Kawaii Kanojo-chan - Ch. 28

[Virtualplayer]

midol? isn't that for menstrual cramps (i mean i'm sure it does other stuff/helps too but wouldn't think of that specifically versus just like other painkillers since i doubt most men would take midol lol)

i mean, not like everyone speaks 'proper english'/like an eng teacher 100% of the time, i can imagine his texting style being more 'casual' to a coworker than if his boss had asked. (since, 'didn't she' would be asking like "well, you would know" kinda way as a confirmation)

it was a deliberate misuse of brand names. I know why Midol is for, it's a joke.

 

[EchoGirl]

it was a deliberate misuse of brand names. I know why Midol is for, it's a joke.

lol tbh i wouldn't put it past her to just torture her in that area so she can't be horny anymore.

Although other than 'i'm an op yandere so i'll get away with it all' feels like it'd be better to just have the 'rival' mind broken to the point where she wouldn't say anything versus permanently elminating

or some 4d chess move BS that's like "You indirectly caused my brother's/parents lives to be ruined so i'll seduce you and ruin your life and pin the blame for this murder on you" lol

 

[EchoGirl]

I enjoy how she manages to look and act lovely even after doing perverse yandere shit.

i imagine that's the main part of the appeal

Tho, i'd be down to read a series where it's some "gross/'plain' unattractive otaku yandere" who ends up with their affection of target b/c they literally get rid of everyone else

 

[SpudWumper]

gg

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Fluxx1239290]

GUYS I JUST LOOKED AT THE NEXT CHAPTER (Brazilian transl)

AND EDANO IS BEING FORCE FED CAKES

 

[EchoGirl]

GUYS I JUST LOOKED AT THE NEXT CHAPTER (Brazilian transl)

you should use a spoiler tag

 

[John_EMIYA_Miller]

Wasn't there a creepypasta like that years and years ago?
Like, killing and making cupcakes from the victims?

There was an MLP creepypasta of Pinkie Pie killing Rainbow Dash and making cupcakes out of her. It spawned a fanmade MLP music video that went mildly viral a decade ago on YouTube. The song used was 'Better Get Ready To Die' by Andrew WK, which would later be used in an episode of the TFS series 'Hellsing Ultimate Abridged' and is how I ended up learning of it.

 

[socalso]

The first one is totally fine. I say this all the time.

The first one wasn't posed as a question. Obviously wasn't talking about that one.

Edit: I assumed you meant the first instance of "though..." in the chapter. If you mean "though?" then you're just wrong and using English incorrectly. "though" would be used flatly, for reasoning through contradictory facts: "She left earlier, though." -> e.g., "I don't know what's going on, all I know is she left earlier." You don't have rising intonation on "though?" without other syntax to make it work: "Didn't she leave earlier, though?" You cannot truncate that out in English and have it make sense, "formal" or not. It screams ESL mangling of the language.

 

[IxNafra]

oh cmon she was kinda a shiddy character but she didn't deserve to die

 

[rentenzen]

The first one wasn't posed as a question. Obviously wasn't talking about that one.

Edit: I assumed you meant the first instance of "though..." in the chapter. If you mean "though?" then you're just wrong and using English incorrectly......

Again, it is fine. The MC is writing a text as if he is speaking. People usually uptalk in their speech (internally or externally) to indicate uncertainty or confusion of their sentence. People then usually transcribe their words and gestures into texting while they are speaking. (Gestures as in head tilting.) This then leads to people adding question marks at the end of their sentence without much thought.

 

[socalso]

Again, it is fine. The MC is writing a text as if he is speaking. People usually uptalk in their speech (internally or externally) to indicate uncertainty or confusion of their sentence. People then usually transcribe their words and gestures into texting while they are speaking. (Gestures as in head tilting.) This then leads to people adding question marks at the end of their sentence without much thought.

