Don't you mean translate this into English?
ジョークですか？ [JOOKU desu ka?] = Are you joking / Is that a joke?

Oh yeah, you're right. Sorry lol. I'm just really tired

Thank you very much!!

I would think that there could be a couple of reasons for two people with different first languages to tend to use more formal speech. Someone setting the tome is one for sure but I feel the bigger reason is that beginning and intermediate students of a foreign language usually are not very good at informal speech because they simply don't learn it. So, it's really natural that a conversation sounds considerably more formal than when two people from the same language talk to each other.

An overuse of formal speech could make you sound funny but it can never hurt someone. If I were you, I would not worry about the speech style. If you talk to the same person often enough, it will start changing.

Either 「英語に戻す」 or 「英語に戻る」 will do although the latter would sound more natural.

Thanks masaegu for enduring all my questions. :D
I have one dialogue question... 「お前のことを色々調べさせてもらった」 = "You let me examine you thoroughly"?

Good question but that is not what it means. You went too literally.

You did not get the other person's permission.

"I took the liberty of doing ~~." You just did it.

Ahh That's why I asked, what I had didn't fit the context. The speaker starts listing a bunch of personal info about the addressee and he looks freaked out. :p Thank you!

Oh yeah, I forgot about this post. Sorry, late reply :P
Yeah, I'm pretty sure she knows I'm being helped lol. I've sent her some really short google translated sentences, and some full sentences that I got from you guys so yeah, I'm pretty sure she knows :P and I have no idea how we're going to talk, I was just planning to take her sight seeing and taking a bunch of pictures with her at those certain places. It would be an awesome memory :D And it's alright, don't feel like you're being rude, I would probably wonder the same if I were you :)

Thank you for answering my question too! And thank you again for that translation! Cheers!

Thank you for your help! (And thank you also to StonerPenguin :o )
But ... what you wrote, does that mean what's written in the two lines
or does it mean otherwise? And if so... is it Chinese?
As for the person in the photo ... he's a Japanese actor (Saito Takumi).

Thank you for your help, I wish you a good day!
Ciao from Italy! :)
Ro

I'm currently having troubles with some words and phrases I haven't learned yet, so I need to ask some questions.

http://i.imgur.com/RLbLO.jpg
1. I would like to ask about the phrase 言われるまま. Does it mean "as I was told" in this case?

http://i.imgur.com/nlfQj.jpg
2. マドカは正確に右目を狙ってきたナイフを、あろうこと か正面から手のひらで受け止める。
a/ Does 正確に modify for 狙ってきた?
b/ Does あろうことか mean the same as とんでもない?

3/ 手のひらに突き刺さったナイフ、それを握りしめるマド カ。
I'm not very sure about the meaning of the verb 突き刺さる in this context. Did the knife pierce Madoka's palm? Or did she catch it unharmed?

4. AICの停止エネルギーをかわし、マドカは飛び去る。
Does かわす mean "to dodge"?

By the way, does the symbols 自五 and 他五 in dictionaries mean intransitive godan and transitive godan verbs?

1. Yes. S/He obeyed the guy/gal.

2a. Yes.
2b. Not quite. It menas とんでもないことに. ＝ "unexpectedly" or "surprisingly".

3. It pierced into her palm.

4. Exactly.

You are correct about the 自五 and 他五.

Thanks again for the quick reply :D By the way, do you have any clue of what might the Kanji after オーディンの be?

Looks to be 瞳.

So it's the same as I guessed. Thank you. :)

Could someone please help me with The difference between
先週
and
前週


I am assuming 前週　is not used often if ever, but if I am wrong I would like to know what it is used for.. Thanks.

先週 = last week

前週 = the preceding week

Both are used and they are NOT interchangeable.

前週 is used to refer to the preceding week of the week in the past that you are discussing.

Ahh thanks a lot masaegu!

Katakana help
 

I am having problems reading this. I am not sure about some of the katakana because it is handwritten. Plus I am having trouble translating. Any help would great. thanks.

サイショニ　オンナノコガ
（最初に女の子が）
キュウアイコウドウ
（求愛行動）
ヲシテキマス
（をしてきます）
アナタハ　オナジコトヲ
（あなたは同じことを）
スレバ　イイト　オモウヨ
（すれば　いいと思うよ）
Basically "First, the girl does courtship behavior. I think you should do the same."

Edit: Hey! The image changed! :eek:

『アイ』トカ『ハッ』デ
（『愛』とか『はっ』で）
アイガツタワルンダヨ
（愛が伝わるんだよ）
ソウイウモノダカラ
（そういうものだから）
ソウイウモノダカラ
（そういうものだから）
ソウイウモノナノダカラ
（そういうものなのだから）

sorry. I put up the wrong picture at first.

