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I am beginner to Japanese language. I am using Genki as textbook. I came
across this sentence in one of the exercises:

> あなたの学校に日本人の学生がいますか。

Why is it **日本人** の **学生** here and not **日本** の **学生** ? Wouldn't 日本の学生
(Student of Japan/ Japanese student) make more sense than 日本人の学生 (Japanese
person student) ?

Am I interpreting it wrong ?
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2016-11-14T11:33:07.220
40892
2016-11-15T01:32:15.150
18021
question
grammar syntax
What's the difference between 日本人の学生 and 日本の学生 ?
`A の B` has many meanings, depending on the relationship of `A` and `B`:

  1. (possession/affiliation/belonging) `B of A`, `A's B`, `B which belongs to A`
    * 彼の友達 his friend, a friend of his
    * 私の車 my car
    * 日本の都市 Japanese cities
  2. (state/description/apposition) `B that is A`, `B, being A` (in this case, の is interchangeable with である) 
    * 友達のマイケル my friend Micheal
    * トナカイのルドルフ Rudolph the reindeer
    * 医者の乗客 a passenger who is a doctor
  3. [... and many others](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/171157/meaning/m0u/%E3%81%AE/)

Occasionally it can be hard to tell between 1. and 2. For example, 犯罪者の子供 may
mean either "the criminal's child" (the child himself is not a criminal) or "a
child who is a criminal", depending on the context.

In your case, the first definition is applied for 日本の学生 ("a student of
Japan"), and the second definition is applied for 日本人の学生 ("a student who is a
Japanese person"). They both mean the same thing, _Japanese student(s)_.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-14T13:49:16.753
40896
2016-11-15T01:32:15.150
2016-11-15T01:32:15.150
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40892
answer