WAY OT: can someone translate this?

[SevenStar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjrMI76a63U

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

I sent the link to my daughter. If she is familiar with the language she can probably do it.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

It's French, she is going to translate it as an exercise since French is the language she is studying now.

You should have it by tomorrow.

[SevenStar]

isn't she like 13?? she speaks fluent french?

[Eddie]

isn't she like 13?? she speaks fluent french?

you should see some of the kids in france.They like 5 and are already fluent in French ;)

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

She was 13 like 4 years ago.

We are looking for colleges for her already.

She is not fluent in French yet, but she is learning. She is in her second year of French.

[Jingwu Man]

I can help too if needed. :)

Is French a common subject in the US? I thought it was mostly Spanish?

[bodhitree]

you should see some of the kids in france.They like 5 and are already fluent in French ;)

here in america, it is rare for children who are born here to parents who were born here to know a second language.


its a shame

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Melissa knows German, French and is self taught in Japanese.
Plus she is developing her own language, from the grammar and sentence structure on up.


She is not fully fluent in any yet, but is really good with German, and about the same as any 2nd year student in French.

I am most impressed by her Japanese though. Being self taught, she took a class over the summer to further her skills in it and found she could have taught the class.

As for the translation, I will touch base with her on it when she gets home from school in a few hours.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Is French a common subject in the US? I thought it was mostly Spanish?

Reply]
She had a choice of Spanish, or French. She chose French in protest because *Everyone* takes Spanish.

[Jingwu Man]

Melissa knows German, French and is self taught in Japanese.
Plus she is developing her own language, from the grammar and sentence structure on up.

Oh my god! What are you feeding her, and where can I buy it?
That's awesome! Did you have to make her study hard for it, or is she just naturally gifted? Either way, cool.

[Mr Punch]

Melissa knows German, French and is self taught in Japanese.
Plus she is developing her own language, from the grammar and sentence structure on up.


She is not fully fluent in any yet, but is really good with German, and about the same as any 2nd year student in French.

I am most impressed by her Japanese though. Being self taught, she took a class over the summer to further her skills in it and found she could have taught the class.

As for the translation, I will touch base with her on it when she gets home from school in a few hours.Dood, I'm not doing your daughter or your parental pride down in any way, but you've got some seriously naive blinkers on. I've no doubt that your daughter is very talented but when you say she could have taken the Japanes class over, isn't that because she went to a class that was lower than the level she's attained by self-study? I mean, that's great, but I could say the same about myself - I went to Japanese classes that were way below my level years ago, and my level wasn't high...

The same with developing the language - a lot of kids do this to some extent - I did - and I hope she can do something with it, but in itself it's kids' play.

Fair play to her though, and good luck - I'm more worried about your idolizing of her. Mind you, I'll probably be the same when my daughter grows up - so just ignore me (more than usual!!! :D )

[Mr Punch]

you should see some of the kids in france.They like 5 and are already fluent in French ;)LOL :D


here in america, it is rare for children who are born here to parents who were born here to know a second language.


its a shameLOL x2! :D :D Read his post again dood!

[Shaolin Wookie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjrMI76a63U

I'll watch it later and post if RD's daughter hasn't tackled it yet. I've got four years of undergrad French on my transcripts.;)

[Mas Judt]

It roughly translates as:

"oh my ghod, there's a shark."
"No, no that's not a shark! It's Seven!"
"Impossible, Tennesseans can't dive, that's a shark."
"No, It's Seven!"
"Ahhhhh Ahhhghhgghhh! URGH! ow!ooowwwww!ooww holy bleeding monkrys owwww!!!
ugh, ugh, urtl..."

Or something like that.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Melissa says the beginning is

"Luke and Fefe in Punket Dive."

She said the rest is too garbled, and the guy is slurring his words too much for her to make it out. You probably need someone more fluent than her.

She also says she hates French, and will not take another semester of it unless someone puts a gun to her head.

