nihongo wo benkyou shitai

今日はロンドンで会議があった。会議は早く終わったから、橋に歩いて写真を撮った。運良く、今朝は曇りのに写真を撮った時、明るいです！

じゃあ・・・この有名な所、なんですか

今朝、起きた時私の機嫌はあまり良くない。もう一度貧乏だ！でも、友達が送ってくれた小荷物を来た。中身は？日本から色々な食べ物だ！まだ貧乏けどうれしいだよ！

日本語：	[verb (base 6)] よかった。
English:	It is good that..., I'm glad that...

A nice a simple grammar point today and one I think is part of the JLPT3 specification. I say that because my usual JLPT specification book doesn't list it, but I found a web site that suggests it is 3級. Nonetheless, I can see myself using this one a lot since I'm so 前向き！

Simply, by adding よかった to the ーて form of a verb, either positive or negative, we can say that it is good that, or you are happy that something has either occurred or is occurring.

English:	It was good to go to the theatre again.
Jenglish:	[theatre][again][go + good]
日本語：	劇場にまた行ってよかった。

English:	I'm glad I left the party early last night.
Jenglish:	[last night][party][early][left + glad]
日本語：	昨夜パーティーに出てよかった。

Here are some real-world examples!

Example 1:

This is taken from here.

日本語：	転職してよかった！は、メルマガ【転職ＨｏｗＴｏ便】にて配信中
Jenglish:	[to change occupation + good] [??] [email magazine] ['how to change occupation mail'] [in] [distribution]

Well, most of the words are easy enough, although the standalone use of は is a puzzle. My best guess is that it is an interjection of some kind - maybe like us saying 'well then...' in English. I've also made the assumption that 配信中 is the 'currently doing' form of 配信 - in this case meaning 'currently in distribution'. So, my translation is: It's good to change your career! Well, the electronic magazine 'How to change your career' is currently in distribution.

Example 2:

Here's one from a Wikipedia entry about some TV drama.

日本語：	愛しすぎなくてよかった
Jenglish:	[to love + too much + negative + good]

Well, I have to say I don't think this one is too difficult; it's simply a verb with a dozen conjugations stuck on it! My guess is It's good to not love too much.

Example 3:

A final example taken from here.

日本語：	「サイト（またはブログ等）を閉鎖してよかったと思いますか？」とサファリ問題
Jenglish:	"[site] [or] [blog] [[etc] [closing + good] [think?]" [and] [safari] [question]

OK, I had to cheat here a little. To be honest, it was straight-forward but the one bit that completely threw me was the とサファリ問題 bit. Because the first part was in 「」 followed by と I automatically assumed that I was looking at a quote. In the end I gave up on that and asked a friend. It appears that there were actually two separate statements here and the と was acting as and. So, with a little help I translate this as "Do you think it's good for the site (or blog etc) to close?" and safari questions.

またね・・・

たいてい通勤は退屈ですが今日は違いです！車ですか。居間ですか。何ですか！

写真はあまり良くない　－　僕は運転していったよ！しかし、草木と時計を見られますか。

写真を選ぶと大きさ写真を現れます。 (Actually, how do you say "click on the picture to enlarge"?

またね・・・

日本語：	[A verb (base 4)] ば [B]
日本語：	[adjective] ければ / なら [B]
日本語：	[noun] なら [B]
English:	If only [A] then [B]

For the JLPT3 we need to know four conditionals: たら, なら, ーえば and と. There are others but it will only complicate matters to think about them now, especially as the four mentioned have pretty specific usage restrictions. But before you read any further, you really should read this first!

The えば conditional most closely resembles what we English would consider if to mean. In English, we would see the basic construct as:

if [clause A] then [clause B]

However, it should be noted that えば is used when there is no indication as to whether the event in clause A is likely to occur or not. As such it is frequently seen when talking about hypothetical situations and in effect, can be thought of as saying 'if the event in clause A were to come about then situation in clause B is possible'. For example:

If I won the lottery, it would be cool
If it isn't cloudy tonight, we may see the stars

Also, as discussed in the overview of conditionals, えば places the focus on the condition, not the outcome. Finally, with えば there is a likelihood that the speaker is considering the opposite statement, even if this is not vocalised. So, we could view the second example sentence above as:

If it isn't cloudy tonight, we may see the stars [but if it is, we won't]

In terms of conjugation, ば is fairly easy to use. Verbs should be in base 4. With い-adjectives, drop the い and add ければ; な-adjectives and nouns add なら. As usual, verbs in the negative are treated as い-adjectives.

