How would I say the following:
Can I continue studying Japanese?
I was thinking something along the lines of
Watashi wa nihongo o narau no tsudukimasuka?
It's probably wrong, and I could use some help.
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Are you using "can" in the sense of asking for permission (tudukete mo ii desu ka) or asking about the possibility (tudukeraremasu ka)?– Earthliŋ ♦Sep 6, 2016 at 11:08
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It's more In a sense of permission I'd say– LemonSep 6, 2016 at 11:13
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1 Answer
There are three issues here.
Transitivity
tuduku (→ tudukimasu) is intransitive ("to continue [of its own accord]"). You need its transitive sibling tudukeru "to continue [sth.]" (→ tudukemasu).
Translation of "Can/May I..."
"Can/May I [verb]?" is usually translated using ～てもいいですか -te mo ii desu ka, here tudukete mo ii desu ka.
Grammar
nihongo wo narau no is a noun phrase, which should become the object of tudukeru. To make this grammatical you would need another particle wo, giving nihongo wo narau no wo tudukeru. A way to avoid two wos in the same sentence would be to substitute narau no by benkyō, for example. nihongo no benkyō wo tudukeru.
Putting everything together, I would suggest
nihongo no benkyō wo tudukete mo ii desu ka
as an improved version of your sentence.
You haven't given any context, so we can't determine whether this is a natural way of phrasing this question in your context.
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Thank you for the feedback, and the detailed explanation. The basic context of the sentence Is that, I haven't been to class for the longest amount of time, and I was wondering If I can continue studying from where I left off. The message Is intended for the teacher.– LemonSep 6, 2016 at 12:03
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There might be more elaborate ways to say something like "Can I continue studying Japanese from where I left off?", but for the context, I think the sentence you now have is fine, especially for a message from a (beginning) student to his/her teacher. (If you wait a few more hours/days you might get feedback from other people.)– Earthliŋ ♦Sep 6, 2016 at 12:12