Japanese Help Questions/Translations

[Nagoyankee]

It means any older man in the Kansai region. The Kanto counterpart would be 'ojisan'.

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by 82riceballs

Nagoyankeeさん、 私の質問に答えてくださってありがとうございました！ ！

質問がもう少しあります (hope what I said makes sense )

1. Doraemon pops out of the drawer, and says 「ぼくだけど。」, translated as "It's me."　
What is the purpose of だけど here? Would ぼくだけだ also suffice?

2. After Nobita says 「人の運命なんか、分かってたまるか！！」, Doraemon says 「それがわかるんだ。どうして分かるかというとだね。」 translated as "But I know your fate. Do you wanna know the reason?"
What is the purpose of かというと?

3. Nobita's grandson tells him that Doraemon is going to take care of Nobita from now on. Then he adds　「ぼくがついてればいいんだけど、いそがしいもんでね。」 translated as "I wish I could do it myself, but I'm busy."
------A) What is the meaning of "tsuku" in this sentence?
------B) What is the meaning of "de"? I've never seen someone end a sentence with "de"... is it like "desu" and "da"?

質問がもう少しあります << This makes sense and it's certainly correct even though many Japanese would prefer saying もう少し質問があります. The latter sounds a little softer than the former.

1. You will often see us ending sentences with だけど. It's again a softer-sounding way of ending an affirmative sentence. To get the meaning, just pretend that だけど isn't there.

Importantly, you would not say ぼくだけだ there because that changes the meaning. The だけ　part　of だけだ means 'only'. It's clear to see there's only Doraemon there. No one popped out of the drawer with him. That だけ has nothing to do with だけど, which is basically a conjunction.

I don't know how much experience you have in speaking to Japanese-speakers in English. But you will surely encounter those who end sentences with a word like "but". I still do myself. That's because we do exactly that in Japanese.

2. To be honest, I'm wondering if reading the English lines isn't preventing you from appreciating the original Japanese lines. Doraemon didn't say "Do you wanna know the reason?", did he?

It just makes no sense without かというと there. Please try to remember the following as a set.

どうして（or なぜ） + Verb + かというと = as for why I + Verb. A whole explanation is expected to follow this phrase.　 The かというと part directs the listener (reader) to be ready for a possibly lengthy explanation. In other words, the speaker is saying "Alright, listen up!".

3. A) つく　here means 'to be near and take care of someone'. 付く is the kanji.

3. B) That's a very common way of ending a sentence in conversation if not in writing. It CANNOT be replaced with either ですor だ. Think of it as a light kind of 'because' or 'as'.

ぼくがついてればいいんだけど、いそがしいもんでね = It would be best if I could take care of you, but I couldn't as I'm busy.

Sample:

田中：　「明日花火見に行かない？」

加藤：　「う～ん。行きたいけど塾があるんで・・・・」

田中：　「そっか～。残念だなぁ・・・」

[Bater]

Originally Posted by Debezo

Isn't it "黙っていよう"?

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

I thought of the same thing.

Ah, thanks much! The main character isn't voiced so I mainly have to guess at the kanji if I don't recognize them, but sometimes the darn things are so small onscreen I can't make them out properly. I wasn't sure what would sound most natural there so I tried looking up the kanji (from what I could see) but apparently I was off. So this means the new sentence would be, "Since I don't understand, I'll just stay silent"?

I have a pretty big chunk of new dialogue to ask about, but it looks like some other people need help more urgently than me.

VanFersen, I'm not the most qualified person to be writing a formal letter (my grammar is only so-so) thus you may want to wait on sending anything until after a more talented user comes along, but here's a (very) rough translation:

こんにちは、
本当に考え違いが臍を噛みますが今ほかの疑問がありま す。昨日ペィパル使役ゲー
ムを買ってみましたが遣いを享けました。ペィパルは規 則的な引当のチェクをし
てお金を受ける前5~7日を絶え入てはいけません。そのこ とを分からないです。とっくの昔からペィパルの顧客で すがこれ前疑問をすることがありません。

でも、考えがあります。プラィズは高い時この疑問はあ るらしい。ゲームずつの
支給を一々遣わすならプラィズは位を下っていち早く買 ってかもしれない。まだ
一つの積み送りはいいです。

それがし損じるなら一つ支給を引合う。

日本語をわからないから人々は手伝いましたこのe-mailに。ですから、またl聯絡
をできません。ゲームを享けたいですから取りやめない でください。あと一歩注
文があります。もっと安直のプラィズ梱包のノートの上 に記してください。公課
ですから。

御疲れ様

Arashi_kishu

It says:

Hello,

I truly regret the misunderstandings, but now there is another problem. Yesterday I tried to pay with Paypal, but I received a message. Paypal is doing a routine system check, and before you can receive any money 5-7 days must pass. I don't understand what's going on. I've been a Paypal customer for a long time but have never had a problem before this.

