Create your own sentence using the Word of the Day!

[mmmason8967]

>And, I'm really sorry but I didn't quite understand your sentence "welcome customer to style you"...
"to style you" would be a bit difficult to translate. What exactly the situation you've set up here? 　If I know the specific situation for this line, I think I can help you better!

I think "style you" comes from the Nihongo Doujou series. The first two seasons (Newbie Season 2 and Newbie Season 3) are set in a fashion consultancy called スタイルユー. The first line in the first episode is:-

ようこそ！スタイルユーです。よろしくおねがいします。わたしは、スタイルユーのしゃちょう、みなみなつみです。だいがくいんせいです。

マイケル

[mmmason8967]

You might not be imaginative, but you sure are hilarious! :lol

That's very kind

Yes, I really am unimaginative. I find it very, very difficult to make things up, and that makes it very hard to think of things to say. So your comment about "crazy imaginary world" was inspiring! It's easier for me to think of something to say if it doesn't have to be sensible.

Anyway, if the sentences make you smile, it is very encouraging--I tried to say something in Japanese, and I guess I succeeded.

山田さんは電池をたくさん使います。変態なんだから。
=> Maybe 変態だから is better suit. So, 山田さんは、変態だから電池をたくさん使うんですね・・・

Oh, that's much better than mine! The ね at the end seems just perfect; it suggests that the speaker thinks we know what a 変態 does with all those batteries.

I'm not too sure what the best word is to say "ladies, ..." but I think 女性のみなさん（じょせいのみなさん） would be the best and can be used in any situations
I wonder if ladies should take front seats....むっつりスケベ教授は絶対に喜びますが

Probably they should not … I don't think the speaker has very high ethical standards.

For the joke to work, it must be clear that the speaker is specifically addressing ladies. I had a lot of trouble finding a Japanese word that could be used to address the ladies within a group. Japanese seems to be very gender neutral: みなさん, さん, くん, ちゃん, せんせい (and so on) apply equally to both genders. しょし was the only word I could find, so I had to use it.

I am very happy to learn about 女性のみなさん and じょせいのみなさん.

One of the reasons I don't like JP dramas is the language they use. Just like manga and anime, 50-80% of their language is not same as our daily Japanese; I call them "drama Japanese" or "TV Japanese". If anyone speak to me with those cheeky lines or in an "very drama like and very Japanese unlike" attitude, I'd probably punch them in their face

It's really that bad?

What about the gentler kind of anime? For example, Studio Ghibli movies like となりのトトロ and 耳をすませば. I've always assumed that the Japanese is normal because the setting appears like real-world Japan--1950s in Totoro and early 1980s in Whisper of the Heart. 火垂るの墓 will be released on blu-ray in the UK at the end of May. I haven't seen it yet, but it is another movie where I would expect the Japanese to be real-world. Do you know any of these movies?

マイケル

[community.japanese]

> remillardn7528-san,
As charliegchen8215-san wrote, your sentence クジラ（が）ありません can be used with different meanings
in certain situation. Other than those already suggested, I'd imagine the scene where you're at sushi restaurant
and you were hoping to let your friend try whale, but found out whale was already finished at that day.
In this specific sentence, I'd also say particle が might not be dropped usually. Even in casual way,
うそ！クジラがない。is normal (of course, it can be うそ！クジラない。)
Going back to your originally intended sentence, yes, それは鯨ではありません。 corresponds your English sentence

> マイケルさん、
thank you for pointing out difference between ありません and いません
It's a very important point, and also I kinda felt funny you mentioned to it (I know I'm a joke lover, so bear with me here)
Like I wrote above, and also charliegchen8215-san wrote, when the whale is inanimate "meat", at that point ありません
is correct. I actually imagined alive whale escaping from a huge tank to the ocean, like "free willy"

And, Ohhhh I SEEEEE!!! 「スタイル・ユー」ね
I completely misunderstood the English sentence Thank you very much for clarification and help!
Wow, I'm really amazed how well you know about J-Pod, throughout the site