NOTE: I should mention here that I have read that there are restrictions on what kind of verb conjugation can occur in the main clause (that is clause B). Originally I wrote that: in most cases, clause B cannot be statement indicating a command, suggestion, prohibition or permission. The exception to this is where clause A is an い adjective, ends in the verbs ある or いる or is a verb in plain negative form. In these cases, suggestions can be used. . However, I can find no reference to this in any of my text books. Can anyone tell me if such restrictions exist?

English:	If it isn't cloudy tonight, we may see the stars.
Jenglish:	[tonight][cloudy + not + if], [stars][see + ability + maybe]
日本語：	今夜曇っていれば星を見られるかもしれない。

English:	It would be good if it stops raining.
Jenglish:	[rain][stop + if][good]
日本語：	雨がやめばいいです。

Lets see how this is used with some examples from the Internet!

Example 1:

This one is taken from a particularly geeky-looking site. Right up my street!

日本語：	もしかして洗えば直るっていう話は僕が知らなかっただけで、その筋では結構一般的なのか。
Jenglish:	[possibly] [wash + if] [fix] [quote] [to say] [conversation] [TM] [I] [SM] [didn't know] [only], [that] [plan] [well then] [tolerably] [typical] [casual male question]

Uh? Totally lost on this from the beginning. For a start, っていう話 isn't very clear. I know that っていう is a colloquial form of という which I know as meaning called. Also, the use of だけ seems odd. Then, we have words that simply don't seem to fit, for example: 結構.

So, embarrassing as it is, this is my translation: As for the conversation regarding how you might fix your computer if you wash it, is the plan typical?

Example 2:

Hopefully this example taken from here will be simpler.

日本語：	小沢さんは小泉さんをほめればいい。
Jenglish:	[Mr Kosawa] [TM] [Mr Koizumi] [OM] [to speak well + if] [good]

Well, I think this may be a reasonably simple one. The hardest part was translating the names. I kinda guess Koizumi from the 'zumi' part; 'Kosawa' is a guess also. So, I think this means It would be good if Mr Kosawa spoke well of Mr Koizumi..


Example 3:

Well, as depressing as trying to translate the first example was, let's try another geeky web site.

日本語：	XMLの基礎を理解しよう～これだけ知っていれば大丈夫～。
Jenglish:	[XML] [PM] [foundation] [OM] [understanding + do + lets] [so little] [to know + if] [OK]

Looks pretty uncomplicated, but I've chosen a couple of different translations to make it sound more natural: Let's understand the basics of XML - it's OK if you know nothing.

またね・・・

First, a defintion:

condition [noun]: an assumption on which rests the validity or effect of something else

Japanese conditionals are the bane of my life. Never really understood which conditional to use and when, so time to take the bull by the horns... But before we do, I had to think about English first!

Let's consider some English conditionals:

If I eat ice-cream too quickly, I get a headache.

Here, we are talking about cause and effect. I get a headache because I ate too quickly and it is always the case. Getting a headache is a natural predictable consequence of eating ice-cream too quickly. This sentence could be written Whenever I eat ice-cream too quickly, I get a headache.


If I go to Japan, I want to eat okonomiyaki.

In this sentence the nuance is that I must first go to Japan, whereupon I can go about the task of eating okonomiyaki. I can't eat it before I have gone to Japan. It's important to note three things here: (1) Eating okonomiyaki is not a natural, predictable consequence of going to Japan, that is I could go to Japan and not eat it. (2) The important point is not that I go to Japan, but what I do when I get there. In other words the emphasis is on the result, not the condition. (3) The speaker is unlikely to being thinking about the opposite condition, namely if he doesn't go to Japan, he wont eat okonomiyaki. This sentence could be written When I go to Japan, I want to eat okonomiyaki.


If I finish watching Full Metal Panic tonight, I will be surprised.

