Stuck on a sentence
March 10th, 2010アメリカの政治、経済、また社会問題について、私は気 恥ずかしくなるほど何も知らなかった。
The part that's stumping me is 気恥ずかしくなるほど, especially the ほど part.
The "official" translation that accompanies the text translates it as "I was embarrassed because I was so ingnorant about American politics, the economy, and social problems". But I can't see how 気恥ずかしくなるほど is used in that sentence.
It seems like it's trying to say "the more I became embarrassed, I knew nothing", but that doesn't make any sense. Or maybe it means "I knew nothing, to the extent that I became embarrassed"? :okashii:
The part that's stumping me is 気恥ずかしくなるほど, especially the ほど part.
The "official" translation that accompanies the text translates it as "I was embarrassed because I was so ingnorant about American politics, the economy, and social problems". But I can't see how 気恥ずかしくなるほど is used in that sentence.
It seems like it's trying to say "the more I became embarrassed, I knew nothing", but that doesn't make any sense. Or maybe it means "I knew nothing, to the extent that I became embarrassed"? :okashii:
Your last interpretation is correct, 〜ほど means "to the extent that..."
Really ? I don't know where that comes from. But I'm fairly certain both are acceptable. :relief:
I think you're right.
it's same with "くらい".
私は気 恥ずかしくなるくらい、何も知らなかった. weird though
And I think, くらい is 話し言葉, while ほど more appropriate for essay (書き言葉).
Edit:
Just want to repost this Online Dictionary (http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/). I think it's quite useful.
Btw, if I change the above sentence to,
私は気恥ずかしいほど、何も知らなかった。I dont feel anything weird this time.
どう？
ダメかな？かな？
The part that's stumping me is 気恥ずかしくなるほど, especially the ほど part.
It seems like it's trying to say "the more I became embarrassed, I knew nothing", but that doesn't make any sense. Or maybe it means "I knew nothing, to the extent that I became embarrassed"? :okashii:
This use of ほど is what Jay Rubin refers to as the "Johnny Carson Hodo" in his book, Making Sense of Japanese, which I highly recommend.
Perhaps a more natural-sounding translation would be "I knew so little that I was embarrassed." or "I was embarrassed at how little I knew." But you have the right idea. I don't believe you can replace ほど with くらい here.
1) It's embarrassing just to think how I knew practically nothing about the
politics, economy and society of America.
2) I was ignorant about political, economic and social problems of America to
such a degree that I was ashamed of myself.
He said that his clients (Japanese customers) would prefer the second one, despite it being not all that natural sounding. In fact, they might even complain about the first sentence not being an accurate enough translation. Mind you, these are people who don't really have a strong grasp of English and its nuances. Dumb.
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