yojijukugo help

[keeplearning]

Hi everyone!

I'm writing a free iphone app to help people learn yojijukugo, but i wanted some opinions on these yojijukugo translations. Any feedback would be great!

一期一会 - いちごいちえ - one chance in a lifetime
悪戦苦闘 - あくせんくとう - uphill battle
一石二鳥 - いっせきにちょう - kill two birds with one stone
半信半疑 - はんしんはんぎ - half believing, half in doubt
中途半端 - ちゅうとはんぱ - half-hearted / half-baked
試行錯誤 - しこうさくご - trial and error
起死回生 - きしかいせい - back from the dead
興味津々 - きょうみしんしん - extremely interesting
多種多様 - たしゅたよう - variety of diversity
老若男女 - ろうにゃくなんにょ - young and old alike
色即是空 - しきそくぜくう - looks are meaningless
右往左往 - うおうさおう - going every which way
自業自得 - じごうじとく - reap what you sow
一喜一憂 - いっきいちゆう - the best of times, the worst of times
正真正銘 - しょうしんしょうめい - genuine, the real McCoy
一目瞭然 - いちもくりょうぜん - completely obvious
四苦八苦 - しくはっく - be in a world of pain
千篇一律 - せんぺんいちりつ - monotony
三日坊主 - みっかぼうず - weak-willed
前代未聞 - ぜんだいみもん - unprecedented

[Psy]

You totally used this site. I can't speak for usage on many of these, but there are two things I'll mention:

一期一会 - いちごいちえ - one chance in a lifetime
In English you make it sound like it's "one's big break," but it refers to a chance meeting that happens once and only once between people, and as such the moment should be treasured.

四苦八苦 - しくはっく - be in a world of pain
The English here sounds like one is under a load of physical torment, whereas in usage it seems more to refer to doing something puzzlingly difficult, in which painful effort is exerted.

That's my take, the rest of them seem OK, however my knowledge on this topic is limited.

[keeplearning]

Ha ha! Yes, I did use that site for the kanji frequency. Nice detective work! But I tried to use other sites and my own interpretation for the translation.

I think specifically:

中途半端 - ちゅうとはんぱ - half-hearted / half-baked

Friends have told me that this means "incomplete" so I tried to think of an english phrase that connotes something similar.

And

色即是空 - しきそくぜくう - looks are meaningless

This one I tried to capture the jist of it. Apparently it's a buddhist saying, so perhaps it's meaning won't be obvious to a western audience.

So the question is, are these even good yojijukugo to use? Perhaps I should just scrap these some of these since apparently several aren't even commonly used anymore.

Any feedback would be great.

[Javizy]

I don't think you can give just one English translation for a lot of these, since they tend to differ depending on which part of speech they are used as. I think the best way for people to understand abstract words like these is through examples, so you might want to cover a smaller set in detail, rather than going for quantity. There's always time for updates, right

I'm no expert on these things either, so I can't really help you with the translations, but there's a Japanese 四字熟語 dictionary here, which lists them alphabetically and by category, with a Japanese explanation and an example sentence or two. You might want to check out Jim Breem's dictionary and alc for more perspective and examples. There's also a 四字熟語 dictionary app in the iTunes Store. Another simple method is just to Google the word and look for some decent sentences.

[jemstone]

are they similar to those used in 中国語? if they are, i think i have a booklet somewhere filled with at least 250 of them. just no japanese translation for it.