another example to the piece just listed…
Ž„‚ÃÂA“dŽÔ‚Ì’†‚ÅÂAÂÔ‚ñ–V‚É‹ƒ‚©‚ê‚Ü‚µ‚½ÂB(watashi ha, densha no naka de, akanbou ni nakaremashita.)
this would be translated in a movie or in a social setting as “My baby started crying on the train…”
however… the LITERAL translation would be more like “I was cried AT BY MY BABY on the train…” or “my baby cried at me on the train”
in other words… the baby was directing damage onto the mother on the train…. at least thats the way we would view that sentence in english… it is showing harm or damage being done by the child… however… in japanese this is not so… its just how they explain that the baby was crying… HOWEVER the language comes from somewhere… and the original japanese culture concentrated on communal caretaking… on the good of the group…and when one is singled out… they believe that person is in danger. thus… by a baby crying… attention is being brought to the mother… thus the baby is causing a problem. for the mother. both of these views are valid… and exist in any culture… however… we dont view things quite that way in western culture… on average. we tend to think that the baby was crying… and it was maybe embarassing. but mostly we just think that the baby is unhappy… or something wrong with the baby.
In japan… what is wrong with the baby is not so much the issue (based on the language wording)… the priority comes more with the mother disturbing the community…. of course the mother would not harm the baby to protect the community… however… there was a time in japanese culture… that if a child was loud or boysterous… he would be harmed physically so as not to disturb neighbors. this never existed in western cultures. the child would be harmed… more simply to shut him up (midieval times)…. in order to allow peace to the parents. in japanese culture… if there was no one around… then the parents would not care as much.
i could be wrong… but i am seeing subtle differences based on the language and translations