How to construct a sentence that’s correct, using についての?

Question

I know the sentence structure XについてのY, but I don’t know how to effectively use it. I know that what precedes it must be a noun or has to be nominalised, but still can’t figure out how to use it properly.

My best guess would be something like:

ベルギー人はビールについての考え方とはベルギーのが一番美味しいと思います。
Belgian people’s views about beer are that Belgian beer is the best tasting.

Would that be a correct sentence? I wasn’t sure about how to use some of the particles with this construction.

(This is where I first learned about the construction.)

Answer 1

「ベルギー人{じん}はビールについての考{かんが}え方{かた}とはベルギーのが一番美味{いちばんおい}しいと思{おも}います。」

Before discussing the validity of your sentence above, I would like to talk about a couple of items.

「Noun 1 + に + ついて + の + Noun 2」

will always be a noun phrase; therefore, it will need to be treated as such without an exception.

This differs from the expression:

「Noun + に + ついて + Verb」

which is a verb phrase.

Now, let us take a look at:

「ビール + に + ついて + の + 考え方」

That is a perfectly formed noun phrase.

Your sentence, however, has two flaws even though it was a very nice try.

1) The 「は」 after the 「ベルギー人」. It needs to be 「の」 for it to be grammatical. You said "Belgian people’s views" yourself; You used the "'s", which is 「の」 in Japanese.

2) 「思います」 at the end. The subject of this sentence is 「考え方」 and not 「ベルギー人」. You cannot say 「考え方は/が思います」 (even though you can say 「ベルギー人は/が思います」).

Ideally (and naturally), this sentence should end in 「～～というものです」. If you used 「考え方」 as the subject, you would use that 「もの」 to correspond to it within the predicate.

You used "views about beer are that ~~~" in your English. The Japanese expression that is closest in both meaning and feeling to "is/are that ~~~" would be 「～～というものです」.

Thus, the sentence I would personally recommend would be:

「ベルギー人のビールについての考え方とは、ベルギーのが一番美味しいというものです。」

A very natural use of 「の」 in 「ベルギーのが」 by you, by the way.