Some questions.

[Peter]

I'll run it by some more people.

[Tensei]

You dont have to do that.

I mean, Im curious, but I doubt what hes saying is incredibly essential to the language overall.

Plus Ive listened to it in slow motion and I still cant quite make out the word that hes saying. The word after bikkuri still sounds like 'saishite' and the word after 'te koto' sounds like kaishite.

The important parts slowed down:
http://media.putfile.com/slow-89

So, anyway, could someone actually explain what hes saying? I know hes saying something along the lines of "I (was asked to) surprise (by saying) "Waa!" and it wasnt fun so I went home."

But thats only because I recognize the key words びっくり, "waa!" (he did a sort of 'I'm surprising you!' motion with his hands when he did this) and 面白くないから帰ってきたの. (Though the form 帰ってきたの kinda confuses me. Ive learned a little bit about te form + kuru/iku, but the lesson thing I read about it was really confusing)

[Airth]

So, anyway, could someone actually explain what hes saying? I know hes saying something along the lines of "I (was asked to) surprise (by saying) "Waa!" and it wasnt fun so I went home."

The way I understood it was he surprised someone who responded with a "Wa!" and then asked him to play with them, but he came back home because it wasn't interesting. As the subject is not given I may have this back to front, but that's my impression anyway.

(Though the form 帰ってきたの kinda confuses me. Ive learned a little bit about te form + kuru/iku, but the lesson thing I read about it was really confusing)

The use of kuru & iku can be quite interesting when added to other verbs. In this case it is just emphasising getting back to his home. In the same way as we can say "I returned home" or "I returned back home".

[Tensei]

The way I understood it was he surprised someone who responded with a "Wa!" and then asked him to play with them, but he came back home because it wasn't interesting.

Its the other way around, he was asked to play before he went to surprise anyone, but yeah, thats basically it.

But Im mostly interested in the mechanics of the sentence, not just a general translation, which I can figure out without really even having to know Japanese, just by the context of the sentence of the situation in the episode. So could anyone...um...break it down? (The stuff before the omoshiroku nai part)

[Bueller_007]

The way I understood it was he surprised someone who responded with a "Wa!" and then asked him to play with them, but he came back home because it wasn't interesting.

Its the other way around, he was asked to play before he went to surprise anyone, but yeah, thats basically it.

But Im mostly interested in the mechanics of the sentence, not just a general translation, which I can figure out without really even having to know Japanese, just by the context of the sentence of the situation in the episode. So could anyone...um...break it down? (The stuff before the omoshiroku nai part)

Jesus... This is like trying to determine if the voice on the tape really is Osama or not.

Okay, so from the slowed down tape, the first part is definitely: びっくりさして, a form of びっくりさせて. And the last part is いわれた. There's no doubt about that.

The rest, I have no idea. It sounds like ワアッテヲボカイ to me anyway. It's really pretty mumbled.

[redclaire]

hi, im new here and i have to ask...plz can u tell me what this sentences means?


kazoku ha okaeri mata ha okaerinasai to iimasu


douitasimasite


ima watashini hanashi kakete kudasai

juubun hana seru noni

hituyou na kazu desu


much thanx

[Bueller_007]

kazoku ha okaeri mata ha okaerinasai to iimasu

家族はお帰りまたはお帰りなさいといいます。
[The] family says "o-kaeri" or "o-kaeri nasai".

douitasimasite

どういたしまして。
You're welcome.

ima watashini hanashi kakete kudasai

今私に話しかけてください。
Please talk to me now.

juubun hana seru noni

十分話せるのに。
[I] can speak well enough though.

hituyou na kazu desu

必要な数です。
[This] is the required number.

(I hope I'm not doing your homework for you... )

[redclaire]

kazoku ha okaeri mata ha okaerinasai to iimasu

(I hope I'm not doing your homework for you... )

lol!...not at all

its just i have a japanese guy on my msn and we talk dayly...bc i want to learn japanese, i promised him to memorize japanese sentences

anyway....much thanx bueller-007 for ur help...are u japanese?...can i ask u more?

