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This question appears on my homework above an empty box instead of lines as
with previous questions:

> 鉄道{てつどう} **関係{かんけい}の** 言葉{ことば}を書{か}きなさい

Am I being asked to write "words **about** railroads?" I came into this class
about a week late, and am wondering if there's something here that I'm
missing, because that strikes me as a strange thing to be asked to do.

What does 関係の mean here?
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2012-01-22T05:00:11.080
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translation meaning
Meaning of 〜関係の〜 in the phrase 鉄道関係の言葉
Here, 「〜関係の〜」 means "related to," not really "about." So a better translation
would be "write words that are related to railroads." You know, like
"engineer," "trainspotter," "train station," etc.
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2012-01-22T05:12:15.070
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2012-01-22T05:12:15.070
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It sounds to me like you're supposed to come up with a vocabulary list of
words, to prepare you for the next class. You might have to write a story, or
do some other activity (an impromptu skit, etc) with a railroad theme, and
having railroad words in mind would be an advantage. Sure your teacher could
just give them to you, but where is the fun in that?
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2012-01-22T05:19:01.163
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2012-01-22T05:19:01.163
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Unless I'm mistaken, `言葉{ことば}` has a much broader meaning than just "words".
In daily usage I hear it used to cover concepts like "speech", "phrase", and
"remark".

So I would translate the sentence as essentially:

> Write phrases related to railroads.

Or, to turn it into more natural English:

> Write something to do with railroads.

So my assumption about the question is that they just want you to write stuff
so they can check your ability to express yourself in Japanese. The topic
"railroads" is just an arbitrary choice, so you have a page less blank to
start from.

Hope that helps.

Edit: Seeing the answer selected above, I think one would have to factor in
the context of the level of the test. If they are just testing to see if you
know words, and a list as an answer is sufficient, then I guess "words" is a
fair translation. "Write words related to railroads". I just assumed the
context to be more general, so maybe my translation is less applicable.
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2012-01-22T07:05:28.713
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2012-01-22T09:09:16.013
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