Nihonjin desu

corblimey · 07-01-2009 11:19pm #1

I'm reading a book at the moment that has people conversing in Japanese - it's followed by the rough English version, so I'm not too out of my depth, but I'm trying to cover that bit and figure out what they're saying. It's all well and good until I got to a sentence structure I'd never seen before. The English version is simply "I'm Japanese" but the actual sentence is 'Nihonjin desu kara.' I've always thought 'Nihonjin desu' would be enough and I've only come across 'kara' in the context of 'from'. Does it mean something else here? Is this a dialect or regional thing? Literally, I'm from Japanese? Is it a typo perhap?

FruitLover · 09-01-2009 5:16pm

Can you give the previous few sentences or the conversation for context?

elfinka · 10-01-2009 5:07pm

most probably means "(that's) because I'm Japanese" but can't be 100% sure without wider context

Aard · 10-01-2009 5:08pm

"kara" also means "because".

So, "[It's] because I'm Japanese". Does this make sense?

corblimey · 10-01-2009 10:38pm

Ah yes, that makes perfect sense, the context is along the lines of person A: "Nihongo wa dekimasu ka?" person B: "Ei, mochiron. Nihonjin desu kara"

Just lazy translation by the author, I guess. Why go to the bother of putting in the 'kara' and then just translating it as 'of course I do, I'm Japanese.'

Dont be at yourself · 11-01-2009 3:20pm

Not really a lazy translation. In English, it is more natural to say something like "Of course I do, I'm Japanese" than "Yeah, of course. Because I am Japanese". The meaning and nuance are better translated by the former, whereas the latter is a more faithful translation of the grammatical structure.

Nihonjin desu

Comments