The Japanese Language Help Thread

[MizuTaipu]

This is something that I still can't understand. What is the difference between the particles が and は?

And this is more of a Japanese learning question, but how did it take you to learn all Jouyou kanji? What would be a good quantity to learn per week/month?

"Wa" is a topic marker (the main thing the speaker's speaking about), "ga" is a subject marker (also used with question words and for emphasis). Hope this helps you!

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

Could anyone help me translate this for me:

『ブラック２・ホワイト２ 』を、どんなふうに遊んでいるかを見せ合いっこ『みんなでポケモン』

It also came with two charts:
http://www.pokesho.com/img_trash/120703_12.jpg
http://www.pokesho.com/img_trash/120703_2.jpg

So I'm trying to find out it means.

[やみのディアルガ]

Hello?
Can I ask...Does this truly mean "Berserk Deity?"

ベルセルクの神

And also...how would you put it with やみのディアルガ ? (My target is to get Berserk Deity Primal Dialga in Japanese)

Thanks!

[クリスタル]

Hello?
Can I ask...Does this truly mean "Berserk Deity?"

ベルセルクの神

And also...how would you put it with やみのディアルガ ? (My target is to get Berserk Deity Primal Dialga in Japanese)

Thanks!

Well, if one transliterate ベルセルク directly, it does means "berserk". But according to the context of ベルセルクの神, "ベルセルク" in here also has meanings of "rage, fury, violent, or even frantic".

Then, the word 神 had quite many different meaning, depending on the context.
In Japanese, the word "神" includes all the divine entity in different religions and myths. It can mean Jesus Christ in Christian, the Deva in Hinduism, the "God" in Greek and Roman mythologies, the deities in Taoism and Buddhism (but not Buddha herself), or even supernatural spirits in the Chinese and Japanese mythologies.
Let give an example, one of the well known supernatural being in Japanese mythology was Fujin (風神) and Raijin (雷神), where they are not god or deity, but known to be a supernatual being that controls wind and thunder. They both have "神" in their name.

やみのディアルガ is a character in the PMD2 series, where it is the final boss of the main story plot. In English version, it was addressed as Primal Dialga, but direct translation of Japanese is "Dark Dialga".


Well, if ベルセルクの神 is referring to やみのディアルガ, then the whole phrase of "ベルセルクの神" should rather translated as "Deity of violence", because in the game, Primal Dialga doesn't contain any emotion but instinct only, so I choose a meaning of ベルセルク where it omits the secondary meaning of "anger", where anger is an emotion.

[やみのディアルガ]

@NacCrystal
Thanks!
So...the idea is to put ベルセルクwith やみのディアルガ, right? Or is it wrong?

[クリスタル]

@NacCrystal
Thanks!
So...the idea is to put ベルセルクwith やみのディアルガ, right? Or is it wrong?

Not really... It all depends on the context.

ベルセルクの神 is a phrase on its own, やみのディアルガ is another phase on its own. The point is are these two phrases related or not.
Like I said before, if ベルセルクの神 is a description phrase refers to Primal Dialga, then you should translate that phrase according to characteristic of Primal Dialga, so it should rather be "Deity of Violence/Turbulence/Cruelty...", any meaning literally equivalents to ベルセルク while it doesn't include emotions. If it is not, then you can just translate that phrase directly according to its literal meaning, so it can be "Deity of Berserk/Rage/Brutality...", may or may not include meaning of emotions.

One comment from me about translation: Translation is not mechanical work. You should includes the context of the whole sentence in order to translate appropriately.

[xrick]

Excuse me, is someone here capable of translating this tweet from Sugimori?
«短い文章で正確に答えにくい質問もあることを 理解していただけると助かります。»
I've been using Google Translate to get his answers and send mine to him but this time his reply is big enough for the translator to mess up.
«It survives and is also serving to understand that difficult question to answer accurately in short sentences.»
I really need to know if I'm finally starting to get somewhere with my conversations with him...

[SSJ_Jup81]

Excuse me, is someone here capable of translating this tweet from Sugimori?
«短い文章で正確に答えにくい質問もあることを 理解していただけると助かります。»
I've been using Google Translate to get his answers and send mine to him but this time his reply is big enough for the translator to mess up.
«It survives and is also serving to understand that difficult question to answer accurately in short sentences.»
I really need to know if I'm finally starting to get somewhere with my conversations with him...

I think this would translate to...

To give accurate answers in short sentences to questions is difficult. That's the gist I was getting anyway. The translation could be wrong, though.

