Learn Hardcore Japanese: kodomo no koro kara no yume ha, syousetuka ni natte sekaizyuu no hito ni yomarerukoto desu. - My dream since childhood is to become a novelist and be read by people all over the world.

子供のころ
- 子供 = child
- ころ = time/period
- 子供のころ literally = the time of (being) a child → “when I was a child / in my childhood”
  Here の is like the English “of”, linking 子供 (“child”) to ころ (“time”).
ころからの夢
- ころから = from that time / since then
- 夢 = dream
- ころからの夢 literally = the dream from that time (on) → “a dream I’ve had since (childhood)”
  Here の links the phrase ころから to 夢, turning “from that time” into an adjective-like phrase modifying 夢.

So:

First の: 子供
- ころ → “child time”
Second の: ころから
- 夢 → “from-that-time dream”

Both are just connecting words/noun phrases together.

What exactly does ころ mean here, and how is it different from 時?

ころ (頃) and 時 can often both mean “when / at the time”.

In this sentence:

子供のころ = “when I was a child / in my childhood”.

Nuance differences:

ころ
- Slightly softer, more vague: “around that time”, “in those days”.
- Often used with life stages or approximate times:
  - 学生のころ – when I was a student
  - 小さいころ – when I was little
時
- Feels a bit more neutral/precise: “at the time when …”.
- Very common in structures like:
  - 子供の時 – when I was a child
  - 日本にいる時 – when I am in Japan

In this sentence, 子供のころ and 子供の時 would both be grammatical and understandable; 子供のころ just sounds slightly more like “back in my childhood” rather than a sharply defined time.

Why is から used after ころ in 子供のころからの夢?

から here means “from / since” in a temporal sense:

子供のころ = when I was a child
子供のころから = from when I was a child / since childhood

Then that whole phrase gets linked to 夢 by の:

子供のころからの夢 = “a dream (I’ve had) since childhood”.

So ころ → “time”, から → “from that time”, and の → connects that entire idea to 夢.

Why is it 夢は … です instead of using something like “I” as the subject?

Japanese often uses topic–comment structure:

夢は – “As for (my) dream, …”
… です – “… is …”

Key points:

は marks 夢 as the topic, not necessarily the grammatical subject.
The subject “I” is understood from context and omitted:
- Full but less natural: 私の子供のころからの夢は … です。
- Natural Japanese: omit 私の because it’s obvious from the situation.

So the structure is:

(私の)子供のころからの夢は = As for (my) dream since I was a child,
…ことです。 = it is (to…)

This mirrors English like:
“As for my childhood dream, it is to become a novelist and be read by people all over the world.”

Why is it 小説家に and not just 小説家? What does に do here?

The pattern A になる means “to become A”.

小説家 = novelist
小説家になる = to become a novelist

Here, に marks the resulting state or role you change into.

Compare:

医者になる – become a doctor
先生になる – become a teacher

Without に, 小説家なる would be ungrammatical. You need に to express “become X”.

How are 小説家になって and 読まれること connected grammatically?

なって is the て-form of なる. The て-form is often used to:

Link actions in a sequence, like “… and then …”
Join related actions done by the same person.

So:

小説家になって – become a novelist and (then) …
世界中の人に読まれる – be read by people all over the world

Together:

小説家になって世界中の人に読まれる
→ “become a novelist and be read by people all over the world”

Both actions share the same (implied) subject: I.
The て-form smoothly connects these two parts into one dream: not just to become a novelist, but to become one and be widely read.

Why is 読まれる in the passive form instead of 読む?

読む = to read (active)
読まれる = to be read (passive)

The dream is not “to read people all over the world” but “to be read by people all over the world.” That’s why the passive is used.

世界中の人に読まれる
- Literally: “to be read by people all over the world”
- 人に = by people (agent of the passive)
- 読まれる = is read

So the passive matches the natural English idea “to be read (by someone)”.

What does 世界中の人に literally mean, and what do の and に do here?

Breakdown:

世界中 = the whole world / all over the world
世界中の人 = people of the whole world → “people all over the world”
- の links 世界中 to 人, making “worldwide” describe the people.
世界中の人に読まれる
- 人に = by people (in the passive construction)
- に marks the agent of the passive verb 読まれる.

So literally:

世界中の人に読まれる = “to be read by people of the whole world.”

What is the role of こと in 読まれることです? Why can’t we just say 読まれるです?

You can’t say 読まれるです; verbs don’t directly attach to です in that way.

こと turns a verb phrase into a noun-like concept (a nominalizer):

読まれる – “(to) be read” (verb phrase)
読まれること – “the act/state of being read” / “being read” (as a thing)

Then you can say:

… は読まれることです。
= “… is being-read (as a concept).”

In this sentence:

子供のころからの夢は – My dream since childhood (topic)
小説家になって世界中の人に読まれることです。
– is: to become a novelist and be read by people all over the world.

So こと is necessary to turn “become a novelist and be read…” into a noun phrase that can be equated with 夢 via です.

Why is it 夢は … ことです and not 夢が … ことです?

Both は and が can mark nouns, but their roles differ:

は marks the topic (“as for X…”)
が usually marks the subject (who/what actually does/is something in the clause)

Here, we’re introducing 夢 as the topic and then explaining what that dream is:

夢は … ことです
= As for (my) dream, it is …

If you said 夢が … ことです, it would sound odd because が would try to make 夢 the grammatical subject of …ことです, but こと is actually the thing being described by です.

Natural patterns are:

私の夢は～ことです。 – My dream is to ~.
Or: ～ことが夢です。 – Doing/being ~ is (my) dream.

So:

夢は … ことです。 – topic: dream
…ことが夢です。 – subject: “doing/being …”

Why isn’t 私 mentioned? How do we know it means my dream?

Japanese often omits obvious subjects and possessors.

From context, a sentence like:

子供のころからの夢は、…です。

will be understood as:

(私の)子供のころからの夢は、…です。
→ “My dream since I was a child is …”

We infer 私 because:

People usually talk about their own dreams.
No other person has been mentioned.
Japanese relies heavily on context instead of repeating “I/my”.

You could explicitly say:

私の子供のころからの夢は、小説家になって…です。
But in natural conversation or writing, omitting 私の is very common.

Could this sentence be phrased in other natural ways, and what would change?

Yes, several variations are possible, with small nuance differences:

私の子供のころからの夢は、小説家になって世界中の人に読まれることです。
- Adds 私の, making it explicit: my dream. Slightly more formal/explicit.
子供のころからの夢は、小説家になり、世界中の人に読まれることです。
- Uses なり、 instead of なって.
- Feels a bit more formal/literary than the te-form.
子供のころからの夢は、小説家になって、世界中の人に読まれることでした。
- でした (past) → “was my dream since childhood.”
- Implies that this may no longer be the dream now.
小説家になって世界中の人に読まれることが、子供のころからの夢です。
- Flips the order:
  “To become a novelist and be read by people all over the world is my dream since childhood.”
- Focus is a bit more on the content of the dream (the こと) rather than on 夢 as a topic.

All of them are grammatically correct; the original is a clear, natural, standard way to say it.