I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. But that was in the past, and since then my English skills have been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to post some simple questions and comments about the English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) on Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may make elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

My Least Favorite Scene in "The Catcher in the Rye" | English Is Not So Easy 15

The novel I would like to introduce is "The Catcher in the Rye" by Jerome David Salinger.

The novel is a first-person narrative told by Holden Caulfield, a 17-year-old boy expelled from high school, and clearly depicts society's cold gaze toward a teenage boy. The novel became so popular that many young people who read it visited Mr. Salinger, thinking Holden was themselves, which made him very tired. If I had been born in the United States or any other English-speaking country at that time, I probably would have been one of them.

This work had a great influence on Japan. For example, in "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" by Mamoru Oshii, there is an incident that refers to this work, and in "Weathering with You" by Makoto Shinkai, the main character Hotaka carries around a Japanese translation of this book.

In this article, I have tried to translate into Japanese the scene in this novel that I dislike the most. The reason is that such scenes are also the scenes that moved me the most. Please let me do it.

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             He still didn't say one single solitary word about Jane. So finally I said, "You're back pretty goddam late if she only signed out for nine-thirty. Did you make her be late signing in?"

[My translation]

奴はジェーンのことをただの一言も話さなかった。それでついに僕は、「あの子が９時半にサインアウトしたにしては死ぬほど遅かったじゃねぇか。サインインが遅くなるようにでも仕向けたのか？」と言った。

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Translation note:

• Since this story is narrated by a teenage delinquent, there is a lot of foul language in the story. Therefore, it is necessary to use as much foul language as possible when translating it into Japanese. For example, I translated "he/him" as "奴 (yatsu; he or she)" because in the following sentences it is clear that "I" really hate "him".

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             He was sitting on the edge of his bed, cutting his goddam toenails, when I asked him that. "Couple minutes," he said. "Who the hell signs out for nine-thirty on a Saturday night?" God, how I hated him.

[My translation]

僕がこう尋ねたとき、奴はベッドの端に座って足の爪なんか切っていやがった。「ほんの数分な」奴は言った。「土曜の夜に９時３０分になんかサインアウトする奴がいるのか？」神よ、僕はこの男が大嫌いだ。

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By the way, the longer the period between the publication of a book by the author and its translation by the translator, the more the translator will be influenced by the modern language and his social background. Some people may think that the translation must be done at the same time as the publication, but I want to enjoy working in the modern language.

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             "Did you go to New York?" I said.

             "Ya crazy? How the hell could we go to New York if she only signed out for nine-thirty?"

             "That's tough."

             He looked up at me. "Listen," he said, "if you're gonna smoke in the room, how 'bout going down to the can and do it? You may be getting the hell out of here,[1] but I have to stick around long enough to graduate."

             I ignored him. I really did. I went right on smoking like a madman. All I did was sort of turn over on my side and watch him cut his damn toenails. What a school. You were always watching somebody cut their damn toenails or squeeze their pimples or something.

[1] As you may know better than me, Holden has just been expelled from Pencey for failing all of his classes except English.

[My translation]

「ニューヨークには行ったのか？」僕は言った。

「お前頭おかしいのか？９時３０分にサインアウトして、それからどうやってニューヨークに行くんだ」

「タフだよな」

奴はこっちを見上げた。「なぁ聞いてくれ」奴は言った。「部屋でタバコ吸うくらいなら、トイレに行きゃぁいいじゃねぇか。お前はここを出ていくのかもしらんが、俺は卒業までずっとここにいなきゃなんないんだ」

僕は奴をシカトした。目いっぱいシカトした。とにかく僕は狂ったようにタバコを吸い続けた。俺がやったことといえば、奴のほうをくるりと向いて、爪を切ってる奴の面を眺めることだけだった。大した学校だ。いつだって誰かが足の爪を切ったり、にきびをつぶしたりなんかしてるのを見てなきゃなんない。

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It's pleasant to borrow someone else's words and speak dirty words in my mother tongue, as if I'm being seduced by a bad friend to do evil.

Translation note:

• The urban dictionary says that "can" is a word for "toilet". Their slang is very difficult to look up in a dictionary, so if I don't have it in my knowledge, the translation will be impossible.
• I also translated "You were watching..." into Japanese as "You have to watch...". This is an expression to show that the protagonist does not want to see such a scene. Am I right?

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             "Did you give her my regards?" I asked him.

             "Yeah."

             The hell he did, the bastard.

             “What’d she say?” I said. “Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row?”

             “No, I didn’t ask her. What the hell ya think we did all night—play checkers, for Chrissake?”

             I didn’t even answer him. God, how I hated him.

             “If you didn’t go to New York, where’d ya go with her?” I asked him, after a little while. I could hardly keep my voice from shaking all over the place. Boy, was I getting nervous. I just had a feeling something had gone funny.

[My translation]

「俺の伝言は伝えたのか？」僕は奴に尋ねた。

「ああ」

やりやがったな、このクソ野郎。

「あの娘なんて言った？」僕は言った。「訊いたんだろ？今でもキングを後ろの列に置いとくのかって」

「そんなの訊かないさ。何が悲しくて一晩中チェッカーなんかやんなきゃなんないんだ」

僕は答えもしなかった。神よ、俺はこいつが大嫌いだ。

「ニューヨークに行ってないんなら、どこで何してた？」しばらくしてから、僕は奴にそう尋ねた。声が震えまくるのをどうしても抑えることができないでいた。落ち着け自分、ちょっとばかし気分が高まってるんだ。どこかで何か手違いでも起こってるんだ。

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My hands tremble as I write the translation. What a fascinating sentence.

