| Author | Message | ||
     Masatoshi-san |
"sempai" is the word I need translated/defined. However, that's not all... >> If you have heard the song "suki no sempai" (the file name had "suki na sempai", just for you to know) by Morning Musume, it would help. Pretty much, I need to know, not only the definition, but what the message is said in the song. Understand? I have the MP3 of it if you need it. E-mail me: masatoshi-san@comcast.net if you need the file. So, that's it. arigato gouzaimasu. ~Brian | ||
| Anonymous |
Sempai is someone in your club, school, company, etc., who is older and had been there longer (i.e., knows better about things) than you. Morning Musume were singing about a girl who fell for an older boy in the same school or club. By the way, the phrase is "suki na sempai (好きな先輩)." | ||
| Masatoshi-san |
So it is "na" in that phrase. What does "na" mean? Hmmm? I really didn't know... And yes, I tried another dictionary (besides my favorite), and I got that same response of someone older or "been there longer", though I couldn't understand why they were singing about it. But yeah, that's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Just answer about "na" and that's it. Thank you. | ||
| Anonymous |
"Suki na sempai" translated into "sempai (older boy) who I like/love." | ||
| Masatoshi-san |
So... Let me get this straight: "na" means "who" as "no" means "of", correct? I'm a fast learner, so if I get this wrong, I'll figure it out soon enough. arigato! ja! | ||
| Anonymous |
Doesnt the kanji read out to 先(Sen)輩(Pai). So... Why is it that i hear it as sempai and not senpai???? (Is it part of the language like how we Say "wader" instead of "water" where we dont really prenounce the T but rather a D????) This puzzles me...... Thanks... | ||
| Anonymous |
You are right. I don't know the exact rules in writing Japanese in romaji, but there are two ways of spelling today - the Hepburn method (developed about a hundred years ago) and the recent government-approved one (I don't know the exact name for it): Examples: Nihonbashi vs. Nihombashi (name of a place in Tokyo) Tsutsuji vs. tutuji (name for azelea) | ||
| nihongo no kyoushi |
Hello, dont know if it matters now, but I would like to answer the question at hand. In Japanese, na is a particle used with adjectives, in this case, LIKE 'SUKI' is connected with a noun senior 'senpai', with the particle NA = "suki na senpai" = 'the senior that is liked'. Another example of this particle NA would be 'kirei na onna' = 'the woman that is pretty'. The hiragana characters that make up this word is SE N PA I , but in Japanese, the N is pronounced as an M when used before a B or P. If this word was laundry 'SENTAKU' for instance, the N is pronounced as an N, because the T is hard, but a B or P is soft, and it softens the N to be pronounced as an M, but it is spelled with a N always. When romanized, which means that the foreign language is put into english letters, the pronunciation is often translated to an M, but really this is incorrect, because the characters that make this word are, as I said before, SE N PA I, four separate and distinct, phonetic hiragana characters. | ||
| Mysterious Posting Secret Agent |
'the senior that is liked' ^^^Translating things literally is sometimes a sticky business. If translating to English, it would probably go better as "The Boy I Like" or "The Older Boy I Like" or maybe, more commercially, as "I Love You Boy". Anyhoo, it's a song about some chick liking an older boy, and that's the point that matters. Morning Musume is, from what I gather, a morning watch-while-getting-ready-for-school show for japanese girls. It's all falling into place, eh? ^_^// | ||
| Secret Agent Exposer |
You know nothing. Morning Musume is a singing group of girls. |