You can only use 「どちら/どっち」 when someone must choose from two items.

「イギリスのお菓子で何（なに）が一番恋しいですか。 」
「イギリスのお菓子の中で何（なに）が一番恋しいです か。」
「イギリスのお菓子で一番恋しいのは何（なん）ですか。」 <-- Native speakers' choice.

You are, of course, right. This is one of those things that just slips one's mind if Japanese is not spoken frequently! I was thinking of どれ while typing どちら. But your suggestion of 何 (and switching around the end to nominalize 恋しい) instead is taken to heart.

I'm back again. :D I have some more sentences, but I need some understanding on these for now. Sorry if I go comma-crazy, but the book is doing do, too.

There are lots of foreign teachers in my college.
「たくさん外国の先生が私の大学にいます。」 (Does 外国の先生 fit for foreign teachers, or is that wrong?)

The college is to the left of the bank.
「大学は銀行の左です。」 (just need this one checked :P)

Go out the east exit and go to the right, please.
「東口を出て、右へ行ってください。」 (へ could be interchanged with に, right, since both are considered "goals of movement"? Or does へ sound better?)

The restaurant is near the south exit.
「レストランは南口のそばです。」 (Does this sound right?)

I ate pizza and drank wine at the restaurant.
「私はピザを食べて、お酒を飲みました。」 (Where would レストランで be placed in this? after 私は I am assuming?)

I waited for twenty minutes at the north exit.
「私は北口で二十分間待ちました。」 (Since it is the duration of twenty minutes, 廿分間 is okay?)

よろしくお願いします。

I think 外国人の先生 is better, but I wouldn't take KyleGoetz's word for it.

This is correct. Other people might say 左にあります though.

Yes, you can use へ or に. There's a subtle distinction, but you don't really need to know it at this stage. Suffice to say that you can pretty much always replace へ with に and still remain correct (although you can't go the other way always!). When dealing with directional movement, they're nearly interchangeable. に connotes a bit more purpose as to the destination. Don't worry about getting it yet. It's not really that important at your stage. Also, you might learn the verb まがる, which means "to turn." 左にまがる = "to turn to the left."

I think にあります instead of です is better. I can't say for certain whether yours is wrong though. I do know にあります is definitely a correct way, though. It's the way I was taught.

Correct. Also, wine = ワイン. おさけ = alcohol. And you're correct about the positioning of レストランで. Sentence order is way more flexible in Japanese than in English. Heck, you could just say レストランではピザを食べて、ワインを飲みました。

You don't use 間 here. 二十分 is correct. 間 goes with 時 when talking about hours, 年, 週, etc. Not with 分 though. I would not use 廿 for ２０, though. It might look a bit pretentious, but I'm not sure. I don't really encounter 廿 often. Play it safe and just do 20 or 二十.

It is better. Another option would be 「海外からの先生」.

More imprtantly, though, OP's positioning of 「たくさん」 is incorrect. It should be placed immediately before the verb. If you change it to 「たくさんの」 , you can keep it up where it is.

「にあります」 certainly sounds more refined but 「です」 is quite common in colloquial speech.

DO NOT use 「廿」. It should not have been taught to OP in the first place.

ありがとう, masaeguとKyle。

I have more sentences now. :P

May I go out tonight?

「今晩私は出かけてもいいですか。」 (今晩 is fine where it is, right? [essentially like using 今日、?)

You must not watch this movie alone. You are 16 years old!
「一人でこの映画を見てはいけません。十六才ですよ。 」 (Could I add ～から because an explanation is given? Is the ～よ okay? o_o)

I am allowed to work part-time in Japan.
「私は日本でアルバイトしてもいいです。」 (Is this correct? I don't want to get hit again for loving で D:)

I am not allowed to go outside.
「外に行ってはいけません。」 (does this sound awkward? Should I use うちの外 to be more specific?)

I will go to the library and return the book tomorrow.
「私は明日図書館行って、本を返します。」 (does this sound alright?)

Mary and Takeshi met and talked for about an hour.
メアリさんとたけしさんは会って、一時間ぐらい話しま した。」 (did I place 一時間ぐらい correctly, or does it matter which verb it has to be placed in front of?)

My friend went to China and did not return.
私の友達は中国に行って、帰りませんでした。」 (would it be okay to drop 私の?)

I am not free today. (It's) because I have a test tomorrow.
「今日私は暇ではありません。明日テストがありますか ら。」 (does this sound alright?)

The test was not difficult. (That was) because I had studied a lot.
「テストは難しい区ありません。たくさん勉強しました から。」 (was my use of たくさん correct or incorrect?)

Let's go out tonight. (It's) because tomorrow is a holiday.
「今晩は出かけましょう。明日休みがありますから。」 (would I need to make 今晩 the topic, or can I drop は?)