[Bueller_007]

kazoku ha okaeri mata ha okaerinasai to iimasu

(I hope I'm not doing your homework for you... )

lol!...not at all

its just i have a japanese guy on my msn and we talk dayly...bc i want to learn japanese, i promised him to memorize japanese sentences

anyway....much thanx bueller-007 for ur help...are u japanese?...can i ask u more?

Not Japanese, no.

But feel free to fire away with the questions.

BTW, if you want to learn Japanese, learn hiragana first. If you don't, there's basically a whole world of Japanese learning resources closed off to you.

And ask him to message you in hiragana AND kanji, and then you can just use a dictionary instead of having to get inconvenient romaji messages translated for you. You'll learn much faster if he doesn't spoonfeed you romaji.

[redclaire]

oh ic...but when he write me in hiragana or kanji...all what i see on my message board are cubes

[Sakura]

Hi,
I listened to Tensei-san's 4th sentence.

To me, it sounded like this
んーっとね、「びっくりさせて、ワーッて脅［おど］かして遊ぼ（う）」って言われたけど、面白くないから帰ってきちゃった。
It seems to me that someone said to him, "let's surprise them (whoever these were) and have fun," but he didn't find that idea amusing, so he came back.
The ワーッとおどかしてpart suggests that the idea was to hide somewhere and suddenly come out to frighten "them." While おどろかすis "to surprise someone," おどかす is "to frighten someone."

I think the tricky thing about this is that びっくりさせて、ワーッておどかして遊ぼ is, strictly speaking, a redundant and unnatural sentence. Usually, it's either びっくりさせて遊ぼorワーッておどかして遊ぼ; he's redundantly rephrasing びっくりさせて. But, to me, it doesn't sound SO unnatural when he says it, because he is speaking with an intonation like a child. Maybe it's the same in English, but it sounds okay for a child to say something like "Let's surprise them, and say 'boo!' to frighten them for fun."

I hope this helps

[Tensei]

Yep, that helped. Thanks. Except isnt させて （させる）a make/let/allow kind of thing? How does that びっくりさせて　translate into "Let us surprise (them)?" Then again...let us surprise them is contracted into let's...but that always struck me as having different definition than the permission kind of let. I mean, when you're saying "Let's go to the mall!" to a friend I know you're actually saying "Let us go to the mall!" but who's letting you go the mall? Your friend? Why would your friend have to give permission to go to the mall? I certainly didn't think that Japanese would share the same quirk of having "Lets" mean something that isn't really literally permission related.

Also having あそぼ right after　あどかして is just something I cant really wrap my mind around yet. I mean I get whats it's trying to say, but all the implied words involved in order to get a good English translation (Adokashite asobo is only 2 words yet a translation would be "Lets frighten (people) and have fun' is a little strange due to the fact I cant think like a Japanese person yet. Also odokasu is translated as 'to threaten' in WWWJDIC but whatever.

And its no surprise that its said in a childish way. Not only is the show meant for children, but the speaker is essentially a child.

Also that sasete still, even when I try to force my brain to hear sasete, sounds like saishite to me.

[Airth]

Thank you Sakura, it all finally becomes clear!

Tensei, I understand your confusion about させる it's because you have it in your mind that it means 'permission', which you have to try and forget. Instead, if you think of it as meaning 'cause' it will begin to make more sense.

We can 'cause' things in many different ways; one example being to allow something to happen, another to make something happen. You have to keep your mind flexible, be aware of the context, and most importantly try to free yourself from English.

[Tensei]

We can 'cause' things in many different ways; one example being to allow something to happen, another to make something happen. You have to keep your mind flexible, be aware of the context, and most importantly try to free yourself from English.

Ok...so...how does that translate into "Let's surprise (people)?"

[Airth]

Ok...so...how does that translate into "Let's surprise (people)?

Actually, it doesn't. The 'let's' part comes from the 'bou' of 遊ぼう not びっくりさせて. One of the challenging points in translation is the number of alternatives you are faced with when choosing which sentence structure to go with. If I change it to 'Let's have some fun by making people surprised' is it clearer?