Urgent Request for Assistance

[alasdair69]

I began studying Japanese in late June and almost as soon as I started I decided that there was something I wanted to do. I’m a huge fan of a certain Japanese celebrity and since her birthday was about the middle of October I wanted to record a birthday message and send it to her. I planned out what I wanted to say and began researching how to say it … and then my computer crashed and I didn’t get it back for six weeks. So I now have less than a week to do something I’d originally allotted about two months for and I need help desperately. The good news is that I don’t have to hold a conversation, it’s not like I actually expect her to respond or anything. I just want to send her a nice message on her birthday that she’ll be able to understand and will enjoy so it’s perfectly fine if I’m working from a script. The bad news is that her birthday is on the 14th so I only have three or four days to get what I want to say nailed down so I have time to actually memorize it and record the message.

I’m going to post what I want to say, along with my best attempt at working out what bits of it I could before I lost all my Japanese language resources for a while, and I would greatly appreciate it if anyone and/or everyone could correct the parts I’ve got and tell me how to say the parts I either couldn’t figure out on my own or didn’t have time to try.

Oh, also I don’t have kana fonts on my computer so I’ll have to use Romaji. Gomenasai.

Anyway, here goes:

“Hello, _____. Happy birthday from your biggest American fan.”
_____ san, konnichiwa. Tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu ichiban America no daifan kara.
I actually wanted to say ‘one of your biggest American fans’ but that turned out to be surprisingly difficult (or maybe I just didn’t know where to look). I also came up with ‘anata no saidai no Americajin no fan no hitori’, but that seemed unwieldy and not really accurate to me, although I could be wrong.

“I hope you are happy and healthy, both today and for a long time to come.”
I didn’t actually get a chance to work on this bit at all.

“My name is _____ and on behalf of myself and everyone else whose lives have been touched by your work, thank you very much and please continue to treat us well.”
Watashi wa _____ desu. Watashi mo minasan dare no seikatsu ni furemashita mo no tame ni, honeori itadakimashite arigatou gozaimashita. Tsuzuki douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

“There was more I wanted to say, but I’ve only been studying for a few months and my Japanese just isn’t up to it.”
I just added this part, for obvious reasons, so I haven’t had a chance to try and work it out myself either. I’m pretty sure ‘only been studying’ would be dake benkyou shite, ‘a few months’ would be ikutsu ka tsuki and ‘my Japanese’ would be watashi no Nihongo, but beyond that I’m clueless.

“Thank you for your valuable time and I look forward to your next project.”
I think ‘thank you for your valuable time’ would be kichou na jikan o arigatou gozaimashita but I don’t know about the rest.

“See you later.”
Sorede wa mata.
I don’t know the appropriate Japanese way would be to close out a message like this, so I went with ‘see you later’ since at least I’ll be seeing her in whatever her next role is. If there’s a better option I’d like very much to know what it is.

Anyway, this is a project that means a lot to me and I really, really, REALLY appreciate any and all help that anyone is willing to give. Thanks in advance. A lot.

[community.japanese]

“Hello, _____. Happy birthday from your biggest American fan.”
_____ san, konnichiwa. Tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu ichiban America no daifan kara.
I actually wanted to say ‘one of your biggest American fans’ but that turned out to be surprisingly difficult (or maybe I just didn’t know where to look). I also came up with ‘anata no saidai no Americajin no fan no hitori’, but that seemed unwieldy and not really accurate to me, although I could be wrong.

The last sentence should be ‘amerika ni sumu ( ) san no ichiban no fan kara.’
You should not put ichiban and dai in one sentence.

“I hope you are happy and healthy, both today and for a long time to come.”
I didn’t actually get a chance to work on this bit at all.

( ) san ga kyou mo korekara mo shiawase de kenkou de irukoto o negatteimasu.

“My name is _____ and on behalf of myself and everyone else whose lives have been touched by your work, thank you very much and please continue to treat us well.”
Watashi wa _____ desu. Watashi mo minasan dare no seikatsu ni furemashita mo no tame ni, honeori itadakimashite arigatou gozaimashita. Tsuzuki douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

The second and third sentences should be
‘( ) san no sakuhin ni fureta minasan o daihyousite onei o iimasu. Doumoarigatou gozaimasu. Korekara mo sugarashii sakuhin o tudukete kudasai.’

“There was more I wanted to say, but I’ve only been studying for a few months and my Japanese just isn’t up to it.”

watashi wa nihongo o suukagetsu benkyou shita dakenanode amari jouzude wa arimasen.

