When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone?
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I don’t write a letter at all now. There is a Japanese traditional culture named “Nengajyo” that is written on New Year’s Day, but I’ve not written it for more than 20 years. Email is an easy way to send a message, but it’s also vain I guess.
I don’t write a letterletters at all nowanymore.
"I don't write letters at all now" is OK, but "at all anymore" is better
There is a Japanese traditional culture namedtradition of writing a letter called a “Nengajyo” that is written on New Year’s Day, but I’ve not written itone for more than 20 years.
"I've not written one" is correct but it's a little formal/literary. "I haven't written one" is more colloquial.
Email is an easy way to send a message, but it’s also vain I guessit seems empty by comparison.
Or just "~but it seems empty." if you don't want to emphasize the comparison to letters and focus only on email. I understand what you're trying to say from reading the other correction, but not sure what the best way to word it is. In this context, "empty" means "lacking effort or sincerity." You could also say "it seems like an empty gesture."
Overall feedback
There's definitely charm to sending and receiving letters but I haven't written one in a while...
Thank you very much for your careful corrections. It's very difficult to translate a sentence you've thought up in Japanese into English with the same nuance. Next time, I'll try writing simple sentences instead of forcing myself to write sentences with complex meanings.
そうですね。Because English and Japanese have such different structures and cultural nuances, you often have to change a lot of things when you translate it. When I try to "think in Japanese" to start with, that's also very hard. But I think you'll end up learning more if you challenge yourself to write more complex sentences. 頑張りましょう！
I don’t write a letterletters at all now.
There is a Japanese traditional culture namedtradition called “Nengajyo”, it's a letter that is written on New Year’s Day, but I’ve not written it for more than 20 years.
Email is an easy way to send a message, but it’s also vain I guess.
No change suggested
What do you mean by "vain"? If you mean "there's no point" or "there's no reason to", that would be --> "it's *in* vain." If you meant that it's just for show --> then it works, but it doesn't sound super natural...
Overall feedback
Writing can stimulate the brain, just like you're doing here! :) You can try it again after 20 years too!
Thank you very much for your careful corrections. I wanted to write the last sentence in a way that suggested the email wasn't sincere, but it was difficult. I don't often get the chance to write letters.
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