watashi wa nihon-jin wakarimasu
Okay, well, the final draft of the revision is off. I feel pretty good about it. Even if Interzone ends up rejecting it, I'll have a better story to submit elsewhere.
Oh, and this is pretty damn cool.
posted by Tim Akers @ 6:50 AM
7 Comments:
You understand a Japanese person?
Hey, don't make fun. I was trying for the 'japanese people' in the broader sense.
Actually, am I writing it wrong, or am I being very, very ironic?
Actually, I do think it's slightly wrong, in that you should put a particle, probably 'ga', after nihonjin. The use of particles with wakaru is one of my personal bugbears, so I could be wrong.
marshdrifter is taking advantage of the inherent ambiguity in the sentence in Japanese, but it could mean 'a Japanese person' or 'Japanese people'.
Unfortunately this also runs up against the subtle nuances of usage, as wakaru is usually used for a fairly direct form of understanding, i.e. the meaning of something, rather than, as I think you are implying, understanding motivations or cultures. It might be more appropriate to use 'rikai dekimasu', but we are swerving off into anally retentive Japanese lesson space here...
And another thing. Is this a second revision of the story you already said you had sent off two posts ago? They wanted more changes?
Don't sweat it Tim. Except for the "ga" portion, I wouldn't have known anything Colin said. I'm just smart enough to keep my mouth shut, I guess.
:)
Second revision? Oh my, you dear, sweet, innocent young writer, you! Second!
It's actually a fourth revision. And I suspect that someone from the full council will make additional requests. Wouldn't surprise me. I did the last two revs overnight, just to keep him offbalance.
You're writing *and* blogging? That Gibson fellow will never be able to keep up with you, it seems.
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