The translation of " you're welcome" in French is " De rien "

And if some of you need help because they don't speak French, then tell me, I can help.

Thankfully, having gone through the Canadian school system, I can still read a tad of French - I would, if I could translate them into English. But it's best left to others with a firm grasp on the language.

I found myself looking up quite a few verbs whilst reading that French article. Thankfully, the txt on the webpages can be easily Google-translated.

It's remarkable that there is such a high population of French Hikaru fans out there... They have even a translated Blog > French. Astounding. That is one excellent site..

I have always understood that "You're welcome" is 'bienvenue' (minus the you're).

Yeah I often go on this website, since I belong to the huge amount of French Hikki fans.

Well, "welcome" means "bienvenue", but " you're welcome" means "de rien".

As for the Google translation, it can be a solution, but I could make some translations if some of you want, since I think that my translations can't be worst than the Google's ones.

Wow that french site is awesome!!!

Quote:

I would like that very much, thank you! Google seemed to half-translate, leaving some French phrases and sentences intact.

De rein - how do I say that?


God is my French teh sux now.

Well then tell me what article or what part of the website you want me to translate and I'll do my best to do it quickly.

As for " De rien " , I think this expression belongs to the ones that english-spoken people can't pronounce correctly, since you have to use a sound that does not really exists in the English language.

So, I don't know how to teach you to say " de rien", I'm thinking but I can't find any sound in the English language that sounds the same right now, sorry.

Is it

"De rii- enn"

or

"De renn"

?

As for a translation, perhaps when you have time :

http://www.hikkiforever.com/magazines02.htm

I did my best at reading it. I'm sure that I took in enough from it, however, a more correct version is always appreciated.

It is "De rii- enn".

For the translation, it's a pretty long article, so I'll do my best to translate it as quickly as possible.

I'll PM you the translation when it's done.

EDIT: Translation of the first page done and sent by PM.

Translation of the whole article done, so here it is.

HIKARU, A star is born

It is during an audition for Toshiba-EMI, that a 15 years old girl appears on the scene, and dazzles the jury by her performance. She was intended to change forever the history of Japanese music.

Hikaru Utada was born in New York, Manhattan, on the 19th of January 1983. Precocious, she wrote her first song at the age of ten. It has to be said that she grew up in a favorable environment to the development of her musical skills, since her father, Utada Teruzane is a music producer and her mother, Keiko Fuji, is a former singer of Enka. She will start to have some singing lessons, and then, at the age of 12, returns in Japan and makes her studies in an American/Japanese school.
And so, she will cause the passion of the jury during this very audition, being the beginning of an extraordinary adventure.

First Love, the first Japanese Utada?s album, released in 1999, caused in the whole Japan and Asia a real tidal wave and was sold, only in Japan, at 10 million copies, which stays nowadays one of the best selling album ever. First Love is composed of awesome and beautiful songs such as Movin? on without you, B&C and First Love, which gave its name to the album.

Her second album, Distance, released on the 28th of March, 2001, will be sold at 5 million copies during the week just after its release in Japan and in the rest of Asia. It can be said that her huge sales follow her talent. In Distance, Hikaru took over a more personal musical style ( with for example the songs Kettobase and Parody), and contains some marvelous songs like Addicted to you, Can you keep a secret, Distance, and a lot of others.

Graduated from the Columbia University, she appears like a kind of alien compared to the other debuting singers. She was educated, on the one hand by the occidental culture and in the other hand by the Japanese one, reading at the same time great Japanese literature and listening to Queen or Mary.J.Blige. It is thanks to this mix of very different cultures that she will bring something really new in the Asian musical industry.

Hikaru really needs to write her songs by herself, that is to say that she?s not a simple interpreter, and her father who?s also her producer, never forces her to write songs and gives her some advices only when Hikaru asks for them. Her other producers agree that Hikki is not the kind of artist who?s gonna wait for the instructions, on the contrary, she?s rather stubborn and perfectly knows what she wanna do, and won?t hesitate, for example, to put the emphasize on something she dislikes, she stays independent and keeps the control of her music, because it?s really her OWN music.

Well-known for her R&B compositions, she however doesn?t want to be ?trapped? in a category of artist, and prefers her music to be associated to a name rather than a musical style. Listening at the same time to Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Hendrix and to the famous Japanese rock band GLAY, we can only expect from her a unique musical sensibility. This sensibility gives birth to her very personal musical style, out of the standards. Her compositions create a real gap between the past Japanese music and now. That is why some young artists such as Kuraki Mai are trying to approach a similar musical style than Hikki?s one at her beginnings. Hikaru?s talent is now recognized by the whole Japanese population and very appreciated.

