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皆には私の方から話しておこう。

Can anyone help me translate the above sentence? The ておこう is throwing me off as I'm unsure how it fits. From my understanding it's something like "Everyone should practice my advice?"　The context is a girl asking a boy for advice on what she should do to make someone like her. The previous sentence was:

そう、プレゼントだ。彼が気に入るものを贈るとポイントが高いぞ！

Which I'm roughly understanding as "That's right, a present. You should give him something he likes."

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    What do you think it means (aside from the ～ておこう)? You should edit your question to show your attempt and what you understand, otherwise it may be closed because we don't do translations.
    – istrasci
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 2:29
  • When I read only the first sentence, the first thing I thought was "I'll talk with them [and explain it, or ask for info etc.]". Not sure what to make of the given context, though. Does the context provide any information who 皆 are (in relation to the boy/girl)?
    – blutorange
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 12:35
  • No it doesn't. After the character says that sentence, he then tells her さあ、行きなっさい、お嬢さん! which i understand as "So go (and get the present), young lady!" And then the dialogue ends there. But prior to this he has been calling the girl, お嬢さん and the boy 彼. But nothing as to who 皆 are.
    – nishi
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 17:46

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Well first, it should be 話して and not 話て because the dictionary form is 話す.

Now, onto this form : 話しておこう comes from the more general pattern, 「Vておきます」. You may recognize that おこう is the volitional, non-polite, form (let's do) of おきます. If you know おきましょう, it is the same but less polite.

This pattern boils down to : do things in advance in order to realize a goal. (In Japanese : 「ある目的のためにあらかじめある行為を行なう」source).

Some examples from the same website :

  • 来週までにレポートを書いておきます。(Please prepare in writing the report by next week)
  • 発表のために資料をコピーしておきました。(Please prepare copies of the documents for the announcement)
  • 友だちが来るので、部屋をきれいにしておきます。(As your friends are coming over, please tidy up your room beforehand)

So, in your sentence, I would go with something the lines of :

Everybody, let's practice the talk from my point of view.

I am lacking the context so it is difficult to check, please help us out by providing more insight !

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  • Sorry, I mistyped it. It was definitely written as 話して. The context is a girl is asking for advice, and the guy responds with, そう、プレセントだ。彼が気に入るものを贈るとポイトが高いぞ！皆には私の方から話しておこう。 I understand the first part about the present. I'm confused at what the second part means. Like is it something like Everyone should put my advice to use?
    – nishi
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 4:05

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