The 'how do you say that' thread

[Jembru]

On the old forum we had a thread for tricky English-> Japanese translations that I remember used to be quite interesting.  Since then, I've discovered better methods of working out translations (if 'ask my friends' or 'use an online dictionary' count as 'methods'), but what I have found is that not only are there often a good hanful of different ways of expressing the same idea, but I've also thought I'd settled the issue and had the difinitive perfect translation, only to realise months down the line that there's an even simpler/common way of expressing the idea. 

So I figured it might be interesting to start the thread again. I used to post a mixture of sentences I had already cleared up with native speaking friends, as well as some I was genuinely stumped on. I think I'll do the same here,  but as before, I'll leave sharing my version until I've read the suggestions from others.

I hope Midori spots this thread, because I remember she really enjoyed the old version! 

Lets go then. 

1) This was the first one I ever posted in the old forum. To this day I've never been that comfortable with the way I have to word this so it's worth throwing it out again.. 

 'The lid has fallen down the side of the oven and I can't reach it'.  <- it's the concept of 'reaching' that always caused me trouble. There must be a better way of expressing this than using 手を伸ばす.  

2)  'I keep falling behind with my anki reviews and it takes a few days to get fully caught up'

I usually cheat and end up rewording this altogether by using 怠ける, but I recently used 外れる without thinking and wondered if I've picked this up from somewhere and it can indeed be used!

If anyone is practicing Japanese and gets tongue-tied or isn't sure what they said made sense, please feel free to join in the discussion here! I can't wait t get my teeth into this again.

[chocopie]

1) To reach something is 届く so if you can't reach something 手が届かない. 「蓋がオーブンの脇に落ちて、手が届かないよ。」伸ばす is more like to stretch out I think.

2) To fall behind is 〇〇が遅れる. アンキの復習が遅れがちで、ちゃんと取り戻すのは数日かかる。　I think 外れる is like 'go off track', you've deviated in some way from the plan/aim. So maybe saying 外れる makes sense in you deviating from your anki schedule?

[Jembru]

Jul 11, 2014 10:02:07 GMT chocopie said:

1) To reach something is 届く so if you can't reach something 手が届かない. 「蓋がオーブンの脇に落ちて、手が届かないよ。」伸ばす is more like to stretch out I think.

2) To fall behind is 〇〇が遅れる. アンキの復習が遅れがちで、ちゃんと取り戻すのは数日かかる。　I think 外れる is like 'go off track', you've deviated in some way from the plan/aim. So maybe saying 外れる makes sense in you deviating from your anki schedule?

Thanks so much for your reply. I was worried this thread would collect dust until Midori comes back! 

1) Ah finally! That is much less of a mouthful. Believe it or not, my original answer to this came from a Japanese person! It was 2 years ago now, but I suspect it was because they thought I was asking how to say 'reach for smth' rather than 'reach' something. My friend misunderstood my English, or  maybe I worded my question badly. That led to me then create something awkward like 蓋を取るように手を伸ばしたけど、取れなかった。 I think Midori suggested 達する might work. 

I'd heard 手が届かない as an alternative expression to 手が出ない as in 'I can't afford that', but I never made the connection that it could be used in a more literal sense too! I can be a bit awkward about using Japanese outside the exact context I learnt it in (actually why I struggled with Midori's suggestion of 'tassuru'; because I've only come across this word within the context of reaching a particular state like temperature, speed, XP and so on). I know it's an unhealthy habit, but I'm just tackling one bad habit at a time!

2) 遅れる works? I've obviously been translating this word only as 'to be late' so couldn't make that leap. I've been rewording it entirely to variations of 'I missed a day and it took me a few days to do all of my reviews' (I use 復習 for review too.. I wasn't confident on that either, but seeing you used it too is reassuring). Hmm, then I think I know where I've picked up 外れる!  I'd heard it for saying things like 'the weather forecast was wrong' so to me it only had this meaning. That's why I wasn't sure why I'd have tried to use it in what seems to be a totally different context... I didn't notice the words he used as such, but I think it was from a youtuber who failed to upload a video as planned. Somewhere in the back of my brain I'd made a somewhat weak connection between this word and something not happening on time. ^^ I really don't know how my brain works, but it's good to know it at least IS working. lol   
 
I definitely need to get braver with how I use words, and start experimenting with them outside of the exact context I discovered them in. This has got to be holding me back, because I keep thinking I don't know a word and it turns out I do, I just didn't realise I could use it.  When I start using lang-8 again, I think I'll start being more experimental with my Japanese. I used to throw in things like the sentences discussed here, to see what sticks and what doesn't, but maybe I need to be even braver and less intimidated by corrections! 

[chocopie]

Jembru, if you think of the basic meaning of 遅れる as 'getting behind' then it makes sense in both cases. You get behind with work and being late is like getting behind schedule.

[Jembru]

Here's one that had me stumped. I decided to make a video journal on my way home from work by pretending to be on the phone so as not to draw attention to myself. I usually flip the camera so that it's pointing towards me if I make a video with my phone, but instead I left it pointing away from me, towards the traffic. I tried to explain this in Japanese and after getting tongue-tied on 3 attempts, I quit and changed the subject. So, can anyone help me out with this?

'I usually flip the camera towards myself when I make these videos, but today I've left it facing the road.'

With time to think about it, I have come up with..

普通はビデオを撮ったら、カメラを自分へ向けておくけど、今日は道路へ向いているままにしておいた。

but is there a better way? Simpler way? More grammatically correct way?

[chocopie]

Maybe
ビデオを撮るとき、カメラは普通は自分に向けるけど、今日は道路に向けるままにした。

Or

ビデオを撮るとき、普通はフロントカメラを使うけど、今日はバックカメラを使った。If you're using different cameras and not physically flipping the phone around.

[Jembru]

Yeah, the phone has 2 cameras, so I think the latter would have worked too!

I don't know why, but for some reason I have been thinking まま follows the past or the present continuous form. I don't know why I came to that conclusion but I've been using it with ～ている for as long as I can remember. I was at least right about it being used with the past form, right? See... that would have been points lost on the JLPT right away!

[Jembru]

Woah, it's been a while! I was just checking over some audio journal entries and came by something I struggled to express. I got there in the end but it was ugly grammar.

I wanted to say 'it's my first night back on shift'. In the end I went for something that (with careless grammar) translated to 'it's my first shift after a few days off'. (数日休み後の最初の出社だ。)

There must be a more elegant way to express this?

[Jembru]

So, I did my first ever translation assignment tonight! The translation itself was okay (although I must admit I called my mum to check if my English made sense ^^), but I hit a problem. I didn't know how to politely respond to the person's gratitude. I can do it casually in spoken Japanese, but when I needed to write a more complete sentence I drew a blank. Obviously a simple'ううん’wasn't going to work in an email, and I somehow felt that’お礼言わなくてもいいですよ’ wouldn't cut it either. So in the end I just wimped out and went for 本当に大丈夫です。What could I have said instead? Would 大した物ではありませんでした have worked here?

Maybe this is one for lang8, but I thought I'd gather your opinions too.