Your sentences in earlier posts didn't make me smile, but made me laugh a lot!!
As to 諸姉, I actually didn't know this word.... oops
It doesn't mean it's wrong, but it could be one of those written languages and when we actually say in conversation
it might not be recognised, especially by poor vocabulary people like me

Well, regarding the language used in TV dramas, guys tend to be cheeky and always "being cool", and ladies speak
way too "girly" or fancy. Those lines they say might not sound weird in dramas, but many of them are like "I've never
seen anyone actually saying that". But amimes like となりのトトロ and so on, I don't see any problems and I think those are
one of the best materials I've seen many Miyazaki movies and I love them, but I don't remember if I actually
watched 蛍の墓, I remember certain scenes, but can't really remember entire story. Now I might not have courage
to watch it again, since it's too sad... Its language should be fine. Although, if I remember correctly, the main
characters are little kids, and their way of speaking might be a typical kids' language. At least they wouldn't
say any cheeky line to pretending cool or romantic
Evertime I watch となりのトトロ, I call little girl Mei ちっちゃいなっちゃん("little Natsuko") And my mum agrees
When you watch those movies, if there's any lines you cannot understand, please feel free to ask us here.
Also, as I wrote earlier, I'm happy to help you whether or not you should actually use some lines in real world

> ashzehedgehog8725-san,
「むっつりスケベ」の教授ですか？
それとも特別な教授かな？

> charliegchen8215-san,
remillardn7528さんへのパーフェクトな説明、ありがとうございました！！
そうですね、「が」は落とさない方がいいと思います。すばらしいアドバイスです

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[charliegchen8215]

マイケルさん、あくまで個人の意見ですが、日本語を勉強する中級者にとって、英和辞典はもうそんなに役に立つものじゃないと思います。英語と日本語の共通点はあまりにも少なく、言葉はほとんど一対一の関係ではありません。これから英和辞典を引いてから、もういちど国語辞典を引いたらどうですかね。

個人的には、いま大辞林や漢字源を使っています。

奈津子先生のご意見も…聞きたいとおもいます。敬語はやっぱり難しい。ご意見を伺いたい（？）と存じます？ふむふむ、正解は何でしょうか（ｗｗまた敬語にやられました（泣

[community.japanese]

charliegchen8215さん、
そうですね、言葉は１対１の訳では片付けられない、というのは私もいつも言っていることなんですよ
charliegchen8215さんのおっしゃる通り、マイケルさんの日本語のレベルはとても高いので、そろそろ国語辞典を
使ってみるのもいいかもしれませんね。ただ、私は学生の時、英語の勉強をするのに英英辞典を使うのが苦手でした。
単になまけものだからですが・・・
charliegchen8215さんや、マイケルさんのように、ある程度日本語が分かるようになって、言語習得のコツが
理解できている方には、辞書を引くのは「アイディアを得る」ため、と考えることをおすすめします。
なので、英和辞典でもいいので、分からない言葉を調べてたら、「訳語」として覚えるのではなくて、そこから
日本語の意味やニュアンス、センスを感じてもらえたら、もっと日本語がどんな言語で日本人の頭がどう働くのかが
分かると思いますよ このセンスがつかめると、自然な文が作れる（書くのも言うのも）ようになりますから。

charliegchen8215さんは、国語辞典ではなくて漢字の辞書を使っているんですか すごい！
敬語は、日本人も間違える人がたくさんいます・・・知らない人が多すぎます・・・charliegchen8215 さんの日本語は
パーフェクトですよ、本当に！ すごいですね！　:oiwai:
「意見を聞きたい」は、そうですね、ものすごく硬い表現だと「ご意見を賜りたく存じます」や「ご意見をお伺いしたい所存です」
等の言い方がありますが、とってもフォーマルなのでビジネス文書に使われるのが普通ですね。
「ご意見を聞かせてください」でも「ご意見もお聞きしたいと思います」でも大丈夫ですよ

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ashzehedgehog8725]

> ashzehedgehog8725-san,
「むっつりスケベ」の教授ですか？
それとも特別な教授かな？

はい、ナツコちゃーーーーん；

whats the next word of the day? whale?