Good afternoon. I have a question, I'm doing a practice from the genki text book on ja arimasen. I have to answer the question but I'm not sure I did it correctly.

スーさんのせんもんはけいざいですか。

Should it be this

いいえ,にほんごじゃありません。computerです。 ( couldn't do it in japanese phone messing up)

Are u asking me for the translation??

Big problem. :) Here is what you wrote:

Person A: Is Sue's area of specialty economics?
Person B: No, it isn't Japanese. It's computer.

See the issue above? You could say:

Person A:　スーさんのせんもんはけいざいですか。
Person B:　いいえ、けいざいじゃありません。コンピューター� ��す。
＿＿＿

I actually personally never say ～～じゃありません and neither do many other Japanese-speakers but if that's what you learn, let's not discuss it.

I use ～～ではありません. I couldn't quite see how someone could stand the imbalance between the highly casual じゃ and the not so casual ありません.

The first line does not make much sense. Context may help.

"One can convey Love just
by saying アイ or ハッ

It works like that
It works like that
It does work like that"

Again, there's a few questions I'd like to ask today.

http://i.imgur.com/WVScr.jpg

1. This is just my guess based on the context, but does 差し引きゼロ mean both bad things and good things happened and they are equal?

2. What does ずずいっと mean? I can't find it in my dictionary.

3. ちょっとくらい缶ジュースを持つの手伝ってくれ
I'm not sure if I really understand the particle の correctly here, so I'll attempt to translate the sentence. Please correct me again if I make any mistake.

1. In this context, yes.

2. It means "without hesitation". It is the more colloquial form of ずいと.

3. It is the verb-nominalizing particle, which is why you can add the を to it.

Your translation is good.

Err, so can you tell me what it means in general?

Losses and gains canceling each other out.
Coming out even.

Thanks for the help so instead of ja armasen I can use ではありません. And I have a question about grammer the ね or よ. Ne is used for agreement?? And yo is used in a sentences like let me assure you tonkatsu is not fish. Is that how u would use them in a sentences ??

Thanks a lot. :) I was thinking of a short way to interpret it, but I couldn't.

Yes, that is a good explanation.

I see what you mean, now. My translation was a noun when the portion I was translating was itself an adjective. Perhaps something more like 'Something feels dangerous, like something bad is about to happen.'?

Also, I just want to check my understanding of some 語尾 since someone else asked. I think I've got a decent understand of よね in the sense of asking for confirmation, like this:
A:ね、このケーキだれが作ったの？
B:確か田中さんが作ったんだよね
A:あー！そうそう、思いだしたよ。昨日田中さんがケー� ��を作るって言った。

Here よね is because B isn't very sure. If this is a correct usage, I think ね alone can be used too, correct? In which case B is a bit more sure. That's the way I understand it from a few things I've read but I want to check. Also I made the conversation myself so if anything I wrote sounded unnatural let me know please.

hey everyone! new to the forum, and i'm getting a tattoo of my last name written in japanese writing next week, so i'm just wondering if anybody here could give me the translation since google translator isn't translating.

the name is: IVANY

Depends on how it is pronounced. We don't go from the spelling.

it's pronounced: i - van - e (ivan-e)



edit: I found a site here that translates it and gives a 3 step breakdown of the pronunciation which seems to be close to spot on, It will not let me copy and paste the letters here though because it is written in an image format, so i saved it as an image and here it what it comes out as:

Maybe something like "Feeling the danger of something bad happening or being caused to happen."? English-speaking members, please feel free to correct.

It looks good. No particle mistakes!!

言った　＞　言ってた
A native speaker would use the latter form nearly 100% of the time.

The よね is correct but, strictly speaking, B would say that line to a third person, not to A, because A had just said, in effect, that she had no idea of who made it. You don't use よね, which is a form to be used when seeking agreement, with someone who has just said he didn't know the answer.

And the "I" pronounced as the "i" in "big", "hit", etc?

Or the "i" in "light", "fight", etc?
____

Just to make sure, the "e" is the same as the vowel in "see", "feed", etc?

PLEASE use more words in explaining this.

the "i" is pronounced as the 'i' in the word 'rise' for example. (r'I'se)
or maybe an easier way to explain it is that its pronounced just like the word "eye".

and yes, the "e" is the same as the vowel in "see", "feed", etc.

So glad I asked.

It would be アイヴァニー .

thank you very much, i appreciate it! so basically the only difference in the way you put it and the way the other translator put it, it the "ア" at the beginning. in which way does that change or make the pronunciation correct?

also, that "." at the end isn't actually included is it?