“Thank you for your valuable time and I look forward to your next project.”
I think ‘thank you for your valuable time’ would be kichou na jikan o arigatou gozaimashita but I don’t know about the rest.

kono tegami o yonde kudasatte doumo arigatou gozaimashjita. tsugi no sakuhin o tanoshimi ni shiteimasu.

“See you later.”
Sorede wa mata.
I don’t know the appropriate Japanese way would be to close out a message like this, so I went with ‘see you later’ since at least I’ll be seeing her in whatever her next role is. If there’s a better option I’d like very much to know what it is.

It's ok.

I didn't use direct translation because it doesn't work in your case.
Gook luck!

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[alasdair69]

Wow, what’s the Japanese for ‘I wasn’t even close’? Watashi wa chikai mo de wa arimasen deshita? I knew this was beyond my current skill level but I had no idea just how far beyond it really was. About the only thing I got right was my name and I left that out. I just hope I didn’t embarrass myself too badly with my awful translation attempt. Thank you so much for your kind assistance, I really want this to be right. I do have a couple of probably semi-stupid questions, though.

First off, I assume all the blank parentheses are for her name but that means I’d be repeating it four times in ten sentences. I thought anything that was obvious from context was routinely left out. Is that for politeness’ sake, since I’ll be speaking to someone of higher status than myself?

While I was working it out phrase by phrase so I didn’t have pauses in unnatural places or sound like a robot, there were a couple of things I didn’t quite understand. In the second chunk, I know that ‘kyou mo korekara mo’ essentially means ‘today and from now on’, ‘shiawase de kenkou de’ means ‘happy and healthy’ and ‘negatteimasu’ means ‘hoping or wishing’, but what does ‘irukoto’ mean? I assume it’s a form of ‘iru’ but I don’t recognize the conjugation. Similarly, in the first part of the third chunk, ‘sakuhin ni fureta minasan o daihyousite’ means ‘on behalf of everyone who has been moved by your work’ and ‘iimasu’ means to say or declare, but I can’t figure out what ‘onei’ means.

Also, in the last sentence of the same part, I could puzzle out ‘korekara mo’ (from now on), ‘sakuhin’ (work) and ‘o tudukete kudasai’ (please continue) but ‘sugarashii’ is throwing me off. I assume it’s a form of ‘sugaru’ (either to implore or to depend on), but I don’t get how that all adds up to something along the lines of ‘please continue to treat us well’. I’ll admit that sentence comes off as kind of clunky in English anyway, but I phrased it that way in the first place because of the way ‘douzo yoroshiku’ (literally, please treat me favorably or please take care of me) is commonly used to basically just say ‘let’s get along’. Essentially, she appreciates her fans and they appreciate her and I just want to see that state of affairs continue.

Finally, in the last chunk (not counting ‘sorede wa mata’, anyway), you used the word ‘gozaimashjita’. Is the ‘j’ a typo or is it supposed to be there? And if it’s supposed to be there, how in the world do you pronounce that?

Anyway, thank you again for all your assistance. I really appreciate it.

[community.japanese]

alasdair69　さん、
konnichiwa.

Wow, what’s the Japanese for ‘I wasn’t even close’? Watashi wa chikai mo de wa arimasen deshita? I knew this was beyond my current skill level but I had no idea just how far beyond it really was. About the only thing I got right was my name and I left that out. I just hope I didn’t embarrass myself too badly with my awful translation attempt. Thank you so much for your kind assistance, I really want this to be right. I do have a couple of probably semi-stupid questions, though.

I used formal language so it’s hard for you at the moment.
You translated your English sentences directly however, Japanese has fixed expressions like English has.

First off, I assume all the blank parentheses are for her name but that means I’d be repeating it four times in ten sentences. I thought anything that was obvious from context was routinely left out. Is that for politeness’ sake, since I’ll be speaking to someone of higher status than myself?

You can say the artist name many times.
If you call the person ‘you’, that is really rude in Japan.

While I was working it out phrase by phrase so I didn’t have pauses in unnatural places or sound like a robot, there were a couple of things I didn’t quite understand. In the second chunk, I know that ‘kyou mo korekara mo’ essentially means ‘today and from now on’, ‘shiawase de kenkou de’ means ‘happy and healthy’ and ‘negatteimasu’ means ‘hoping or wishing’, but what does ‘irukoto’ mean? I assume it’s a form of ‘iru’ but I don’t recognize the conjugation.

‘irukoto’ indicates ‘to be’ or ‘to exist.’
Koto is a nominaliser therefore it’s ‘being’ or ‘existing.’

Similarly, in the first part of the third chunk, ‘sakuhin ni fureta minasan o daihyousite’ means ‘on behalf of everyone who has been moved by your work’ and ‘iimasu’ means to say or declare, but I can’t figure out what ‘onei’ means.

