Quoted clause in Aさんが言うには〜とのこと


I have a question about 施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため in the following sentence:

> 桐原さんが言うには、 **施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため** 、彼を専属のサポート役として使ってくれ、とのこと。

Maybe I'm mistaken something but those two parts — “施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため” and
“彼を専属のサポート役として使ってくれ” feels unnatural here. If I'm understanding correctly,
“彼を専属のサポート役として使ってくれ” is the part of Kirihara's quote, but what about
“施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため”?

The speaker is talking about his 'some sort of servant' or simply サポート役 who is
showing and helping him to get accustomed to the facility he recently started
working at. 桐原 is a director of the facility.

Some sort of translation:

> As Kirihara-san said, for me who is unfamiliar to life in the facility, use
> him as your personal support.

_Edited:_ Sorry for not pointing this earlier, **but there are three persons
here** , Kirihara, who is the boss, the speaker, and he, who is the personal
'servant' of the speaker.




Punctuation is deceptive. The overall structure is that 「桐原さんが言うには、～てくれ、とのこと。」
surrounds the inner clause 「施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため、彼を専属のサポート役として使う」. It's similar to
false word separation as in "eighth grader" and "New Yorkers", which don't
mean "the eighth person who grade" and "new people from York".

So a more or less literal translation can be given as:

> What Kirihara-san told me was: I may use him as a personal support for me,
> who is unfamiliar to life in the facility.

One more general tip on reading Japanese is, the construction of "verbal
ending + と" followed by generic verbs including 言う or 思う, are not necessarily
quotations but idioms which are translated to other English verbs. For
example:

  * ～(imperative) と言う → ask that..., order/have/let (sb) to...

> こんな子供に **働けという** のは酷な話だ。  
>  _It's too cruel to force such a (young) child into labor._

  * ～（-う/-よう）と思う → be motivated to..., try/seek to...

> この戦争が終わったら、結婚 **しようと思う** 。  
>  _I'm going to marry (him/her) when the war's over._

  * ～ないかと言う → suggest that..., ask if...

> 彼の会社に移ら **ないかと言わ** れた。  
>  _I was invited to move into his company._

  * ～だろうと思う → expect that..., wonder that...

> 形勢を逆転するのは困難 **だろうと思わ** れる。  
>  _It seems to be difficult (for the team) to regroup and win._




Punctuation is deceptive. The overall structure is that 「桐原さんが言うには、～てくれ、とのこと。」
surrounds the inner clause 「施設での生活に不慣れな俺のため、彼を専属のサポート役として使う」. It's similar to
false word separation as in "eighth grader" and "New Yorkers", which don't
mean "the eighth person who grade" and "new people from York".

So a more or less literal translation can be given as:

> What Kirihara-san told me was: I may use him as a personal support for me,
> who is unfamiliar to life in the facility.

One more general tip on reading Japanese is, the construction of "verbal
ending + と" followed by generic verbs including 言う or 思う, are not necessarily
quotations but idioms which are translated to other English verbs. For
example:

  * ～(imperative) と言う → ask that..., order/have/let (sb) to...

> こんな子供に **働けという** のは酷な話だ。  
>  _It's too cruel to force such a (young) child into labor._

  * ～（-う/-よう）と思う → be motivated to..., try/seek to...

> この戦争が終わったら、結婚 **しようと思う** 。  
>  _I'm going to marry (him/her) when the war's over._

  * ～ないかと言う → suggest that..., ask if...

> 彼の会社に移ら **ないかと言わ** れた。  
>  _I was invited to move into his company._

  * ～だろうと思う → expect that..., wonder that...

> 形勢を逆転するのは困難 **だろうと思わ** れる。  
>  _It seems to be difficult (for the team) to regroup and win._

