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So I'm learning japanese. I've put the above phrases in google translate and they translate differently.
One says, "Nihon to iu monogatari" which I understand as simply a story called japan.
Now the other one is weird. It says, "Mukashibanashi to iu na no monogatari" which I understand to be a story with a name of old story.
Can't I just say, "Mukashibanashi to iu monogatari"?
Yes, you can also say "Mukashibanashi to iu monogatari".
There are many different ways to try translate something, and computer translation simply chooses the one that is most likely to be match the source language. If you click on the output translation, there are usually a few alternative translations suggested, and its worth looking at them even if you only have a basic level of the language.
Also, even I found your title confusing. Computer translations have limitations and can easily make mistakes when things can be interpreted in different ways. Putting things like quotation marks into the sentence should make it easier to translate.
