Christmas challenge: translate this children's book!

In the past, I spent many posts trying to translate a kids' book, and ended up giving up. Now I tried another one, and it was a breeze! Either we learned a lot in between, or this story is much easier. It definitely repeats the same sentences (with minor variations) again and again, making translation much easier.

The story is called ねずみの　よめいり, the Mouse Wedding, and I challenge you to translate it. Print this post, and during the more boring parts of the Christmas holidays, have a stab at it. I added translations for the words we don't yet know, which are not that many. Here goes, good luck!



1. おとうさんねずみは　かわいい　ひとり　むすめを　せかいで　いちばん　つよい　ものの　およめに　したいと　かんがえていました。　「いつも　せかいじゅうを　あたたかくている　おひさまが　せかいで　いちばん　つよいに　ちがいない。」
The words used are:

ねずみ	mouse, rat
むすめ	daughter
つよい	strong, powerful
もの	person
かんがえる	to consider, think

2. おとうさんねずみは　おひさまに　いいました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　おひさまです。　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いや　いた　わたしより　くものほうが　つよいです。　くもは　わたしを　すっぽり　かくしてしまうから。」
The words used are:

よめ	bride
いや	no
くも	cloud
すっぽり	completely
かくして	thus
しまう	to put away; to put an end to

3. おとうさんねずみは　くもの　ところに　でかけました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　くもさんです。　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いや　いた　わたしよりも　かぜのほうが　つよいです。　かぜは　わたしを　かんたんに　ふきとばしてしまうから。」
The words used are:

でかける	to go out, set out for
かぜ	wind, breeze
かんたんに	simply
ふきとばす	to blow off, brush away

4. おとうさんねずみは　かぜの　ところに　でかけました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　かぜさんです。　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いや　いや　わたしより　かべのほうが　つよいです。　わたしが　どんなに　つよい　かぜを　ふかせても　かべは　びくともしませんから。」
The words used are:

かべ	wall
どんなに	how, how much
ふく	to blow
びくとも	[couldn't figure this one out]

5. おとうさんねずみは　かべの　ところに　でかけました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　かべさんです。　どうぞ　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いいえ　せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　ねずみです。　わたしの　からだに がりがり　あなを　あけるから。」
The words used are:

からだ	body
がりがり	making a scratching, crunching sound (onomatopeia)
あな	hole

6.　「 なんと　せかいで　いちばん　つよいのが　ねずみとは。」　とつさんねずみは　すぐに　いえに　かえって　むすめに　ねずみの　おむこさんを みつけて　やりました。　「よい　むこどのが　みつかって　よかった　よかった。」　ねずみの　かぞくは　ずっと　なかよく　くらしまして。
The words used are:

なんと	what, how, whatever
とは	particle indicating definition
むこ	husband
みつける	to find
どの	Mr
みつかる	to be found
ずっと	continuously, for a long time
なかよく	getting along with, being friends with
くらす	to live, spend time together

What the textbook doesn't tell you...

Most of us are trying to learn Japanese away from Japan or the Japanese. My own exposure to a native speaker at least is limited to my teacher. Some may not even have that much. It is hard. What makes it even harder is that you have no idea what happens if you're ever in a situation to play out all the dialogues you've memorised for months, even years. No textbook, no amount of repeating after the teacher could really prepare you for that scenario. Role-play with difficult scenarios might.

I've been to Dusseldorf last weekend. The city hosts the third largest Japanese expat population in Europe (after London and Paris). This was one of the charms of the place when I decided to visit. I was going to pop into the shops and restaurants, and finally use all those dialogues crammed up in my brain, complete with "~んで" sentences.

However, reality struck pretty soon. I've found out that one essential part is missing from all those textbooks: The ultimate shock and horror of the native speaker when they see you speak Japanese. It is a hurdle to get over, despite how famously polite they are. If you add to it the fact that time slows down when you are in a difficult situation, the misery takes forever.

I'm a believer that most of language comprehension depends on expectation. In the languages we're fluent at, we don't necessarily rely on understanding each word. First and foremost, we rely on the warrant to understand and be understood. Without that warrant, it gets sticky. I observe this a lot at home, where we juggle three languages at a time. Sometimes, one just can't quite get it, since nobody is sure which language the next word will come from. Even among people who know each other well, this may be the case.

We have been told over and over again that the Japanese do not expect a foreigner to speak Japanese or be good at it. So when you open your mouth in Japanese, the conversation just does not follow. My short experience has shown me that actually a silence takes over and you are given very brief answers...totally confidence shattering. They don't expect to understand you, so they don't right away, however good you may be.

I've made my mental note, and am now putting it out there: Be prepared not to be understood with your first opening sentence or two. It may not be your fault. Do not lose courage, and push on. It is very rewarding once you've managed, and delivers a high for at least fifteen minutes after you've completed the real-life scenario.

What to say after the plain form, part 2

Here is the next part of our list of 'things to put after the plain form of a verb'.

