How do I have to interprete this passive?


The following excerpt is an instruction from my textbook for a composition:

> 近所の人に苦情を言われました。事情を説明して謝ってください。そして、どうすれば迷惑をかけずに **生活が続けられるか** 、近所の人と相談してください。

Before I show you my attempt at translation, I must add that I also had some
minor issues with どうすれば. I basically only know it in the set phrase
"どうすればいいか。" However, I think I got it right, I just wanted to point it out to
you in case my interpretation in this context seems off:

"A neighbor has complained to you (=By a neighbor you were told a complaint).
Please make an excuse explaining the reasons. Then, please discuss with the
neighbor how (=どうすれば?) daily life continues (=is continued) without causing
trouble."

My main issue lies with the use of passive in the bold part.  
I'm not sure if I analysed its use correctly, but in my opinion it seems to be
this new kind of passive my textbook just taught me about in this (last! :))
chapter. My textbook calls this passive "indirect passive" either with
"transitive" or "intransitive" verbs.  
I'll type down some examples for you from the various uses my textbook lists
in this chapter:

> 1) 私は今日雨に降られて。  
>  2) あなたにそこに立たれると、前が見えません。  
>  3) 私は父に急に死なれて、大学に行けなかった。  
>  4) こんなところに信号を作られて、車が渋滞するようになってしまった。  
>  5) 私の家の前にごみを捨てられて困っています。

The biggest issue I have with these new passive constructions is that it kind
of lacks a proper equivalent in my language(s)...^^ It's also not really
possible to paraphrase it, so I usually end up using either a standard passive
or standard active construction.  
There is a rather colloquial "form" of passive in my language which kind of
resembles this one, but it isn't suitable for all cases and often sounds
pretty odd in my translation...^^

Due to these "losses" in translation, it is hard for me to distinguish whether
a construction is this new form of "indirect" passive or a "normal" passive.  
When an intransitive verb is used, this problem is usually eliminated because
I haven't learned about any other case where the passive mood is applied to an
intransitive verb. But for transitive verbs, the problem persists...^^  
I also don't really feel very comfortable with "bulldozing" the nuances
brought in through these indirect passives by just translating plain passive
or active. But as of now, I kind of lack the creativity to come up with a
solution for this problem...^^




For the verb 続{つづ}ける the passive and the potential forms are the same. In your
text the potential form is what is being used and the translation is thus:

> そして、どうすれば迷惑{めいわく}をかけずに生活{せいかつ}が続{つづ}けられるか、近所{きんじょ}の人{ひと}と相談{そうだん}してください。
>
> And then, discuss with him how you **can continue** living there without
> causing troubles.

Also, note that the word "neighbor" is with a short "o", きんじょ, and not きんじょう,
as you wrote, giving you a completely different set of kanji. Furthermore you
are using the wrong kanji for apologize:

> 謝{あやま}る, apologize  
>  誤{あやま}る, do a mistake

I understand that it is tempting to use a lot of kanji when typing on a
computer, but please make sure that you only use kanji that you actually know.
In Japanese there are a lot of homonyms only distinguished by their respective
kanjis, or the context in spoken language, and they can change the meaning
completely. There are also a lot of kanji pronounced the same with roughly the
same meanings, but slightly different nuances. A good way for identifying them
is to Google, e.g. "変{か}える 替{か}える 代{か}える 換{か}える 使{つか}い分{わ}け".

