面倒を見る、世話をする
English translation: look after someone, take care of someone.
| 09:12 Mar 11, 2005 |
| Japanese to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Linguistics | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Kurt Hammond United States Local time: 09:48 | ||||||
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| Summary of answers provided | ||||
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| 3 +3 | look after someone, take care of someone. |
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| 5 | Same -- see explanation |
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| 4 | take burden of ... |
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| 4 | look after/take care of |
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| Discussion entries: 2 | |
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Answers
8 hrs confidence: 
| 面倒を見る、世話をする Same -- see explanation Explanation: Yes, there might be a slight difference, but essentially they are same. Let take them into slightly different context. ご面倒をおかけします。 お世話をおかけします。 Note the difference in honorific prefix at the beginning (which is not important for the issue at hand). These can be used in both private as well as business context but rarely in the latter. In this example, these are word of gratitude. As you see these two expressions use same Kanji characters. Another context more close to your question. Let say there is a bed-ridden, terminally ill person in your household. You would 面倒を見る (take care of) or 世話をする (take care of) him/her ....Nodifference. Now, as you see in both examples, 面倒を見る、世話をする are from people of larger influence (A) to the lessor influence (B). A is the give of 面倒 and 世話. B is its beneficiary. So parents do this to their children, or in business context from a senior person to his/her subordinates. If you use English "look after" then it is used mostly in private context, not in business situation. Likewise in Japanese it is not used in formal human relationship. There is some difference in English between "take care of" and "look after" also. It is hard to explain the difference in English, but again they are essentially same for the reasons I explained above. 面倒を見る、世話をする |
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1 hr confidence: 
| 面倒を見る、世話をする take burden of ... Explanation: According to Kojien, they are synonyms. However, the word “面倒” has more negative charges than “世話.” It become clearer in passive phrases; “mendo ni naru,” implies “to become someone’s burden,” and “sewa ni naru” is rather neutral. When you say you are someone’s “面倒になる,” you feel that you owe more heavily than in someone’s “世話になる.” That is why mendo is not used in neutral settings and has some emotional implication. As for translation, I think “look after” / “take care” fits nicely. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day 2 hrs 50 mins (2005-03-12 12:02:41 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- A. お父さんの世話をするために、国に帰る。 B. お父さんの面倒をみるために、国に帰る。 are logically the same, but to me, B. sounds slightly more serious (that your father really NEEDS to be looked after ) . I think there is a slight difference in the degree the caregiver feels about his or her commitment. |
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3 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
peer agreement (net): +3| 面倒を見る、世話をする look after someone, take care of someone. Explanation: Look after someone, take care of someone 面倒を見る - Take care of someone, potentially for something the person could not do themselve. Taking responsibility for the well being of someone else. Used more for a situation where there is emotional investment? 世話をする - Do somethng for someone, watch over, take care of, look out for... Used in business situation. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day 5 hrs 19 mins (2005-03-12 14:32:00 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Note to asker - I also normally associate 面倒を見る with someone who is more ¥'helpless¥' than 世話をする although this may be frivolous. Agree with other comments that there is hardly any difference. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day 5 hrs 21 mins (2005-03-12 14:34:00 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Agree with other comments that ¥"Sewa¥" is more neutral and can sometimes just mean ¥"help¥" as in お世話になりました -roughly equal to ¥"thanks for your help¥" whereas ご面倒をおかけしました means more seriously something where the speaker was possibly (but not certainly) unable to do something for his or her self. |
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