Wednesday, January 3, 2018

translation - real meaning of 子供に話を聞かせてあげました


I've just found sentence: 子供に話を聞かせてあげました。and its translation: I read children the story.


Does this sentence seem natural to a native Japanese speaker? To me it sounds like it has more weight to it - like a person saying it could be for example a kindergarden teacher that actually made the children listen to him/her as part of a daily schedule. Like maybe the children, if given the choice, they would pick a different activity than listening to the story.


Also, there's this thing about あげる.. when it's used, can we somehow expect the receiver of it be glad/thankful that the action has been done. Like in this case maybe being told the story will have some positive impact on the children and so the person saying it could expect the children to be grateful, or at least he/she could feel good because he/she knows that telling the story was a good thing to do.



Being influenced by my native language and also English, I would rather say something like: 子供に話を言いました。to express the English translation of the original sentence.


I guess what I would like to ask is: am I thinking correctly about the '聞かせてあげました’ sentence? Or maybe it is a typical way to express that someone told something to somebody and I'm just imaginating things.




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