翻訳の要請 (Translation Requests)

[Eginhard]

僕も実際の意味が分からない。写真か絵があるかもしれない。

そこでこんな「ヒダヒダ」の部分があるの？
http://www2.odn.ne.jp/umiyama/gif/takoera.jpg・http://gourmet.livedoor.com/internal_api/image/load/615/85196.jpg・http://masax.blog.eonet.jp/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/16/umc3qlhy.jpg

In English maybe something like "wrinkled".

[vicza]

http://www2.odn.ne.jp/umiyama/gif/takoera.jpg・http://gourmet.livedoor.com/internal_api/image/load/615/85196.jpg・http://masax.blog.eonet.jp/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/16/umc3qlhy.jpg
In English maybe something like "wrinkled".

それは面白い。このリンクを見ればもうこの意味に分かる可能性がある。だが、前述の文とは関係があるかな？

もう一つの面白い写真を見つけた。「洋服のヒダヒダ感」って。なんか分からない。Is she saying about facial expression, or about her clothes?

[Eginhard]

Clothes, the face is just mentioned in the beginning

I hadn't seen that word being used in another context until now and the google page also didn't show something else, so I assumed the wrong thing, sorry.

[ego]

How would you say "MSc" (Master or Postgraduate programme) in Japanese? Thanks!

[Kasuya]

How would you say "MSc" (Master or Postgraduate programme) in Japanese? Thanks!

理学修士
rigaku shuushi

[ego]

Thank you. I asked a Japanese and he said there is no word in Japanese and I should just say "master" or perhaps "masuteru". However u r sure about this term?

[Kasuya]

Thank you. I asked a Japanese and he said there is no word in Japanese and I should just say "master" or perhaps "masuteru". However u r sure about this term?

Yes.

[AdiJapan]

理学修士 rigaku shuushi (or 修士 shuushi for a Master's degree in general) does exist, but is used mainly in formal documents. Normally people say マスター masutaa.

The Master's thesis is called 修士論文 shuushi ronbun, and is casually abbreviated to 修論 shuuron. Also, the Master's Programme is called 修士課程 shuushi katei, but in normal speech people say マスターコース masutaa koosu.

[lama su]

i'm reading a manga (neon genesis evangelion) in japanese, and there is a phrase that i don't understand:

two guys are doing a "bento-competition", the girl who will judge them is sat in a chair.
The speaker says:

第一回

and then

チキチキお弁当王座決定せん

what does it mean? what does "チキチキ" mean?!

[hashi]

http://eow.alc.co.jp/チキチキ/UTF-8/?ref=sa

Thats all I could find for チキチキ...

[lama su]

http://eow.alc.co.jp/チキチキ/UTF-8/?ref=sa

Thats all I could find for チキチキ...

uhm.. ok.. but i don't understand what it means in this context..

[Karavinka]

It's probably not meant to mean anything. Japanese is full of such onomatopoeic-words like that.

チキチキお弁当王座決定せん
決定戦 the battle to decide
王座 the kingly throne
お弁 of lunch
チキチキ (no meaning)

However, the sense they want to convey is probably excited, active and probably somewhat hip as well.

[slipbats0]

I just heard ''watashitakunai''.. what does it mean to attach a verb to the pronoun/noun like this? is it something like ''watashi no dekinai no koto'' (something i can't do) but without the particle? Could you say ''Watashidekinai no koto''?

edit: GAH nevermind, i just realized there's a verb called ''watasu'' meaning something like ''give''.. I suppose it means ''don't want to give''

[AdiJapan]

I just heard ''watashitakunai''.. what does it mean to attach a verb to the pronoun/noun like this? is it something like ''watashi no dekinai no koto'' (something i can't do) but without the particle? Could you say ''Watashidekinai no koto''?

edit: GAH nevermind, i just realized there's a verb called ''watasu'' meaning something like ''give''.. I suppose it means ''don't want to give''

It is indeed the verb 渡す watasu, meaning "to pass (something to someone)". It has no connection with the pronoun 私 watashi.

By the way, there is a tongue twister including both the verb watasu and the pronoun watashi:

わたしたわしわたしたわ

Plus, you can read it in both directions and get the same thing (that is, it's a palindrome when written in kana).

One more thing: It's not dekinai no koto, but dekinai koto.

[slipbats0]

Good, thanks! I have a bunch more questions.

Also, as i've heard it ''bakari'' and ''dake'' both mean ''only'', is there any nuiance diffrence?

How would you say ''that's the only thing i don't want to hand over''? (cheesy example, but hey)

my attempt: ''Sore dake wa watashitakunai mono da'' (meant to sound casual)

(Also, as i've heard it (mostly by watching cartoons, unfortunately) ''bakari'' and ''dake'' both mean ''only'', is there any nuiance diffrence?

What is the best pronoun for a youngin' to address and elder with?

(i guess i kinda moved out of the sphere of the translation thread, sorry)

[AdiJapan]

Also, as i've heard it ''bakari'' and ''dake'' both mean ''only'', is there any nuiance diffrence?

It's more than a nuance. In fact, only in a small part of the cases the two words are interchangeable, and even then they have significantly different flavors.

