Thanks for your questions - all very pertinent .

1. I tend to ignore the dictionary translations and think of みょうに (妙に) as “kind of ~”, “strangely ~” or “weirdly ~ ” in English. So for example 妙に感動する would be “weirdly emotionally moved”, or “emotionally moved in a strange way”. So the sentence you quoted - みょうにさめているかんじがするんです - means “I get the sort of feeling/a strange feeling he’s attacking me”.

2. 感じがする is a set phrase meaning “get the feeling that ~”.

3. This is one of those cases where it actually hinders you to read the hiragana rather than the kanji . The original sentence is お友達の輪に入らないですし感情表現というか。。。　The three particles which you mentioned are actually not all particles: の輪に (no wa ni) means “into the circle”.

4. じゃあるまい is the same as じゃない, but more masculine/archaic. I use it when I’m joking sometimes, or to emphasize something. So here it would be something like “You’re NOT a new teacher” or “You’re definitely not a new teacher”.

5.Again, let’s take a look at the kanji: 当てても何も言いません。 The verb here is 当てる (あてる）, which literally means “to hit” or “to hit the mark” (among other things), but here is used colloquially to mean “to know the right answer”.

6. 心を開かせようと、色々努力しているんですが・・・一向に。The verb 開かせる (ひらかせる) means “to make something open). よう is a separate grammatical construction (not part of the verb) meaning “to attempt to”, “to aim at”, or “so that”. So yes you’re right, ようと means “trying to”, here.

7. その辺りを親御さんに婉曲に聞いてみてください。You’re absolutely right - 婉曲に　(えんきょくに) means “euphemistically” or perhaps more appropriately here “tactfully”, so “Please try tactfully asking his parents about it”. I must admit the translation of this sentence in particular could be much better !

I hope this helps you a bit. I really do recommend avoiding the pure-hiragana passages unless you’re really and truly stuck; as you’ve found, it’s very hard to separate parts of speech when there are no kanji to tell you what’s a verb, what’s a noun and what’s a particle!

みょうに　妙に　Means in a strange manner or strangely.

さめる　冷める　Means to cool down one’s interest.

I’ll let someone else explain the が　in 感じがする。　が　Always gives me fits.

The わ　In　のわに　Is not a particle. わ　Never is as far as I know. Perhaps you are thinking of は。　Anyway, check the kanji.　This　わ　is 輪 which in this case means circle, as in circle of friends.

あるまいし　is explained in the recording if I recall, but here’s a link you might find useful. It might be a flawed explanation, but I think of it as a version of じゃないだろう？　http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4734

あてて　is 当てる　which in this context means “to know the answer”.

The verb used in ひらかせよう　is 開く　ひらく　meaning To Open. The teacher is trying to open the student’s heart. I think you’d call this conjugation the causative case, though I get those terms confused.

えんきょく　婉曲　means indirectly. So, the sensei is saying try to ask the parents about this in a roundabout, indirect, tactful fashion.

“みょうにさめているかんじがするんです” Okay.. ‘myou ni’… what does this mean? Typing myou into the JPod dictionary comes back with three meanings, of which I assume ’strange, unusual’ is the correct one here? Also I’m not sure what ’semeru’ means here. Doesn’t it mean to blame? Also, ‘kanji ga suru’, why is ‘ga’ the particle used here?

“おともだちのわにはいらないで” The combination of three particles together here - no, wa, and ni’. I wasn’t aware you could put three particles together like this! What do they all do here?

“あなたもしんじんのせんせいじゃあるまいし”. What does ‘arumai’ mean?

“あててもなにもいいません” - What is the verb used here? (’atete’)

“こころをひらかせようと、いろいろどりょくしているんですが・・・いっこうに” Few things here - “hirakase you” What verb is this? And the construction ‘you to’ means ‘trying to’?

“そのあたりをおやごさんにえんきょくにきいてみてください” The word I’m lost on here is ‘enkyoku’. The English in vocab list is “euphemistic, circumlocution”, which means to mask something unpleasant with nicer language. This is nowhere to be seen in the translation however, which simply says “So try and ask the student’s parents about this”

All most confusing. This lesson is I have to say, very difficult!

I hope this helps.

“妙にさめている”?

And does it have a kanji?
覚める、冷める。。？

Thank you.

BTW I do not catch さめている at the beginning of the dialog, nor 当てても in the middle. Any hint? Thanks.

In the romaji transcript, is “o-yago-san” correct? It seems to me that it should be hyphenated as oyago-san since the first kanji is oya = parent(s) [i.e. the o is not honorific prefix here].

Could someone tell me what “ikkō ni” means please?

Thanks!