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I know I have to start the sentence with 「最近」for "lately" but I don't know what to say for the rest of the sentence. Could someone help me with this?

Does it go like 「最近私は面倒くさい人です。」?

Also,

  • I want to speak in a formal way. (I want to apologize to my senior)
  • I am a girl.
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    Welcome to JLSE. Translation requests will be closed unless you show your own translation attempt and specify which part is your main problem. Feel free to edit your question. And it's a bit difficult to imagine the situation where we say something like this formally. In front of your teacher/boss?
    – naruto
    Mar 11, 2016 at 5:20
  • You can try using HiNative which deals with "How do you say this?" and "Does this sound natural?" type proofreading questions. General "how do you say this"-type questions tend to attract close votes on our site unless there is a specific question to be asked about the sentence, or if there is an additional element that prevents it from being simply translated.
    – Flaw
    Mar 13, 2016 at 3:49
  • Ahh I didn't know that! Thank you for telling me! It's my first time using this site so I'm sorry for not knowing better ^^; I'll ask more appropriate questions next time and avoid the "how do you say this" kind of question OTL Mar 30, 2016 at 6:12

2 Answers 2

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I agree with Naruto's comment that saying "I have been an annoying person lately" in a formal setting to someone like a boss seems a bit strange. However, if there is a situation where the speaker is on very good (close) terms with the boss/teacher person, then it may be possible to say a phrase like this, but only if it in the context of apologizing or explaining for reason for that behavior.

Assuming that, here is my guess at a Japanese phrase to express what you want.

私は最近、周りの人に迷惑をかけていると思いますが、。。。

This literally means something like "Lately, think I have been being a burden to those around me, but ..."

The sentence could continue with something like "これからは” (going forward) to explain how that person is going to change.

Another word that could be used to be mean "annoying" is "うざい” but this is a pretty rough word I have only heard in familiar conversation.

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    Your explanation is perfect, but I'd just throw away the original English and say 最近、私の振る舞いに問題があったようです。Here the use of ようです might be controversial, as it can be understood as you don't recognize your misbehavior as a fact and going to make a rebuttal. But, if you did recognize the misbehavior, that means you intentionally did it, making the situation even worse. So I choose ようです but it must immediately be followed by 申し訳ありませんでした。これからは…
    – nodakai
    Mar 12, 2016 at 8:50
  • Is うざい short for うるさい?
    – Blavius
    Apr 1, 2016 at 22:16
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    @Blavius It sounds similar, but the meaning isn't quite the same and the accepted etymology is different: gogen-allguide.com/u/uzai.html
    – user1478
    Apr 8, 2016 at 2:14
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I think a problem with your question is that it comes from a very Westernized cultural point of view. I don't know the exact situation with your senior, but Japanese people don't like to publicly speak openly about negative feelings and blame, so more often they thank people. Therefore personally I would say something like,

最近はいつも助けてくれて本当にありがとうございます。

Thank you so much for always saving/helping me recently.

Of course, as I don't know your situation this might not be true, it depends on why you've been annoying and your relationship with them. You can always change the verb to something more appropriate.

As to the translation you made, I think if you said this to most Japanese people you would make them feel uncomfortable (a big no-no in Japanese society). This is because you are saying very negative things about yourself and they would feel the need to tell you not to worry, etc, so it sounds like you are fishing for compliments. Further, you are not directing your nuisance towards someone, but giving yourself a general negative trait (lit: I am an annoying person).

The phrase for being a nuisance to someone in Japanese is 迷惑をかける, so you could use this in te form with an apology. However, culturally Japanese people expect actions to make amends, so I would definitely follow it up with some sort of plan on how you won't be a nuisance in the future (これから...頑張ります。). If your senior is really Japanese though, you would probably want to stick with the first idea of thanking them.

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