I am sorry it must be 'orei' which means 'thanks' and 'gratitude.'

Also, in the last sentence of the same part, I could puzzle out ‘korekara mo’ (from now on), ‘sakuhin’ (work) and ‘o tudukete kudasai’ (please continue) but ‘sugarashii’ is throwing me off. I assume it’s a form of ‘sugaru’ (either to implore or to depend on), but I don’t get how that all adds up to something along the lines of ‘please continue to treat us well’.

I am sorry again. That is 'subarashii.'

'douzo yoroshiku' means 'thank you in advance.'

Finally, in the last chunk (not counting ‘sorede wa mata’, anyway), you used the word ‘gozaimashjita’. Is the ‘j’ a typo or is it supposed to be there? And if it’s supposed to be there, how in the world do you pronounce that?

Yes, please take away the 'j'

I am sorry about the mistakes. When I type hiragana and kanji, I can find typos easily but when I type romaji, it is hard.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[alasdair69]

I used formal language so it’s hard for you at the moment.
You translated your English sentences directly however, Japanese has fixed expressions like English has.

I was aware of that, unfortunately no one tells us beginners what they are.

You can say the artist name many times.
If you call the person ‘you’, that is really rude in Japan.

I was aware of that too actually. I just thought since it was obvious I was speaking to and about her it was more appropriate to skip the name and/or personal pronoun entirely. I guess that's not always true, though.

I am sorry about the mistakes. When I type hiragana and kanji, I can find typos easily but when I type romaji, it is hard.

No problem, I'm just glad you were there to help me out in the first place. Also, you could have used kana if you'd wanted to. I don't have the fonts on my computer yet but I'm at least halfway decent at reading hiragana and katakana. Kanji, however, makes my brain hurt.

Alasdair
Grateful Japanese Beginner

[alasdair69]

Occasionally, running behind can end up being a good thing, I guess. Because of how hard it often is to find up to date information about Japanese celebrities in English, I only now found out that the person this message is for fell and broke her leg a few weeks ago and spent her birthday in the hospital, so “I hope you are happy and healthy, both today and for a long time to come" doesn't seem quite so appropriate any more. How would I say "I was so sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you recover quickly and are happy and healthy for a long time to come"?

Also, while doing a final review, I realized that you explained how to say my Japanese isn't very good because I've only been studying for several months but you forgot the part about there being more that I wanted to say. Without that, the rest just seems like false modesty dropped in for no reason. With that in mind, how would I say "There was more I wanted to say, but..." and "I had to get help just to say this much"?

Again, thank you so much for all your assistance on this. It's very important to me that I get this right.

P.S. I know this is going to be late now, but I THINK I've got that part covered with the following:
Okurebasenagara tanjoubi omedetougozaimasu. Tanjoubi no aisatsu osoku natte gomennasai. O mataseshi te sumimasen.

[alasdair69]

I've had a chance now to try and work it out for myself, but given my poor showing so far I'm not very confident. If anyone would check it out and let me know if I'm on the right track I'd appreciate it.

"I was so sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you recover quickly and are happy and healthy for a long time to come."
_____ san no jiko o kiite totemo zan'nendeshita. _______ san ga sugu ni kaifuku, soshite korekara mo shiawase de kenkou de irukoto o negatteimasu.

"There was more I wanted to say, but..."
Yori o itai, demo ...

"I had to get help just to say this much"
Kono ieru tame ni tasuke o hitsuyou.

[community.japanese]

Alasdair san,
Konnichiwa.

How would I say "I was so sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you recover quickly and are happy and healthy for a long time to come"?

( ) san no ashi no kega nitsuite kikimashita. ( ) san no kega ga hayaku yokunaru koto wo negaiiteimasu.

With that in mind, how would I say "There was more I wanted to say, but..." and "I had to get help just to say this much"?

Motto takusan tsutaetai no desu ga, wtashi wa nihongo no shohinsha desu.
Desukara ijou no koto wo kaku nimo tedasuke ga hitsuyou deshita.

P.S. I know this is going to be late now, but I THINK I've got that part covered with the following:
Okurebasenagara tanjoubi omedetougozaimasu. Tanjoubi no aisatsu osoku natte gomennasai. O mataseshi te sumimasen.

You can say just ‘Okurebasenagara tanjoubi omedetougozaimasu. Tanjoubi no aisatsu osoku natte moushiwake arimasen.’

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[alasdair69]

Yuki san,
For all of your help in this, doumo arigatou gozaimasu. This whole project would have been a lost cause without your guidance and I don't have the words, in either language, to say how much I appreciate it. Just a few more questions (hopefully the last) and it should be ready. Which is good, since it's already over a week late.

