Usage of an adjective 細やか（な）

Question

I have met the sentence:

• 各学生への細やかな配慮と個人的な学術的な指導があるため。

The word 細やかな is translated in the dictionary usually as friendly or tender.

1) Could you please tell me more exact translation of this word and of the whole sentence? 2) And in which contexts is this word most suitable?

Thank you.

Answer 1

The term 「細やか」, as suggested by the letter "細", has the nuance like finesse, delicateness, subtleness, sensitiveness. So when it is used to modify 配慮(concideration/care), the outline of the meaning of the expression "細やかな配慮" is that there has been a careful, adequate and warm care for the students, which supported each student in need. The support was accessible and was regardful of the different states that different students had.

Modifying the word like "配慮" and "心づかい" is one of the most suitable contexts for this word. It can also be used to describe other things. Some examples taken from 青空文庫 :

隣家の主婦の愛情の細やかさ (横光利一, 睡蓮)

,

人の生活の細やかな味わい (有島武郎, 幻想)

,

生々と細やかに描き出され (宮本百合子, 同志小林の業績の評価によせて)

,

光琳の蒔絵のような細やかな柳の葉をすいすいすいすい描き出した (正岡容, 圓朝花火)

Answer 2

1) Could you please tell me more exact translation of this word and of the whole sentence?

"Thanks to his/her(?) kind consideration and personal academic advice to his/her own each student"

2) And in which contexts is this word most suitable?

I think considering the contents of the speech, it is something related with universities, post graduate, or something about a particular professor, etc.

---

Here is some extra grammatical information:

細やか is actually an "adjectival noun" (形容動詞{けいようどうし}) , which you can learn almost anything about on the Adjectival noun Wikipedia page.

Since the word that comes after it is 配慮{はいりょ}, which is a noun, it conjugates (similar to verbs).

There is one type of adjectival noun in modern usage, with inflections as follows.
[Note: On the Wikipedia page, you can see all the conjugation forms that are copied below.]

未然形 (Irrealis) -daro
連用形 (Adverbial) -daQ -de -ni
終止形 (Conclusive) -da
連体形 (Attributive) -na
仮定形 (Hypothetical) -nara
命令形 (Imperative)　×

Thus, it conjugates into the 連体形{れんたいけい} (attributive), which is the form that leads into nouns: 細やかな

細やか denotes "considerate", "discreet", "minute", etc, etc.

Answer 3

「細やかな配慮」 is a common phrase in Japanese (it has 250,000 hits in Google). It means "careful consideration".

As for contexts, it is the same as the English counterpart, i.e. more often in more formal, polite writing.

As this sentence is missing a larger context, it is hard to translate perfectly, but it would be something like

(Because) careful consideration and individual educational guidance are there for each student.