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Kasper (Offline)
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help with a short translation. - 05-29-2011, 09:29 AM

Hi there. I'm having some trouble with translating this sentence into Japanese for part of my homework. It's:

We had to move back to England (from France) and ever since, I always felt cheated that I had missed the chance to become bilingual.

I don't mind if it's not exactly a translation of this; any approximation would be really helpful.
Thanks,

Kasper
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05-29-2011, 09:33 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasper View Post
Hi there. I'm having some trouble with translating this sentence into Japanese for part of my homework. It's:

We had to move back to England (from France) and ever since, I always felt cheated that I had missed the chance to become bilingual.

I don't mind if it's not exactly a translation of this; any approximation would be really helpful.
Thanks,

Kasper
Would you be willing to show us your own attempt first?


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05-29-2011, 09:56 AM

Sure, but it's really not up to much.
I thought something like,

イギリスに帰ったなけれあなかったので、この時えらい 、バイリンガルになるチャンスをなかったのは大変です 。

Sorry it's really bad and I have no idea how to say 'feel cheated'.
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05-29-2011, 10:11 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasper View Post
Sure, but it's really not up to much.
I thought something like,

イギリスに帰ったなけれあなかったので、この時えらい 、バイリンガルになるチャンスをなかったのは大変です 。

Sorry it's really bad and I have no idea how to say 'feel cheated'.
Thanks.

Here is my own:
「私たちは(フランスから)イギリスへ帰国せねばなら ず、それ以降は、バイリンガルになる機会を逃してしま ったことを常にもったいなく感じてきている。」

Notice I softened the "feel cheated" part to もったいなく感じる to make it sound more natural as Japanese. If I did not have to do that, then I would say:

「私たちは(フランスから)イギリスへ帰国せねばなら ず、それ以降は、バイリンガルになる機会を逃してしま ったことについて常にだまされたような気分でいる。」

I must warn you that if you turn my either translation in as is, your teacher (in case s/he is a native speaker) will instantly know that you got help from another.


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Kasper (Offline)
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05-29-2011, 10:52 AM

Thank you, that's really helpful!
I don't understand the grammar in this part. Could you maybe explain it a little?

帰国せねばなら ず

(Of course I won't hand this in to my teacher. It's simply that I was really stuck and wanted to know how it would be possible to get round this.)

Thanks,
Jasper
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05-29-2011, 11:15 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasper View Post
Thank you, that's really helpful!
I don't understand the grammar in this part. Could you maybe explain it a little?

帰国せねばなら ず

(Of course I won't hand this in to my teacher. It's simply that I was really stuck and wanted to know how it would be possible to get round this.)

Thanks,
Jasper
It is a more literal way of saying 「帰国しなければならず」.

If you are unfamiliar with ならず, it means the same as ならなく. To make it even more informal, it would be ならなくて.

Be careful, though, as nothing in the last halves of my two Japanese sentences sounds informal. That kind of balance is crucial t good writing. If you change one part, the chances are you will need to change others as well.


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05-29-2011, 11:19 AM

Thank you very much. This helped ma a lot.
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