Through all the tears and smiles, our hearts were full.

[keannu]

Does this "through" mean "from the start till the end" or "by the method of"? It's confusing.

ji6-14
ex)...But we were able to complete one, and made great progress on the others. It was amazing to see the third house with its wall up. After completing our work, we said a sad goodbye to our partner families at a closing party. Through all the tears and smiles, our hearts were full...

 

[BobK]

Yes it is. I hate this sort of emotional diarrhoea. ;-) But I think you;re right if you mean 'throughout the party' rather than throughout the building process. And there's also a sense of tears making the 'heartfulness' (whatever that is!) more difficult or less probable in some sense... But it's unclear, and I don't think even the writer knows what s/he means

b

 

[keannu]

This is a chapter of a middle school English textbook in Korea, and the characters are mostly Koreans, so it must have been written by a Korean along with the help of native speakers, hence the confusing meaning.

 

[Tdol]

hence the confusing meaning.

Not necessarily- we're as capable of writing unclearly. ;-)

 

[5jj]

Not necessarily- we're as capable of writing unclearly. ;-)

I would not disagree with anyone who declined to deny that claim.

 

[keannu]

What a great pun it is to make me realize what unclear expressions are!!!