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I don't get the difference in meaning between には and にしたら like in this sentence from my textbook:

大きすぎる親の期待は、子供にしたら苦痛だ。
Expectations of parents that are too big become agony for the children.

Is it possible to exchange にしたら in above sentence with には? If yes, how would you distinguish the meaning between these grammatical functions or when to use にしたら or には, respectively? To me they seem to be fully interchangeable.

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  • I found some Japanese that helped me out, they actually prefer には for this sentence. The meaning is equal. には is more likely for a normal conversation I guess while にしたら might be used here and then for writing.
    – toobee
    Mar 3, 2013 at 9:58
  • I think I normally say/write ~にとっては (or ~にとって) when I want to sound more formal. (Maybe because I speak Kansaiben. I think ~にしたら is colloquial (at least) in Kansai, and ~にしてみれば sounds more formal than にしたら to me.)
    – user1016
    Mar 3, 2013 at 13:51

1 Answer 1

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I do distinguish their meaning.

  1. Since there already is a topic, には must be the contrastive marker, suggesting that for children their parents' high expectations make them miserable. At the same time it also makes room for other people not being affected by high expectations.
  2. にしたら in a sense suggests putting yourself into the shoes of the children to conclude that they feel miserable.

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