～ことが　あります。

This one refers to experience. It usually follows the past tense of the plain form, such as たべた, 'ate',　or いった, 'went'. Literally, the construction means 'there is a case of ~', but it's asking about someone's experience. For example: マルコさんは　にほんに　いった　ことが　ありますか。 'Have you ever gone to Japan, Marco?' Or in the affirmative: すしと　すきやきを　たべた　ことが　ある。　'I have eaten sushi and sukiyaki [at one point in my life].'

～ことが　できます。

Similar to the previous one, this one indicates ability rather than experience. Our sensei gave us this example (I only changed the name): たなかさんは　ちゅうごくを　はなす　ことが　できますか。　'Are you able to speak Chinese, Mr Tanaka?' or, less literally translated, 'Do you speak Chinese, Mr Tanaka?'

～のは　X　です。

This is a nominalizer, that is, it turns the whole subsentence that ends in a plain form verb into a noun. Sensei gave us this example: むこう　から　くる　のは　だれ ですか。 The word むこう is new to us, it means 'over there'. So the parts of the sentence read: 'over-there-from to-come [nom] who is ?', which translates to 'Who is the person who is coming from over there?' Here is another example the sensei gave us: にほんごの　レッスンが　おれるのは　いつ　ですか。　'When will the Japanese lesson have a break?'

As for the scope problem I discussed in the previous post, this is pretty tricky territory. If you want to read the whole discussion about it on the about.com Japanese language forum, be my guest. The short version: if you use ～とおもいます, you would translate it as 'I think that ~', but if you use ～とおもっています, somebody else would be doing the thinking.

What to say after the plain form, part 1

Here's a recap of the idiomatic expressions to use after the plain form of a verb. I'm splitting it up because it's a lot to explain.

First, just to be clear on what the plain form is: it is the form of a verb that, when used at the end of a sentence, is the less polite form of the -ます forms we've been learning. You also use the plain form in polite communication, but then only in certain contexts, such as the idioms discussed during class and in this post.

We've learned the present affirmative, present negative, past affirmative, and past negative of the polite form, which are respectively (for 'to eat'): たべます,　たべません, たべました and たべませんでした.
The plain form equivalent of this sequence is: たべる (this one is known as the dictionary form), たべない, たべた, and たべなかった.
The -te form (for example, たべて), is neither polite nor plain, and so only exists in one form.
For a full list of all (common) conjugations of a verb, visit the Ultra Handy Japanese Verb Conjugator.

Anyway, on to the first idioms. They are as follows:
～とおもいます (in kanji: ～と思います).　This means 'I think that ~'. For example:　にほんごを　はなすと　おもいます。 I think (s)he speaks Japanese.
～といいます. This means 'X says that ~'. For example:　がくせいは　レッスンを　わすれると　いいました。　The student said he forgot the lesson. Or: The student said, 'I forgot the lesson'. Note that I changed the present tense いいます into the past tense いいました.
～どう　です. This means 'I have heard that ~'.
～か　どうか. This means 'whether or not ~'. Sensei gave us this example: アントニさんは　きょう　くるか　どうか　わかりません。 'I don't know whether or not Antony will come today.'
～でしょう. This expresses conjecture (that is, not being sure of something) and roughly translates to 'probably will'. Literally it's the volitional form ('let's X') of です, to be. On the Web, I found this example: ちちは　みせで　バナナを　かう　でしょう。 Dad will probably buy bananas at the store.
～かも　しれません (in kanji ～かも　知れません). This is much weaker conjecture, translating to 'may' or 'might'. Literally it just means 'I don't know if ~'. Sensei's example was: アントニさんは　きょう　くるかも　しれません。 'Antony may come today' (literally 'I don't know if Antony will come today').

One thing I can't figure out is how you figure out the scope. Let me explain. Take the sentence ちちは　すしを　たべると　おもいます。 The parts of the sentence mean: dad(topic) sushi(object) to-eat(sentence-as-object) think.
Now the way I see it, this sentence can mean two things:
1. 'I think dad eats sushi.' In this case, ちちは is part of the relative clause ちちは　すしを　たべる, 'that dad eats sushi'.
2. 'Dad thinks he/she/etc eats sushi'. In this case, ちちは would be part of the main clause と　おもいます, 'Dad thinks that X'.　I'm not sure if that is a valid reading of the sentence, or if there's some way to tell the two apart. I'll try to find this out.

Japanese color names

Thanks to a colorful cheat sheet made by blogger NihongoUp, we've been able to learn a number of new words for colors (some of which I didn't even know the English names for, like chartreuse, which is halfway between yellow and green).
Along the way, there were also some new kanji to be learned, which help to memorize the color names. I'll skip 茶色, which I already explained here. As for the rest:

Kana	Kanji	Literal meaning	Actual meaning
だいだいいろ	橙色	Color of bitter orange	deep orange
ももいろ	桃色	Color of a peach	peach
みずいろ	水色	Color of water	light blue
わかくさいろ	若草色	Color of fresh grass	chartreuse (yellow-green)
はいいろ	灰色	Color of ashes	grey

Note how the kanji for 'ashes' clearly contains the kanji for 'fire', 火.
Note also how both 'peach' and 'bitter orange' have the same radical on the left, a compressed version of 木, which means 'tree'. In fact, many words that have to do with plants, fruits, or things botanical, have this radical in them.