I could have learned the joy of communication with various people. sembra naturale?

Question

yuutokun · Answer

Hmm that doesn't seem like a natural way of expressing that feeling.
A native would likely say something like "I really enjoyed getting the chance to talk to so many people from around the world. It showed me just how important communication is."
An expression like "joy of communication" sounds a bit contrived (嘘っぽい・不自然).

sabi · Answer

By saying "could have learned" means that you have not learned "the joy of communication" yet or that you missed an opportunity to learn it

by saying "joy of communication" it means that you feel that being able to communicate with various people is very joyous. However in casual speech it seems a little odd to say "the joy of ___"

another way to say this would be
"I wish I could have learned to speak with various people." or "I could have learned to be able to speak with various people."
But by saying "I could have" it leaves the statement open to questions such as "why couldn't you learn to?" because by saying the word "could" means that you had the ability or opportunity to but either chose not to or missed your chance to. The second sentence also looses the feeling of joy you feel by being able to communicate with others.

By using "wish" in the first sentence it means that you have a desire to learn to communicate with others, so this sentence gives the feeling of "joy of communication" that you feel.

lionbars · Answer

I wouldn't say unnatural because it sounds as though you're writing a book or journal.
Also I think there is a big difference between something being unnatural and not usually said in casual speech, because grammatically that sentence was perfectly correct, and didn't sound odd at all.

yuutokun · Answer

Hmm lionbars we may have to agree to disagree.
Just because a sentence is grammatically correct does not make it natural.
--
When I am typing in the computer my feelings of disagreement as you see now, I am being correct with grammar but you can understand that I am not fully mastering the art of communication.
---
Native fluency is derived from what is sound grammatically AND what is linguistically viable among native speakers.  There is room for creativity of course, but this requires a good sense of the boundaries lie linguistically and how to break them.

Regardless of all that, idiomatic phrases are a sticking point for many Japanese speakers.
Japanese is highly idiomatic so many English learners try to bring that over when they trying to speak English. I think it's important that we as native speakers eliminate that habit and cultivate an intrinsic understand of the subject-verb-agreement pattern of thinking.

Emilynne · Answer

Sounds a bit long. But it's completely understandable.Maybe it would sound more natural if you replaces "various" with more. In the end, it all depends on how you want to say it. You don't have to express yourself based on guidelines of what's acceptable. In the future, when you understand how English speech works, express yourself how you want. People are just trying to tell you that sometimes, direct translations don't work out very well.

Different languages have their different ways of expressing.

Different languages have their different ways of expressing.

I could have learned the joy of communication with various people. sembra naturale?

I wouldn't say unnatural because it sounds as though you're writing a book or journal.Also I think there is a big difference between something being unnatural and not usually said in casual speech, because grammatically that sentence was perfectly correct, and didn't sound odd at all.

I wouldn't say unnatural because it sounds as though you're writing a book or journal.
Also I think there is a big difference between something being unnatural and not usually said in casual speech, because grammatically that sentence was perfectly correct, and didn't sound odd at all.