Lesson 1 - Checkin
Jan. 21st, 2018 06:03 pmHello everyone! The end of the week is here. How is everything going? Q&A is open for anything: questions about the lessons, or about random grammar.
I realise I never quite gave out readings beyond the N2+ article; I'll remedy next week. Had a busy one myself moving my entire personal library out from boxes (!!! books are heavy; don't play around).
Instead, here's a step through of the introduction of the article in question.
This is going to be translation practice for me - please do call out anything you think I've gone wrong or done funny. I'm going to only explain choice parts of the reading/translation, so feel free to also pull up bits and ask questions!
Gloss
[1] 皆(みんな）さん でしょう？
Lit: People reading, what might?
Many Japanese articles will open with a rhetorical device where they address the (plural) audience and ask a question that leads into the topic at hand. That's why you'll notice the use of 皆さん in the plural, even though I've opted to translate the English more naturally into a single person "you".
The でしょう at the end, inflected from です, is a way of coming across as inquisitive as opposed to interrogative. (Read: here)
[2] ~ と思（おも）うかもしれません
Lit: You probably think ~
This is another rhetorical device you'll see in articles a lot. "Might"/かもしれない (read) is often tacked on so that - again - the author doesn't sound like they are simply making statements.
[3] 今回（こんかい）は、そんなお話（はなし）をしたいと思(おも）います。
Lit: This time, I think that I would like to discuss [this topic]
This is a more or less set phrase: most introductions end with a blunt statement that "we are going to go into [X TOPIC]". The ~たいと思います (I think I want to do X") should not be directly translated for that reason. While you could say ～たいです ("I want to do X"), ~と思う is used non-literally to describe an author's intentions.
[4] Literal versus non-literal translations
And, finally, a general thought on translation: translating literally, whether from JP -> EN or EN -> JP, is often awkward and sometimes impossible. Where that is the case, I will usually translate such that the translation reads natively and provide literal translations on the side. I have a whole post I want to write about why this tug of war of compromise leads to retranslations of work over time...
I realise I never quite gave out readings beyond the N2+ article; I'll remedy next week. Had a busy one myself moving my entire personal library out from boxes (!!! books are heavy; don't play around).
Instead, here's a step through of the introduction of the article in question.
This is going to be translation practice for me - please do call out anything you think I've gone wrong or done funny. I'm going to only explain choice parts of the reading/translation, so feel free to also pull up bits and ask questions!
Title: 名前のルール～姓と氏名と本名と～（日本史・古代～江戸時代）
The Rules of Names ~ "Mei" and "Shimyou" and "honmyou" and... (Japanese History from ancient times to the Edo Era)
皆さんの名字は何でしょう？
What is your surname (myouji)? [1]
では、氏は？姓は？
And what about your surname (shi)? Or your surname (mei)?
何だか全部同じ意味なのに、何でこんなに種類があるのかと思うかもしれません。
You might be wondering why so many terms exist when they all mean the same thing. [2]
実はこれ、全て違う意味を持っています。
Truth be told, all three terms have different meanings.
明治以降はこれらが全て統一されたため、ややこしいことになっているようですが、時代劇を見ると「やけに長い名前だな？」と思う事もあるのでは？
Even though the terms "myouji", "shi" and "mei" have become conflated since they were streamlined after the Meiji era, I'm sure that there have been times when you've watched a period drama and thought, "Aren't those really long names?"
今回は、そんなお話をしたいと思います。[3]
I hope to talk about this topic in this article.
Gloss
[1] 皆(みんな）さん
Lit: People reading, what might
Many Japanese articles will open with a rhetorical device where they address the (plural) audience and ask a question that leads into the topic at hand. That's why you'll notice the use of 皆さん in the plural, even though I've opted to translate the English more naturally into a single person "you".
The でしょう at the end, inflected from です, is a way of coming across as inquisitive as opposed to interrogative. (Read: here)
[2] ~ と思（おも）うかもしれません
Lit: You probably think ~
This is another rhetorical device you'll see in articles a lot. "Might"/かもしれない (read) is often tacked on so that - again - the author doesn't sound like they are simply making statements.
[3] 今回（こんかい）は、そんなお話（はなし）をしたいと思(おも）います。
Lit: This time, I think that I would like to discuss [this topic]
This is a more or less set phrase: most introductions end with a blunt statement that "we are going to go into [X TOPIC]". The ~たいと思います (I think I want to do X") should not be directly translated for that reason. While you could say ～たいです ("I want to do X"), ~と思う is used non-literally to describe an author's intentions.
[4] Literal versus non-literal translations
And, finally, a general thought on translation: translating literally, whether from JP -> EN or EN -> JP, is often awkward and sometimes impossible. Where that is the case, I will usually translate such that the translation reads natively and provide literal translations on the side. I have a whole post I want to write about why this tug of war of compromise leads to retranslations of work over time...