In other words, it's transliterated, not translated. Japanese people may do this for the reasons you said, but not accounting for the fact that this isn't a thing in English makes for a subpar translation of this particular piece of text. It doesn't fly as "informal" no matter what context it's done in, because it takes for granted that the target audience for the translation already knows enough Japanese to get the untranslated subtext of implied gesturing which doesn't exist in English. Moreover, you're saying that like this doesn't appear in spoken dialogue in half-assed fan translations all the time where the excuse of "there's implied head-tilts going on in there" doesn't apply (because it's either in manga visuals or it's being narrated in prose). Maybe you read nothing but manga and web novels translated by ESL speakers and have gaslit yourself into believing that this sounds fine, but it doesn't. Insisting that it's totally fine when it's not is undermining the translator's ability to learn how to effectively translate into English that sounds natural. Direct translation without regard for unspoken subtext is fundamentally incomplete translation, if that's what's actually going on here.

 

[rentenzen]

I'm not talking about translating from one language to another language or Japanese context, just everyday speech/texting that usually throw out such rules in informal settings (like between friends).

Nevertheless, I agree that it is not "proper" English.

 

[socalso]

I'm not talking about translating from one language to another language or Japanese context, just everyday speech/texting that usually throw out such rules in informal settings (like between friends).

Not like this they don't - not if they're native English speakers. You're arguing with me over this only because the context of this writing is translation from Japanese to English. We wouldn't be talking right now if this was an entirely native-English literary product, because no native speaker with a mature writing style would have written this line - it just wouldn't have had the "though?" dangling at the end of that sentence, period. The question would have been posed in some other way, or just not framed as a question at all. A good translation should sound good in the target language to native readers of that language without needing to know anything about the original language, without having to rely on the indulgence of undiscerning readers to get by.

Nevertheless, I agree that it is not proper English.

The point isn't that it's improper, the point is that it's unnatural. Improper English can be entirely natural (slang, colloquialism, dialect, texting shorthand, etc.). There were better ways to convey informality in this translation ("idunno, she left here" or even just a shrug emoji) than replicating a syntactical structure that isn't natural in English and that no native speaker or writer with a basic grasp of English literary style would think sounded right. Nothing else about their text exchange is structured as informal (in the translation at least), so if it was meant to sound informal it doesn't even accomplish that. I want to see amateur translators improve their craft, not continue to repeat the same mistakes that fans with low standards don't have the wherewithal to point out in a constructive way.

 

[Strawberry_swisher]

she got urgent matter on the otherside of the planet, donmai

 

[afictionate]

The first one wasn't posed as a question. Obviously wasn't talking about that one.

Edit: I assumed you meant the first instance of "though..." in the chapter. If you mean "though?" then you're just wrong and using English incorrectly. "though" would be used flatly, for reasoning through contradictory facts: "She left earlier, though." -> e.g., "I don't know what's going on, all I know is she left earlier." You don't have rising intonation on "though?" without other syntax to make it work: "Didn't she leave earlier, though?" You cannot truncate that out in English and have it make sense, "formal" or not. It screams ESL mangling of the language.

It depends on your intention. We don't use punctuation when we speak, we use tone. Since tone can't come across in a written form, we use punctuation is to notate what we can't get across with just the words.

"She left early in the morning, though." does mean "all I know is she left earlier."

But can you say "She left early in the morning, though?" with a tone of concern. Adding the question mark is a way of getting that concern in through text, so the intention becomes: "I was sure she left earlier, am I wrong?"

 

[afictionate]

In other words, it's transliterated, not translated. Japanese people may do this for the reasons you said, but not accounting for the fact that this isn't a thing in English makes for a subpar translation of this particular piece of text. It doesn't fly as "informal" no matter what context it's done in, because it takes for granted that the target audience for the translation already knows enough Japanese to get the untranslated subtext of implied gesturing which doesn't exist in English. Moreover, you're saying that like this doesn't appear in spoken dialogue in half-assed fan translations all the time where the excuse of "there's implied head-tilts going on in there" doesn't apply (because it's either in manga visuals or it's being narrated in prose). Maybe you read nothing but manga and web novels translated by ESL speakers and have gaslit yourself into believing that this sounds fine, but it doesn't. Insisting that it's totally fine when it's not is undermining the translator's ability to learn how to effectively translate into English that sounds natural. Direct translation without regard for unspoken subtext is fundamentally incomplete translation, if that's what's actually going on here.

