nihongo wo benkyou shitai

日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をやる
日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をあげる
日本語：	[giver]は[receiver]に[noun clause]をさしあげる
English:	[giver] gave [noun clause] to [receiver]

Today's blog is the first of a series about the surprisingly complex art of giving and receiving in Japanese. From reading around a fair bit on the topic, the reason I have such big problems understanding this is that giving and receiving is such a fundamental part of Japanese culture and psychology, that without understanding the latter, I'm not going to truly understand the former.

Giving can fundamentally be in two directions: toward me (the speaker) or away from me. The whole notion of 'away from the speaker' becomes more complex when the speaker is not the giver, but conventional wisdom suggests that in such circumstances, the act of giving is being performed away from the giver's point of view and that the speaker associates more strongly with the giver. Anyway, here are the three verbs you'll come across:

• やる
  
  やる is the verb meaning to do, but in this context it is used to signify the act of giving down to someone or something. Since the Japanese culture frowns upon the idea of looking down on someone, even if you are doing that person a favour, this use of the verb is usually reserved for when talking about giving to animals.
  
  
• あげる
  
  あげる is probably the most frequently seen verb when talking about giving away from the speaker. あげる means to raise up and here implies that the speaker is humbling themselves with respect to the receiver. Generally あげる is used when both giver and receiver are close in social status.
  
  
• さしあげる
  
  さしあげる is the honourific form and is used when the receiver is of higher social status than the giver.
  

There is another verb in common usage meaning to give, although it is not part of the JLPT3 specification. The verb 渡す is functionally equivalent to あげる and can be translated as to hand over or to pass over. When to use each is unclear, but I think that 渡す can be used when simply stating that something was given, without any implication of emotion.

NOTE: When using やる、あげる and さしあげる the receiver cannot be either of the personal pronouns I or we. If you want to say that you received something, then you need to use the verb くれる which is discussed in the next blog entry.

English:	I gave the book to the librarian.
Jenglish:	[I][librarian][book][gave]
日本語：	私は図書館員に本をあげた。

English:	My friend gave his girlfriend a ring.
Jenglish:	[my friend][girlfriend][ring][gave]
日本語：	私の友人は彼女に指輪をあげました。

English:	My friend said she'll give her boyfriend chocolates on Valentine's Day.
Jenglish:	[my friend][boyfriend][Valentine's Day][chocolates][give][said]
日本語：	僕の友人は彼氏にバレンタインデーにチョコをあげると言っていた。

And here are some examples of actual usage, courtesy of Google...

Example 1:

This first example was found on http://ikimono.ciao.jp/otama/otamanikki1.html

日本語：	今日はおたまじゃくしにえさとして、キュウリをあげました。
Jenglish:	[today][SM][tadpole][to][feed][as for][cucumber][gave]

Well, my best guess would be In feeding the tadpoles today, I gave them cucumber

Example 2:

Here's one from http://scrapbook.ameba.jp/xmaspresent_book/

日本語：	クリスマスプレゼントなにを貰った？なにをあげた？
Jenglish:	[Christmas][present][what][received]?[what][gave]?

OK, again pretty straightforward, and it shows that you don't have to stick to the format given at the top of this blog entry. I reckon it translates to What Christmas presents did you receive? What did you give?

またね・・・