[Jingwu Man]

Yeah, he has a really heavy France accent, and it sounds like some African too. Lots of French slang too.
Anyway, here's what I got--

Si seulement tu m'aimais comme je t'aime
If only you loved me like I love you
on n'en serait pas la
we wouldn't be here
Et si tu lis c'mot, c'est que j'ai du rentrer chez moi
and if you read these words, it's because i had to return home
pourtant j'ai plante d'vant ta porte pendant un mois
yet i camped in front of your door for a month
t'as ouvert c'etait pour m'insulter, mais j'comprends ta peur
you opened, it was to insult me, but i understand, you're afraid
j'fais figure de mauvais gars dans l'quartier
I pretend to be a gangster (badass) in the neighborhood
j'fais pas local c'est vrai, mais en public
i don't do it around you it's true, just in public
tu vantes mes qualites, loin des prejuges stupides
you celebrate my qualities, far from stupid prejudices
et des laius sur la mortalite, sur la modernite
and speeches on mortality, on modernity
des obligations dont j'aurais du m'acquitter
obligations that i should have quit
aujourd'hui il pleut des cordes, et sur le tarmac
today it's raining sheets, and on the tarmac
l'eau traverse mon sac pour mouiller mes diplomes.....
water comes though my bag to soak my degrees (diplomas).......

[Shaolin Wookie]

That's too complicated for a good rap song. These French guys have the game all wrong.

I didn't see one "beeyatch", "ho", or "forty" in all of that.

[Mr Punch]

That's too complicated for a good rap song. These French guys have the game all wrong.

I didn't see one "beeyatch", "ho", or "forty" in all of that.Pah, MC Solaar PWNS you US rappers! But then I only like the hiphop that hasn't been totally dumbed down by gangsta bull.

[Eddie]

RD, you should tell your daughter to keep up with her French. if you can speak french, portugese and english, you should have no problem tourning africa.

Mr Punch,
:cool: didnt think anyone caught that one ;)

[Pork Chop]

Dood, I'm not doing your daughter or your parental pride down in any way, but you've got some seriously naive blinkers on. I've no doubt that your daughter is very talented but when you say she could have taken the Japanes class over, isn't that because she went to a class that was lower than the level she's attained by self-study? I mean, that's great, but I could say the same about myself - I went to Japanese classes that were way below my level years ago, and my level wasn't high...


Gotta remember, Japanese is one of those languages that seems easy after a year or two... people start thinking fluency is just a sheer function of time...then they get deeper into the grammar and realize that the progression isn't linear, it's geometric and it gets a lot harder as you go.

Just wait'll she gets a little further into verb conjugations, with stuff like Passive, Potential, Causative, and Causative-Passive. And don't even get me started on stuff like onyomi & kunyomi, keigo, non-feasibility, and different uses of tsumori.
There will be pain, oh yes, there will be suffering. :D

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

RD, you should tell your daughter to keep up with her French. if you can speak french, portugese and english, you should have no problem tourning africa.

Reply]
I don't think she wants to go to africa.

Gotta remember, Japanese is one of those languages that seems easy after a year or two... people start thinking fluency is just a sheer function of time...then they get deeper into the grammar and realize that the progression isn't linear, it's geometric and it gets a lot harder as you go.

Just wait'll she gets a little further into verb conjugations, with stuff like Passive, Potential, Causative, and Causative-Passive. And don't even get me started on stuff like onyomi & kunyomi, keigo, non-feasibility, and different uses of tsumori.
There will be pain, oh yes, there will be suffering

Reply]
She is running into issues with that now....that is why she took that classs. She
's going to take more next year in college. I want her to take Mandarin to translate stuff, but she is rebellious and doing Japanese to spite me. :(

[Mr Punch]

non-feasibilityWhat's that?
and different uses of tsumori.えーっ、例えば？

[Pork Chop]

What's that?えーっ、例えば？

For feasibility-
The inability to not do: 「～ざるを得ない」
The inability to stop doing something: 「やむを得ない」
Expressing what can't be done: 「～かねる」
Expressing what might be possible: 「かねない」

Uses of つもり
行くつもり　-　I plan on going
行ったつもり　- I thought I would go
This may not be a good example, but past tense before the tsumori can come out a little wonky sometimes.

Seriously though, any of the topics covered in Making Sense of Japanese has the potential to give the majority of beginner to intermediate students of Japanese some SEVERE headaches.

[street_fighter]

i hear ya. Japanese just never ends. Every year you think your comming to the end, but your just getting deeper, and deeper. I find mandarin ALOT easier than japanese, although the kanji is f*cking me over, its a good transition. i keep wanting to use japanese particles though...

