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ジェームズは事務所で仕事をしています。

彼は毎日とても忙しいです。

彼はお客様と多くの会議をします。

ジェームズはこのような会議は好きではありません。

彼は「お客様がとても退屈しているのでは」と思っています。

The sentence ジェームズはこのような会議は好きではありません sounds like James does not like this kind of meeting (long meetings) BUT likes another kind of meeting. This does not make sense. Secondly, in 彼は「お客様がとても退屈しているのでは」と思っています, が makes it sound like James thinks the CUSTOMERS are the ones who are bored. But what is "customers" being compared that requires "customers" to be emphasized with が? Of course I am probably not aware of many of the usages of は & が because I am a beginner and apparently entire books have been written on these 2 particles. So if someone could point out what the exact usages of the particles are in this case, I would greatly appreciate it.

Community
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  • Where did you learn は is for introducing new things into the conversation? Also you have quite a few misunderstandings (or at least not fully precise understandings) so consider reviewing https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/22/whats-the-difference-between-wa-は-and-ga-が – Darius Jahandarie Jan 31 '20 at 05:16
  • @DariusJahandarie I edited my question –  Jan 31 '20 at 05:59
  • Nice. Solid question now IMO! – Darius Jahandarie Jan 31 '20 at 06:14

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は in このような会議は indeed stresses that there is something particularly unpleasant about these meetings, as they are the topic. は is the topic marker. James doesn’t necessarily hate all meetings, but these meetings he does not like.

In お客様が退屈しているのでは , the topic is really the whole fact that the customers are getting bored, and not just the costumers per se. So using the topic marker は instead of が would be inappropriate.

lyudmilla
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