N2 L2 Reading Discussion

This is a discussion topic for the N2 Lesson 2 reading passages.

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Just read through the readings for L2 today, and I’m curious how people translated the following passage from the first reading.

画質いことをにしているけど、写真ることに自信がないことには、うまくならないとわかっているよ

The English translation for the reading translates it as “I’m not confident in my picture taking skills, so I usually blame the camera for taking bad pictures.” However, this seems to lose the nuance of the ないことには grammar point.

Before reading the translation, I interpreted this more as “Although I use the bad picture quality as an excuse, I realize that I won’t get better unless I have more confidence.”

Curious to hear other’s thoughts!

Hey @nminer!

As you mentioned, the original translation did not have the nuance of ないことには, we have changed the translation to ’ Even though I use the bad picture quality of the camera as an excuse, I am aware that, unless I become more confident, I won’t get better at taking photos. ’

Thank you for bringing this to our attention!

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