Not sure whatcha mean by the tsumori difficulty... I always found the "have to" forms in Japanese to be a pain in the ass (~nakereba narimasen, ~nakute mo ii desu etc.) when you get into the different tenses and stuff. its such a mouth full too. I usually avoid it, and use hazu da or something... i'm rambling:o.

[Pork Chop]

This year I've picked up more japanese probably than any other year I've studied (started 1993); but I think this is also the first time I've ever thought the language was hard, like harder than Chinese, and that it'll just keep getting harder.

most of the writing and speaking i do is informal, so i just say　～なきゃ and/or ～ないと　for situations of "gotta"　(leave off the "なりません" or　"だめ" at the end)

Usually save my ～はずs for situations where I'd expect something to be so

While we're at it, for stuff I should do it's:
～たほうがいい　For stuff I REALLY should/shoulda do/done.
～うほうがいい　（例えば：　行くほうがいい） For stuff I should do.
～ばいい For stuff that would be good should it happen.

With the つもり thing i was talking about, it wasn't an issue till i saw something along the lines of 「死んだつもりだったら何でも出来る」 that was translated like "The person who believes they are already dead can accomplish anything". Made me take a double take after years of using つもり like: 日本語能力試験を受けるつもり ie "I plan on taking the JLPT".

Oh and call me crazy or uneducated, but the first time I tried to order food in Japan, I coulda sworn they were speaking a different language
店内で召し上がりますか？ "Will you be eating here?"
何にしますか？ お決まりですか？ "What will you have? Have you decided?"
The words I was expecting in those phrases just weren't there.

[Mr Punch]

For feasibility-
The inability to not do: 「～ざるを得ない」
The inability to stop doing something: 「やむを得ない」
Expressing what can't be done: 「～かねる」
Expressing what might be possible: 「かねない」OK... not such common constructs. I've heard them and understand them but not so much, and never felt I needed to use them!


Uses of つもり
行くつもり　-　I plan on going
行ったつもり　- I thought I would go
This may not be a good example, but past tense before the tsumori can come out a little wonky sometimes.Oh yeah, that got me once and then I asked someone about it and: problem solved. But yeah, the language is a minefield no doubt.

[Mr Punch]

Oh and call me crazy or uneducated, but the first time I tried to order food in Japan, I coulda sworn they were speaking a different language
店内で召し上がりますか？ "Will you be eating here?"
何にしますか？ お決まりですか？ "What will you have? Have you decided?"
The words I was expecting in those phrases just weren't there.LOL, I hear that!

[Pork Chop]

OK... not such common constructs. I've heard them and understand them but not so much, and never felt I needed to use them!


That's the problem with basing my training around JLPT. A lot of it's somewhat obscure but necessary to pass. Occasionally I'll hear "kanenai" though for "not impossible".

The last month has been terrible for studying. Not going to get back on it till after I move. Working out's kinda going out the window the past couple weeks as well. :(

[Pork Chop]

Minor correction.



most of the writing and speaking i do is informal, so i just say　～なきゃ and/or ～ないと　for situations of "gotta"　(leave off the "なりません" or　"だめ" at the end)


Know not many probably even care but just found out from my girl on monday that guys don't say ～なきゃ. I'd always known that they didn't say ～なくちゃ, that it was kinda girlie; but now I guess both are out. According to her, guys always use ～なくては.

Was also surprised to find out guys don't use ～ちゃう or ～ちゃった, when they screw up or did something completely, instead sticking with the less fun to say ～てしまう.

Pretty soon I guess I'll be transforming every ～ます into ～っす like a proper dude. hehe

[street_fighter]

I've watched enough japanese softcore porn to know ~chau is a girly structure. i didn't know nakucha was strictly a girl thing, but i still wouldn't have used it, largely due to this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzjK92fZfzM

As much as thats possibly the best the video ever made, I don't think talking like that would help me pick up any chicks... god ninjas are awesome.

[Pork Chop]

ok that video was just disturbing.

yah ~chau in pron definitely something a female would be saying.
but i've heard a few guys use "koborechattayo" for "dang it, I spilled it" when talking about a beer or whatever.

of all those expressions i listed as being female ~nakucha is the one I've been called on anytime I've used it, whereas the others I never heard a peep about until Monday; even occasionally using them in class.