[No. 129] I've dug into some useful English expressions from scenes in the Disney movie "The Incredibles."

Helen explains to Dash, who wants to use his special powers, why he shouldn't.

① the world just wants us to fit in, and to fit in, we just gotta be like everybody else.
The phrase I want to highlight here is fit in, which means "to blend in or adapt (to an organization, etc.)."

What you need to be careful about is that since fit in means "to blend in or adapt," you need to add fit in with for "blending in well with (a person)," and fit in at for "adapting to (an organization, etc.)," meaning you must add 'with' or 'at' after it.

I had trouble fitting in at a new school. "I had a hard time fitting in at my new school."

I could easily fit in with my new classmates. "I was able to easily fit in with my new classmates."

② Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of.
The phrase I'm highlighting here is nothing to be ashamed of.be ashamed of means "to be ashamed of..." so when combined with "nothing," it means "there is nothing to be ashamed of."

Therefore, the line "our powers were nothing to be ashamed of" means "there is nothing to be ashamed of regarding our powers." Isn't "there is nothing to be ashamed of" a phrase you hear often in Japanese?

Making mistakes is nothing to be ashamed of. "Making mistakes is nothing to be ashamed of."

Saying sorry is nothing to be ashamed of. "Apologizing is nothing to be ashamed of."

You tried your best. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. "You did your best, so there is nothing to be ashamed of."

There’s nothing to be ashamed of completes the meaning as "there is nothing to be ashamed of," so it can be used as "encouragement" for someone who has failed at something.

This nothing to be ashamed of also seems like it could be used in many different situations.

Smaller bites, Dash.
This is a scene where Helen warns her son Dash after seeing him try to take a huge bite of meat during dinner.

bite means "a mouthful," so the literal translation is "smaller mouthfuls."

Since he is eating meat, it means "cut it into smaller pieces (and eat it)," but the Japanese subtitle says "don't bite into it."

Either one is fine, but I like the latter because the mouth movement is clearer. When I encounter subtitles like this, I groan and think, "You got me!"

"Biting into" something can be expressed as follows: bite into ... or tear into ... and so on.

He bit ( tore ) into meat as he was very hungry. "He tore into the meat because he was starving."

However, I was impressed by how concise the expression was without using a verb, like Helen's Smaller bites.

When looking at Japanese subtitles, I keenly feel the necessity of being "well-versed" in Japanese as well, and the need for translations that are firmly grounded in the context. I feel that I am very "unfamiliar" with my native language, Japanese.

Therefore, I feel every day that I must work hard on mental training by carefully considering whether there are English expressions other than literal translations. Japanese is truly difficult...

This is a vocabulary study. dissect means "to cut apart," and since dis- means "apart," and sect means "to cut" as its etymological root, it becomes "cut apart" = "dissect."

Since section, which means "a division," is a "sectioned-off" place, I think sect is easy to guess.

By the way,

bisect = bi (two) + sect (cut) = "to bisect"

insect is something with a cut (sect) in the middle (in) = "insect"

is.

is. In this way, I think the process of guessing meanings by relying on etymology leads to "breaking away from rote memorization".

This is the scene where Dash is suspected of putting a thumbtack on the teacher's chair.

You could barely see it on the tape.
barely means "only just do something" and is a synonym for hardly. However, there is a difference. Let's consider the difference between the following two English sentences.

I could barely eat it.
I could hardly eat it.

barely emphasizes the positive aspect, meaning "I was able to eat it, albeit barely," whereas hardly emphasizes the negative aspect, meaning "I could hardly eat it at all."

barely is bare + ly, and bare means "naked" or "uncovered," used in phrases like bare hands and bare eye. Also, "uncovered" leads to the meaning of "nothing extra," or "

the bare minimum." From there,

barely eat comes to mean "eat the minimum amount" = "eat, albeit only just."

It is interesting that even words and phrases that translate to almost the same meaning in Japanese have subtle differences in nuance.