I found another eel sentence.

4 comments

1. I think I don’t really understand what your question is. But the girl didn’t say お母さんがバイトイン(日本語で). She said “my mom is violin” (in English).

   When going “back” into Japanese (clearly the child’s native language) I think お母さんがバイオリン is perfectly fine. But going to another language outside of both English and Japanese, I don’t think there is any benefit in “keeping” the grammatical error which comes from the difference in how you would say this in English vs Japanese.

   I would handle it just like the adult did here – and say it in the most natural way for that target language.

   Is this making any sense vis-à-vis what you are asking?

2. I’m not sure if it’s called the ‘eel sentence’ or something.

   This expression is quite common in the Japanese language, and you’ll frequently hear it in various situations. For instance, when one person wants tea, and their companion prefers coffee, it would be expressed as ‘私はお茶’ (I’m tea) and ‘この人はコーヒー’ (This person is coffee).

   In the context you provided, they are clearly discussing musical instruments and who plays what. Therefore, it’s entirely natural to describe it using this phrasing. The translation is entirely fine.

   Edit:
   The parents of the little violinist girl are famous, and the translator intentionally translated it that way to add more details. Her mother is a professional violinist, and her father is also a professional musician.

3. She says, in pretty good English, “my mum is violin and my dad is piano”, which is grammatically childish but completely understandable.

   The Japanese translator who did the subtitles has tidied this up with 弾きま as:

   私の母はヴァイオリン、父はピアノを弾きま

   And the host has translated it as “violinista” and “pianista”, presumably being polite in not drawing attention to Himari’s simple English. Its pretty similar to what adults do all the time, almost automatically, when a child is trying to communicate with someone else: they repeat what the child said, but with clearer grammar. But in this case it is also translated. A good host!

   Well done to all involved!

4. Edited: Fixed some Japanese words

   A nice post for people learning Japanese!

   Japanese eel sentences are interesting learning materials, right? 😂

   I think the interpreter just rephrased her sentences without changing her English sentence structure “My mom is 〜, and my dad is 〜, because she would never know about the Japanese eel sentences at all and I think she waa just thinking that little Japanese girl made a mistake in English.

   She could also have rephrased like” Her mom plays the violin and/but her dad does the piano” though.

   I bet what the Japanese girl wanted to say was like “What my mom plays is the violin, and what my dad does is the piano.”, because the interviewer/interpreter asked her “Do your parents also play the violin? ” or something, sorry, I forgot the details.

   And that is the most common situation where eel sentences happen.

   If I were her and if I answered the question, I would also say : 母に関しては、バイオリンですが、父はピアノですね。Because that girl must have recognized Tyger question like ご両親ともバイオリンを弾くのですか？

   I’ve barely replied to that kind of question repeating the phrase like バイオリンを弾くのは, because I think it sounds redundant.

   If I say my sentence accurately, it would be like : 母に関しては、彼女が弾くのはバイオリンですが、父に関しては、彼が弾くのはピアノです。

   〜に関しては can be just は, and Japanese people tend to remove the subject like 彼女は or 彼は, and as the interpreter was asking about “Playing the violin” you can also omit saying 弾くのは.

   Then, the sentence 母はバイオリンで、父はピアノです finally comes out 😂