Express "being excited" in Japanese

[Robert Crandal]

What is the best (or most common) way to say the following statement?:

"I am excited about going to the movies tonight!"

I searched the word "be excited" in several online dictionaries and I
received lots of different results. So, the problem is I'm not really sure
which verb to choose. How about "気が立つ"?? If so, how would
I use that to translate the above sentence into Japanese?

Thanks

[Tad Perry]

"Robert Crandal" <rcranz...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:KfGdnTSX-_De9bfS...@giganews.com...

It seems to me that most Japanese people wouldn't use a form of the word
"excited" here.

期待している ("looking forward to" which is how "excited" is being used here)
seems much more likely.

今晩映画に行くことは非常に期待しています。

You could probably say 気が立っている but I seem to hear the above most often for
this kind of thing.

The most common way of saying "I'm excited" that I know is 興奮している, but, like
I say, it doesn't seem to be commonly used in the way you're looking for.
(It's like "to be worked up," and closer to "agitated.")

Now we can see how far I got it wrong from the native speakers.

tvp

[muchan]

気が立つ sounds like being angry.

For "being excited", it depends on the context, but in your example,
I'd say ウキウキしている。8)

(待ち遠しくて）ウキウキしている
　　　　　　　ソワソワしている
落ち着いていられない
盛り上がっている
興奮している
今か今かと待っている
etc., etc.

muchan

[muchan]

Reply I sent before from Google group didn't come through so I rewrite.

気が立つ sounds me like being angry. or irritated.

For "being excited", it depends on context, but here I'd use
for example ウキウキしている.

Other possibilities:
ソワソワしている、落ち着かない、いても立ってもいられない、待ち遠しくてたまらない、
盛り上がってる、気持ちが高ぶっている、(精神が）高揚している、興奮している、
etc.etc...

muchan

[JimBreen]

On Feb 3, 7:30 pm, muchan <mucha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 2, 11:42 am, "Robert Crandal" <rcranz143...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > What is the best (or most common) way to say the following statement?:
>
> >         "I am excited about going to the movies tonight!"

> For "being excited", it depends on the context, but in your example,

> I'd say ウキウキしている。8)
>
> (待ち遠しくて）ウキウキしている
> 　　　　　　　ソワソワしている
> 落ち着いていられない
> 盛り上がっている
> 興奮している
> 今か今かと待っている
> etc., etc.

If you go to http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?10
and put in am.*excited you get 7 sentences from the Tanaka corpus. 6
of them use 興奮する in various ways, e.g. 誰もが興奮していた。
One uses わくわくする.

Jim

[muchan]

On Feb 4, 8:18 am, JimBreen <jimbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 3, 7:30 pm, muchan <mucha...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Feb 2, 11:42 am, "Robert Crandal" <rcranz143...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > What is the best (or most common) way to say the following statement?:
>
> > >         "I am excited about going to the movies tonight!"
> > For "being excited", it depends on the context, but in your example,
> > I'd say ウキウキしている。8)
>
> > (待ち遠しくて）ウキウキしている
> > 　　　　　　　ソワソワしている
> > 落ち着いていられない
> > 盛り上がっている
> > 興奮している
> > 今か今かと待っている
> > etc., etc.
>

> If you go tohttp://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?10

> and put in am.*excited you get 7 sentences from the Tanaka corpus. 6
> of them use 興奮する in various ways, e.g. 誰もが興奮していた。
> One uses わくわくする.
>
> Jim

わくわくする is better.
To translate "be excited", the first choice is 興奮する.
But probably it's used differently? "excited" may be used more
casually in
English than 興奮する in Japanese? Always translating with 興奮する does not
sounds right in many context, like in OP's question. Here, native
would probably
use わくわく or ウキウキ or other more casual expression rather than the word
like 興奮。

[Adele Fletcher]

When I lived in Japan (5 years ago), the word I most often heard in
relation to an anticipated enjoyable event was 'tanoshimi'. It seems
to be used both in polite and casual conversation. Jim Breen's
dictionary has some good examples eg,

私達は来週ハイキングに行くのを楽しみにしています。 [T]
We are looking forward to going on a hike next week.