( ) san no ashi no kega nitsuite kikimashita.

As near as I can determine, this basically just says "I heard that you injured your leg". It doesn't seem to convey the sympathy that I intended it to, that I was sorry to have heard about it. Am I missing something (probably), is this another fixed expression that a Japanese person would understand to convey sympathy, or does it need something else added to it for that purpose?

( ) san no kega ga hayaku yokunaru koto wo negaiiteimasu.

Essentially, again as I understand it, "I hope that your injury heals quickly". To say that I hope she remains happy and healthy for a long time afterwards, would I just add "soshite korekara mo shiawase de kenkou de irukoto o negatteimasu"?

Motto takusan tsutaetai no desu ga, wtashi wa nihongo no shohinsha desu.

This one I actually get. Well, except for one word, anyway. What does shohinsha mean and what function does it serve in the sentence? I assume there's some reason that "watashi wa nihongo o suukagetsu benkyou shita dakenanode amari jouzude wa arimasen" is no longer appropriate?

Desukara ijou no koto wo kaku nimo tedasuke ga hitsuyou deshita.

Well, that feeling of accomplishment didn't last long. I understand that "tedasuke ga hitsuyou deshita" basically means 'I needed help' (boy, did I ever) But the rest of it resists my best efforts (not that my best efforts amount to much, clearly) to understand. Either I can't figure out the meaning of the words or they have so many meanings I can't figure out which one is the right one for this context. I have no doubt that it's correct, that's not what I'm saying. But without understanding what it actually means and why, I'm afraid I'm going to sound really stupid trying to say it and defeat the whole purpose of the message.

Thank you again for using your valuable time to help me with this and I'm sorry I've been so picky about it. This is so far above my level of comprehension and you've been so gracious that I really should just shut up and say what you tell me to, no questions asked. But as I've said, it means a lot to me that this is just right and with your help, after this, I think it will be. Well, at least as just right as I can make it, anyway. I'll never know if she liked it. Honestly, I'll never even know for sure that she received it. But as long as I know that I did the very best that I could with it, that will be enough.

[community.japanese]

alasdair69 san,
konnichiwa.

Am I missing something (probably), is this another fixed expression that a Japanese person would understand to convey sympathy, or does it need something else added to it for that purpose?

Please add ‘itawashii koto de taihen shinpai shiteimasu’ and ‘fujiyuu na koto deshou ne. ’

Essentially, again as I understand it, "I hope that your injury heals quickly". To say that I hope she remains happy and healthy for a long time afterwards, would I just add "soshite korekara mo shiawase de kenkou de irukoto o negatteimasu"?

I suggest you should take of ‘mo’ because she is not healthy at the moment.
‘soshite korekara shiawase de kenkou de irukoto o negatteimasu’ is good.

I assume there's some reason that "watashi wa nihongo o suukagetsu benkyou shita dakenanode amari jouzude wa arimasen" is no longer appropriate?

That sentence is good.
Shoshinsha means beginner.

But the rest of it resists my best efforts (not that my best efforts amount to much, clearly) to understand. Either I can't figure out the meaning of the words or they have so many meanings I can't figure out which one is the right one for this context.

Desukara: therefore
Ijou: above
No : particle
Koto : thing
Kaku : write
Nimo : for
Consequently, the meaning is ‘therefore, in order to write sentences above I needed help.’

Good luck.
I hope she will read your letter and reply to you.

[alasdair69]

Please add ‘itawashii koto de taihen shinpai shiteimasu’ and ‘fujiyuu na koto deshou ne. ’

Okay, a quick, off the cuff attempt at reading this results in: "to be very worried about a heartbreaking thing" and "probably an inconvenient/uncomfortable thing", is that close at all? And add it where exactly? Because I know phrase order can be pretty important. So far, we have:
( ) san no ashi no kega nitsuite kikimashita.
itawashii koto de taihen shinpai shiteimasu
fujiyuu na koto deshou ne.
How does that all go together?

Good luck.
I hope she will read your letter and reply to you.

Oh gods, if she does I'm screwed. I know that she enjoys the fact that she has American fans and that she doesn't speak a word of English. And since I'm such a big fan and her work has had a positive affect on my life, and since her birthday was coming up, I wanted to do something nice for her. I wanted to record a video birthday message for her (which is why I've been so picky about understanding what I'd be saying, because I'd actually be SAYING it instead of just writing it out) in her language that she would be able to understand and that would make her happy. That's all. It's actually been a source of some small comfort to me that she almost certainly WOULDN'T respond, so if I screwed it up too bad at least I'd never know what an idiot she thought I was. Oh, don't get me wrong, every fan dreams of what it would be like to be able to actually talk to the celebrity they're a fan of, but since I'm such a 'shoshinsa' the most I'd be able to do is tell her that Tanaka san has no children and drives his car to work, all the while worrying about telling her she was kirai instead of kirei.

