Literally, “The train came.”)
電車がきた。

42. Who is going to the park?
だれがこうえんに行く？

Something & Nothing

43. Did you eat something this morning?
けさ何か食べた？

44. I didn’t drink anything yesterday.
きのう何も飲まなかった。

45. Please sing something.
何かうたってください。

46. Do something!
何かして！

masaegu · (#2 (**permalink**))

First, I would like to say that you have been learning well. There are several sentences that I am going to "correct" but please know that these are by my native standards. Books and courses abroad DO teach less than natural-sounding Japanese even when taught by a Japanese speaker. What you have may well get you higher scores than how native speakers would say these.

18. A strong "translated" flavor I sense. Almost all Japanese-speakers would say:

うちは６人かぞくです。

but if what you have is what they teach you, I have nothing to say though I assure you that it sounds very unnatural.

19. に　＞＞　には

５千人　＞＞　５千人の人

But the more natural way of saying this would be:

この町には５千人の人が住（す）んでいます。　住む = to live, reside

Or if I may use the word "population" as a noun:

この町の人口（じんこう）は５千人です。

20. Grammatical but unnatural.

４０人　＞＞　４０人の人

By the way, unless we are writing vertically, we rarely use kanji numbers, which is what you have seen above.

22. Grammatical but ambiguous. Your sentence CAN sound like it is Tanaka's profession.

Add いま and/or ～～ところです if you have learned the latter = ("to be in the middle of doing ~~").

田中さんはいまパーティーでうたっています。
田中さんはいまパーティーでうたっているところです。

23. Sounds very foreign to me.

あした　＞＞　あしたは = as for tomorrow

25. Grammatical but poor word choice.

先生＞＞　教師（きょうし）　ＯＲ　教員（きょういん）

The word 先生 is over-used by Japanese-learners. It is more an honorific than a profession.

When talking to an adult speaker, use one of the two words given above.
When talking to a kid, you may use 先生.

26. を　＞＞　が

Excellent verb tense choice!! It is the native speaker's choice! (for #27 and #28 as well)
Many Japanese-learners would have used the plain past tense there.
___________

There are more but I need to go now. Will do the rest if no one else has by then.

KyleGoetz · (#3 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by masaegu

Excellent verb tense choice!! It is the native speaker's choice! (for #27 and #28 as well)
Many Japanese-learners would have used the plain past tense there.

いう is for plain ol' saying, but いっている is for more of a "reporting/informing" sense, right?

masaegu · (#4 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

いう is for plain ol' saying, but いっている is for more of a "reporting/informing" sense, right?

Right. It gives more value to the content of what was said than when いう/いった　is used.

Use いう/いった in situations where native speakers would use いっている/いっていた and you will sound very indifferent.

masaegu · (#5 (**permalink**))

Here is the rest.

31. Grammatical but unnatural.
We do not really say いい学生 in this context but then anything we would say naturally would not even look like the English sentence, so let us leave it as is.

(For the non-beginning learner, we say 「よくできる学生」 or 「優秀（ゆうしゅう）な学生」)

32. に　＞＞　を
The rest is super-natural.

35. Not quite (though that may be how they teach you to say it.)
「日本語の勉強はやさしいです。」

37. が　＞＞　は

39. Colloquially, correct. But I would imagine that, at your level, you would be required to use か in every question.　いる　＞＞　いますか

42. Same problem with # 39

JapaneseLanguageStudent · (#6 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by masaegu

Here is the rest.

31. Grammatical but unnatural.
We do not really say いい学生 in this context but then anything we would say naturally would not even look like the English sentence, so let us leave it as is.

(For the non-beginning learner, we say 「よくできる学生」 or 「優秀（ゆうしゅう）な学生」)

32. に　＞＞　を
The rest is super-natural.

35. Not quite (though that may be how they teach you to say it.)
「日本語の勉強はやさしいです。」

37. が　＞＞　は

39. Colloquially, correct. But I would imagine that, at your level, you would be required to use か in every question.　いる　＞＞　いますか

42. Same problem with # 39

Thanks very much for your help! I couldn't have asked for better!! I appreciate all that you've done.

But I do have a few clarification questions and comments.

For #18, What I wrote is awkward; however, what you wrote isn't what is taught. That's not to say that I doubt you. I don't doubt you at all, in your statement that what you have written is what almost all native Japanese would say. You know, it's another one of those in-classroom versus in-real-life differences. I must conform to what the books says, to do well on quizzes and exams. The Genki textbook for my JPN class uses imasu for counting people, and not desu. Since that's the case do you think it'd be acceptable if I write 私のかぞくが六人います。 ? Is it better than my original? Is that less awkward, more of a regular sounding statement? Or would that be just as awkward as what I first wrote?

For #19 and #20, the Genki textbook doesn't use #number#人の人. Therefore, I can't use it. Thanks for bringing it up to me; I'll try to keep in mind for when I interact with native speakers outside the class.

When you wrote "Grammatical", what is it that you mean? Does that mean that it's grammatically correct?

As a beginner, writing and using the kanji for numbers helps me memorize them. Plainly and simply, numerical numbers do not help beginners in the task of memorizing kanji. I must know the kanjis, period. And I hate it, very much, when language-learning study aids use numerical numbers instead of spelling them. I disagree strongly with that practice.

For #22, I decided on 田中さんは今パーティーでうたっている。 Note that I tried to make it informal. Is there any way that it could be made more informal? Or is that as informal of a statement as can be? It cannot get more informal, can it?

For #25, I must use 先生. My textbook doesn't have, in its glossary, those other terms you wrote. As with our discussion with the above #18, 19 and 20, it's another one of those in-classroom versus in-real-life differences. Thanks for bringing it up, though.

For #32, When you wrote "super-natural", what is it that you mean? Clarify.

For #35, I decided on 日本語のべんきょうはやさしい。 Note that I didn't add です at the end. Is that acceptable? Or should I use a だ , because it otherwise would sound awkward? The chapter 8 piece of this assignment is supposed to be informal.

masaegu · (#7 (**permalink**))

It is quite alright: You can doubt me all you want. I am just an Internet stranger. I may actually know no Japanese (after 18 years of schooling and over 20 years of professional experience in Japan and all in Japanese ). I may just be another weeaboo pretending to be Japanese online, but I really could not care less what I may appear to be to strangers. At least, they have my 2,500 posts to judge me by. I will let those speak.

Columbine · (#8 (**permalink**))

Quote: