How to connect words that describe a person?

Question

I'm currently studying with Genki 1. And i came across an excersise that tells us to describe a person based on his picture. I choosed a man named Mizuno.

I want to say: "Mizuno is fat, short (in stature), is listening to music and is wearing a hat"

But i want to do it all in one sentence. Is it possible? Is it correct?

水野は太って、背が低くて、音楽を聞いて、帽子を被っています。

I can also arrange it to be:

水野は太って、音楽を聞いています。背が低くて、帽子を被っています。

I'm going to go through each one and what i did: 太る(fat. verb) i used 太って to connect with the next sentence because using the て form of a verb to do so is what i learned.

低い(short in lenght. Adjective i) 低くて because the て form of i adj. replaces the last い for くて and that way i can connect with the next sentence.

Again 聞いて is in て form

被る( to wear. verb used with hat) 被っています。

Is it natural or correct to connect all of this words like this to describe someome? How would a japanese person do it? The book uses this format: 水野は太っています 背が低いです 音楽を聞いています。 帽子を被っています。

But this feels so textbook like.

Answer 1

Consecutive vs. Simultaneous

「水野{みずの}は太{ふと}って、背{せ}が低{ひく}くて、音楽{おんがく}を聞{き}いて、帽子{ぼうし}を被{かぶ}っています。」

「水野は太って、音楽を聞いています。背が低くて、帽子を被っています。」

(This may be too advanced, but we would write 「音楽を聴{き}く」 instead of 「音楽を聞く」. Same goes for 見る vs. 観る)

Where to start? I guess I would with 「太って」, because I honestly do not feel from your question that you are aware that it cannot be used in these sentences. It is a very common mistake among J-leraners, too.

「～～は太って + another phrase」 means:

"someone has gotten (so) fat that (a phrase)"

In other words, something happens as a result of gaining weight. But that is clearly not what you are trying to say, is it? You are only wanting to say that Mizuno is fat, short, and whatnot. If you want to enumerate some qualities of a person, the phrase you must use is:

「太っていて」 and not 「太って」

〇　太っていて、背も低い

✕　太って、背が低い ← Being short is not an event occuring as the result of being fat.

〇　太って、このジャケットが着{き}られなくなった ← Not being able to wear the jacket is the result of getting fat, so this is a correct use of 「太って」.

TL;DR:

「太って～～～」 = "has gotten fat so that ~~~", "has gotten fat and ~~~ happened"

「太っていて～～～」 = "is fat (and other qualities)"

Moving on...

What you are trying to say is actually not too simple because you want to describe one's two different physical qualities (fat and short) and the two actions that person is performing (listening to music and wearing a hat).

Most naturally, I would say:

「太っていて、背も低い水野は、帽子を被ったまま音楽を聴いています。」

In case that sounds too natural and/or too native-speaker-like, you could say:

「水野は太っていて、背も低いです。今{いま}、帽子を被ったまま音楽を聴いています。」

If I were a J-learner, which I never could be, I would probably use two sentences like that. That is because the two physical characteristics and the two actions are completely unrelated.

Answer 2

Although your first sentence is almost perfect, I would suggest a minor change to it. The following sentence sounds more naturally to me.

水野は太っていて、背が低くて、音楽を聞いていて、帽子を被っています。

If I could rearrange, I would say

水野は背が低くて太っています。帽子を被って音楽を聞いています。

When I hear 水野は太って in the beginning of a sentence, I expect to hear a consequence of his/her having become fat. For example,

水野は太って、病気になった。