they’re singing とき but they mean ‘a human life’, which is a timespan. I’m not a poet, or a poetry scholar, but I can kind of see how time is a transient thing, like in sayings like "time flies’.
And I can’t work out the last part: でいようよ
Translations have it as something like “lets be” or “We’ll be” but I can’t seem to parse it in any way that makes sense to me.
いよう is the volitional form of いる (to be/to exist). Then よ is just adding emphasis. So then 他人でいようよ means the ‘Let’s be strangers’ like you mentioned. て+いる is referring to a ‘state of being’ in this case. In the case of saying a state of being with nouns and na-adjectives the て becomes で.
As another example with 平気. To say ‘to be in the state of calmness’ (or less literally ‘to remain calm’) you would say 平気でいる.
Also, ている with volitional expresses an intention or will to continually do something.
I sometimes like it when the ‘(English) meaning’ is just the Japanese pronunciation, because it reemphasizes the Japanese in my brain, and 東 is one of the earlier kanji I learned so I more easily recognize it as east.
どんまい has been explained to me as meaning “don’t worry about it”. Recently I bought the どんまいなペンギン図鑑 (admittedly above my reading level but I’m a sucker for penguins) and I’m having a hard time understanding how to translate どんまいな. For example: どんまいなペンギンのひみつ。Is it describing the penguin as saying don’t worry about it? Like a carefree penguin?
I recently got to the kanji 欧 おうfor Europe, and now also have the vocab for Europe and the USA: 欧米 おうべい
The problem is the synonyms here: 欧米 = “America And Europe, Usa And Europe, Europe And Usa, The West”. But there are also some question marks about 欧 also.
Because there is a difference between the geographical concepts and the geopolitical ones. North America is not the same as the USA, and confusingly, at times Europe is interpreted as being the EU. Especially, since one synonym here is “The West”, which is even broader in span, but is used geopolitically usually.
So what does 欧 おう and 欧米 おうべい, mean in Japanese?
Are we talking geographical locations, the continents? Or are we talking the about the union of countries in Europe and of the states in the USA.
In the wider sense 欧米 means the three continents of Europe, North America and South America. In a narrower sense it means the EU, USA and Canada, and might include the UK, Australia and New Zealand as well. It might also be thought of as The West.
Well technically it’s not yet true… the official date is Jan 1st 2021 afaik. But I also had to chuckle and was sad at the same time about the original statement
I want to send a holiday (as in the winter holidays) card to my Japanese teacher and I was wondering what greeting phrase would be best. I know あけましておめでとうございます for New Year’s, but is there a “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” type of phrase that would be good for this situation?
Japanese has many greeting/end phrases you can use for cards depending on the season.
If your japanese is up to par you can use a site like this 時候の挨拶・季節の挨拶10月（神無月）上旬・中旬・下旬別の使用例も | 手紙の書き方 to get some you like (this site is specifically for october for example)
I had forgotten about 良いお年を. I did learn that last new year, but I haven’t really had much reason to use it since so it slipped my mind.
I would prefer to avoid メリークリスマス if there is another option. I tend not to use it in English so it feels doubly weird to use it in Japanese.
@downtimes That looks like a really cool site and I’m going to bookmark it. Unfortunately, my just-barely-above-N5 Japanese isn’t good enough to get much out of it yet.
AFAIK Japanese doesn’t have anything close to “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings,” because although there are people in Japan who celebrate various holidays in December (Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.), that’s a small portion of the population, and it’s not something that is generally remarked upon outside of those religious groups. Secular Christmas has taken hold in Japan, but it’s not actually that significant to most people–especially not when it’s followed so closely by お正月, the biggest and most significant holiday in the year for most Japanese people.
So I would suggest that you have two choices:
Write from your own cultural context. Send the card in early December, write “Happy Holidays” in English, and just include some general words of thanks like,「今年は大変お世話になりました。来年もよろしくお願いいたします。」(Note that you use 今年・来年 because of the timing; these would be 昨年・新年 in a 年賀状.) Your Japanese teacher knows that you aren’t Japanese, and you can trust that he/she will likely understand and appreciate your good wishes in whatever form they take.
Go whole hog on sending a Japanese-style 年賀状 (New Year’s card). It’s fun! You can find simple instructions online, e.g. here or here. You’ll probably have to make your own if you’re outside of Japan, but the good news is that it’s 100% okay to copy-paste the suggested phrases, no need for difficult creative input on your side. (You could always personalize with a short message in English, even.) Just remember to write 年賀 in red near the stamp, so that the post office will know to save your card to be delivered on January 1st.