Translation note:

• The last two sentences, "Boy, was I getting nervous. I just had a feeling something had gone funny," are very English and very difficult for a non-native speaker to translate. I'm not a professional translator, so I gave up trying to translate this part accurately and used my best, light-hearted, novelistic style of expression (lit. "Calm down, boy, I'm getting a little nervous. Something went wrong somewhere."). What a shame! I would like to ask a native speaker to explain this part.

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             He was finished cutting his damn toenails. So he got up from the bed, in just his damn shorts and all, and started getting very damn playful. He came over to my bed and started leaning over me and taking these playful as hell socks at my shoulder. “Cut it out,” I said. “Where’d you go with her if you didn’t go to New York?”

             “Nowhere, We just sat in the goddam car.” He gave me another one of those playuful stupid little socks on the shoulder.

             “Cut it out,” I said. “Whose car?”

             “Ed Banky’s.”

             Ed Banky was the basketball coach at Pencey. Old Stradlater was one of his pets, because he was the center on the team, and Ed Banky always let him borrow his car when he wanted it. It wasn’t allowed for students to borrow faculty guys’ cars, but all the athletic bastards stuck together. In every school I’ve gone to, all the athletic bastards stick together.

[My translation]

奴は足の爪を切り終えた。パンツ一丁でベッドから立ち上がると奴はますます調子に乗りだした。僕のベッドまでやってきて、僕にもたれかかってきたり、冗談で肩にパンチを食らわせてきたりした。

「やめろよ」僕は言った。「ニューヨークに行ってないんなら、どこに行った？」

「どこにも。ずーっと車ん中にいたさ」奴はそう言うとまた僕の肩にくだらないパンチを繰り出した。

「やめろ」僕は言った。「誰の車だ」

「エド・バンキーの」

エド・バンキーはペンシーのバスケットボールのコーチだった。ストラドレーターは奴のペットのうちの一人。奴はチームのセンターだったから。奴が望むなら、エド・バンキーはいつだって車を貸してやる。本来、学生が教員の車を借りることは許されていないはずだったが、体育会系の連中はいつもそういう風につるんでいた。どこの学校に行ったって、体育会系の連中はみんなそうやってつるむんだ。

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There are such people everywhere...

Translation note:

• I translated "athletic bastards" as "体育会系の連中 (lit. athletic bastards)" and was very surprised to find a perfect equivalent for this word.
• "Socks" does not mean socks, it means punch. This is also slang.
• "Stick together" is a word originally used in a positive sense, but in this novel it is used in a very negative sense, so I chose the Japanese word "つるむ (tsurumu; lit. hang out)" to express Holden's annoyance.

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             Stradlater kept taking these shadow punches down at my shoulder. He had his toothbrush in his hand, and he put it in his mouth. “What’d you do?” I said. “Give her the time in Ed Banky’s goddam car?” My voice was shaking something awful.

             “What a thing to say. Want me to eash your mouth out with soap?”

             “Did you?”

             “That’s a professional secret, buddy.”

[My translation]

ストラドレーターは僕の肩にシャドーパンチをし続けた。奴は歯ブラシを片手に持ち、それを口にくわえた。「何してたんだ？」僕は言った。「あの子とヤってたんだろ？エド・バンキーの車なんかで」僕の声は醜く震えていた。

「ひどい言い様だな。石鹸で口を洗ってやろうか？」

「ヤってたのか？」

「そいつは極秘事項だね、相棒」

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Translation note:

• The Urban Dictionary says that "give her a time" is a euphemism for sex, and that it is a phrase from "The Catcher in the Rye". Yes, I am now translating Catcher in the Rye. By the way, the Japanese language also uses a euphemism for sex: "彼女とヤる (lit. to do with her)". Therefore, in order to express what the protagonist meant in the following remark, I only have to translate his remark "Did you?" literally into Japanese: "ヤったのか？".

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             The next part I don’t remember so hot. All I know is I got up from the bed, like I was going down to the can or something, and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open. Only, I missed. I didn’t connect. All I did was sort of get him on the side of the head or something. It probably hurt him a little bit, but not as much as I wanted. It probably would’ve hurt him a lot, but I did it with my right hand, and I can’t make a good fist with that hand. On account of that injury I told you about.

[My translation]

そのあとの展開はあまりよく覚えていない。僕はトイレか何かに行くみたいにベッドから立ち上がって、それから気づいたら僕は奴に全力の拳をお見舞いしてた。拳は奴の歯ブラシに当たり、のど元を切り裂いたはずだった。だが僕はしくじった。届かなかった。せいぜい奴の頭をかすめたくらいだった。多少奴に痛みを与えられたのかもしれないけど、期待したほどではなかった。もちろんそうなる予定だったけど、僕は右手を使ってしまったために上手く拳を作れなかったのだ。ところで僕が右手をケガしていた理由はさっき話した通りだ。

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Now, we have already reached the point where neither DeepL nor Google Translate are useful. This is a super hot scene.

Translation note:

• What does "so hot" mean in the first sentence? Does it mean that he was so excited that he doesn't remember the next part? Or does it mean something like "very much"? Hmmm, I give up.
• The word "connect" in "I didn't connect" means "to arrive at an intended target," according to Wiktionary.

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             Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was on the goddam floor and he was sitting on the goddam floor and he was sitting on my chest, with his face all red. That is, he had his goddam knees on my chest, and he weighed about a ton. He had hold of my wrists, too, so I couldn't take another sock at him. I'd've killed him.

