Knights Who Don't Say "Ni"

[steepholm]

Though I'm now relatively confident about writing emails in simple Japanese, I still like to paste the final result into Google translate, imperfect as it is, lest I've made some awful faux pas. There was a time at the beginning when I would write "henshi arigatou gozaimasu" (変死ありがとうございます）rather than "henji arigatou gozaimasu" (返事ありがとうございます), thus inadvertently thanking my correspondent for an unnatural death rather than their reply. It scarred me.

I haven't done anything quite that egregious for a while, but today I wanted to say that someone had been "helpful throughout". I decided that "zutto yaku ni tatsu deshita" (ずっと役に立つでした) might be the way to go. (I don't think it probably is - "yaku ni tatsu" means something more like "useful", which isn't the vibe I'm after.) However, I forgot the "ni", and ended up with "zutto yaku tatsu deshita"　(ずっと役辰でした), which Google assures me means "It was a long-awaited dragon".

I don't quite know how Google came up with that, but it charms me, and makes me wish that I had occasion to write emails where that was the intended meaning.

Comments

[sovay]

which Google assures me means "It was a long-awaited dragon".

That is very charming. If not an e-mail, then a story or poem?

[steepholm]

It's a good opening line, certainly, if perhaps too redolent of Tolkien.

[cmcmck]

So, what's 'shrubbery' in Japanese anyway? :o)

[steepholm]

Uekomi (植え込み). I've not yet had occasion to build one, though.

[calimac]

These sound close enough in the Japanese that I'd guess your correspondents could figure out what you meant; certainly I've seen that be the case when people learning English make these kinds of mistakes. It's still horribly embarrassing, of course, and possibly worse in Japan with its elaborate code of courtesy. It just may not be as much of an impediment to actual communication as it looks.

[steepholm]

I'm sure that's true - and indeed, they're often amused at my errors in spoken Japanese. (In Japanese, though not English, I'm much afflicted by spoonerisms, for some reason.)

[larryhammer]

LOL LOL LOL