[community.japanese]

ashzehedgehog8725さん、
はい、そうで～～～～～す

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ashzehedgehog8725]

arigato; natsuko-chan ^^

私はビーチで緑色の鯨を見ました。

[remillardn7528]

sore wa watashi no keitaidenwa no iphone desu
それわ私の携帯電話のiphoneです
that is my cellphone it's an Iphone.


I think I may have messed up on the second part of the sentence but hopefully someone will correct me.
Thanks for helping me with my last sentence by the way, I appericiate it alot.

[ericf]

sore wa watashi no keitaidenwa no iphone desu
それわ私の携帯電話のiphoneです
that is my cellphone it's an Iphone.

「それは、私の携帯電話で、アイフォンです。」の方がもちょっといいと思います。
"sore ha, watashi no keitaidenwa de, aifon desu." no hou ga mo chotto ii to omoimasu.

[remillardn7528]

What is the de used for?

[ericf]

de? It's what desu becomes when you join two sentences together.

それは、私の携帯電話です。
＋
それは、アイフォンです。
→
それは、私の携帯電話で、アイフォンです。

Verbs and い-adjectives take the te form when joining sentences.

北海道は、北の方にあります。hokkaidou ha, kita no hou ni arimasu.
＋北海道は、寒いです。hokkaidou ha, samui desu.
＋北海道の人は、話している時にあまり口を開けません。hokkaidou no hito ha, hanashiteiru toki ni amari kuchi wo akemasen.

arimasu -> atte
samui -> samukute

→北海道は、北の方にあって、寒くて、北海道の人は話している時にあまり口を開けません。
Hokkaidou's in the north, it's cold, hokkaidou people, when they speak, hardly open their mouths.
(I haven't been there, but I've heard it's true.) I don't suppose that's a particularly natural sentence in Japanese but I think the grammar's correct.

[mmmason8967]

charliegchen8215さん, 奈津子さん：my Japanese is not good enough to reply in Japanese, so I have to use English.

As you say, Japanese-English dictionaries are not reliable. For me, they are OK for translating Japanese into English but not for English into Japanese. A Japanese dictionary sounds interesting, but I think it would be difficult to use. What is the sort order? Is it sorted by pronunciation (i.e. あ, い, う, え, お, か, き etc) or is it sorted by kanji? How do you look a word up?

You suggested two dictionaries, 大辞林 and 漢字源.. The first one is Daijirin but what is the second one? Is it this one? (links to Amazon Japan).

マイケル

[mmmason8967]

sore wa watashi no keitaidenwa no iphone desu
それわ私の携帯電話のiphoneです
that is my cellphone it's an Iphone.

I've noticed that I seem to get the Word of the Day much later than other people posting in this thread. You posted that at 16:03GMT yesterday but I didn't get the-mail until 16 hours later, while I was at work. By the time I get home and see the WotD, you've already got the next one. I wonder why there's such a big time-lag?

マイケル

[mmmason8967]

thank you for pointing out difference between ありません and いません

And thank you for not pointing out how I completely failed to spot an A ですB sentence structure　

But it was worth it because I thought that using います or ありあす was just a convention. I had no idea that they carried meaning, so the comments by charliegchen8215 and yourself were really interesting. I am very grateful to both of you, as I now realise I didn't understand the meaning of いる and ある at all.

Evertime I watch となりのトトロ, I call little girl Mei ちっちゃいなっちゃん("little Natsuko") And my mum agrees

The trouble is, I now have a mental picture of you as an older version of Mei. That is, taller. But otherwise exactly the same.　

Did you know that when Miyazaki wrote となりのトトロ there was only one little girl? Later he decided to have two girls, and gave them the "same" name: サツキ (Japanese 五月) and めい (English May). Some of the Japanese movie posters show the original one little girl:-



マイケル