"Even though/despite" help

[kagawashaun]

Hey guys/girls. It seems every day I learn a new way to express the idea of "even though"， "although", "even if". So far I know these 4 ways:

～～ところで
～～のに
～～ながら
～ても

I'm wondering if there are subtleties in their usages. When would I use each one? I've looked at sample sentences but I'm not seeing the distinction. I'm sure there are, but for whatever sentence you are looking for in this area it seems you get about 3 of the 4 that are interchangeable.

Also, please sample sentences in hiragana, my kanji skills are fairly poor. Don't feel you have to dumb down the sentences, though. Just my kanji skills are poor, otherwise I'm ok. lol

Thanks

[Jessi]

Hello!
I don't have time to go through and post a detailed answer, but if it helps, we covered ～ても, ～のに, and the difference between the two in Lower Intermediate Season 5 Lessons #7-9. I hope you find them useful!!

[rodostajin1691]

I've always thought of ところで　as "by the way". I use it like that all the time.

I'll have to try it as meaning "even though" and see what my friends' reactions are.

ながら　for me has always the しながら form meaning doing something while doing something else. Like "talking while driving." Can you give me an example of using ながら for "even though". I'd like to try and use it like that. Thanks

[Javizy]

I've always thought of ところで　as "by the way". I use it like that all the time.

I'll have to try it as meaning "even though" and see what my friends' reactions are.

Most likely very confused. It's part of a structure and follows the past form of a verb. It's similar in meaning to ～ても. It also happens to be an 1級 expression.

今さら言ったところで、何も変わらないだろう。
Even if you say it now, nothing will change.

ながら　for me has always the しながら form meaning doing something while doing something else. Like "talking while driving." Can you give me an example of using ながら for "even though". I'd like to try and use it like that. Thanks

What about the expression 残念(ざんねん)ながら? It's usually translated as 'unfortunately', but literally it is 'although (it's) unfortunate'. This is the other use of ながら: to describe two concurrent states.

彼は日本にいながら、日本語がぜんぜん話せない。
Although he's in Japan, he can't speak Japanese at all.
教師ながら何も知らない。
Although he's a teacher, he knows nothing.

If the sentence was describing an action rather than a state, then it would mean 'while', as you're familiar with.

歩きながら歌う
To sing while walking.

[kagawashaun]

I've always thought of ところで　as "by the way". I use it like that all the time.

I'll have to try it as meaning "even though" and see what my friends' reactions are.

ながら　for me has always the しながら form meaning doing something while doing something else. Like "talking while driving." Can you give me an example of using ながら for "even though". I'd like to try and use it like that. Thanks

This is what I thought too. But, in Lower Intermediate Season 1 ながら was introduced as "even though". 彼はけっこんしていながらそれをかくしていた。 "Although he is married, he has been hiding it." This is a sample sentence from Lesson 30.

Apparantly ところで　also has a similar meaning when used after short forms of verbs. If you're using it as a segway, then it does indeed mean "by the way". It also has another use as well, but that's irrelevent to this topic I suppose.

Thanks Jessi, I'll check those out.