稼ぐ and 扶養: Earning Money and Supporting Family
Compare earning travel or living expenses with supporting parents and entering the number of supported family members. Distinguish the money's purpose, support target, and application entry.
Travel money and earning one's living expenses
稼ぐ (かせぐ) means to earn. 「兄は夏休みに働いて旅費を稼ぎました。」 — “My older brother worked over summer vacation to earn travel expenses.” The Japanese 稼ぎました reports earning travel money through summer work. The English quotation states work to earn those expenses; neither makes the money parental support or reports a completed trip.
「自分で生活費を稼ぐことの大変さを知りました。」 — “I learned how difficult it is to earn one's own living expenses.” What was learned is the difficulty of earning one's own living expenses. No income amount or supported person is specified.
Supporting parents and entering a family-member count
扶養 (ふよう) means support of dependents. 「彼は働きながら両親を扶養している。」 — “He supports his parents while working.” The sentence describes supporting parents while working, with parents as the stated support target.
「扶養する家族の人数を申請書に書いた。」 — “I wrote the number of family members I support on the application.” The entered information is the number of family members supported. No actual number is supplied, and the entry does not report recognition of dependency by an organization.
Obtaining money and a relationship of support
The 稼ぐ examples focus on obtaining travel money or one's living expenses. The 扶養 examples focus on supporting parents or family members.
Earning money alone does not establish that someone else is supported. Read the stated target and action without adding tax, allowance, dependency criteria, or an actual support amount.
Does earning travel expenses through summer work also establish 扶養 of the speaker's parents?
Show the answer and why
Not from that information alone. The example concerns travel money. Supporting parents is a separate example with the support target explicitly stated.