A Challenge For Italki Members Who Are Studying Japanese. #2 The following paragraph is a quote from an entrance-exam to an university in Japan. The applicants are　supposed to translate it into correct / natural sounding English without sacrificing the meanings and nuances of the original Japanese sentences. Could you, as an English literate, try to do that for us? As English learners, we want to learn English by reading various compositions and comparing them to the original Japanese text. Note that these Japanese sentences are not as easy to comprehend as they may ostensibly appear. == 日本の庭は、むかしからよくいわれるように、みる庭であって、そこで運動をしたり休息したりするような、なにかの行為をする庭ではなかったのである。　戦前にそだった人たちは、子供のころに、母親から「お庭で遊んではいけません」といってしかられた記憶をたいていもっているだろう。 ==

A Challenge For Italki Members Who Are Studying Japanese. #1 The following paragraph is a quote from an entrance-exam to an university in Japan. The applicants are supposed to translate it into correct / natural sounding English without sacrificing the meanings and nuances of the original Japanese sentences. Could you, as an English literate, try to do that for us? As English learners, we want to learn English by reading various compositions and comparing them to the original Japanese text. Note that these Japanese sentences are not as easy to comprehend as they may ostensibly appear. == 時間を正確に守らないのは、忙しすぎる人と、暇すぎる人に多いようである。　前者は、他人は自分ほど忙しくないだろうから、少しぐらい待ってもらっても許されるだろうと考え、後者は他人にも暇な時間がどっさりあると考えている。　どちらも自己中心の考え方であることはいうまでもない。 ==

Could you paraphrase this phrase? The "as it was" in the following sentence didn't make sense to me: The answer application picks up the phone as it was by establishing an audio path to the calling party. Could you paraphrase this phrase or whole sentence into any different expression? Thanks in advance.

'teaches' OR 'is teaching'. Which is rather natural to English native's ear? 1. She teaches the piano to some children in her neighborhood. 2. She is teaching the piano to some children in her neighborhood. Thanks.

Subjunctive mood A textbook says; "The Subjunctive is used to emphasize urgency or importance. It is used after certain expressions". Is this the main usage of subjunctive mood?

a partner or partnerS An italki sent me a message "Hi, I'd like to be language partners on italki." The guy didn't say "a partner" but "partners". Which of them is rather natural, or both?

Transferred Epithet In the following sentence: There was a * little * man in a back street who imported just the coffee she liked, another who blended tea to perfection, a third who has the secret of making excellent hams. The word LITTLE is used as a transferred epithet, accounted by a grammar book. Isn't this rhetoric infrequent amongst educated people? Thanks

Needs English Native's Opinion about a Sentence. The following is a sentence quoted from a textbook of the Logics I have been reading. quote::: The fact that I didn't mention that Mr. A has read Bloomfield's Language would have to be attributed to a different reason: while it is relevant to Mr. A's capacity to teach linguistics, there are suffciently many more important questions to answer about Mr. A that I could easily tell the reader more than he wants to know about Mr. A without mentioning whether Mr. A has read Bloomfield. end quote::: My question: Whether is this style of writing as bad or not as for a textbook of the Logics? (I know that this is not a plain English and is quite long, but that book is not a novel.) paraphrase: Am I OK to pursue this book for my English learning, especially expressing complex thoughts? Thanks

How to modify a modifier? How to modify a modifier? In the following sentence: We feel that this simplicity makes filters are less prone to abuse, since they are essentially just functions with decorators that make Python usable inside of Django temlates. I understand that: The functions make Python usable inside of Django templates. My question: How do I modifiy the word "docorators" in this sentence? ( perhaps, docorators that we have mentioned before or docorators, which ... ) .... just functions with decorators [ modifiers ] that make Python .... Or, the sentence structure must be re-built from scratch? Thanks