[My translation]

とにかく、その次に僕が覚えているのは、僕は床に倒れていて、奴は顔を真っ赤にして、床にいる俺の胸の上にのしかかってきたってこと。つまるところ奴は俺の胸に膝を乗せやがって、それで一トンはある体重をかけやがったわけだ。それから奴は俺の腕をつかんでやがったから、俺はもう奴にパンチをお見舞いできなくなった。殺してやりたかった。

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Translation note:

• The phrase "he weighed about a ton" is a metaphor. As I just noticed, since a metaphor is more emotional (childish), it is a bit difficult to translate because I have to "obviously" imply that it is a joke.
• In this part of the text, the word "goddam" appears a lot, and we can read that he is describing this situation in an even more foul-mouthed way. In order to capture his anger, I should translate it as emotionally as possible. Specifically, the Japanese translation makes heavy use of the verb "やがる (yagaru; goddam)," which is only used to express emotion. Like the word "goddam," this word does not mean much.

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             "What the hell's the matter with you?" he kept saying, and his stupid face kept getting redder and redder.

             "Get your lousy knees off my chest," I told him. I was almost bawling. I really was. "Go on, get offa me, ya crumby bastard."

             He wouldn't do it, though. He kept holding onto my wrists and I kept calling him a sonuvabitch and all, for around ten hours. I can hardly even remember what all I said to him. I told him he thought he could give the time to anybody he felt like. I told him he didn't even care if a girl kept all her kings in the back row or not, and the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. He hated it when you called him a moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

[My translation]

「何だってんだ？」奴はこう繰り返し、そのたびにあの間抜け面は赤くなってった。

「その汚ねぇ膝を下ろせよ」僕は言った。僕はほとんど泣いていた。本当に泣いていた。「ほら、どけよ、このくそ馬鹿野郎」

だが奴はどかなかった。かれこれ十時間ほど奴は僕の腕をつかみ、僕はクソ野郎を連呼し続けた。僕が奴に言ったこと全部は思い出せない。好きな時に誰とでもヤれると思ってんだろ、とは言った。女の子がキングを後ろの列に残しておくのかどうかなんてどうでもいいんだろ、てめぇみたいなクソまぬけのとんまにゃどうでもいいことだもんな、とは言った。奴はとんまと呼ばれるのが嫌いだった。とんまはみんなとんまって呼ばれるのが嫌いなんだ。

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Translation note:

• moron: (informal, derogatory) A stupid person; an idiot; a fool (from Wiktionary). He seems to get extremely angry when he is called "moron", so I have to choose a Japanese word that will make him angry as well. Hmm, the Japanese slang "単細胞 (tan saibou; lit. one-celled)" is a bit of an old Japanese word. It gives away my age.

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             "Shut up, now, Holden," he said with his big stupid red face. "Just shut up, now."

             "You don't even know if her first name is Jane or Jean, ya goddam moron!"

             "Now, shut up, Holden, God damn it―I'm warning ya," he said. I really had him going. "If you don't shut up, I'm gonna slam ya one."

             "Get your dirty stinking moron knees off my chest."

             "If I letcha up, will you keep your mouth shut?"

             I didn't even answer him.

             He said it over again. "Holden, if I letcha up, willya keep your mouth shut?"

             "Yes."

[My translation]

「黙れ、ホールデン」奴は間抜け面を真っ赤にして言った。「いいから黙れ」

「どうせお前はあの子の名前がジェーンだかジーンだかもよくわかんねぇんだろ、このとんま！」

「黙れ、ホールデン、このクソ野郎。俺は言ったぞ」奴はそう言った。俺は本当に奴を怒らせた。「黙らなかったらもう一発お見舞いしてやるからな」

「その臭ぇ、とんまな膝を俺の胸から降ろせ」

「もし俺がそうしたらお前は黙るのか？」

俺は答えなかった。

奴はもう一度言った。「ホールデン。俺がここをどけばお前は黙るのか」

「ああ」

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Translation note:

• "I really had him going" means that "I" made "him" angry. Even a series of words like this that you are familiar with can have unexpected meanings.

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             He got off me, and I got up, too. My chest hurt like hell from his dirty knees. "You're a dirty stupid sonuvabitch of a moron," I told him;.

             That got him really mad. He shook his big stupid finger in my face. "Hoilden, God damn it, I'm warning you, now. For the last time. If you don't keep your yap shut, I'm gonna―"

             "Why should I?" I said―I was practically yelling. "That's just the trouble with all you morons. You never want to discuss anything. That's the way you can always tell a moron. They never want to discuss anything intelling―"

[My translation]

奴は膝をどけ、僕も立ち上がった。奴の汚い膝のせいで胸が地獄のように痛んだ。「お前は汚ねぇ薄らバカのとんま野郎さ」僕は言った。

これは本当に奴を怒らせた。奴は太い間抜けな指で俺の顔を指した。「ホールデン、この野郎、言ったからな。これが最後だ。お前が黙んねぇなら俺は―」

「黙るだと？」僕は言った。実を言うと叫んでいた。「どれもこれもお前のせいだろうが、このとんま。お前は何の議論もできやしねぇもんな。それがとんまを見分けるやり方さ。お前もちっとは学のある――」

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Translation note:

• The "he shook his big stupid finger in my face" part shows him pointing at his face and getting angry. The use of the word "shake" is very English.
• Maybe he was about to say "intelligent" and got hit.

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             Then he really let one go at me, and the next thing I knew I was on the goddam floor again. I don't remember if he knocked me out or not, but I don't think so. It's pretty hard to knock a guy out, except in the goddam movies. But my nose was bleeding all over the place. When I looked up, old Stradlater was standing practically right on top of me. He had his goddam toilet kit under his arm. "Why the hell don'tcha shut up when I tellya to?" he said. He sounded pretty nervous. He probably was scared he'd fractured my skull or something when I hit the floor. It's too bad I didn't. "You asked for it, God damn it," he said. Boy, did he look worried.