I helped my mother. (It's) because she was busy.
「私はお母さんを手伝いました。お母さんは忙しかった ですから。」 (Is it weird to say お母さん twice, or is my English just making me want to use 彼女 instead?)

I will not drink coffee. (It's) because I drank coffee in the morning.
「私はコーヒーと飲みません。朝コーヒーを飲みました から。」 (this sounds weird to me)

I will not meet you tonight at the tea house/cafe. (It's because) I have to study for a test tomorrow.
「今晩私は喫茶店であってはいけません。」 (does this sound fine?)
「明日テストを勉強しますから。」 (did I word the second sentence right?)

よろしくお願いします。

Correct. Natve speakers would not use the pronoun in this sentence but you are probably required to do so in school?

Correct. You could say 「～～ですから」. The 「よ」 is okay.

Correct. Love 「で」 all you want here because 「アルバイトする」 is an action verb. Had the sentence been "I am allowed to stay (or live) in Japan.", then the particle would have had to be 「に」.　

Awkward but grammatical. Either 「外」 or 「うちの外」 is okay. The awkwardness is in the verb choice. Native speakers would prefer to use 「出る」 over　「行く」.

No comma needed. Use a particle after the 「図書館」 unless you are attempting the casual speech. But then, no pronoun would be used in casual speech. So there is this imbalance in your sentence. Native ears will rarely, if ever, miss this type of imbalances. Particularly mine!

Correct except for the comma. The 「一時間ぐらい」 can be placed in front of either verb in this case.

Grammatical but not too natural-sounding. We would use 「帰ってこなかった」.　In this sentence, you have more of a reason　to use a comma than in the couple of previous sentences. That is the unspoken, rather long time lapse between the two actions.

Correct.

「難しい区」　＞　「難しく」.
Your use of 「たくさん」 is okay-ish but not recommendable for an adult speaker. Use 「よく」. Better yet, use 「一生懸命（いっしょうけんめい）」 if you have learned it.

Yes, you need to because "tonight" is special because of what "tomorrow" is, which is a holiday. Change the second half to 「明日は（お）休みですから」.

If the speaker is over around 11-12, use 「母」 instead of 「お母さん」. You can use 「母」 twice. Almost no native speakers would use 「彼女」 here. Those who do are too heavily influenced by a foreign language.

「私はお母さんを手伝いました」 sounds like it was translated from a foreign language, which is what happened. I recommend 「母の手伝いをしました」.

IMPORTANT: Use 「が」 for the second half.

Why 「と」? The rest is good.

Both incorrect. First one sounds as if one was talking about a forbidden love of a sort. Second is plain weird.

「今晩喫茶店には行けません。」or 「今晩喫茶店で会うことはできません。」
「明日のテストの勉強をしますから。」

I've been googling for a while, but didn't find much information, so I'm asking for help again. I know most of my questions are boring, but I have to ask anyway.

1. 彼女を護ると誓った神宮前！どうかご利益ありますよう に！！
Is 神宮前 a place name?

http://i.imgur.com/meANO.jpg
I tried to find information related to these 大御心 things, and so far I've learned that they are exclusive omikuji for Meiji Shrine. However, I still haven't gathered enough information to understand what in the pic, so here come questions again.
2/ Do you ever translate the word 大御心 when explaining to a foreigner? So far I've only seen definitions in Japanese (天皇の心。叡慮(えいりょ)), so I'm assuming that the word doesn't get translated. I need to be sure about this.
3/ 昭憲皇太后御歌 are songs composed by Empress Shouken, am I right?
4/ Is the word 鏡 in the mid the title of the song?
5/ Does anyone know the meaning of the lyrics? It's totally out of my level. :confused:
6/ What is the number near the bottom right corner for?

Thanks in advance.

ありがとうございますmasaeguさん。 :)

1. Yes. It is the name of the area around the main entrance to Meiji Jinguu.

2. The best one could do is to simply romatize and add an explanation. The word is not even used at other shrines.

3. Correct.

4. Yes.

5. This is in Classical Japanese. It means "The mirror that I look in every morning is clean and that is how I would like my heart to be." What is implied is that if your heart is not clear, everything you look through it will be unclear and it could misguide you.

6. When you buy an 大御心 at Meiji Jinguu, you first pay and draw a stick out of a cylinder. All the sticks in there have numbers marked on them. Then the clerk will you give you the 大御心 with the matching number.

Thanks a bunch masaegu :)

It looks like I'm running into trouble again. Can anyone please explain these marked phrases?

1. 思い込んだら一直線で、清隆に一目惚れをしたのか「キミとは前世で恋人同士 だった、言ってしまえば運命の人なのよ」なんてちょっと不思議なアプローチを してきたり。

2. 清隆のことを溺愛しスキンシップの激しさもあって、清 隆はちょっと反応に困ることも。色々と清隆の面倒をみたがるけど、料理の腕が……。

The only one I can take a rough guess is 言ってしまえば (maybe "if you put it simply"?). For the rest, I have no idea at all. :confused:

「思い込んだら一直線で」 means something along the line of "(a person) must go straight (without looking back) once he has made up his mind".

