なぜ?どうして?Finished!

Page 102 - 103

Given the も, would it be right to insert “as much as” into your translation?

一年だと 十二センチメートル のびるんですね。

“In the case of 1 year, it would grow as much as 12 centimeters, right?”

I’m going by definition 3.

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I’d kind of ignored the も but I like your translation of “as much as”.

“No less than” would also make sense.

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Yeah I like both. When I was translating I was going for “even”, but I was if one month is 1 cm, of course 12 months is 12 cm. It didn’t make sense to add “even” there

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Page 103

男の人より、女の人の ほうが のびる スピードが はやいようです。

The growing speed seems faster in women than men.

もし、うまれてから 一度も かみの毛を 切らずに のばしたら、足元まで のびるかも しれませんね。

If your hair grew long because it was never cut since the day you were born, it might grow down to your feet.

北アメリカの ジャマイカには、自分の 体を、とても 大切な ものと とらえている 人たちが います。

In Jamaica in North America, there are people for whom “capturing one’s own body” is a very important thing.

自分の体をとらえる is presumably an idiom but I can’t find it

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Page 103

Here’s my breakdown of the second sentence:

もし - if
うまれてから - from being born
一度も - not even once
かみの毛を - hair plus を
切らず - not cutting (zu form)
に - because of
のばしたら - のばす (to grow long) in past conditional - if it was to grow long
足元まで - down to one’s feet
のびる - growing
かも しれません - may - see this reference
ね - sentence ending particle seeking agreement

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Page 103:

男の人より、女の人の ほうが のびる スピードが はやいようです。

Women hair grow faster than men

もし、生まれてから 一度も かみの毛を 切らずに のばしたら、足元まで のびるかも しれませんね。

What @Micki said :stuck_out_tongue:

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Ahhh you beat me again! I was doing from the phone, dictating the Japanese part (which is working surprisingly well. I might have an awesome Japanese accent :P)

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Ah, とらえる can also mean “to perceive”, so perhaps “regard their bodies as very important” makes more sense.

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Yes, I agree. I think the とらえている could be translated as “to perceive” with the と just before it working as an indirect quote marker similar to と思う or と考える (though I’m not 100% sure about this).

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Please correct me on this but I don’t think に has a separate meaning here but is just attached to ず as ~ずに which is a little more formal than ~ないで.

Translations overall are looking great!

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You are right! This reference says the zu forms needs a に after it.

http://yesjapan.com/YJ6/question/4033/what-does-it-mean-when-you-add-zu-to-the-end-of-a-japanese-verb

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I don’t think that’s exactly right. It’s just that ず is the same as なくて and ずに is the same as ないで, so anywhere you would use なくて or ないで normally, you need to use the appropriate ず or ずに.

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Is it the case that sometimes instead of ずに you’ll see ず、? I feel like I’ve seen it without the に and instead with a comma. I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly though.

Page 103

Thank you both for your translations!

Every time I come across a comparative sentence in Japanese my vision dims, my brain starts revolving, and I just want to go to bed. It is so confusing. I’ve tried to work this out many times before but I need to do it again…

Based on your wonderful translations, I’d say:

男の人より、女の人の ほうが のびる スピードが はやいようです
menより、womenの ほうが growing speedが fastです
than men, women more, growing speedが fastです

So the より is like the “than” and the のほうが is like the “more”.

Any shortcuts to understanding this?

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Nahh… is how you got it.

Men than woman faster grow!!

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Thank you! (I guess it just boils down to seeing it often and getting used to it!). Thanks again!

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Well he looks like he might be a more reliable source than the someone posting on the yes Japan forum! I can’t follow the video well but I get the point thanks.

I agree they are tricky sentences. I think it’s because in English the word order is so important whereas in Japan the word order doesn’t seem to matter. I think that visualising the words like you have here is a helpful way of thinking about it:

“Than men, women more, growing speed, fast is” kind of makes a logical sense in English, albeit a kind of Yoda English!

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Page 100

Sorry, trying to catch up here after travelling for work without internet connection!

Wouldn’t it be simply "It was a matter of / something called ‘transferring ownership’ ", rather than “verbal agreement”?

Maggie Sensei also wrote about it, but I might be missing something, since both you and @emucat got the same translation?

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I’d noticed you were steadily catching us up! Good to have you here.

I think this was a tricky phrase that we interpreted rather loosely. From the Wikipedia page on rai stones they describe that there is no paper document saying who owns the stone, and that the stone is not moved anywhere in transfer of ownership. Instead the knowledge of who owns the stone is kept by oral tradition, and that oral tradition includes a memory of the history of the ownership of the stone.

Your translation is an interesting different view of the phrase and might be right. Although they have often used quotations marks before という when it’s used like that in this book.

EDIT- forget that last sentence. Maggie’s article is really long (she describes it as the bottomless world of という…) but I spotted the bit you are referring to. Thanks for the link!:

~というもの ( = to iu mono)

(1)What is called…/something…:

• 天ぷらアイスというものを食べた。
= Tenpura aisu to iu mono wo tabeta.
= I ate something called “Tenpura Ice”

• 恋というものは辛いものだ。
= Koi to iu mono wa tsurai mono da.
= Love is a painful thing.

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