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The coronavirus brought an abrupt end to my Intro Japanese course, and as my Professor isn't comfortable using technology, I would like to write her a closing letter.
I'm still very new to Japanese, so I am keeping it short. I've found other answers such that I'm fairly confident about the accuracy of the rest, but this sentence, the third in the picture, still worries me as I've never used ざんねん before, nor applied any descriptor to a verb (I've never seen のは before).

Here is a picture of the whole letter draft in case context helps: enter image description here

Snorlax9
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  • Which sentence worries you? You didn't specify. – ajsmart Apr 01 '20 at 21:18
  • Sorry, it's the third one. It's supposed to mean something to the effect of "It is unfortunate that the class can't meet." – Snorlax9 Apr 01 '20 at 21:30
  • Why do you not feel confident about what you have written? Would you mind editing your question to explain why you are a little worried about it? – ajsmart Apr 01 '20 at 21:36
  • Thank you for the suggestion, I've edited the originial question. Basically, we haven't covered adverbs at all, so I want to make sure that it's placement within the sentence is correct, and that the "のは" particle is correct, as I've never seen that before. – Snorlax9 Apr 01 '20 at 22:13
  • You wouldn't use "meet" for a class in Japanese the way you would in English. Also, see [Closed: 休〜 vs. 閉〜](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/41845/78). – istrasci Apr 01 '20 at 23:31
  • Your advice and link are very helpful, thank you! Is there a better alternative verb to use, or should I change it to something like "受けない"? – Snorlax9 Apr 01 '20 at 23:48
  • I have no difficulty understanding 「クラスの会えないのは残念です。」 though it's not perfectly correct but, I don't understand the sentence right after that: 「それにしても、日本語を一生懸命。」. What did you try to say by that? – Chocolate Apr 02 '20 at 15:43
  • Thanks for the response! I'm trying to say there that I will continue to do my best to learn Japanese. I'm going off of the response to [this question.](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/46571/is-there-a-shorter-version-of-saying-%E3%81%93%E3%82%8C%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E3%81%AF-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%82%92%E5%AD%A6%E3%81%B6%E3%81%9F%E3%82%81%E3%81%AB%E5%85%A8%E5%8A%9B%E3%82%92%E5%B0%BD%E3%81%8F%E3%81%97%E3%81%BE%E3%81%99?newreg=f755aacca7de4df08647f897af6e871c) – Snorlax9 Apr 02 '20 at 17:47
  • Would it make more sense if I changed 「それにしても」 to 「其れでも 」? – Snorlax9 Apr 02 '20 at 18:33

1 Answers1

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クラスの会えないのは残念です。
"It is unfortunate that the class can't meet."

I can understand what you're trying to say, so I think you could leave it as is.

If you want it to sound more natural, you could say it like this:

[授業]{じゅぎょう}がなくなったのは[残念]{ざんねん}です。lit. It is unfortunate that the classes have been cancelled.
(なくなる "gone, disappear" → cancelled)
授業がないのは残念です。lit. It is unfortunate that there's no class.

or

授業がなくなって、残念です。lit. It is unfortunate that the classes are cancelled.
(て-form can indicate reason/cause)
授業がなくて、残念です。lit. It is unfortunate that there's no class.


"I will continue to do my best to learn Japanese."

I think you could say...

(それ)でも、これからも[日本語]{にほんご}を[一生懸命]{いっしょうけんめい}[勉強]{べんきょう}します。/ 勉強していきます。/ 勉強し[続]{つづ}けます。
(これからも "continue ~ in the future", していく・し続ける "continue doing")
(それ)でも、これからも日本語の勉強をがんばります。
(がんばる "try one's best, work hard")


You'd sound even more natural if you connect these two sentences with the conjunctive particle が ("although, but"):

授業がなくなったのは残念です、これからも一生懸命日本語を勉強していくつもりです。
(つもり means "am going to do, intend to do")

Chocolate
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