お土産 / 日本語訳 / 何かをくれた人 / お土産っていうのは...

[eeky]

Hello,


1. The speaker is a teacher who is talking to an American student who is interviewing her.

あの、確かに日本人はよく人にお土産をあげるんですが 、その前にちょっと申し上げておくと、お土産っていう 言葉を、日本語を勉強している外国の学生さんはよく間 違って使われるんですね。

My translation: "Well, certainly the Japanese often give each other お土産, but first I should explain that foreign students learning Japanese often use the word お土産 incorrectly."

The way I am interpreting it, 使われる (student's action) is honorific, while 申し上げて (teacher's/speaker's action) is humble, which kind of seems the wrong way round. Have I got this right? Perhaps the teacher is being super-polite to the student because she is being interviewed and it is a special case?


2. あの、　present　とか　gift　という言葉の日本語訳� ﾆして言ってらっしゃるようなんですが、全く同じとい� ､訳ではないんです。

My guess is that this means "People seem to translate (お土産 and 贈り物, mentioned previously) as "present" or "gift", but the translations (of お土産 and 贈り物) are not always the same (i.e. お土産 and 贈り物 can have different meanings)."

a) Does this seem correct? I am not certain whether it is talking about translating to Japanese or from Japanese.

b) Does よう mean "seem" here, as I translated?


3. ・・・「お餞別」って言って、旅行に出る前に何かをく れた人、これは、もう絶対にお土産を買って帰らないい けません。

My translation: "and you absolutely must bring back a souvenir for those people who gave you a farewell gift before you left on your journey".

Is this correct? Have I got the right people doing the right things?


4. お土産っていうのは、どこかへ行った人が行かなかった 人に買ってきてあげるものとでも言っておけばいいでし ょうかね。

My guess: "お土産 can be defined as something that someone who has gone somewhere brings back for someone who has stayed behind." (sorry for the convolted English!)

a) Is the basic meaning of the sentence that どこかへ行った人が行かなかった人に買ってきてあげる もの is a fair definition of お土産?

b) What is the purpose of でも?

c) I am not confident I grasp the meaning of 言っておけば, incorporating the proper sense of おけば (which I assume is 置けば). What does it mean?

d) What sort of tone or nuance is でしょうかね likely to have here, in terms of qualities such as expressing doubt, questioning, expressing belief that the statement is true, etc.?

[Toritoribe]

1)
Both interpritations are correct. The reason why the teacher is using honorifics would be probably foreign students are mostly adults. It's not uncommon that teachers use honorifics to students in college.

2) a)
Yes. 日本語訳 always means "translating to Japanese", whereas 日本語の訳 can mean both "to Japanese" and "from Japanese".

b)
Yes.

3)
That's correct, except a typo 帰らないといけません.

4) a)
Yes.

b) c)
でも means "something like", and とでも言っておけばいいでしょうかね has a nuance of "tentative".

[eeky]

Thanks Toritoribe.

I'm still a bit confused by (2). By the way, the forum has mangled the sentence in two places, which should read 日本語訳として and 全く同じという, but I expect you figured that out.

Now you have explained the direction of the translation, I understand it to be talking about the translation of "present" and "gift" into Japanese. However, that messes up the rest of my interpretation, and now I do not really understand 言ってらっしゃる. It can't just mean "(people) say the translation (into Japanese) of 'gift' and 'present'". There has to be some other information involved, but I do not really understand what that is.

Also, I do not understand what 全く同じという訳 is referring to. Is this saying that "present" and "gift" do not have the same translation into Japanese? I previously thought the gist of this part was pointing out the difference between お土産 and 贈り物, but that difference seems to have no relevance to the difference in English between "gift" and "present", which is vanishingly small.

Sorry for the complicated question. If you can just clarify the whole meaning of the sentence, that would be great.

[Glenn]

あの、presentとかgiftという言葉の日本語訳として言ってらっしゃるようなんですが、全く同じ という訳ではないんです。
"You seem to say (it/them... I'm assuming お土産) as a Japanese translation of 'present' or 'gift', but they aren't entirely the same."

言ってらっしゃる is referring to English speakers using お土産 (I assume) as a Japanese translation of "present" and "gift". 訳 at the end is read わけ, not やく, and has an entirely different meaning. I'm sure you know ～わけではない, right?

[Toritoribe]

OK, how about this?

外国の学生は、「お土産」や「贈り物」を "present" や "gift" の日本語訳として使っているが、日本語の「お土産」と 「贈り物」は全く同じ意味ではない。

[eeky]

Thanks guys, it is clear now.

訳 at the end is read わけ, not やく, and has an entirely different meaning.

Thanks, I was assuming the second 訳 referred to 日本語訳, which certainly did not help my cause...