Japanese in 18 Months? No way!!!

[Doraneko]

None of the above, excepting occasionally (2), are any help with these translations, so I'm pretty much on my own.

Your list of Japanese contacts is quite long IMO. Regardless of whether they are of any help on your translation work, they certainly provide you with ample opportunities to practise your spoken Japanese.

There is a saying that the further you go (or the more you know), the more you realize you don't know. Seems like it's true.

Indeed. I really need to brush up my ancient Japanese comprehension capability, but so far I am too lazy to do so and there is not enough motivation. The fact that I only care about light novels and doesn't give a damn to traditional literature doesn't help either.

Yoake clearly caught me offguard this time. But then if my friend suddenly asks me about Old English or Oracle Bone scripts in Facebook / MSN, I will for certain be equally bewildered.

[YoakeNoHikari]

Hah, I bet that I have no idea what oracle bones say.

[YoakeNoHikari]

More questions from a student. Could I have a detailed explanation of くらい？

Thank you very much.

[larethian]

I think first you need to explain what you are confused about?

[Doraneko]

More questions from a student. Could I have a detailed explanation of くらい？

暗い？喰らい？位？

On top of what Larethian has said, you need to make it clear which particular word you are asking.

[YoakeNoHikari]

The third one, how it fits into a sentence as a preposition.

[Zell_ff8]

くらい isn't that complicated. Its very common in numbers and quantities (also as ぐらい).
30歳くらいの女 / a woman about 30yo-
3つぐらい / about three (units, things)
三十分くらいかかります / it takes about 30 minutes

It points "some extent", "more or less", "about".


Or, in some scornful usage "at least" (kind of ~さえ).
それぐらいのことで…？ / for such a (tiny) thing?
それぐらい出来ないのか？ / you can't do even that?

[YoakeNoHikari]

Alright, thanks a lot.

In the sentence: 人工音声の笑い声に、のぞみ２４６号の車内中kあら悲鳴が上がる。

Does the に particle mean that the artificial laughing sound is what rang out? Or did cries ring out in response to the artificial laughing sound?

I need to study the basics more *facepalm*

Thank you in advance.

[kuroi_shinigami]

A scream rings out in response to the artificial laughing voice. Himei(悲鳴) means scream/shriek in Japanese(I assume you translate 悲鳴 as crying voice because in Chinese bei ming means a sad cry?).

[Zell_ff8]

the base of the sentence is:
(...)笑い声に(...)悲鳴が上がる
they screamed at ~ (in response to ~)

but に could also mean a conjunction in enumeration (as だの or や) (私が嫌いなのは、ピーマンにセロリにニンジンです)
the first time I read it I got: "in the middle of -artificial laugh sound-, a scream rang from the interior if the car no.246"

in the sense like for example a party, among all voices someone screamed. that could be expressed with a に (as it enumerates and gives a sense of "over", "a scream over the voices")

(I still don't get what is a 人工音声の笑い声 (artificial laugh? what's that?))

[EusthEnoptEron]

artificial laugh? what's that?

Nothing's impossible

Having said that, I agree with the opinions above, though I get the impression that there are multiple screams.
So, "An artificial laughter caused the passengers of Nozomi #246 to scream."

Well, I may be completely wrong on that, though.

[YoakeNoHikari]

Alright, thanks for all the help : )

Yeah, there were probably multiple screams, I translated it as: "In response to the artificial laughter, cries started ringing out from within Train Hope 246. "

It's a vocaloid.

[onizuka-gto]

Could be worse: my entire non-BT Japanese contact list:

(1) Lady from church. I think I either asked her too many questions, or her husband got suspicious of all the questions, but whatever happened I haven't heard anything since getting a note that she didn't have time for questions anymore . . . about six months ago.

(2) Another lady from church. Wife of university professor, middle-aged with no kids. She won't have anything to do with anything so shady as otakus, though I can ask her the occasional question. Very occasional.

(2a) Her husband, who's a nice guy but is also quite busy. Based on the reaction of (2), I am careful with him.

(3) Yet another lady from church, since moved to Chicago. After reviewing about ten pages said she didn't have time for it.

(4) Guy from church who lived in Japan for a while and now works for Toyota. What I'm working on is far outside of his abilities in Japanese, which are generally business oriented. He think's I ought to get my head examined, but respects the effort involved.

(5) Guy in our Tokyo office. I've not told him I've been translating light novels, mostly because the other's reactions so far.

(6) The people at our local Japanese grocery store, about three miles from my job. I try to use Japanese when I'm in the store, every couple of weeks. 大福 are delicious, but very filling.

None of the above, excepting occasionally (2), are any help with these translations, so I'm pretty much on my own.

Sorry. I didn't mean to be cruel or anything, but i can't help but imagine your avatar, in church, handing pages of Japanese to old Japanese couples. Then imagining their horror as they leaf though the pages of the script as a sunglass wearing mole looks on excitedly.

Thanks for making my day, Rpapo

[rpapo]

Sorry. I didn't mean to cruel or anything, but i can't help be imagining your avatar, in church handing pages of Japanese to old Japanese couples. Then imagining their horror as they leaf though the pages of the script as a sunglass wearing mole looks on excitedly.

Thanks for making my day, Rpapo

Actually, that is a pretty funny image. And I don't mind (one needs to be able to laugh at one's self), though the reality is nowhere near as strange. For one thing, I don't run into any of the listed people very often: with the exception of the guy who works for Toyota they all attend different congregations of our church. When I was asking for comments on my translations, I did it via e-mail. The people at the grocery store don't count: they are total strangers that happen to be first-generation Japanese immigrants, and I have not asked them for any input at all. It's simply fun to try and speak Japanese with them.

On the other hand, there aren't too many fifty-something otakus out there, and if I let it show it invariably surprises people.

I saw #2 in person last Saturday, though, and after I mentioned how the translation was going, she immediately began to suggest a particular library at the University of Michigan where I could get all sorts of stuff to read. My response was that I had no shortage of reading material, but in fact a severe shortage of reading speed on my part. She thinks I shouldn't be wasting my time on the current popular culture.

[Doraneko]

I saw #2 in person last Saturday, though, and after I mentioned how the translation was going, she immediately began to suggest a particular library at the University of Michigan where I could get all sorts of stuff to read. My response was that I had no shortage of reading material, but in fact a severe shortage of reading speed on my part. She thinks I shouldn't be wasting my time on the current popular culture.

I can't really fault her with that kind of thinking. Exceptional cases certainly exist, but generally for the majority it is the most efficient to learn through textbooks and professionally designed learning materials.

In fact one way to improve reading speed is to pick up one of those JLPT reading comprehension exercises. Limit yourself within a short period to read a passage (start with a 60-second-limit and gradually reduce it to 10 seconds), then answer the questions just by your memory. I did this extensively when I was preparing for JLPT2. After around one month my reading speed of not only Japanese but also English improved drastically.

Nonetheless I have to admit that it is a boring and exhausting way of learning. If you don't have any pressure to improve your Japanese within a short and specific time frame, reading light novels extensively as an alternate means is not that bad after all.