Does this sound natural "I want to work long in Japan and make a lot of Japanese friends"


I want to work long in Japan and make a lot of Japanese friends.

日本で長く働き、たくさんの日本人の友達を作りたい。

日本で長く働き、多くの日本人と友達になりたいです。

日本で長く働き、日本人の友達をたくさん作りたいです。




> 日本{にほん}で長{なが}く働{はたら}き、 **たくさんの** 日本人{にほんじん}の友達{ともだち}を作{つく}りたい。
>
> 日本で長く働き、 **多くの** 日本人と友達になりたいです。
>
> 日本で長く働き、日本人の友達を **たくさん** 作りたいです。

All are grammatical and make perfect sense.

The sentence that would sound at least slightly more natural than the others
would be the **last** one. That is because it uses 「たくさん」 as an **adverb** ,
which is generally the native speakers' choice.

Japanese-learners have a fairly strong tendency to use number-related phrases
as **adjectives** because they are accustomed to saying "make many friends",
"eat lots of vegetables", etc. and they naturally attempt to translate those
directly into Japanese.

While the same construct is still "grammatical" in Japanese as well, it is not
our most intuitive construct choice.

Thus, it is simply more natural and intuitive for us to say:

> 友達をたくさんつくる
>
> リンゴを２個食{こた}べる

than to say:

> たくさんの友達を作る
>
> ２個のリンゴを食べる

I could not even begin to explain how unnatural 「２個のリンゴを食べる」 sounds to the
Japanese ears.

