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- A Warm Person: 温かい人
A Warm Person: 温かい人
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We didn't used to say「あたたかい人」 in Japanese.
昔は日本語では「あたたかい人」とは言いませんでした。
This is a direct translation from the English expression "warm person".
これは「warm person」という英語表現の直訳です。
Calling someone a warm person was quite strange.
人のことを「温かい」というのは非常におかしな話だったのです。
There should be a countless number of examples like this.
こうした例は、枚挙にいとまがないと思います。
One that comes to my mind as a recent example is 「リスクを取る」(take a risk).
最近の例だと「リスクを取る」というのがあります。
We used to say 「リスクを冒す」, not 「リスクを取る」.
昔は「リスクを冒す」と言っていて、「リスクを取る」とは言いませんでした。
Just up until a couple of years ago, I thought this was such a lame misuse, by those young people who don't make any effort to learn their own language, Japanese.
ほんの2、3年前まで私は、これは自分たちの言葉である日本語を少しも学ぼうとしない若い人達による、残念な間違いだと思っていました。
As I studied English over the course of years, I have found so many English idioms that have exact counterparts in Japanese. At first, I thought most are just mere coincidence, but later, I noticed some are not. I think someone, or a group of people in the past, say about a hundred years ago, have directly translated some expressions and idioms into Japanese. If that's the case, what's wrong with saying 「リスクを取る」? If we adopt this new phrase, our kids will have less problem when learning English.
昔は日本語では「あたたかい人」とは言いませんでした。
This is a direct translation from the English expression "warm person".
これは「warm person」という英語表現の直訳です。
Calling someone a warm person was quite strange.
人のことを「温かい」というのは非常におかしな話だったのです。
There should be a countless number of examples like this.
こうした例は、枚挙にいとまがないと思います。
One that comes to my mind as a recent example is 「リスクを取る」(take a risk).
最近の例だと「リスクを取る」というのがあります。
We used to say 「リスクを冒す」, not 「リスクを取る」.
昔は「リスクを冒す」と言っていて、「リスクを取る」とは言いませんでした。
Just up until a couple of years ago, I thought this was such a lame misuse, by those young people who don't make any effort to learn their own language, Japanese.
ほんの2、3年前まで私は、これは自分たちの言葉である日本語を少しも学ぼうとしない若い人達による、残念な間違いだと思っていました。
As I studied English over the course of years, I have found so many English idioms that have exact counterparts in Japanese. At first, I thought most are just mere coincidence, but later, I noticed some are not. I think someone, or a group of people in the past, say about a hundred years ago, have directly translated some expressions and idioms into Japanese. If that's the case, what's wrong with saying 「リスクを取る」? If we adopt this new phrase, our kids will have less problem when learning English.
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私の意見では、時間が過ぎると共に、言語が変わっていく。
Calling someone a warm person is (seems to beも大丈夫です）quite strange.
There should be a countless number of examples like this .
I am slightly confused here. Not sure if you meant "there exists a countless example like this" or " if you meant there should be countless example, but you just haven't come upon them yet".
A recent example One that comes to my mind as a recent example is 「リスクを取る」(to take a risk).
We used to say 「リスクを冒す」instead of 「リスクを取る」.
Just up until a couple of years ago, I thought this was such a lame misuse,(no need for comma here)by the young Japanese people who didn't make any effort to learn their own language.
As I studied English over the course of years, I have found so many English idioms that (toも大丈夫） have exact counterparts in Japanese.
At first, I thought most were just mere coincidence, but I realized later that some were not later, I noticed some are not.
I think someone, or a group of people in the past, say about a hundred years ago, must have directly translated some English expressions and idioms into Japanese.
If that's the case, what's wrong with saying 「リスクを取る」? I think not.
I just put "I think not" there to make it more complete, because if you don't answer the question then the question just kind of hangs there and it's up to people's interpretation for the answer of this question. But in this case, it's more of your opinion than others'.
If we adopt this new phrase in Japanese, our kids will encounter less problems when learning English.
Just kidding. LOL
謝々! I appreciate your corrections!
By the way, shouldn't "countless example" be "countless examples"? I'm confused.
Anyways, yes, I agree with you. I should have made it more clear.
Just up until a couple of years ago, I thought this was such a lame misuse, by those young people who didn't make any effort to learn their own language, Japanese.
As I studied English over the course of years, I have found so many English idioms that have no exact counterparts in Japanese.
At first, I thought most were just mere coincidence, but later, I noticed some are not.thought is past tense so instead of using "are" you should use "were" to maintain agreement between tenses
I think someone, or a group of people in the past, say about a hundred years ago, have/has directly translated some expressions and idioms into Japanese.someone is singular, so it should be matched with a singular verb (has). People, on the other hand, is plural, so it should be matched with (have).
If we adopt this new phrase, our kids will have fewer problems when learning English.I think this sounds more natural; also, when you use less you usually refer to a single thing. However, assuming that there is more than one problem in learning English ( this is very likely) fewer seems to be a better fit.
There should be a countless number of examples like this. [Alternative: There are probably many examples like this.]
"Should be" sounds a bit strange.
"Countless" by itself is a common exaggeration-- "There are probably countless examples of this"-- but "a countless number" sounds strange to me. That might be only because I'm a mathematician, however. :-)
As I studied English over the course of years, I have found (so) many English idioms that have exact counterparts in Japanese.
"I have found" speaks of a present condition-- the result of those studies. It conflicts with "As I studied", which speaks of something occurring during the time you were studying.
At first, I thought most are/were just mere coincidence(s), but later, I noticed (that) some are not.
Perhaps you mean "found out" rather than "noticed"?
I think someone, or a group of people in the past, say about a hundred years ago, have directly translated some expressions and idioms into Japanese.
You're talking about an action which was completed in the distant past; the simple past tense is more appropriate for this than the present perfect tense.
If we adopt this new phrase, our kids will have less difficulty when learning English. [Alternative: ... will have fewer problems...]
"Problem" is a count noun.
I wrote a series of entries about the simple past, present perfect and past perfect tenses which might be of some use to you, though:
http://lang-8.com/48539/journals/737185/Simple-Past%252C-Present-Perfect-and-Past-Perfect-Tenses
http://lang-8.com/48539/journals/738157/The-Present-Perfect-Tense-and-how-it-Compares-to-the-Simple-Past-Tense
http://lang-8.com/48539/journals/739250/The-Past-Perfect-Tense
I dislike some of the word-for-word translations of phrases; I would rather learn 「リスクを冒す」, for example, than 「リスクを取る」-- and I certainly hope that no one starts saying 「リスクを走る」.^^ I can see importing an English word or phrase when there was no convenient equivalent in Japanese to begin with, but I find the many 外来語 which are replacing perfectly good Japanese words kind of annoying.
We might be saying リスクを走る or 私は熱が走ってるの someday!
You seem a bit more annoyed than me with the trend! If that helps young kids who are starting learning English, I think, we even intentionally replace words and phrase. We may lose something important, but we gain a lot, probably a whole lot more, in return.
In terms the number of native speakers, yes, Mandarin is huge. But, I don't know. English has a completely different position than any other language and will remain so for the at least a couple of decades. If what we are witnessing is the advent of the planetary civilization, this time might be different. English could be the final lingua franca unlike Latin, French or old Chinese etc,. Lots of Japanese business people say you should learn Mandarin because it is as important as English. Personally, I don't buy that. But then again, you can never tell.