「言ってしまえば」 means what you guessed.

「反応に困る」 means "to be at a loss as to how to react".

「みたがる」　＝　「みる」　+　「たがる」　 Remember I talked about this a few months ago? It might not have been in response to you, though.

I, we --->　「みたい」、　「ほしい」、　「食べたい」

You, s/he, they --->　「みたがる」、　「ほしがる」、　「食べたがる」

「面倒をみたがる」 = someone wants to take care of someone else

Ahh, I remember that now. That was before I started using flashcards to practice, and I forgot to add it later. Thanks for the reminder. :)

Why is it better to write 晩ご飯 rather than 晩御飯?

Because the kanji 御 has so many strokes in it for the "little" meaning it carries. You need to ask yourself if you would take the time to write it it kanji if you were handwriting it. Would you use 御茶 instead of お茶 everytime you say "tea", which is such an often-used word in Japanese culture (thus in the Japanese language)?

This is not the same thing as writing 学校、東京、図書館, etc. in kana. If you write these in kana, you are either a 7-year-old or a near-illiterate adult.

Writing 晩ご飯 all in kanji will NOT make you look more educated. Instead, it will make you less educated than what you really are. If someone insists using 晩御飯, then that person will have no choice but to write the honorific in kanji all the time, meaning he will be writing words and phrases like 御友達、御元気ですか、御買物、御祭, 御父さん、御母さん、etc. If you are determined to do this all your life, then by all means, use 晩御飯.

Five senses translation
 

Hi, like every other, I need help for a translation. I'm looking for the better translation of the five senses.

I have seen in web the translation will be 五感 who sounds like Gokan.
Are you ok with that or have you other suggests? Thanks :vsign:

「五感」 is the usual word for "five senses". If this word choice is very important to you, it would help if you provided some context.

I have a quick question for today. Does anyone know what 付く means in パッチは付きますか？

Two completely different meanings depending on context.

1. "Does that come with ~~?"

2. "Can ~~ be attached to ~~?"

Thanks again for the help :) The line was in a preview of an upcoming game, so I think it should be the first one.

Hey everyone!
Haunt been on here in a long time!
I have a small letter/email that I composed to wrote to a Japanese teacher who moved back to Japan. I would appreciate it a lot of someone would be able to correct The mistakea for me :D

福山先生へ
こんにちは！お久しぶりですねぇ!
先生とご家族はいかがですか。母国に帰って、先生の生 活はもちろん変わったでしょう。
僕はもう大学に行きたいです。最近、monashとSwinburne大学 のopen dayに行って、二つともいい日本語のプログラムがありま す。もう本当に日本語の勉強を再開したいです！
実は、今でもインターネットで日本語について新しいこ とを調べて、学べます！：）
先生は今、日本で何をしていますか。


2週間前、大阪の高校の一つから、留学生が来ました。� �休み中に日本語が練習できたので、とてもうれしかっ� �です。

オーストラリアに訪問する予定がありますか。
教えてください (^_^)
連絡待っています
ラリー

To miss Fukuyama,
hello! It has been a while!! How are you and your family? Having returned to your home country, your life must have changed hasn't it? I want to go to university already. Recently I went to Monash and Swinburne university open days and both have very good Japanese programs. I want to resume my Japanese studies already! actually, I still research new things about Japanese on the Internet and learn them.
What are you doing in Japan now?

2 weeks ago, exchange students came from an Osaka high school. I was able to Practise Japanese during lunchtime so I was very happy.
Do you have a plan of visiting Australia?
Please tell me :)
I'll be waiting for a reply

よろしくお願いします！

Have you learned 「敬語（けいご）」? I see some of it, if not a whole lot, used in your letter. Ideally, a letter to a teacher would contain nothing but 「敬語」.

What I am going to do is maintain the same level of politeness that you used in correcting the mistakes even though I am tempted to change many phrases more suitable for a student-to-teacher letter.

お久しぶりですねぇ! > Drop the last small kana. It sounds too conversational with it.

学べます 　＞　 学んでいます　would sound more natural.

大阪の高校の一つ　＞　大阪のある高校. 　This　「ある」 means "one", "a certain", etc. It has nothing to do with the verb 「ある」.

予定がありますか > Why 「が」? Use the other particle.

ありがとうございました！
I have learned honorific speech a while ago, I generally used a few that I could easily recall. Now that I think about it perhaps I should make the following changes?

日本で何をしていますか＝＞日本で何をなさっています か。
連絡待っています=>連絡お待ちしています
オーストラリアに訪問する予定はありますか。＝＞オー ストラリアにお訪問しになる予定はありますか。

Would it be necessary to change more verbs into the humble form?