But, I have an idea. When the prize is high I seem to have this problem. If I send payment for the games one by one, the prize will lower and I might be able to pay more quickly. A single shipment will still be good.

If this fails, I'll make one payment.

Since I don't understand Japanese various people helped me for this letter. Because of that I won't be able to get in touch again. I still want to receive the games so please do not cancel (the interaction). I have one more request. Please write a cheaper price on top of the package's note because of the taxes.

Many thanks

Arashi_kishu

[Leon]

Can someone translate this, I think it's a name of a song:
jam project魔装機神 OP戦士よ、起ち上がれ(遠藤正明)

[james1254]

Originally Posted by Leon

Can someone translate this, I think it's a name of a song:
jam project魔装機神 OP戦士よ、起ち上がれ(遠藤正明)

I think it says "rise up soldiers!" and the rest of it is names which will be wrong if i try to read them :P

[Liete87]

Could somebody please write these kanji out in kana for me, I cant seem to find them on the IME pad or in my dictionary and they don't have any furigana.

[82riceballs]

Originally Posted by nagoyankee

I'm wondering if reading the English lines isn't preventing you from appreciating the original Japanese lines.

私もそう思いますけど、しかたがありません。いつもま じめに日本語の勉強をしますけど、原文が時々分かりま せんから、英訳を読まなければなりません。

じゃあ、もう少し質問があります　 ：

1. ［ドラえもんに話はきいたろ。］ translated as "I think Doraemon told you."
I learned that "きいたろ" is "きいた" + "だろ."
Is the literal translation of the sentence: "You heard Doraemon tell you"?

2. 「タイムマシン」できたら、出口が机の中にひらいちゃってね。-> We came here by "Time Machine", so we mistakenly came in through the drawer.
-------A) Doesn't V + たら mean "if"? Why is it used here?
-------B) ひらいちゃって　＝　ひらいて＋しまって right? The only meaning I could find for "hiraku" is "open". Perhaps there is another meaning? Also, why is the "te" form used here?
-------C) Is the literal meaning of this sentence, "If we came here by time machine", we accidentally opened in the middle of the drawer"? (I highly doubt it, though... please help!)

お願いします！

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by 82riceballs

私もそう思いますけど、しかたがありません。いつもま じめに日本語の勉強をしますけど、原文が時々分かりま せんから、英訳を読まなければなりません。

じゃあ、もう少し質問があります　 ：

1. ［ドラえもんに話はきいたろ。］ translated as "I think Doraemon told you."
I learned that "きいたろ" is "きいた" + "だろ."
Is the literal translation of the sentence: "You heard Doraemon tell you"?

2. 「タイムマシン」できたら、出口が机の中にひらいちゃってね。-> We came here by "Time Machine", so we mistakenly came in through the drawer.
-------A) Doesn't V + たら mean "if"? Why is it used here?
-------B) ひらいちゃって　＝　ひらいて＋しまって right? The only meaning I could find for "hiraku" is "open". Perhaps there is another meaning? Also, why is the "te" form used here?
-------C) Is the literal meaning of this sentence, "If we came here by time machine", we accidentally opened in the middle of the drawer"? (I highly doubt it, though... please help!)

お願いします！

82riceballs さんがいつもまじめに勉強されているのは自明ですよ！

1.　That English translation is literal enough if not completely so.

聞いたろ　＜　聞いただろう　＜　聞いたでしょう

ろ・だろう・でしょう is like the tag question in English. "You have heard the story from Doraemon, haven't you?" This would be the literal translation.

You are not really asking a yes/no question here. You expect to hear only 'yes' as an answer.

2. A) 'If' may not sound correct in English here, but it's perfectly natural in Japanese. In fact, one could NOT make the きたら part any better.

2. B) Right. ひらいちゃって　＝　ひらいて＋しまって It's in the te form because it's followed by ね. This is the immediate reason but the real reason is that the speaker would want to continue to explain further. "the exit opened and then...." Whether or not Doraemon actually kept talking after saying ひらいちゃってね is of little importance. In manga, authors want to make lines sound as live as possible. They hate to stop the flow of the story.

2. C) No, that's not the literal translation. Think of those as subtitles in movies. You will not often see 'literal translations'.

In traveling by time machine, hypothetically there would be Entrance and Exit. Between those you travel through a tube or tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, there will be a door (exit). When you go through it, you are in another world in another time.

My own translation would be:

"I was traveling in a time machine, and the exit happened to open up inside the desk."

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by Liete87

Could somebody please write these kanji out in kana for me, I cant seem to find them on the IME pad or in my dictionary and they don't have any furigana.

とうろくいんしょう

なんかく

EDIT: The only possible reading of the second word is NANKAKU, but I can't really say I've seen the word.

[Liete87]

Thanks for your help ^.^