This is a thing in English though. We used to say things like "/headdesk". Hell, lol is almost used as a form on punctuation at this point.

I'm not sure where this vitriol is coming from but, as a native speaker of this language for over 30 years, typing ",though?" is something I regularly do (as I said in another post) to get across the air of concern.

 

[afictionate]

That doesn't mean it's proper English.

It is proper English. It's called a declarative question:

"A declarative question is a yes-no question that has the form of a declarative sentence but is spoken with rising intonation at the end.

Declarative sentences are commonly used in informal speech to express surprise or ask for verification. The most likely response to a declarative question is agreement or confirmation."

The answer to the text would either be "yes, she left" or "no, she didn't leave."

I could have responded to your statement by saying, "it is, though?" and the answer would have been "yes, it is proper English."

 

[fireproofemu]

It is proper English. It's called a declarative question:

"A declarative question is a yes-no question that has the form of a declarative sentence but is spoken with rising intonation at the end.

Declarative sentences are commonly used in informal speech to express surprise or ask for verification. The most likely response to a declarative question is agreement or confirmation."

The answer to the text would either be "yes, she left" or "no, she didn't leave."

I could have responded to your statement by saying, "it is, though?" and the answer would have been "yes, it is proper English."

No, I'm fairly confident it's still incorrect in this case. The protagonist isn't actually asking a question in that case. Look at chapter 25, page 3. He fully believes that she left by herself. More notably, he's texting with someone who wasn't there, and doesn't have any information. How could this be a yes/no question?

I'm pretty sure it's just a quirk of how Japanese speech differs from English. I've seen it very frequently in translated works, and virtually nowhere else. You'll see statements like:
FMC: "I know this outfit doesn't suit me..."
MC: "It looks great on you, though?"
It seems to me that when Japanese people disagree with a claim, they frequently phrase it as a rhetorical question. The character in the text message in question wasn't asking if she left early, he was stating that she left early in a way that contradicted the other character's question.

 

[afictionate]

No, I'm fairly confident it's still incorrect in this case. The protagonist isn't actually asking a question in that case. Look at chapter 25, page 3. He fully believes that she left by herself. More notably, he's texting with someone who wasn't there, and doesn't have any information. How could this be a yes/no question?

I'm pretty sure it's just a quirk of how Japanese speech differs from English. I've seen it very frequently in translated works, and virtually nowhere else. You'll see statements like:
FMC: "I know this outfit doesn't suit me..."
MC: "It looks great on you, though?"
It seems to me that when Japanese people disagree with a claim, they frequently phrase it as a rhetorical question. The character in the text message in question wasn't asking if she left early, he was stating that she left early in a way that contradicted the other character's question.

The protagonist didn't ask the question, it's on the left side of the chat, its the person he's texting that said the "though?" statement. They thought she left early and is now concerned that they've gotten it wrong, so they've worded it in such a way can prompt a response: "Didn't she leave earlier, though?" yes or no. Or even I don't know, now I'm concerned.

And even if that's not the case, your example about clothes isn't a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question "is a question asked for a purpose other than to obtain information." In your example, the MC is providing a contradictory opinion and is looking to understand why the FMC thinks the opposite. This is a declarative question. It's a thing in English grammar. You don't have to respond to it, but that doesn't stop it from being a verification question.

Maybe it's just a regional thing, but I hear this sort of phrasing all the time in the Midwest and I've read plenty of books published in the US that use this in dialogue, so I'm genuinely surprised that anyone hasn't come across this before.