The meaning of じゃあるまいし in Lower Intermediate #

[watermen]

I don't quite understand the meaning of this phrase, the whole sentence is...

でも、いろいろな子供がいるでしょう。あなたも新人の先生じゃあるまいし、いままでの経験があるでしょう。

The official translation given in the PDF was:
But there are different kinds of children. You are not a new teacher. You have pletty of experience to learn from, don't you?

Does it mean that じゃあるまい mean "not"? It just sound weird to me, please help me, thanks in advance.

[QuackingShoe]

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9% ... 3.E8.AA.9E scroll down to it.

The relevant part is:
打消推量
打消意志

[mieth]

waterman jyarumaishi is used just like you are thinking (something is not something)
but the difference is that say.. for example you wouldnt say something like kore ha ringo de arumai shi (this is not an apple) there is a feeling that the person is being a little bit cynical and saying that somebody is not showing the same traits of another person or thing. In the case of this lesson the pricipal or whatever is saying something kind of along the lines of come on your not a new teacher you should be able to handle this.

what you expect me to be able to read this kanji? joudan deshou.. nihonjin jyarumai shi ne. (in this case its kind of like you're joking right how can I read the kanji? Im not Japanese?

anyway I hope this helps.

[watermen]

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E_%28%E5%9B%BD%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95%29#.E5.8F.A3.E8.AA.9E scroll down to it.

The relevant part is:
打消推量
打消意志

Thanks, but I can't understand it yet, my Japanese is not that advanced to read Wikipedia.


Thanks mieth.

After doing some research I found something very useful.


～ではあるまいし／～じゃあるまいし
意味： ～ではないのだから 　
接続： [動ー辞書形/た形]　＋の/ん＋ではあるまいし
[名] 　
例文：
①冬山登山をするのではあるまいし、大げさな格好は要りません。
②子供ではあるまいし、暗い所が怖いなんて、おかしいですね。
③幽霊が現れたんじゃあるまいし、そんな驚いた顔をするなよ。 　
注意： ｢～じゃあらまいし」は話言葉。

Extracted from: http://home.netvigator.com/~tonyjp/g1.grammar.html


まい can be used with V. adj or N. It is a negative like ない, but it expresses feeling, belief, judgement, or conviction of the speaker and it is more formal and stronger than ない だろう。 Using ことはあるまいinstead of just まい gives the sentence a feeling of formality and indirectness.
行くまい　　　　　　行くことはあるまい
高くあるまい　　　　高いことはあるまい
病気じゃあるまい　　病気のことはあるまい
When まい is used with the first person without ことはある, it indicates his or her firm will or determination. (To soften the tone, まい is often followed by と思う.)

Extracted from http://www.cls.yale.edu:8000/surasura/l ... ammar.html

I just discovered this is an excellent intermediate text book.
http://www.cls.yale.edu:8000/surasura/index.html