Here are a few examples of how ばかり is used and how it can or cannot be replaced by だけ:

- 生まれたばかりの子供 --- newborn child/children (cannot be replaced by だけ)
- 怒ってばかりいる --- is always angry (cannot be replaced by だけ)
- 雨ばかり降っている --- it rains incessantly (changes meaning if replaced by だけ)
- 夜なか、三時ばかりに眼がさめた --- I woke up as early as three in the dead of the night (reverses nuance if replaced by だけ: I didn't wake up until 3 am)
- 関係がないことばかり --- nothing but irrelevant things (can be replaced by だけ, but ばかり is stronger in suggesting that the speaker is annoyed)

How would you say ''that's the only thing i don't want to hand over''? (cheesy example, but hey)

my attempt: ''Sore dake wa watashitakunai mono da'' (meant to sound casual)

Not bad, but you reversed the subject and the predicate. I'd say "Watashitakunai mono wa sore dake (da/desu/etc.)."

What is the best pronoun for a youngin' to address and elder with?

Traditionally in Japanese you never use a 2nd person pronoun. Instead you use that person's name (with -san appended to it) or a noun that reflects his/her relationship with you (father, grandmother, customer, etc.) Today people have started to use anata, but only when they have no other choice. For example, in a commercial you don't know who you're talking to, so anata is acceptable. In business relations, when people haven't been properly introduced, they often use sochira, which means not only "you", but also "your office", "your place", etc. Actually with honorific and humble speech you often don't need to specify who you are talking to/about (and so you don't need pronouns), because you use different words when they refer to your own side or to the other side.

In fact, most of the time you really can word your sentences such that you don't need a pronoun. When you can't, you can rely on the listener's intuition.

[slipbats0]

Thanks for your answers, again! Now i have another silly question. Would

''Ana no tsukara ga nai mono''

Be an adequate translation of ''Such a powerless thing''?

I've heard ''ga nai'' added to the end of words to denote that someone ''posesses none'' of the quality in question, i'm just wanting to see if i understand it rightly.

[vicza]

''Ana no tsukara ga nai mono''

Are you sure you wrote it correctly? If "power", it's "tikara"/"chikara", not "tsukara". And "anna".

I'd say, it's rather "But [someone] has not that power!"

[AdiJapan]

Would

''Ana no tsukara ga nai mono''

Be an adequate translation of ''Such a powerless thing''?

The way you wrote it I don't think anyone would get what you meant. I suppose you wanted to write "anna no chikara ga nai mono", which would be grammatically correct, but even then the meaning would be hard to understand without a context.

One of the most widespread mistakes learners make when trying to say something in Japanese is that they still think in another language. While that would be almost okay for a German trying to speak English, it simply can't work with Japanese, because the very way of thinking is structured differently.

It's hard to translate something if you don't have a rather large perspective on the context. Translating just one sentence without knowing who speaks, in what context, to whom, what the relationship is between the speaker and the listener, etc. is bound to fail almost systematically.

To the point, "such a powerless thing" could be translated in lots of ways:

- konna ni chikara ga nai mono
- taihen yowai koto
- sonna yowamushi

and so on, depending on what you have in mind.

Less related to this and more related to machine translation, you could have fun with this little toy: Translation Party. Give it an English sentence and it will translate is back and forth between English and Japanese until it gets a stable sentence (or until it just gives up).

I've heard ''ga nai'' added to the end of words to denote that someone ''posesses none'' of the quality in question, i'm just wanting to see if i understand it rightly.

That is correct. In fact it is a small piece of a much larger picture: how to transform a simple sentence into a subordinate clause inside another sentence.

In this particular case first you have "Mono wa chikara ga nai" (The thing doesn't have power). Then you have for example "Chikara ga nai mono wa ooi" ("There are many things that don't have power").

[Eoghan]

I always bitch about how people ask for translations into Gaelic when they don't speak Gaelic, well, so I feel somewhat stupid asking for a translation from Japanese into English ...

I would love it if you could please translate this Japanese song into English. I obviously don't speak a word of Japanese, save the standard "hi, how are you" so the only thing I got out of it was that the cat is a mean bastard.

ねこふんじゃったねこふんじゃった
ねこふんづけちゃったらひっかいた
ねこひっかいたねこひっかいた
ねこびっくりしてひっかいた
悪いねこめつめを切れ
屋根をおりてひげをそれ
ねこニャーゴニャーゴねこかぶり
ねこなで声であまえてる
ねこごめんなさいねこごめんなさい
ねこおどかしちゃってごめんなさい
ねこよっといでねこよっといで
ねこかつぶしやるからよっといで
ねこふんじゃったねこふんじゃった
ねこふんづけちゃったらとんでった
ねことんじゃったねことんじゃった
ねこお空へとんじゃった
青い空にかささして
ふわりふわり雲の上
ごろニャーゴニャーゴないている
ごろニャーゴみんな遠めがね
ねことんじゃったねことんじゃった
ねこすっとんじゃってもう見えない
ねこグッバイバイねこグッバイバイ
ねこあしたの朝おりといで

Cheers, Eòghan