Hey there fellow netizens!

So, it has been a good 3 or 4 months since the release of Zootopia, I imagine that most of us have the song "Try everything" from Gazelle stuck in our head. For those of you who don't, here you go!

Now that we're all on the same track, let's get to business. Today we'll go over the Japanese version of the song.

I'm not a big fan of song "covers", if I can call it that, but I must admit that I find this one to sound pretty good and to be just as catchy as the original.

...Also, to tell you a secret, this is one of the ways in which I learned most of my Japanese vocabulary:

Step 1: Find a Japanese song that you like and get it stuck in your brain.
Step 2: Google the lyrics and try to sing along.
Step 3: Know the song by heart even if you don't know the meaning of every word in it.
Step 4: When you come across said word in the future you will memorize its meaning way faster.

So, let's get it started, uh-uh, let's get it started in here!

Wait, that's not it. But if now you have that song stuck in your head with the lyrics popping one after another then I think I've proved my point and you can trust me to proceed with this lesson:

Now I highly recommend that you press play while scrolling through today's repertoire.

ダメだった。
だめ　だった。
It went bad.
Literally: 'No good+ was'.

うまくいかない。
うまく　いかない。
It won't go well.
Literally: 'Well + won't go'

そんなことばかりよね。
そんな　こと　ばかり　よ　ね。
Things like these (just keep happening), right?.
Literally: 'These (kind of) + things + only + right?.'

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Note: It's a tricky word, this 'ばかり'. It basically means 'only' or 'nothing but'. It has mostly a negative connotation, used with:

1. Accusations:
Mom to teenage son:

毎日ゲームばかりして！
まいにち　げーむ　ばかり　して！
All you do is play games every day!
Literally: 'every day + games + only/nothing but + do!

2. Complaining (like in the song)

そんなことばかりよね。
そんな　こと　ばかり　よ　ね。
Things like these (just keep happening), right?.
Literally: 'These (kind of) + things + only/nothing but + right?.'

Note 2: 'ばっか' is a shortened, casual version of 'ばかり' , not to be confused with 'バカ/ばか' used for 'stupid'.

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それでもね
それでも ね
But still, you know
Literally: 'that + in spite + ね'

進んでいくの
すすんで　いく　の
(I) keep going
Literally: 'moving on + go + の'

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Note: Used at the end of a sentence, 'の' has a feeling of slight stubbornness (in a good or bad way) to it. It conveys the intention of the speaker of wanting to do something in spite of something else.

Additional Note: When の is used at the end of a sentence that is not a question, it is feminine language.

Classic example of little kid not wanting to eat their vegetables:

1. Without 'の'
野菜たべたくない。
やさい　たべたくない。
I don't want to eat vegetables.
Literally: 'Vegetables + don't want to eat'

This sounds more or less neutral. The kid could be talking to their friends, or anyone actually, about them not wanting to eat vegetables in general. They could also not want to eat vegetables now, in a given situation, but you can't really tell.

2. With 'の' :
野菜たべたくないの。
やさい　たべたくない　の。
I don't want to eat vegetables.
Literally: 'Vegetables + don't want to eat + の '
Note: The nuance is a bit like, "I don't want to eat vegetables, (so stop telling me to)."

Now in this case you can easily assume that someone is insistent about them eating their veggies and they are fighting against that, meaning 'in spite of you insisting I eat my vegetables, I refuse to do so'.

In that same sense, the lyrics of the song mean 'in spite of things going wrong and me failing every time, I keep going on'.

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ちゃんと前を向いて
ちゃんと　まえ　を　むいて
I face forward
Literally: 'earnestly/properly + forward + を + face'

間違えることで [...]
まちがえる　こと　で [...]
By making mistakes [...]
Literally: 'To make a mistake + by [...]'

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Note: Those of you with a sharp eye will say 'hey! hey lady! you missed the ’こと' in the literal translation!'. The truth is I didn't, and I will explain why.
In English, when we talk about an activity in general, we say 'to eat', 'to drink', 'to swim', like 'it is healthy to swim'.

Well in Japanese they say:

Verb (dictionary form) + こと

食べること
たべる　こと。
to eat, or eating (in general)
Literally: 'Eat... + to? thing?
Nope. You can't really translate that as a separate word. Just take it as a construct and accept the reality. We all had to at some point or another.

In the same way, the lyrics imply the idea of making mistakes in general. So

間違えること
まちがえる　こと
To make a mistake

And to that construct, you add 'で’, which translates with 'by', so

間違えることで
まちがえる　こと　で
By making mistakes
Literally: 'Make mistakes + by'

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Wow! we learned a lot of stuff today. I will let this sink in first, and then we can continue with the rest of the lyrics in our following lesson. See you next time fellas!

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This lesson was written by Adriana, a guest contributor.