Here the emphasis is on the condition itself. The important thing is what conditions need to be met to make me surprised. There is no guarantee that I will finish watching FMP - indeed, there is no guarantee that I will even watch it. However, if and only if I watch FMP and finish it I will be surprised. In other words the speaker is talking hypothetically. It's also important to note that we can easily form the opposite conditional here; namely that if I don't finish FMP, I won't be surprised. So, we could rewrite this sentence as If I were to finish watching Full Metal Panic tonight, I will be surprised (but if I don't, I wont).

So, there is a distinction in how conditional statements are put together and although it may not be 100% accurate, the following guidelines may help. Note, however, that appear to be additional constraints on their use, but the individual blog entries will look at those.

• If the main statement is a direct, natural or predictable result of the condition, use the Japanese と conditional.
  
• If the main statement is not a predictable outcome of the condition, but requires the condition to occur first and you want to emphasize the main statement, use the Japanese conditional たら.
  
• If speaking hypothetically, with more emphasis on the condition, or if there is a natural opposite condition use the ば conditional.
  

Yeah, I know I haven't finished the giving & receiving concept, but I was going through this last night and decided it would be worth blogging. I'm not even sure which JLPT level it is, but I'll deal with that later on. Today we'll look at the differences between saying 'few' and 'a few'

The inference here is that 'few' implies a negative connotation; for example:

There are few places to see in Basingstoke.
He has few friends in Japan.

Compare that to 'a few' which doesn't carry the negative connotation:

There are a few places to visit in Basingsoke.
He has a few friends in Japan.

Let's look at each usage in turn.

A Few

The format of this is pretty easy. Simply take 何, follow it with the relevant counter and then add か. The hardest bit is getting the counter right! Maybe an example will help.

English:	I have seen a few films recently.
Jenglish:	[recently][films][a few][seen]
日本語：	最近映画を何本か観た。

English:	He has a few friends in Japan.
Jenglish:	[Japan][in][he][friends][a few][has]
日本語：	日本に彼は友達が何人かいる。

Few

Here, we can we a combination of 少し (meaning few) and しか which used with a verb in negative form means 'just'.

English:	I have seen few films recently.
Jenglish:	[recently][films][few][seen]
日本語：	最近映画を少ししか観ない。

English:	He has few friends in Japan
Jenglish:	[Japan][in][he][friends][few][has]
日本語：	日本に彼は友達が少ししかない。

Let's check out the Internet and see some other examples. However, from my Googling, I get the impression that the use of 少ししか is not quite as straight-forward as I would have thought.

Example 1:

This example comes from here.

日本語：	時折、愛が地球に十分にないように思えたり、少ししかないような不安を感じることもあります。
Jenglish:	[sometimes], [love] [SP] [the Earth] [in] [enough] [not] [looks like] [seems], [few] [anxiety][feel][also]

Well, this is a tough one. I feel like I know what the translation is, but I just can't get put together the English equivalent. So, despite it probably being wrong, this is my translation: Sometimes it seems as if there is not enough love in the World and I also feel anxious.

Example 2:

Here's another example taken from here.

日本語：	いつもラーメンを少ししか食べずに帰ってしまうお客がいて、気になったラーメン屋が後をつけると……という話。
Jenglish:	[always] [ramen] [few] [not eat] [return + regret] [customer] [are], [worry] [ramen shop owner] [to tag along, to follow] [] [called] [story]

OK, I had to admit defeat in translating this one. The first part seemed reasonably straight-forward, but the second part completely threw me. I'm translating ラーメン屋 as 'ramen shop owner' as it makes more sense. 後をつける doesn't make much sense and the following と also seems odd. So, regrettably I admit defeat and can only come up with There are regrettably always customers that return and eat little ramen and worried ramen shop owners ????

Example 3:

Here's a hopefully simple example taken from here.

日本語：	少ししか登場しないのに妙に印象に残ってるキャラ。
Jenglish:	[few] [appearances (on screen)] [to do][despite][unusual] [impression] [remain] [characters (from anime)]

To be honest, I thought this one was pretty easy - hopefully I got it right. My translation is Characters that have left a lasting impression despite few appearances.

またね・・・