I’m here, just lack questions that aren’t answered since I’m now behind. Still fighting with my car and about to go SS3 on the mechanic as the check engine light has come on again (same code) for a third time. I don’t have time for this and that I transport two toddlers in it means I can’t have it failing in freezing temperatures with them in it and adds a major mama bear factor. SS3 Bear. Would say heads are going to roll but really they’re going to be mauled and evaporated in a ki blast.
But I’m still here. On page 35 now so almost caught up.
Flags, rectangular cases, that dimensions and shape look mostly the same, the United Nations decided this things Horrible translation, I know… If somebody could tweak it…
「国旗を ならべる ときは、大きさを そろえる」と いう ルールが あるのです。
We need rules to say “When it’s time to line up of flags, get in order the size”
でも、ほんとうは、国旗の 形や 大きさは 国に よって ちがいます。
But, in reality, flag shapes and dimensions are different for that reason what?
I usually think of it as “but”, but while working on this sentence I checked the basic Japanese grammar dictionary, and it says:
Ga, like but in English, combines two sentences which express contrastive ideas. However, ga is much weaker than but in that it is sometimes used simply to combine two sentences for stylistic reasons even if those two sentences do not represent contrastive ideas…
Your literal translation seems accurate to me.
I think @twktg’s translation is one way of rendering it into better style in English.
For an in between sort of translation, I’d propose:
When flags are rectangular, they appear to have nearly the same size and shape. This has been decided by the United Nations.
I feel the same, but also that I’ve made some progress. I guess I’m just accepting that some sentences are invariably put together in a very weird way compared to English. I’m trying to stop translating literally and just trying to …“understand” instead, I guess. Once I do, I translate into English in my own words. But it’s not an easy process! Also, maybe this will not help me when I have to compose sentences. One thing at the time…
Sorry for going back a bit, but I think there is a small detail in the following sentence that might have been overlooked (apologies if it’s already in previous comments - I couldn’t find it):
ところが、世界には まったくべつの国なのに、国旗が ほとんど 同じに 見える ところが あります。
First ところが = However.
Second ところが（あります) = there are places.
Great, but what places? 国旗がほとんど同じに見えるところ = places where you can see almost identical national flags.. So this is defining what kind of ところ this is.
So altogether: There are places（ところがあります） in the world （世界には）where, although the countries are completely different（まったく別の国なのに）, you can see almost identical national flags（国旗がほとんど同じに見える）.
