a bunch of questions (sorry!)

[WalterWills]

I am learning Japanese, slowly but surely. I've kind of jumped in the deep end by trying to talk to people on MIXI, but I guess it's good practice. I'm still unfamiliar with most of the grammar and verb conjugations, but I think I can sometimes get the gist of a message by looking up kanji etc.

I know there's a lot of questions, so sorry about that. If you do feel kind enough to help me, you don't necessarily have to answer everything..I hope I'm not being lazy here, I promise I have tried to work everything out myself using the books I have and the internet, but here are the things that stumped me...


1. Is there an important difference between saying "Sou desu ka?" and "Sou NAN desu ka?"??

Why the use of the word "nan"?

2. What exactly does this mean:

忙しいにもかかわらず、メールを返してくれて、とても嬉しいです


The second part is saying "I'm very happy for your reply", right? I really don't understand the first part though..."Moka"??? "Isogashii ni moka kawarazu"?? I know "isogashii" means "busy" and "kawarazu" means "always" (I think), so does it mean "Since you're always busy, I'm very happy for your reply"?


3. 会話は相手がいないと練習出来ないし、日常生活で母国語以外の言語は使う機会がなかなかないですからね。

"Because I don't have a partner and I don't practice, I don't easily get an opportunity to speak anything other than my mother tongue in everyday life."

Is that right? Anything I've missed or mistranslated?


4. フランス語を勉強して、まだ１年たたないので

Something about being a first-year student studying French right?
"Tatanai"???
I see "node" a lot but I still haven't found out exactly what it means- does it mean "because"?


5. 私が中学生の頃は英語を勉強してました。

"The time when I was at school I was studying English"??
What about the use of "ga" after "watashi"? I don't think I've seen that before.


6. 次回は英語もちゃんと書きます！

"Next time I'll write in English" (thank god)

What does "mochanto" mean?


Thanks

[Belton]

1. both the same more or less except that the 2nd なんです、is a construction that implies interest in what you've said, or is asking for you to be interested or sympathetic.
look up 〜んです、〜のです、in a grammar.
Really? Is that a fact? general aizuchi type noises I'd say.

2. I'm very glad you replied in spite of being busy.
にもかかわらず= in spite of, nevertheless

3. can't practice
出来る　 is to be able to do something.
I'd say this
Amongst other things, I have no study partner so I can't practice, therefore I don't easily get an opportunity to speak anything other than my mother tongue in everyday life

4. most likely it's 経つ , たつ　to pass. tatanai would be the negative, a year hasn't passed yet.
ので　is "because"　(more neutral than から I'd say. I'd need to look up the specifics)
although it looks a bit out of place to me did the sentence continue I wonder.

5. the が is because it's the subject of the modifying clause. time 頃 is the topic of the sentence and is marked by は.
While I was at middle school I studied English.

6. も belongs with 英語　meaning also.
ちゃんと means properly
next time I'll also write English properly.
You might not be off the hook! がんばってください！

[WalterWills]

Brilliant, thanks very much for your help.

[Javizy]

会話は相手がいないと練習出来ないし

Using いないと sets up a conditional, と only means 'and' when it's connecting a finite list of nouns. You'd want to use いなくて, or いないし might be better since you're use し afterwards.

[Bucko]

1. Is there an important difference between saying "Sou desu ka?" and "Sou NAN desu ka?"??

Why the use of the word "nan"?

My understanding of sou na n desu is that it means something like "oh, that's what it is", "ah so that's what you mean". In other words, the person may have been pondering on a question for a while and when they finally get the answer they'll say "aa sou nan desu". It can be qute hard to get your head around "nan" or "no" when it's used as a noun at the end of a sentence.

If you look at 銀行を探しているんですが what you're actually saying is simply "ん", but the ん "contains" all of the sentence before that. Of course, 探している is a verb, but with a noun like そう you have to put な before の/ん. That's where you get そうなんです.

2. What exactly does this mean:

忙しいにもかかわらず、メールを返してくれて、とても嬉しいです

The second part is saying "I'm very happy for your reply", right? I really don't understand the first part though..."Moka"??? "Isogashii ni moka kawarazu"?? I know "isogashii" means "busy" and "kawarazu" means "always" (I think), so does it mean "Since you're always busy, I'm very happy for your reply"?

にもかかわらず = despite the fact. So your friend is saying "despite the fact that that you're busy, you replied to my mail, (so) I'm very glad"

3. 会話は相手がいないと練習出来ないし、日常生活で母国語以外の言語は使う機会がなかなかないですからね。

"Because I don't have a partner and I don't practice, I don't easily get an opportunity to speak anything other than my mother tongue in everyday life."

Is that right? Anything I've missed or mistranslated?

Not "because I don't have a partner". There's nothing there to indicate that he's talking about himself. The subject is 会話. So he's saying "With coversation, when there's no partner you can't practice..."

5. 私が中学生の頃は英語を勉強してました。

"The time when I was at school I was studying English"??
What about the use of "ga" after "watashi"? I don't think I've seen that before.

Don't know why he's used ga here, but for some reason he's specifying that it was he who studied English. Would have to see what he wrote before that to explain why he wrote ga. Basically, he's emphasising himself for some reason.

6. 次回は英語もちゃんと書きます！

"Next time I'll write in English" (thank god)

chanto means "properly". The "mo" means something like "also". So he's saying that next time he'll also write properly in English.

[WalterWills]

Thanks, Javizy and Bucko.