EIGO OR NO GO?

oh relocation! I was looking for that word but I couldn't think of it. "A system that facilitates relocation"?

We are trying to get a video of a very 偉い人 to show at the opening of an academic facility here. I have been asked to translate the request, but I'm having trouble and don't know if something sounds overly stupid. To my Quaker school ears it sounds overly humble, but どう思う?


I am impressed with your many accomplishments around the world, and humbly request that you present us with a congratulatory message on the occasion of the Grand Opening of the XXXX.

I realize that you are terribly busy, but I would be very grateful if you were able to remotely contribute a congratulatory message or video letter via a video conferencing system.


I might also take out the "via a video conferencing system" cause it sounds stupid to me and also repetitive...

High five! Did you call all your teachers by their first names?

Also, never mind on the question, I figured out something that I'm much happier with.

I agree it sounds overly humble. I would probably take out the "humbly" before request and say something like "would like to request" and take out the very before grateful because I think grateful alone is enough.

oh, i always find it weird when americans school to mean college and not school.... And well yeah I called most of lecturers in college by first name, thats pretty normal where I was. Except for the japanese teachers maybe

No, definitely not exclusively Quaker. But even, like, the president? Also requiring concensus to decide anything, which was a loooong process that I mostly tried to avoid.

We compromised with the Japanese teachers by calling them firstname-sensei.

i think in 9 cases out of 10, you should be going for Food>Foods

i think it's similar to People and Peoples

Food and People both tend to refer to a large group of something similar, and their respective plurals then refer to multiple groups.

eg, "the peoples of central asia" or "the foods of the european union" are probably somewhat okay, but they still sound funny

i think if it's in japanese, it's much much more likely to be a mistake/typo than an intentional selection

I think food sounds a lot less weird. I would only use "foods" if I were describing wildly different varieties of food, like if there was a place that had stuff from all different countries and I really badly wanted to emphasize the diversity. And even then I would be very hesitant about it.

Usually, if I absolutely need to express that there are a lot of different local cuisines or something, I say "dishes." But honestly "food" sounds just fine in what you're working on.

have you never studied a language other than japanese before ??? hue

Yes I meant to 銃一 it all into one tense of present/future.
There is not past tense that has been used in this document (as its describing events that are going to happen throughout the year anyway)

Hm, as for my example, I meant that I don't understand where sentencees like "A dynamic dance festival where XXXX" would fall on that present/future distinction.




shut up Caic if you're not gonna be helpful.

Right. My example was a little terrible.
I apologize.

Anyway, so are you saying that tenses are determined by the verbs in the sentence?
Okay that's helpful information.

(the actual sentence of the example was "A spring event in the XX hot spring area, when about 400 carp streamers are hoisted above the nearby stream" vs say... "XXY Park holds this festival when the flowers are in bloom" - are these different??)

The first sentence still doesn't have a verb? But the clause in it is present tense, just like the second sentence.

Well, see, the kacho that asked me to do this native check is telling me to make everything either 未来形 or 現在形 but the problem is, I cannot change things to be the same if I don't see any difference with the present tenses, see?

She wants it all to sound the same or I guess, have the "same vibe" but I don't want to return the thing back to her and have her be like "This two are not the same??"

...It will hurt my native English pride.

But in all honesty, I wonder how necessary it is to make everythign exactly the same because each event is different and has a different way/style of introduction(説明) :/