Wanting Someone To Do Something (てほしい Structure)

Question

I have the following sentence to translate.

行ってほしくないと言われたが
新聞記者になりたいので
国際交換瑠学生の試験に受からなくても行くことにした

So far I have the following.

It was said ... doesn't want ... to go but
he wants to become a newspaper reporter so
he decided to go even if he doesn't pass the international exchange student exam

I am having trouble with that first segment. I think the てほしい structure is used to say you want someone to do something for you. So I don't get who is not wanting who to go. If the subject just didn't want to go, I would expect 行きたくない.

Answer 1

You are correct in your understanding that ～てほしい is used when saying what you want others to do. 言われた is the passive, so the subject, literally, "was told 'I don't want you to go'". 行ってほしくない is what they were told by someone else.

The main point of this passage is that the subject intends to go despite being told by someone that they don't want them to go.

As as sidenote regarding translation, it might just be me being sleepy here but I don't think a literal translation of the grammar results in very natural English. Some solutions might be to get rid of the passive ("They told me they don't want me to go but...") or change the "want" ("I was told not to go/...I shouldn't go but...").