JapanForum.com - Japanese Help Questions/Translations

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Quote:

Originally Posted by illstyle (Post 864012)

Hi again all, can someone please translate this into Japanese?

ジョークですか？

Thank youu!

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!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by StonerPenguin (Post 863972)

I haven't talked to him in months and we usually talk in English. I hate that I can't carry on in Japanese and revert to English, which is why I'm going back to that site to make a better attempt. If I do talk in Japanese (with him, or the other people on Lang-8) I just use formal speech, and they do too. But I dunno if that's because I use formal speech first which sets the tone for how we talk. That, and most of my friends on there are young guys, I'd probably be more comfortable using casual speech if I was talking to girls my age :/ So I tend to just play it safe with formal speech :)

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.

Quote:

Cool! I didn't really know that before :D And thank you for your input on what he probably said in Japanese. Very helpful. :cool:
Sorry, one more 'how do you say' question;
How do you say "revert back to English" (like in "I hate that I revert to English when I do Japanese-English language exchanges.")
Is it 「英語に戻す」？

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"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by StonerPenguin (Post 864023)

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by masaegu (Post 864024)

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!

Quote:

Originally Posted by StonerPenguin (Post 863826)

lol @ illstyle
When you meet her in person isn't it going to rapidly become apparent that someone else has been writing your messages for you? ;) How are you guys gonna even talk to each other? Sorry if that sounds rude, but I've gotta admit my curiosity is piqued. :mtongue:

Also, regarding your question:
You could say "How do you write this in Japanese?" or "How do you say this in Japanese (No romaji)?" Although for the most part we don't use romaji on this board anyway, because it's something serious students try to avoid. Only weeaboos use it. Like in "Baka I'm studying Nihongo ^___^" or "OMG r u a real nihonjin KAWAII desu ne"
Ugh...

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!

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz (Post 863988)

That is not Japanese, and that is not a Japanese person.

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?

Quote:

Originally Posted by delacroix01 (Post 864079)

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.