[My translation]

それから奴は俺を一発殴り、覚えている限り、僕はまたしても床に倒れてこんでいた。ノックアウトされたのかどうかは覚えていない。が、されてはいなかったんだろう。一人の男をノックアウトするのは、映画でもなきゃとても大変なのだ。ただ僕の鼻血がそこら中にまき散らされていた。見上げるとストラドレーターの野郎は俺の真上に立っていやがった。腕に洗面道具なんか抱えて。「なぜ言って黙らない？」奴は言った。奴は少々神経質になっているように見えた。おそらくは僕が床に叩きつけられた時、頭蓋骨を割ったとでも思ったんだろう。そうなってなかったことが残念だ。「お前の招いたことだぞ、くそったれ」奴は言った。マジでビビってやがった。

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Translation note:

• The exact meaning of "let one go at me" is not clear, as there are no other examples of its use, but I assume from the context that it means "to give a blow".

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             I didn't even bother to get up. I just lay there on the floor for a while, and kept calling him a moron sonuvabitch. I was so mad, I was practically bawling.

             "Listen. Go wash your face," Stradlater said. "Ya hear me?"

             I told him to go wash his own moron face―which was a pretty childish thing to say, but I was mad as hell. I told him to stop off on the way to the can and give Mrs. Schmidt the time. Mrs. Schmidt was the janitor's wife. She was around sixty-five.

[My translation]

僕は立ち上がろうともしなかった。しばらく床に寝ころんだまま、とんまだのクソ野郎だの言い続けていた。僕は本当に頭に来ていた。僕はただ泣き叫んでいた。

「聞け。顔を洗うんだ」ストラドレーターは言った。「聞こえるか？」

僕はお前こそそのとんま面を洗ってこいと言った――本当に子供じみていたけど、その暗い僕は頭に来ていた。僕は奴に、お前なんかトイレに行く途中でシュミット夫人んとこに立ち寄ってヤってればいいのさ、と言った。シュミット夫人は用務員の奥方だった。もう65になる。

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One of the peculiarities of the novel is that he sometimes explains situations in a joking way, but sometimes the content is so serious that the audience, including me, does not know whether to laugh or not. Either way, it is heartbreaking to translate this part of the story.

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             I kept sitting there on the floor till I heard old Stradler close the door and go down the corridor to that can. Then I got up. I couldn't find my goddam hunting hat anywhere. Finally I found it. It was under the bed. I put it on, and turned the old peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I went over and took a look at my stupid face in the mirror. You never saw such gore in your life. I had blood all over my mouth and chin and even on my pajamas and bathrobe. It partly scared me and it partly fascinated me. All that sort of made me look tough. I'd only been in about two fights in my life, and I lost both of them. I'm not too tough. I'm a pacifist, if you want to know the truth.

             I had a feeling old Ackley'd probably heard all the racket and was awake. So I went through the shower curtains into his room, just to see what the hell he was doing. I hardly ever went to his room. It awlays had a funny stink in it, because he was so crumby in his personal habits.

[My translation]

僕はストラドレーターの野郎がトイレに行こうと廊下に出て行ってドアを閉めるまでずっと床に座り込んでいた。それから僕は立ち上がった。僕は自分の忌々しいハンチング帽を見つけられないでいた。が、それは見つかった。ベッドの下だった。僕はそれをかぶり、古びたつばを後にやった。僕はそうするのが好きだった。それから鏡の方へと歩いて行き、そこで僕の間抜け面を眺めた。人生でこんなグロ画像を見た人間もいないだろう。口や顎が血まみれになっていて、パジャマやバスローブにも飛び散っていた。それはある意味で僕を怖がらせたが、ある意味で僕を喜ばせた。おかげさまで僕はすっかりタフに見えた。僕の人生で初めてと二回目の殴り合いをして、そしてそのどちらにも負けたんだ。僕はあまり強くない。ホントのところを言えば、僕は平和主義者なんだ。

僕はふと、この騒ぎを聞いてアクリーが目を覚ましたかもしれないと思った。それで僕はシャワーカーテンをくぐり抜けて奴の部屋に行き、今何やってんのか見に行ってみた。僕がヤツの部屋に行くことは滅多になかった。ヤツは私生活がルーズなヤツだから、部屋からはいつも変な匂いがしていた。

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This is the end of this article, or chapter 6 of this novel. At first I wanted to make it shorter, but the novel was so interesting that I couldn't stop writing the translation, so I ended up at the end of chapter 6. Thank you for reading this article to the end.

Finally, according to a review of the novel published in Japan, his hunting cap plays an important role in the novel.

(This is a Japanese article, please excuse me).

https://www2.dokkyo.ac.jp/esemi006/rpt01/komagata.htm

In a scene earlier in the story, he turned the old brim of his hunting cap forward because he did not want to see the world around him, but in this scene he turned it back and changed his appearance to that of a baseball catcher. To him, his purpose in life is to be "The Catcher in the Rye," which specifically means to protect "pure" children like Jane and Phoebe from adult "phonies. The review also argues that by following the fate of his hat, his change of heart becomes clear in the novel.

[for Japanese Learners]

There are many novels that describe the struggles of the people of that era. People, including me, feel that they are the protagonists of these novels. By the way, in Japan there is an Internet slang term "おま俺 (omaore; short for お前は俺か？ (omae wa ore ka?, lit. You're me?)," and I think it is the perfect word for these works. So please let me call this the "Omaore Phenomenon."

