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Koro
Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Japan
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 Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 2:10 am Post subject: as difficult as learning Japanese is for foreigners |
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I've come across the following sentence:
Learning English for Japanese is as difficult as learning Japanese is for foreigners.
Is it possible to rewrite the sentence in the following way?
Learning English for Japanese is as difficult as learning Japanese for foreigners (is).
or
For Japanese to learn English is as difficult as for foreigners to learn Japanese.
I'd really appreciate it if someone could tell me how I should write it and the reason. Thanks in advance.
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Koro |
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dragn
Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:06 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Learning English for Japanese is as difficult as learning Japanese for foreigners. |
This is the best version that appears in your post, in my opinion (without the is to maintain the parallel structure). It is not, however, the best way to write it, again, in my opinion. I would be tempted to write something like this:
It's as difficult for Japanese people to learn English as it is for English-speaking people to learn Japanese.
Or maybe Westerners, even though not all Westerners speak English. In spite of that, I don't think any damage would be done in the context of the sentence.
This just seems easier and more natural to me in this particular case, perhaps because getting the "as difficult as" part out of the way first allows the reader/listener to focus more attention on the important information.
Notes:
1. Avoid casually tossing around the word foreigners out of context. Are you an American? No? Then how would you like it if I called you a foreigner?  Foreigner is a relative term and should be used with a certain amount of discretion and sensitivity.
2. Personally, I would add the word people to reduce confusion since we are talking about both languages and groups of people.
By the way, your last version is incorrect.
Greg |
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Bob S.
Joined: 29 Apr 2004
Posts: 1767
Location: So. Cal
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| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| dragn wrote: |
| Foreigner is a relative term and should be used with a certain amount of discretion and sensitivity. |
A politer term would be foreign nationals. It is similar to the polite gaikokujin as opposed to the more brusk gaijin.
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper |
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