00:01 May 3, 2008 |
Japanese to English translations [Non-PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters | |||||
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| Selected response from: David Higbee United States Local time: 09:08 | ||||
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He as always been so popular that its amusing/funny. Explanation: First of all, "omoshiroi" cannot be literally translated as "interesting", but in this case the speaker is actually stating that they find it amusing that the subject has been so popular, which is the meaning of MOTERU. This is in Katakana to distinguish it from the "can" form of MOTSU, and also because in pop culture among younger Japanese (partly due to MANGA influence), katakana words are thought to be more "cool" or stylish than their kanji and hiragana counterparts. Lastly, KURAI in this case means the same thing as HODO, literally meaning "to the extent that" or "to the degree that". If you were to parse this phrase into a totally literal translation, it would be something like: "From long ago he has been popular to the extent that I find it interesting". Thus, the natural English rendition of: "He has always been so popular that it's funny/amusing." |
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He has always been very popular among girls. Explanation: "面白いくらい" is used to give emphasis to verb or noun. Here are some examples. あそこの釣りポイントで、面白いくらい魚が釣れた。(noun) ラスベガスで面白いくらい勝った。(verb) 若い頃のカメヤマさんは面白いくらいモテた (verb) Unfortunately, it is not true....;-) As for "-kurai" and "モテ," I agree with DaviH-san. |
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He has always been ridiculously popular among girls. Explanation: I agree with Kameyama-san that the term 面白いくらいに has a role of emphasis, and the literal meaning of くらいに is "to the degree/extent that" like DeviH-san said. Here, 面白いくらいに modifies モテる, expressing that the degree to which he is popular among girls is almost unbelievable and hilarious. So, this can be translated using the adverb "ridiculously". As for モテる, it usually means to be popular as a love interest. So, it may be better to include something like "with girls". Obviously, depending on the context, you may need to change "girls" to "boys" or some other population. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 13 hrs (2008-05-03 13:25:09 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Regarding why モテ is katakana, I also agree with DaviH-san. |
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