There are many works that triggered the Omaore phenomenon: "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, "The True Story of Ah Q" (Chinese: 阿Q正傳) by Lu Xun, and "No Longer Human" (Japanese: 人間失格) by Osamu Dasai. If there are other works from your country that I have forgotten to mention, please let me know!

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

Translator to English | English Is Not So Easy 14

In the previous article, I evaluated the Japanese translation of William Gibson's novel. This time, I, as a Japanese, would like to retranslate the English translation of a novel written by a Japanese and study the translation method from a different angle.

In this article, I would like to introduce a novel titled "Harmony" by Project Itoh (伊藤計劃). This novel is about Japan, a dystopia created by people's excessive health consciousness.

Now, I look forward to seeing how the translator have translated the isolated language of Far East Asia!

================

Part of a whole world practically tripping over itself not to offend others, to be thoughtful of others—even of me.

[My translation]

全世界の一部として、文字通り他人を傷つけないように、他人にやさしくなるように、私に対してさえそう仕向けてくる。

[Original text]

どこまでも親切で、どこまでも他者を思いやって、挙句の果てにこの私にすら思いやりを持て親切であれと急き立てるこのセカイ。そんな時代と空間に参加させられるのはまっぴらだった。

================

I think the translator did a good job, but I personally felt that this text was too complex (at least for an English learner) and at the same time oversimplified the original Japanese text. But I think that is because the original Japanese is very colloquial and not very grammatically appropriate. Then, how would I translate it? Hmmm, this sentence ends with the noun "セカイ (world; I don't know why he spelled this word in katakana...)", so how about translating it using ":"?

"The 'WORLD': infinitely kind and infinitely thoughtful of others, and even forces me to be thoughtful, to be kind to others."

I believe this is literal translation.

Also, there are two sentences in the original, but the translator only translated the first half of the sentence. Apparently, the translator forgot to translate the second sentence because the first one was too difficult. The second sentence, translated by DeepL, is "I did not want to be forced to participate in such a time and space." I think this is a good translation.

================

“Hey, Tuan, you know what?” Miach’s eyes sparkled. Miach knew everything. Of all the delinquents in our class, she had the best grades. Miach never spoke to anyone besides me and Cian—Cian Reikado, our other friend—unless it was absolutely necessary.

[My translation]

「ねぇ、トァン、知ってる？」ミァハは目を輝かせた。ミァハは何でも知っていた。私たちのクラスの中にいる不良の中で彼女は一番成績が良かった。ミァハは、特に必要もない限り、私とキアン—レイカドウ・キアン、私たちの友達―のほかには誰にも話しかけなかった。

[Original text]

「知ってる、トァン……」とミァハが眼を輝かせながら言った。ミァハは物知りなのだ。クラスで一番成績のいい問題児。ミァハは私と零下堂キアン以外の誰にも必要以外で話しかけようとはしなかった。

================

The part "Cian—Cian Reikado, our other friend—..." is stylish and I like it!

However, reading only the English translation, you might think that there are several delinquents in the class and that Miach has the highest grades among them, but the Japanese original text implies that there are no delinquents besides her in the class and that she has the highest grades despite being a delinquent. This is a subtle difference, but native Japanese speakers can easily detect this difference. And it is depressing to think that I am making a series of similar mistakes when I write English. PLEASE, please tell me the mistake.

================

I still don’t know what Miach saw in us. I didn’t get very good grades, and while I wasn’t ugly I wasn’t particularly attractive either. The same went for Cian. Sometimes I wondered why she hung out with us at all, but I never asked. Not once.

[My translation]

私は未だに、ミァハが私たちに何を見出していたのかはわからない。私は成績も特に良くないし、不細工ってわけではないけど特別に美人というわけでもなかった。それはキアンも同じだ。時々彼女が一体全体どうして私たちとつるむのか気になったこともあったけど、それを尋ねたりはしなかった。ただの一度もだ。

[Original text]

私とキアンのどこが、ミァハの気に入ったのか今になってもわからない。成績だって特に良くはなかったし、容姿だってまあ悪かないけど取り立てて目立ったところもなかった。それはキアンも似たようなもの。けれどミァハに、どうしてわたしとつきあうの、とはついに一度も訊いたことがない。

================

I think this part is an accurate and good translation. The English translations, especially the latter half, "...hang out with us at all" and "Not once" are the work of a professional translator. Omisoreshimashita!

================

“A long time ago, there were men who would actually pay to have sex with a couple of innocent bodies like ours. So all these girls who weren’t even poor would sell themselves as fuck toys, and they wouldn’t even feel guilty about it at all. And neither would the morally depraved men who bought them. They’d meet up in hotels and pay them cash.”

“What?” I said, giggling. “You want to sell your body?”

[My translation]

「一昔前は、私たちみたいな無垢な身体とセックスするために、お金を払う男たちがいたんだよ。貧しくもない女の子たちが自分をセックスのおもちゃとして売り飛ばしてて、しかも彼女たちはそのことに何の罪悪感も抱かなかった。彼女たちを買う、モラルに欠けた男たちも同じだった。ホテルで待ち合わせして、現金で支払うの」

「何？」私はくすくす笑っていった。「体を売りたいの？」

[Original text]

「昔はね、体を買ってくれる大人がいたらしいんだ。多少のお金で私たちみたいな子供とのセックスを求めてた大人たち。貧乏でもないのに、何の罪悪感もなく自分の方から体をセックスの道具に売っていた女の子たちがいっぱいいたんだって。買う方も買う方で、そんな風に堕落した大人が結構な数いて、実際に街中のホテルでお金を渡してたんだって」

「からだ、売りたいの……」

================

"Innocent bodies like ours" is a very erotic expression. I will use it somewhere! Incidentally, the literal translation of this part is "children like us."

