Read this week’s chapters just now - they were both cute and poor Urushi getting worried that Ayumu might decide to go to the kendo club
A question:
Page 55 (I think - I second that the lack of page numbers is annoying)
「私を想定してるように聞こえるんだけど」
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here - I think I get the general gist of what’s being said, but the specifics escape me. Is this perhaps a case where Japanese has a different way of expressing an idea that just doesn’t cross over very well into English? In particular the ように is throwing me off and I’m not sure what it’s doing with the 聞こえる
Altogether, I read the sentences (since the previous bubble has a big impact on this one) as:
“The way you say it… The girlfriend is… It sounds like you’re assuming it’s me…”
It translates sorta awkwardly for sure, but that’s how I took it. I’m definitely open to correction, though; I was about to come and post this breakdown and ask for feedback anyway.
And I realize now the way I phrased that translation makes it sound like the ように is modifying sounds like, but that isn’t how it’s coming across in my head… So a better way might be:
“The way you say it… The girlfriend is… It sounds as though you’re assuming someone like me.”
Maybe? Mapping the grammar over is difficult. Haha.
I agree with MrGeneric’s interpretation about this sentence meaning. Here’s my grammar breakdown if it helps make it more clear.
Let’s start with the first clause: 私を想定してる
想定する => to assume
想定している => assuming
想定してる => assuming (informal contraction of いる)
私 => I
So 私 is the direct object of “to assume”. So this clause becomes “Assuming it’s me”. We are going to mark this whole clause with the letter A.
Let’s expand until the next verb we have in the sentence.
Aように聞こえる
よう, which originally comes from the kanji 様 that means “form / shape” and when used in adverbial for (ように) , it becomes part of the pattern XようにV, which means “Verb V happens in such a way that X”.
聞こえる => literally means “to be audible”, but is usually translated as “to be heard” or " can be heard".
Aように聞こえる => It can be heard in such a way that A.
Expanding the meaning of clause A here, we have
(What you are saying) can be heard in such a way that (you) are assuming (that girlfriend) is me.
Where from context we know that (you) represent Ayumu, and that they are talking about Ayumu’s potential girlfriend, which is what I filled in parenthesis.
We have a few elements left in our sentence:
んだ => the abbreviation of のだ, which is my good old friend explication tone の. She’s using this because she’s explaining in what way she’s interpreting what Ayumu is saying.
けど => conjunction particle that expresses some sort of contrast, usually translated as “however” or “although”. In this case the contrast happens between a generic, unspecific girlfriend that Ayumu seems to be talking about, and a very specific scenario where Urushi is that girlfriend.
Putting all these together in more natural English, we could say something like
“Although, from the way you are saying it, it seems to me you are assuming that girlfriend is me”
Thanks for all previous question-answers! I feel like I did pretty well on this chapter and the questions that did arise were mostly answered by the above. Except for:
Page 56
So Ayumu says: むしろ もっと部に入り浸るりますね
“If anything, I’d hang around (here | the club) even more”
But the kanji 部 (“club”) has the furigana ここ (“here”)? Which took me by surprise, since Jisho doesn’t list it as a reading of the kanji. The sentence makes sense either way, but is there anything special going on there, or am I just overanalyzing it?
The furigana does not show a reading of the Kanji in this case. You will see that frequently in manga. I believe the furigana is what is being said, and the Kanji show what is meant.
I have seen it be used in a comedic way (Like the furigana spelling “borrow” when the Kanji say “steal”) but also to clarify an ambiguous situation (The character is saying “You” and the Kanji are spelling out the name of the person being addressed).
I have also seen it be used, if the author wants to be fancy. They might use an old fashioned Vocab with outdated Kanji, but use furigana to show the modern word.
I’d say, you will see it often enough, that you get a feeling for it eventually without worrying too much.
Okay cool! So this is apparently not an uncommon thing and adds flavor – in this case I guess it reads “here, i.e. the club [whose existence I have been pedantically arguing against this whole time, I might add]”. Thanks so much!
These were fun chapters. I had a few questions, but I see they have been answered, so I’m just going to say that Urushi’s insistence that the Shogi club is real amuses me a lot. It’s very cute. I especially loved the way she waved off it’s non-existence in that kind of ‘details, details’ way.
I’m in the middle of a two week vacation, I’ll be posting behind schedule for a while. I’m struggling with chapter 6 but all these questions have helped a bunch. Can you help me with pg. 52してたよ なんなんだよも. I’m pretty fuzzy on the sentences before and after but I think if I can get this one I’ll be able to figure out the others.
なんなんだよもー = I think this is literally, “What is it!?”, but with the tone and context, I think a more natural English translation would be along the lines of, “What the hell!?”
I think in context, you could divide them up as different sentences (which I did, because they were in different speech bubbles, and the first sentence is a direct answer to Ayumu’s “question”), and read it as, “You did! What the hell!?” or you could put them together as one sentence, and get something along the lines of, “What the hell was that!?”
And either way, you would probably be fine with the surrounding sentences.