[alasdair69]

They say that no work of art is ever truly finished, only abandoned, and I think it's about time to abandon this one. I could keep going back and forth trying to make sure every little detail is perfect but by the time I was totally satisfied with it her leg would be healed, it would be time for her NEXT birthday and my Japanese would have progressed to the point that I probably wouldn't need any help with it anyway. LOL So I'm going to call it done and start memorizing the last few additions/changes; I'll probably record and send the message in the next few days.

The only part that still concerns me is the whole '( ) san no ashi no kega nitsuite kikimashita + itawashii koto de taihen shinpai shiteimasu + fujiyuu na koto deshou ne' thing. I still don't get how that's all supposed to fit together or what it's supposed to end up saying. If I haven't figured that out or gotten an explanation/clarification by the time I'm ready with everything else I guess I'll just go with "Watashi wa _______ san no jiko o kiite totemo zan'nendeshita". It may not be the most perfect or appropriate way of saying it, but at least I know what it means. And I made sure to point out that my Japanese isn't very good, so hopefully she'll be understanding, ne?

Anyway, thanks again for all your help. I wasn't even close to being ready for this level of communication (I'm still not, really) and I've been very demanding, but you've been very gracious and patient and I couldn't have done it without you. Someday, I'll be able to thank you properly in Japanese all on my own.

[community.japanese]

alasdair69 san,
konnichiwa.

( ) san no ashi no kega nitsuite kikimashita.
itawashii koto de taihen shinpai shiteimasu
fujiyuu na koto deshou ne.

The second sentence means 'I think it's painful and I worry about you.'
The third is 'I think that is inconvenient.'

The sentence order is good.
Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[alasdair69]

So, all together it means: "I heard that you injured your leg. I think it's painful and I worry about you. I think that is inconvenient."? Is that another fixed expression? Because I have to be honest, that sounds a lot more ... unwieldy than just saying 'I was sorry to hear about your accident'. I'm not being critical or anything, and like I said before I'm certainly not implying that it might not be correct. I'm just trying to understand why a Japanese person would say it this way. I know that the Japanese language tends to say things indirectly more often than not, but I thought that was typically when what's being said might be unpleasant or inconvenient for the other person to hear. I assumed something positive like offering sympathy would be far more straightforward.

Something else I've noticed that they don't tell you in the language courses is that long or compound sentences seem to be fairly uncommon in Japanese. I, personally, tend to babble and use longer, more complex sentences and you've translated each one into smaller, more concise packets of information. I guess I'm going to have to learn to wrap my brain around an entirely new (for me, anyway) way of organizing what I want to say in the first place if I ever want to get really good.

Also, I'm sorry for not getting it when you said to add those two sentences. I guess everything else about this project has ended up being so complicated and contrary to what I initially expected that it just didn't occur to me that you meant quite simply to add them in the order you gave them right after the first one. Everything that I thought was going to be simple turned out to be complicated and the one thing I assumed was going to be complicated turned out to be simple.

To be honest, I probably should have never started this project. It was way too early for me to try something like this and I understand now why so many people quit studying Japanese in frustration. I'm not one of those people, though. I've wanted to learn Japanese since I was a child (no idea why, I just did) and now that I've finally started, due at least partially to the person this message is for, I have no intention of quitting. I have to admit though that I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that I'll ever really be very good at it.

Anyway, as always, thank you very much for all of your assistance. I know I haven't been an easy student. LOL

[community.japanese]

alasdair69　さん、
konnichiwa.
I used direct translation in the previous post however, they are common expressions in Japanese for people who injured or are suffering from illness.
As I said direct translation sometimes doesn’t show the actual meanings.
Even though you thought wired or those sentences are shorter than you expected, they are normal for Japanese native speakers.

Well…I know you want to speak Japanese and behave perfectly.
However, I don’t think you need to be perfect to speak or write Japanese because you are a beginner.
If I were her, I would really appreciate your letter even if it has mistakes.
I would be able to understand that an American fan tried really hard to tell his or her thought in Japanese.
The most important point here is to tell her about your feeling or how much her work makes you happy, right?
It takes time for learning not only Japanese but also others.
It depends on your first language though.
Learning language is also learning the culture so if you keep studying Japanese, you will be able to understand it more.
Cheer up!
Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com