I think it is a perfect translation for this part as well. In particular, "And neither would..." is a technical translation of the Japanese phrase "買う方も買う方で... (lit. men are men...)", which is extremely difficult to translate into English. This difficulty might be similar to the difficulty in translating the English phrase "Enough is enough!" into another language.

This is the end of this article. As a native Japanese speaker, I can say that the translator is certainly a professional translator, and the variety of English expressions were very technical and informative.

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

Let's relish the world of William Gibson | English Is Not So Easy 13

I have wanted to write a novel in English for a long time, and to some extent I am training to do so. But I think the ability to write a novel is totally different from what I learned as a subject in school. So what should I do? The answer is simple: just climb the mountain in front of you!

Today, please let me introduce my favorite sci-fi novel "Burning Chrome". This is a work by a pioneer of cyberpunk, William Gibson. Now that I have both the English and Japanese versions (Japanese name is "クローム襲撃"), so I can enjoy the work in two different ways. In this article, I would like to share with you the very beginning of the very first story in this collection of the short stories. This should not be against the law....

================================

"Jonny Mnemonic" by William Gibson

I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs of tennis socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for:

僕は散弾銃をアディダス・バッグに収め、詰め物としてテニス靴下を四足入れた。全然僕のスタイルじゃないけれど、これこそが狙いだ。

If they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude.

粗雑と思われているなら繊細にやり、繊細と思われているなら粗雑にやる。

I'm a very technical boy.

僕はとても繊細な青少年。

So I decided to get as crude as possible.

そこで、目いっぱい粗雑にいってみることにしたわけだ。

 ================================

Thank you for your patience with the difficult-to-read text. I would also like to study the translation here and break down each part into sentences.

The novelist William Gibson uses many unique words, and translating them can be sometimes very difficult. In this example, the translator must have first asked the following question: is "technical" the antonym of "crude"? We must use my imagination. In this part, the protagonist hide a "technical" shotgun by putting four pairs of tennis socks "crudely". He has to act like a "crude" boy for some reason.

As these two words are paired, so the Japanese translator must translate them as a pair. In this sentence, he used "粗雑" and "繊細". Indeed, "粗雑" is a literal translation of "crude," but I am sure that this is one of the few examples in which "technical" is translated as "繊細 (delicate, slender)". This is exactly the part in which we can enjoy the "technique" of the translator.

================================

These days, thought, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness.

とはいえ、この頃ではよほど繊細でなくては粗雑さを目指すことすらできない。

I'd had to turn both those twelve-gauge shells from brass stock, on the lathe, and then load then myself;

この十二番径薬莢二発だって、旋盤で真鍮材から削り出さねばならず、自分で火薬を詰めなくてはならなかった。

I'd had to dig up an old microfiche with instructions for hand- loading cartidges; I'd had to build a lever-action press to seat the primers -all very tricky.

古いマイクロフィッシュを見つけ出してきて、手籠め式薬包のやり方を知らなくてはならなかった。梃子式のプレス機を作って、雷管をつけなくてはならなかった——どれもみんな、おおいにヤバい。

But I knew they'd work.

けど、これでうまくいくことはわかっていた。

 ================================

OK, the protagonist seems to have enough skill to make his own shotgun, which for some reason has recently become unavailable in stores. This boy is certainly overly "technical" but he needs to act like a "rough boy". But why? He is a hit man?

I would like to read the next part, but I have to see the skill of the Japanese translator. In this part, many technical terms appear, but translators can use the words in dictionaries, so translation is relatively easy. For example "microfiche" is a sheet in which many tiny pictures or documents are printed, and we can read them through a microscope. This was the storage medium before cloud computing, USB flash drives, and many older types of disks.

The most difficult part is the last part: "-all very tricky." First, this phrase looks grammatically incorrect to me. So this expression may be a "crude" one used by "a very technical boy". I think this part of the story expresses the frustration of having to go through such a tedious procedure when there should be an easier way to get a shotgun. We must translate this feeling, and I personally think the original Japanese translation "——どれもみんな、おおいにヤバい。" is a little too old-fashioned expression. Hmm... How about "——全てがとにかくトリッキー。"? The Japanese language has many words borrowed from English, and this is becoming more and more the case. I think we can use the word "トリッキー (trikki-)", which is just a transliteration of "tricky".

================================

The meet was set for the Drome at 2300, but I rode the tube three stops past the closest platform and walked back.

接触は二三〇〇に《ドローム》で、と設定されていたけれど、僕は地下鉄で、もよりのプラットフォームの三つ先まで行き過ぎておいて、歩いて戻った。

Immaculate procedure.

非の打ちどころのない手続きだ。

================================ 

What is "tube?" It means "subway"!? The word "subway" is widely used in the U.S., and the dictionary says "the tube" means "The London Underground". Since William Gibson is an American novelist, I thought this novel was set in the US, but actually the story may be set in London. However, I heard that if you are an American, when you hear the word "tube" you think of "CRT TV," which is the origin of the word YouTube.

Also, the word "immaculate" is another difficult word for me. The word "immaculate" is the antonym of "macculate," which means a stain or spot on a piece of cloth. This word shows the tense situation in which even a drop of ink on his clothing would kill him.

================================

I checked myself out in the chrome siding of a coffee kiosk, your basic sharp-faced Caucasoid with a ruff of stiff, dark hair.

