# polite and helpful



## yuechu

大家好！

My parents just came back from Japan and I was thinking of how to translate the following sentence to Chinese: "My parents just came back from Japan and were saying how polite and helpful people were in Japan."
For example, for "helpful", is it common to say "乐于助人的"?

Thanks!

EDIT: 乐意 was corrected to 乐于


----------



## corner1912

“我父母刚从日本回来，他们说日本人非常礼貌友善且乐于助人”


----------



## albert_laosong

yes, not 乐意助人，but 乐于助人。


----------



## Jack12345

yuechu said:


> were in Japan


为什么要用过去时？而不是一般现在时？


----------



## SuperXW

Jack12345 said:


> 为什么要用过去时？而不是一般现在时？


主句过去式，他们看到的情况都发生在过去，为啥用现在时？


----------



## Jack12345

SuperXW said:


> 句过去式，他们看到的情况都发生在过去，为啥用现在时？


但日本人讲礼貌不是一个一直存在的事实吗？用过去时，给人的感觉好像过去讲礼貌，现在不一定了


----------



## SimonTsai

我父母剛從日本回來，他們剛剛正說著：在日本，人們是怎樣地 [by giving examples] 有禮貌、樂於給予人幫助。


----------



## corner1912

Jack12345 said:


> 但日本人讲礼貌不是一个一直存在的事实吗？用过去时，给人的感觉好像过去讲礼貌，现在不一定了



感觉英文里的过去时很好“触发”，只要是在说过去的事情，就用过去时，除非在陈述事实，“陈述”和“事实”两个条件都不能少。这里可以理解为只是在说过去的见闻吧。我不太能理解为什么用were saying，感觉这里翻和不翻对句子有影响


----------



## yuechu

Thank you all for your translations and correction as well! 



Jack12345 said:


> 为什么要用过去时？而不是一般现在时？


That's a good question. I think that a grammar book might only say that 过去时 is correct here and not the present tense. (It's what I was taught in school) However, you will hear people sometimes use the present tense as well, especially in conversation.
I think that the past tense sounds a bit better in this sentence because they only went for a short trip and didn't have much interaction with Japanese people. It was a "tour bus trip" and they mostly interacted with other tourists. Even if it were longer though, the past tense is still correct. I think that if you want to emphasize that it is a fact or always true, and especially if the past tense sounds too ambiguous, the present tense can be used as well.


----------



## Jack12345

yuechu said:


> because they only went for a short trip and didn't have much interaction with Japanese people.


Yes, it makes the sense. Thank you all!


----------



## albert_laosong

corner1912 said:


> 我不太能理解为什么用were saying，感觉这里翻和不翻对句子有影响


用were saying更生动，好像脑子里还在回忆着父母当时不停的说，日本人很有礼貌，如何如何。
翻译的话，可以说：他们一直说XXXXX来表达这种生动的现场感。


----------



## corner1912

albert_laosong said:


> 用were saying更生动，好像脑子里还在回忆着父母当时不停的说，日本人很有礼貌，如何如何。
> 翻译的话，可以说：他们一直说XXXXX来表达这种生动的现场感。


----------

