A really great online resource is Jim Breen's JDIC. I have used it so much in the past for translation, etc. Below is the link. You will find that there is so much that you can do with it. http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?9T All you have to do is copy and paste or type in the box the words you want to translate. It is waaaaay better than anything like google translate or whatever because it is a dictionary complied by a guy who knows a TON about Japanese. Let me know if you need or want to know the grammatical concepts behind the changes in the words from the ones you gave and the dictionary forms chihiro ito gave you.

@Wozitoya I think it is irrelevant that you have been trained in the field of law. I, too, am an educated person and can make logical deductions and analyses. However, this is not important. What is important is that I think that you (and thus perhaps others) misunderstood what I was saying. My point was simply that perhaps considering こんにちは as your only option for greeting someone whom you encounter in the afternoon is limiting. As in English (and other languages), Japanese provides other options depending on your relationship with the person being addressed and the context of the situation. An alternative I offered was "お元気ですか？” For example, when I would visit my professors during their offices hours when I was in college, they might greet me saying "ヒューズさん、元気ですか？” This implied a closer relationship between us, but was also something akin to "how are you?" ”田中先生、久しぶりですね” was never offered as a direct alternative to こんにちは; rather, it was intended to help the questioner open their mind to the possibilities that might occur in the real world. While こんにちは will still get them through the situation posited with the imaginary 田中先生, it would be less natural. One should choose the words and phrases they use based on a variety of factors, not just one (afternoon or not?); that would be in accordance with a natural and fluent use of language, native or otherwise.

It's better not to expect anything; that way, if they don't return the favor, you aren't disappointed. If they do, what a pleasant surprise!

What is power? What is everything? I think that these are multi-facted words, and we must understand what they mean first before we can answer such a question. The answer isn't as easy to come to as it at first may seem.

I thought "Avatar" was the lamest, most unoriginal movie I have ever seen. I seriously despised it and couldn't wait for the movie to end. It's not that I don't appreciate the message, but it wasn't presented in an new or even remotely stimulating way. In addition, the scenes looked like someone took a glow-in-the-dark gel pen to everything so that it would glow. I had a problem with how black-and-white the protagonist and antagonist were, and how we were supposed to be saddened by violence against the natives of Pandora ( I can't remember what they were called), but not saddened by the retaliative violence. I was personally bothered by the idea that since it was defense and revenge, it was supposed to be ok. I haven't seen 2012. Likely won't, either. :)

Actually, I don't think so. To think that it might be, in my opinion, limits the possibility of what a conversation or question about language can be about. Some people truly just love the talk of linguistics or being able to share knowledge they have about how to use a language, etc. However, in speaking of questions on language, questions of culture, identity, perspective, etc. are intrinsic. Also, you can make some interesting suppositions as to what messages others are trying to communicate in another language and related trends.

An impression that I get with the question "what gives?" is that there is an underlying assumption being made by the questioner that there is something going on that is causing the person being asked to act in a certain way.

I don't know...I've never been rich!