I think he means that giving answers on Twitter to comprehensive questions are difficult to answer in short sentences since tweets are supposed to be short.

[xrick]

Excuse me, is someone here capable of translating this tweet from Sugimori?
«短い文章で正確に答えにくい質問もあることを 理解していただけると助かります。»
I've been using Google Translate to get his answers and send mine to him but this time his reply is big enough for the translator to mess up.
«It survives and is also serving to understand that difficult question to answer accurately in short sentences.»
I really need to know if I'm finally starting to get somewhere with my conversations with him...

I think this would translate to...

To give accurate answers in short sentences to questions is difficult. That's the gist I was getting anyway. The translation could be wrong, though.

I think he means that giving answers on Twitter to comprehensive questions are difficult to answer in short sentences since tweets are supposed to be short.

Thanks, it helped.

[Pyroclastic Friend]

Could someone please translate this?: 鋼符「地獄極楽核爆破」

And this?: 幻想郷のルクセンブルグ

[Kthleen]

Could someone please translate this?: 鋼符「地獄極楽核爆破」

And this?: 幻想郷のルクセンブルグ

The second is "Gensoukyou no Rukesenburugu," or "Luxembourg, Gensoukyou" (like an address, the same way "Tokyo, Japan" is "Nihon no Toukyou"). I suppose it could also be "Gensoukyou's Luxembourg" or "the Luxembourg of Gensoukyou," which sounds like some sort of comparison.


As for the first, despite it being by an artist with a Japanese pseudonym, it appears to be in either Chinese or kanaless Japanese. O_o And since I don't know Chinese, here's a break down of what I could find in Japanese:

鋼 = hagane, kou = steel
符 = fu = charm/mark/sign/token
地獄 = jigoku = hell
極楽 = gokuraku = paradise
核爆 = kakubaku = nuclear (though I could only find it already attached to other words, such as "kakubakudan" = "nuclear weapon")
破 = ha, wa = something along the lines of "defeat"/"destroy"/"rip" (also, "(in gagaku or noh) middle section of a song" )

...Over here, I found it labeled "Hell Paradise Nuclear Blast [Metal]," so that may be it.

[捷克羅姆]

Could someone please translate this?: 鋼符「地獄極楽核爆破」

And this?: 幻想郷のルクセンブルグ

I thought of Touhou after seeing the 幻想郷 (Can be translated as "Illusory Village"), so the second line could be "Luxembourg of the Illusory Village"

As for the first line, it can be taken as "Steel Charm: Hell Paradise Nuclear Blast"

As for the first, despite it being by an artist with a Japanese pseudonym, it appears to be in either Chinese or kanaless Japanese. O_o And since I don't know Chinese, here's a break down of what I could find in Japanese

It's Japanese. 楽 is the Japanese variation of the character 樂.

[kiera2]

Excuse me, is someone here capable of translating this tweet from Sugimori?
«短い文章で正確に答えにくい質問もあることを 理解していただけると助かります。»
I've been using Google Translate to get his answers and send mine to him but this time his reply is big enough for the translator to mess up.
«It survives and is also serving to understand that difficult question to answer accurately in short sentences.»
I really need to know if I'm finally starting to get somewhere with my conversations with him...

SSJ_Jup81 has the gist of it, but the whole tweet means, "I'd be thankful [literally 'saved'] if [unstated subject, presumably his followers] could understand that there are some questions which are difficult to answer correctly with short sentences."

Could someone please translate this?: 鋼符「地獄極楽核爆破」

And this?: 幻想郷のルクセンブルグ

I thought of Touhou after seeing the 幻想郷 (Can be translated as "Illusory Village"), so the second line could be "Luxembourg of the Illusory Village"

Alternatively it could be something like "Luxembourg, village of illusions," with 幻想郷 acting as a descriptor rather than part of the proper noun.

[Kthleen]

It's Japanese.

So I was partially right.

Alternatively it could be something like "Luxembourg, village of illusions," with 幻想郷 acting as a descriptor rather than part of the proper noun.

Oh? Well, that does make sense.... ...My god, I'll never get this language!

*sigh* I'm aware of "X no" as a descriptor rather than a possessive, but I guess I'm so used to thinking of "Gensoukyou" as a place name that to me, it would be like if I gave "Toukyou" as "[the] eastern capital" instead of "Tokyo" seemingly just for the hell of it. Stupid stubborn brain....

[Pyroclastic Friend]

Thank you everyone, but now I need this please: 花の映る塚