コーヒー・キオスクのクローム張りの外壁で自分自身を点検してみる。かたい黒髪を逆立てた、基本通りに鋭い顔立ちのコーカソイド。

The girls at Under the Knife were big on Sony Mao, and it was getting harder to keep them from adding the chic suggestion of epicanthic folds.

《アンダー・ザ・ナイフ》の娘たちはソニー・マオに夢中だから、シックな内眼角贅皮らしきものをつけ加えられないようにするのが、次第に大変になってきている。

It probably wouldn't fool Ralfi Face, but it might get me next to his table.

これでラルフィ・フェイスの目をごまかせるとは思えないけれど、奴のテーブルの脇までは行きつけるだろう。

 ================================

I think the second sentence, "The girls at ..." is the first translator-killer. I could not understand what he was saying... First, "Under the Knife" is just a name of a place, but implies plastic surgery, and "epicanthis folds" is skin fold of the upper eyelid that covers the inner corner (medial canthus) of the eye (from Wikipedia - "Epicanthic fold"). So this sentence implies that the protagonist is sick and tired of the girls at his cosmetic surgeon's office recommending that he get Asian-looking eyes. Wait, he had cosmetic surgery? Wow, this is a technique of a high-level writer. In this way, without directly explaining "what was going on," we can find clues to his past and intentions by reading his daily complaints.

My complaint about the Japanese translation is that I lost the opportunity to notice that he had cosmetic surgery just by transliterating "under the knife (《アンダー・ザ・ナイフ》)". But I don't know of any good solution to this problem either.

 ================================

The Drome is a single narrow space with a bar down one side and tables along the other, thick with pimps and handlers and a arcame array of dealers.

《ドローム》は細長い店で、片側にはバー・カウンターが伸び、もう一方にはテーブルが並んで、女衒や故買屋や正体不明のディーラー連中がたむろしている。

================================ 

There seem to be a lot of underground people there. It is starting to look like cyberpunk!

But, did you know the word "pimps"?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/handler#English

pimp (plural pimps)

Someone who solicits customers for prostitution and acts as manager for a group of prostitutes; a pander.

(African-American Vernacular, slang) A man who can easily attract women.

Incidentally, "pipms" is translated into "女衒屋", but I did not even know how to pronounce these Chinese characters!

https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A5%B3%E8%A1%92-547611

女衒屋

〘名〙 江戸時代、女を遊女屋、旅籠屋などに売ることを業としたもの。遊女奉公で、遊女屋と女の親元との仲介に当たるが、女を誘拐し売りとばすことなどもあり、悪徳の商売...

OK, surely this word is equivalent to "pimps". What do you do when faced with an unfamiliar word? I will skip the word.

================================

The Magnetic Dog Sisters were on the door that night, and I didn't relish trying to get out past them if things didn't work out.

その晩は《磁気犬姉妹》がドアに張り付いていたので、ことがうまく運ばなかった場合、この二人をすり抜けるとなるとぞっとしなかった。

================================

With "magnetic" and "dog" in their name, they must be good at pursuit.

The word "relish" means "to taste or eat with pleasure" or "to take great pleasure in" (relish - Wiktionary). In the Japanese translation, I felt uncomfortable with the translation "ぞっとしなかった". The verb "ぞっとする" means "to shudder from fear" and this expression literally means "didn't shudder from fear". Is this an appropriate translation?

If I were the translator, how about this? "すり抜けるとなるとそそられなかった". The word "そそられる" means "appealed", so I think this word better expresses his melancholic feelings.

================================

They were two meters tall and thin as greyhounds.

二人とも身長が二メートルもあって、グレイハウンドのように細い。

One was black and the other white, but aside from that they were as nearly identical as cosmetic surgery could make them.

ひとりは白人、ひとりは黒人だけれども、その点さえ別にすれば、美容外科に能う限り瓜二つ。

They'd been lovers for years and were bad news in the tussle.

もう何年も愛人関係にあって、喧嘩になったら厄介だ。

I was never quite sure which one had originally been male.

もともと男だったのがどっちのほうか、僕にはついにはわからない。

================================

This part explains the appearance of "The Magnetic Dog Sisters". This part was very poetic in its Japanese translation. So I suppose the original text is also poetic, but I do not have sufficient ability to "relish" it. It's a shame. Frankly, the original text is astonishing and the translation picks up the feeling well. I am not even a professional Japanese writer, so I am not confident that I can produce the same literary quality.

This is the end of this article. What an attractive story! This novel is a very old novel, but it is so interesting even if I, who live in the modern age, read it. I used to think that literary ability was not very important in writing a novel, especially a science fiction novel, because in technical writing, "readability" is the primary requirement. However, this may not always be the case.

[For Japanese language learners]

For those who want to test their translation skills, please let me introduce some Japanese science fiction novels. This is the first part of a Japanese Sci-fi novel "Harmony" by Project Itoh (伊藤計劃). The novel won the Japan Science Fiction Grand Prize and was made into an animated film.

If you are interested in translating and want to know the professional answer, you can read the English version by Googling.

