Need these sentences in Japanese. Arigato

[mmmason8967]

Your full name in Japanese katakana characters is:-

グレゴリー・アラン・ジョンソン

If you do the copy-and-paste trick with Google Translate it will read it for you--and it translates it back again correctly, too! It's read as: gu-re-go-ri-i　・　aran　・　jonson.

If you prefer to be called Greg, that would be:　グレッグ　(gu-re-ggu). The double-g is like a 'hard' g-sound, and the 'u' at the end is almost inaudible.

And like Andy says, we call you グレゴリーさん　(guregorii-san) but you call yourself グレゴイー　(guregorii).

マイケル
(ma-i-ke-ru)

[community.japanese]

Gregory-san, Andy-san, マイケルsan,

Japanese people will expect you to give your first name first and your surname last, so "Gregory-Alan Johnson" is probably fine. Also, you shouldn't add "san" to your own name. That's one of the most common mistakes beginners make.

That's very true...
We do expect first name first. I think the main reason is because it'd be taken and considered as "proper noun".
We have a strong maniac mentalism of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" and swap our name order
very easily in English, but somehow we don't expect the same from foreign people. We then become
"flexibility freaks" and accept the way it is
I think the reason is this is how people show the name in international situations, like we see on Olympic games.

When someone's name contains one of those "can be first name; can be family name", it's more confusing for us.
For instance, we'd think Johnson can be first name, and many people have combined family name....
So, as Andy-san does, giving only a first name or the one you want people to call you by would be a good idea
As signature, it'd be like Michael-san does (i.e. only first name) or clarify which is which (i.e. which is your surname)
by writing full name in Western order or use comma like "Johnson, Gregory-Alan".

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[mmmason8967]

お世辞を言う is a bit tricky expression, because it usually contains a negative connotation, such as "not true". If someone says お世辞, it's usually just to make someone feel better or it's a social way...

So really it's more like flattery?

We don't really declare, in Japanese, that we'll give you a compliment. We'd rather say we've got something to say, or we'd like to say something.

Actually, I think that's true of English as well--or British English, anyway. You wouldn't announce you were going to pay someone a compliment because it would make it obvious that you know that what you're going to say is complimentary. It would ruin the whole effect!

The worst attempted compliment I've ever heard was back in 1975, at a disco in a miner's club in South Yorkshire. The accent is similar to the accent in "Emmerdale":-

Ee, tha dunt sweat much fer a fat lass, do thi?

Translation: I say, you don't sweat much for a fat girl, do you?

Just be careful; 美少女 has a word 少女 which means "a girl". 美少女 could be a word for little princess like
adolescent or even early teenage girls. 美女 can be for anyone, woman or lady as well.

To be honest, I couldn't decide between 美少女 and 美女. In the end I just liked the sound of 美少女 so I chose that.

In English, "girl" is supposed to mean a child, but it's very widely used for women up to at least 30 years old. Presumably, then, this is not true in Japanese: 少女 is a child, not a woman. Is that right?

Following on from that, when do you stop addressing a woman you don't know as お姉さん and start calling her おばさん?

マイケル

[community.japanese]

マイケルさん、

お世辞を言う is a bit tricky expression, because it usually contains a negative connotation, such as "not true". If someone says お世辞, it's usually just to make someone feel better or it's a social way...

So really it's more like flattery?

Yes! That's exactly it!

The worst attempted compliment I've ever heard was back in 1975, at a disco in a miner's club in South Yorkshire. The accent is similar to the accent in "Emmerdale":-

Ee, tha dunt sweat much fer a fat lass, do thi?

Translation: I say, you don't sweat much for a fat girl, do you?

It doesn't even seem to be English!

As to 美少女 and 美女, I can totally understand what you mean.
We all learn the English word "girl" is for more children, and yet we actually use it for pretty much anyone.
Recently in Japan, people started using 女子 to refer to any women although 女子 was to mention school
girls... I don't personally like this usage, but it seems many Japanese people consider this expression is
"cute" or "funny" for some reason.
On the other hand, both 美女 and 美少女 are not commonly used in conversation, perhaps.
We might use more adjectives like 美しい or きれい without noun 女

And, yes, 少女 always mean a child, not grow-up.

As to お姉さん, this is a very useful and interesting word.
I guess you can consider it similar to "miss". When you don't know someone's name,
you can use お姉さん to call that person (adding to or without すみません or similar phrase).
However, in Osaka, this word can be used to ANY woman really. If you call a "gramma" lady by おばあさん
or おばさん, she might not look back at all as she doesn't think you're calling "her"

おばさん is also a ....difficult one. If a kid call a "married with kid(s)" woman, she'd probably accept that.
Unless you actually know that person, this おばさん could be a bit risky to use.


Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com