Thanks for all the help :D

Those are nice changes except for the last sentence. You cannot say 「お訪問しになる」. Change it to 「訪問される」.

You are writing to someone who has taught you Japanese, are you not? That would mean that it would be nice for you to use as many things as she has taught you. Not less and not more. She would know in a second if you received help in writing the letter, wouldn't she? I would use only those humble and polite forms that you have learned. If you want to change any more parts, I will be more than happy to take a look.

ありがとうございました、まさえぐさん！
I think I will just stick to the basic honorific expressions that she has taught me in the past.
I really appreciate all your helpful advice and corrections! ^.^

Hello :). I was reading a manga earlier today, and I stumbled across something I just can't find the meaning for:
「ものすごい食いつきよう」

(As for context, the speaker says this after she asks her friend who a certain person is and her friend gets all intense and vehemently tells her that this person is a super popular idol.)

Any help is appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

「食いつきよう」　＝　「食いつく様子（ようす）」

「よう」 means "the manner in which something is done".

「食いつく」, in this phrase, means "to jump at (a topic)"

「ものすごい食いつきよう」 therfore means "the extreme manner in which someone jumps at a certain topic"

Wow, what a swift reply! Thank you very much, masaegu :) I much appreciate the help.

Sorry to bother again, but I'd be most grateful if I could be given some assitance with another little something from a manga:

いつもは着ないような服を着てライトを浴びてカメラに 向かう。　そうすると地味で内向的でつまらない自分か ら解放される気がする。　自分をしばる自分らしさから。

It's just that last part I just can't understand. 「自分をしばる」 = "Bind oneself"?? :confused:

Thank you very much in advance.

Read carefully and you will logically find that:

「地味で内向的でつまらない自分」　≒ 「自分をしばる自分」

「から」 is used twice.　「解放される気がする」 is omitted right after the second one. Think about why it can it be omitted. It is because what is said in front of each 「から」 is similar to each other.

「自分をしばる」 means "tying oneself to the world within the little shell", "to control one's own passions", "to repress one's emotions", etc.

Hello everyone! I have a few reading questions again.

1. 奏さんのそのメガパーやさしさで成仏してしまいそうで すっ
Does メガパー mean "great" or something?

2. http://i.imgur.com/MH3nv.jpg
Can anyone read the part after お茶を? It looks like さし*something*れに to my eyes, and I can't figure it out.

3. 心配して来てはみたけど何かできないかしら…
I'm not sure if I've seen this kind of structure before. Can someone please explain it?

Hi guys!

Would this be a correct translation to say

"The best Japanese teacher!”

一番いい日本語の先生！

would there be any more natural way to say this sentence?

All suggestions appreciated! ありがとうございます！:vsign: :vsign:

That is correct. You can also say:

一番良い日本語の先生
最も良い日本語の先生
最高の日本語の先生

1. No idea. Never heard it.

2. 　「お茶をさし入れに」

3. 「きてみる」　+　「は」. "I came over to see what was going on and how I might be of help."
This 「は」 reflects a very Japanese way of thinking. You decided to come but found out that there was nothing you could do to help; therefore, you do not want to sound as if your arrival was worth mentioning.

Err, I'm sorry. Maybe I should have posted the context as well.

http://i.imgur.com/ELdBK.jpg
I'm not sure if this would make it clearer. I don't think I typed the line incorrectly, though. I googled before asking, and the word seems to be used, but I couldn't find any definition. Do you happen to figure out anything from the context?

I see. It was a kanji, not a kana. Thank you.

This is interesting. Thanks again for the explanation :)

I think it was explained to me one time that は in this sort of て construction functions to place emphasis.

I think it was explained to me in Japanese while I was studying in Tokyo at university, so that may be why I'm a bit weak on the structure. The reason I think I was taught about it in Japan was because I remember we watched an old 小津安二郎 film called 生まれてはみたけれど, and I was confused by the function of は in the title.

Could you explain a bit the function of 〜ては? Or is it "special" when followed by みる?

I am comfortable with constructions like 〜てはならない and 〜てはいけない, but those are idiomatic, so I can't explain what は does there other than saying 必要な助詞だ。

Oh OK, so it is メガパー, then.　　You typed it as メガバー the first time.

The former comes from "mega percent", which is equal to one million percent. It means "very big", "a whole lot of", etc.

EDIT: Maybe you did not. I probably had misread it.

Thanks again masaegu :) I typed it as パ btw :D

unknown message of the car
 

Hi there,

I visited my parents in Suriname (South America, yes we also take our shoes off), and their car seems gives a unknown message in Japanese. Could you help me with this?
The sign above states something the temperature. But the Japenese text below is unknown to me.

Thanks in advance.