Question about use of わ at the end of a sentence

Hello! First time poster here! I had a small question about one of the example sentences for 出会う (to meet by chance, to run into).

「ニコールって、今、付き合っている人いるの?」「ええ。エリックと1年間付き合っているわ。」「そうなんだ!彼とは、どこで出会ったの?」
"Are you seeing anyone now, Nicole?" "Yes, I’ve been seeing Eric for a year." "Wow, where did you guys meet?"

What does the わ at the end of the 2nd sentence indicate?

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It’s a sentence ender used by women, with no particular meaning.

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I agree with TheCodingFox. I think it’s more used by older women. You can find an explanation with example sentences here: https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/わ-wa-particle-meaning/

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Yeah, it’s not something I’d sprinkle into my speaking pattern out of the blue, since it colors your speech in ways you might not intend. It’s usually best to simply stick to ~desu leave it at that and then later learn to soften that with more casual speech.

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Here’s a more in-depth explanation from a Japanese native:

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That’s a great article, I didn’t know all these different meanings when わ is used at the end of a sentence. Thanks for sharing it!

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I hear わ all the time from all kinds of people here in Kansai.

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Sure, but in that sentence it sure seems like the feminine わ. It is good to remind people that it’s used in Kansai dialect regardless of gender though.

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@jneapan ‘s link covers the Kansas-ben version too.

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Just contrasting with the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever heard a real person use the other one.

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Ah, yeah I’ve heard someone else who’s lived in Japan a long time say that as well. I wonder why it’s used so much in entertainment if it’s not really used (much or at all) in real life.

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You won’t believe it, but there’s an answer for that too:

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yakuwarigo usually at least make some sense, as a kind of an exaggeration of real life. Like ojousama character using very feminine speech, ok.

But the one I can’t wrap my head around is why does foreigner women often also get feminine speech yakuwarigo? It’s so weird to watch US tv show dubbed in Japanese and see what is supposed to be female badass warrior characters litter their speech with わ thing. And I wonder if it’s what’s going on in the WK sentence, maybe they used this pattern for “Nicole” ?

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It’s at least very probable that’s the case.

It’s probably for the same reason that JP->EN localization takes so many liberties with translation.

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