Saying I could understand something.

[sukoruduwan]

I typically use Jim Breen's WWWJDIC to look up words. According to this dictionary:

分かる　= to understand;

However the example:
この単語がわからないのですが

has この単語 in front of the が indicating that この単語 is the subject. It sounds like the more appropriate meaning of 分かる is "to be understood by oneself or the topic."

So, you would not say:

私が言葉をわかります。

rather you would say:

言葉がわかります。

The word is understood [by oneself].

You could also say:

彼は言葉がわかります。

The word is understood [by him].

Is this correct?

[Psy]

Yup.

[sukoruduwan]

It's bad enough that I have to interpret the language, but quite ridiculous to have to interpret the dictionary as well.

[seanolan]

Suko, the problem is that Japanese just plain says things in a different fashion than English does. In many cases, you cannot translate words one for one. 分かる is one of those cases. It literally means "be understood" but it is used also in cases where English would use "understand". It's part of the indirectness of the language - the emphasis in many cases is moved to what in English would be the object of the sentence, usually when the speaker or the person spoken to is what in English would be the subject. For example:

I understand this book.
この本が分かります。

These sentences are considered to mean the same thing. But in reality, the second sentence translates to "This book is understood". However, we don't speak like that in English, and we also know that there is a person doing the understanding; in all likelihood the speaker, since there is no other indication of a different person doing the understanding. So we say it translates to "I understand this book."

However, this is obviously quite a laborious explanation, and until a student has been studying for a while. 分かる is probably the only word he/she will encounter that uses が instead of を like this, so most teachers and textbooks gloss over it early on, telling the student that 分かる just is an exception.

Sean

EDIT: Oh, and just a fun side-note. は is correct in the sentence you used, but に or には are also correct. The person understanding is the "dative object", what we often call in English the "indirect object" and that is often marked by the particle に in Japanese.

[sukoruduwan]

Makes sense, as は often obscures other particles, such as に. In the sentence I wrote, the は actually is overshadowing the に that should be there. However, I'm unclear on the には construction. Does that make the actual "direction" the topic, for lack of a better term?

[seanolan]

I've always understood "には" to be for emphasis of the topic, or to be translated as "for".

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but:

私は日本語が難しいです。
As for me, Japanese is hard.

私に日本語は難しいです。
To me, Japanese is hard.

私には日本語が難しいです。
Japanese is hard for me.

The first is open to interpretation, I think. The second and third are similar in meaning, but there is a slight difference, I think.

Anyone else wanna help me out here, or totally correct any ignorance on my part here?

Sean