But Hikaru is also a brilliant person who managed, thanks to her excellent marks to enter the international American/Japanese school. Besides, she?s the first Japanese artist to have been chosen for the MTV UNPLUGGED, a proof that Hikaru can?t be put in the same bag that others singers of her age. From her emanates an uncommon and rare emotion for a 19 years old girl. She has an impressive charisma and isn?t the kind of artist to show on the scene, useless choreographies, in fact, she has an innate scenic talent and it can be seen that she lives her music the most authentic way possible. Hard-worker, she has always paid more attention to her music rather than her image. Besides, the derivative products trade about her is nearly non-existent, compared to other artists of the archipelago.

Now, Hikaru wants to approach the occidental market. We can feel this will from her, especially when Jimmy Jam & Jerry Lewis became the producers of two of her major songs: Addicted to you and Wait&See. And then, when Rodney Jerkins a.k.a Darkchild brings his personal touch to the song Time Limit. Recently, she sang the song Blow My Whistle feat the rap singer Foxy Brown, a song which also belongs to the Rush Hour?s 2 soundtrack.

But let?s deal with her more recent songs. However, Hikaru has made so many compositions that it would be impossible to talk about all of them in only four pages.

The song Final Distance, released on the 21st of July, 2001, opens the way to her new singles, released after the album. Final Distance is a cover of the song Distance, but completely re-made with a striking lyricism. It appears that all the benefits from the sales were given to an organization in memory of the casualties of the Ideka?s school slaughter. We may so consider that it gives a very particular dimension to her work.

Follows Traveling, released on the 28th of November, 2001. It is a song that will cause some very mitigated opinions, at the first listening, it can be immediately noticed that Hikaru starts to take a musical orientation a little distant from what she had accustomed us, however, even if we can be surprised by this song, we are finally caught by its rhythms.

On the 20th of March, 2002, the song Hikari is released, and confirms the musical evolution of the singer. Besides, Hikaru said later about this song ? Even though I keep composing songs for the rest of my life, this song that bears my name will probably stay the most important one for me.? Why? We don?t know, but from an objective point of view, Hikari is not the best song she ever sung so far.
Third page:

Sakura Drops is certainly the song the most anchored in her Japanese origins, since the image she gives by these raindrops of cherry tree, represents the fall of the cherry trees flowers? petals, the sakuras, a genuine symbol of the Japanese culture. The musical instruments recall the compositions about Asia, in the same way that some of Ryiuchi Sakamoto?s songs. Thus it can be said that the occidental influences which could be felt at her debuts gave birth to an artistic maturity and a strong originality. There?s a funny detail about the song. As a matter of fact, Hikki had first planned to call the song ? Sakura Drop? without the ?s?, but she changed her mind, because a ? Drop? is also the name of a Catch attack, and so she feared that the title would be misunderstand.

In her latest album Deep River, released on the 19th of June, 2002, we can appreciate her last singles and some new songs like; Siawase ni narou, the first song she wrote when she came to be 19, Deep River, a very moving slow that she composed with all her soul, Letters, the second song of the single Sakura Drops, Play Ball, Tokyo Night, A.S.A.P ( As Soon As Possible ) and above all Uso Mitai Na I Love You ( an ? I love you? which appears like a lie), which is surely the best song of the album. Made in a very rocky way, this song conveys a powerful emotion.

I think that Deep River is the most succeeded album she ever made. But if you prefer pure RnB, it can be sure that you?ll be a little bit disappointed, since she?s moving away more and more from this kind of music, to reach a sound quality that can?t be compared with her previous compositions.

We can think that nothing could prevent Hikaru from making an international career. She speaks a fluent English, sings perfectly, graduated from a prestigious university, she even signed a really interesting contract with UNIVERSAL MUSIC.

That said, to acquire an international repute won?t be easy at all for a young Japanese artist, first because of the language barriers, and because of her Japanese-like name, Hikaru Utada.


Article written by Jon from the magazine Japan Vibes, translation from French to English by Hayate646.

P.S: Sorry for the possible mistakes, I did my best to translate the French-like expressions.

Thank you, Hayate!