Did I understand/translate this correctly? #2

[Nenad]

２７日、高知大学で「寒中水泳」がありました。

On 27th of January, “swimming in the middle of winter” was held at Kōchi University.

水泳部の学生たちが、寒さに負けない強い体にするために６０年以上前からしている行事で、冬のいちばん寒いころプールに入ります。

The university swimming club didn’t lose to the cold due to their strong bodies, for more than 60 years of going to this event, going to the pool in the harshest winter weather.

今年は３０人ぐらいが参加しました。

This year, about 30 people participated in the event.

水泳部以外の学生もいました。

There were participants other than the students from the swimming club.

学生たちは、プールの冷たい水に飛び込むと、大きな声で「寒い」とか「痛い」などと言って、寒さを我慢していました。

Students were enduring the cold by loudly exclaiming things like: “It’s cold,” “Ah!” and the like, just after they jumped into the freezing water of the pool.

氷を持ってプールの中を走って、途中で冷たい物を食べるゲームもしました。

They held shaved ice, ran in the middle of the pool, ate cold food midway, and played games.

学生たちはプールから出ると、すぐに火やストーブの近くに行って体を暖めていました。

The students, upon getting out, immediately went to the fire and stove nearby, to warm themselves.

初めて参加した水泳部の学生は「これよりつらいことはないと思うので、今年は何でもチャレンジする１年にしたいです」と話していました。

First time participating swim club student told us: “There is nothing harder than this I think, but this year, my freshman year, I want to challenge myself.”

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I already posted this on r/NHKEasyNews, but no-one responded, and I’m curious how well I did (or did not). You can find the original news article here.

[crihak]

Mostly right I think, but I found a few points to clarify.

@Nenad

水泳部の学生たちが、寒さに負けない強い体にするために６０年以上前からしている行事で、冬のいちばん寒いころプールに入ります。

The university swimming club didn’t lose to the cold due to their strong bodies, for more than 60 years of going to this event, going to the pool in the harshest winter weather.

Xにする sort of means “in order to” (you attempt to make things into X), so they do this in order for the students to have strong bodies that will withstand the cold, not the other way around.

@Nenad

“It’s cold,” “Ah!”

Ah!" sounds a bit more like surprise… I guess 痛い would become something like “ow!”, “ouch!” or similar exclamations of pain

@Nenad

氷を持ってプールの中を走って、途中で冷たい物を食べるゲームもしました。

They held shaved ice, ran in the middle of the pool, ate cold food midway, and played games.

氷 is just ice, not shaved ice. And I think the って means that they “ran” in the pool while holding it. (I’m unsure whether 走る can mean any means of rapid movement, similar to how cars 走る down the street, since running in the pool seems unlikely)

Also, the aforementioned things were examples of the games being played. (It’s a subordinate clause describing ゲーム)

@Nenad

初めて参加した水泳部の学生は「これよりつらいことはないと思うので、今年は何でもチャレンジする１年にしたいです」と話していました。

First time participating swim club student told us: “There is nothing harder than this I think, but this year, my freshman year, I want to challenge myself”

ので means “therefore” or “because”, not “but”. So it’s because they think this, not despite.

Also I think 一年 just means “(one) year” not freshman year specifically. So more like “I want to make this a year where…” or similar.

[Nenad]

First of all, thank you for the corrections.

@crihak

Xにする sort of means “in order to” (you attempt to make things into X), so they do this in order for the students to have strong bodies that will withstand the cold, not the other way around.

Secondly, where did you learn that? I tried searching it on BunPro, but couldn’t find it. The only meaning of にする is “to decide on.”

[Vanilla]

@crihak

Xにする sort of means “in order to”

You have the thing in parentheses right, but I think you worded this part wrong. The にする is the “make into x” part and the ために is the “in order to”.

[Vanilla]

@Nenad

Secondly, where did you learn that? I tried searching it on BunPro, but couldn’t find it. The only meaning of にする is “to decide on.”

suru just has “make into” as one of its definitions.

to cause to become; to make (into); to turn (into)​

Its not a fancy grammar point as much as it is just using a verb normally so you prolly wont find much.

[crihak]

This is what I tried to explain, and also where I initially learned it: Various uses of 「する」 and 「なる」 - Tae Kim's Japanese grammar guide

EDIT: weird… that link only seems to explain the “decide on” part… but I’m sure I learned in Tae Kim SOMEWHERE as “do towards” or similar…

Also “in order to” is probably not a good way to translate にする in general, it was just the best way I could think of to convey this particular sentence in English since “to make it into the students having strong bodies that do not lose to the cold” sounds pretty weird But it might have made my correction easier to understand…

EDIT 2: Tae Kim sort of hints at this usage in the last section on する/なる with verbs (even though it holds for adjectives as well)… maybe I got it from there?