Where I lived, the expression often seemed more enthusiastic than the
above example (more like 'excited') Younger people and children, for
example, would simply respond to an upcoming fun event saying,
"Tanoshimi!".

[Bart Mathias]

On Tue, 7 Feb 2012 14:16:35 -0800 (PST)
Adele Fletcher <afaf....@gmail.com> wrote:

> [...]

> When I lived in Japan (5 years ago), the word I most often heard in
> relation to an anticipated enjoyable event was 'tanoshimi'. It seems
> to be used both in polite and casual conversation. Jim Breen's
> dictionary has some good examples eg,
>
> 私達は来週ハイキングに行くのを楽しみにしています。 [T]
> We are looking forward to going on a hike next week.
>
> Where I lived, the expression often seemed more enthusiastic than the
> above example (more like 'excited') Younger people and children, for
> example, would simply respond to an upcoming fun event saying,
> "Tanoshimi!".

But I suspect you would not translate that as either "Exciting!" or "I'm excited." More "Can't wait!"?
--
Bart Mathias <mat...@hawaii.edu>

[Adele Fletcher]

On Feb 8, 8:34 am, Bart Mathias <math...@hawaii.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Feb 2012 14:16:35 -0800 (PST)
>

> Bart Mathias <math...@hawaii.edu>

I'm sure you're right. Or maybe "looking forward to it!" I'm just
going by the usage that I remember hearing. My impression at the time
was that I used "excited [about]" in English in a wider range of
circumstances than my Japanese friends used "わくわく” in Japanese. "楽しみ"
seemed to have a broader application. Maybe the problem was my overuse
of "excited" in English?

[Tad Perry]

"Adele Fletcher" <afaf....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:5853374e-fcb1-4fc7...@uc9g2000pbc.googlegroups.com...

***

Probably true. One has to divorce oneself from trying to match the word used
in English to the so-called equivalent word in Japanese, and instead think:
What do Japanese people say in this situation? I agree with you that
"tanoshimi ni shite imasu" is very common for the situational communication
in question, even though "tanoshimi ni shite iru" is not quite an exact
match for "excited."

Perhaps my own sense of Japanese is not as good as I would like, but I don't
remember hearing 興奮する (which definitely can mean "to be excited") used very
often in terms of "I'm excited about up-coming event X." Maybe I'm just
wrong about that and Japanese people say it all the time. I'm sure it's
possible, but it sure isn't the first choice that comes to a native
speaker's mind.

tvp

[Bart Mathias]

On Wed, 8 Feb 2012 12:23:28 -0800
"Tad Perry" <tadp...@comcast.net> wrote:

> "Adele Fletcher" <afaf....@gmail.com> wrote [...]
>

> ... I'm just

> going by the usage that I remember hearing. My impression at the time
> was that I used "excited [about]" in English in a wider range of
> circumstances than my Japanese friends used "わくわく” in Japanese. "楽しみ"
> seemed to have a broader application. Maybe the problem was my overuse
> of "excited" in English?
>
> ***
>
> Probably true. One has to divorce oneself from trying to match the word used
> in English to the so-called equivalent word in Japanese, and instead think:
> What do Japanese people say in this situation? I agree with you that
> "tanoshimi ni shite imasu" is very common for the situational communication
> in question, even though "tanoshimi ni shite iru" is not quite an exact
> match for "excited."
>
> Perhaps my own sense of Japanese is not as good as I would like, but I don't
> remember hearing 興奮する (which definitely can mean "to be excited") used very
> often in terms of "I'm excited about up-coming event X." Maybe I'm just
> wrong about that and Japanese people say it all the time. I'm sure it's
> possible, but it sure isn't the first choice that comes to a native
> speaker's mind.

It's just possible that that's part of the reason Japanese dictionaries are
more likely to define koufun with words like iraira or fuan than with wakuwaku.
(Just a wild guess; I'm too lazy to look up "excited" in Webster, but I bet
they don't use words anything like "irate" or "unease.")
--
Bart Mathias <mat...@hawaii.edu>