================================

どこまでも親切で、どこまでも他者を思いやって、挙句の果てにこの私にすら思いやりを持て親切であれと急き立てるこのセカイ。そんな時代と空間に参加させられるのはまっぴらだった。

「知ってる、トァン……」

とミァハが眼を輝かせながら言った。ミァハは物知りなのだ。クラスで一番成績のいい問題児。ミァハは私と零下堂キアン以外の誰にも必要以外で話しかけようとはしなかった。

私とキアンのどこが、ミァハの気に入ったのか今になってもわからない。成績だって特に良くはなかったし、容姿だってまあ悪かないけど取り立てて目立ったところもなかった。それはキアンも似たようなもの。けれどミァハに、どうして私とつきあうの、とはついに一度も訊いたことがない。

「昔はね、体を買ってくれる大人がいたらしいんだ。多少のお金で私たちみたいな子供とのセックスを求めてた大人たち。貧乏でもないのに、何の罪悪感もなく自分のほうから体をセックスの道具に売っていた女の子たちがいっぱいいたんだって。買うほうも買うほうで、そんな風に堕落した大人が結構な数いて、実際に街中のホテルでお金を渡してたんだって」

「からだ、売りたいの……」

私はくすくすと笑って訊いた。

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

Reverse-ECCHIcation: 'Fapping' | English Is Not So Easy 12

See you next time. And as always, I'm watching you fap.

(ZONE-tan)

In fact, I first learned of the existence of the word "fap" from ZTV News. At first I assumed it meant something similar to "f--k" and didn't pay much attention to it, but then I discovered that it has an even more specific meaning.

https://hinative.com/questions/328362

Question about English (US)

What does fapping mean?

Answer

It means "masturbating". "Fapping" is an onomatopoeia for the sounds that a person makes when they masturbate.

Comment

What the..lol Thank you!

"Fapping" is an onomatopoeia! I remember now, in an American comic book, when the boy was rubbing his penis, there was a big *FAP FAP FAP* written on it. In other words, the word can be considered to have a similar origin to "ring" or "slap".

However, two questions came to mind here.

• Is the act of a boy having his girlfriend rub his penis also "fapping"?
• Is female masturbation also "fapping"?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fap#English

Etymology 2

Onomatopeic Internet neologism from the sound of male masturbation, originally used in English translations of some adult Japanese manga, and popularized on the Internet by the webcomic The Thin H Line/Sexy Losers and other online sources. 

"adult Japanese manga"?? It is amazing to see Japan here. It is not written here, but I am sure that they must have translated the Japanese word "シコシコ (shiko shiko)" into English. When I first learned the meaning and usage of "fapping", I subconsciously thought, "'fapping' is a word very similar to 'シコシコ (shiko shiko)'," but that was not by chance but by necessity.

Even more interestingly, the word seems to have been translated and used in various languages starting from the English word "fap".

Descendants

→ Finnish: fäpätä

→ German: fappen, fappieren

→ Polish: fapać

→ Russian: фапать (fapatʹ) 

The Japanese word "shiko shiko" is translated into English "fap", which in turn is imported into other languages around the world. Language is a living thing!

Jeden Tag fappe ich für meine Gesundheit... Just nothing.

Interjection

(informal, Internet slang, vulgar) To indicate that someone (normally the speaker) is either masturbating, or inspired to by sexual arousal.

I was watching some porn – fap fap fap – when my computer crashed, again!

She's single?... *fap fap fap*

(informal, vulgar) Pornography.

Verb

(slang) To masturbate.

Exactly the same as in Japanese! Actually, "シコシコ (shiko shiko)" is internet slang too! The more I look into it, the more it seems that "fap" is a perfect equivalent of "シコシコ (shiko shiko)". If so, then I can guess the answer to the first question: Is the act of having your girlfriend rub your penis also 'fapping'? In Japan, the act of having someone rub your penis is NOT described as "fapping," but the sound is the same: *fap fap*. This is only in Japanese, but would the answer be the same in English? For example, in a situation like the one often seen in Japanese audio p-rn, where the succubus rubs your penis while your hands and feet are bound, does she whisper in your ear, "fap fap"? Please let me know what you think.

Second, in this article, I mentioned that the onomatopoeia for male masturbation is "fap" and "シコシコ (shiko shiko)". However, at least "シコシコ (shiko shiko)" cannot be used to describe female masturbation, and there is no equivalent word for female masturbation in Japanese. Until recently, I had also thought that "fapping" was a word that described only male masturbation, but I was very surprised when I saw the example sentences in wiktionary.

2014, Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl, Ebury 2015, p. 39:

For what reason – other than a knowing sadistic streak – would they have named something millions of teenage girls were fapping themselves senseless with ‘Mum’? 

It is very difficult to read English in a literary work. All I could tell from the first reading was that this text is a novel written by a British author.

Typing this text into the search engine allowed me to read an even longer sample of the novel.

It was their way of fucking with our minds. The real test of how horny you were. Are you so desperate that you’d have sex with your Mum? To which my simple answer was — locking the bedroom door and lying on the floor — Yes. 

My interpretation was as follows: The protagonist is a British teenage girl who has learned to masturbate with a can of deodorant spray that she finds closely resembles the shape of a dildo. But why is this can named "Mum"?

Is my interpretation correct? If so,... wow, I'll buy the novel.

From this example, I guess that "fapping" could also be used to describe female masturbation, but it is also possible that she was a person with a special sense of language.

The question "Can 'fapping' be used for female masturbation?" could easily be resolved by asking the opinions of native English speakers, but I personally feel that this question rather evolves into the even more difficult question "Is its usage established in the English-speaking world?" This is because the Japanese language actually faces this problem.

Let me talk about Japanese women here. Thanks to otaku culture, a very small number of women use the same word "シコシコ (shiko shiko)" as men, and this slang is becoming popular among women. Meanwhile, female manga artist Kabi Nagata invented a new onomatopoeia, "ぬこぬこ (nuko nuko)", in her manga "My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness". As a native Japanese speaker, I have never heard of an example of a woman describing female masturbation as "シコる (shiko ru; fap)" but upon investigation, I discovered that a very small number of women use the term, and at the same time, a totally new onomatopoeia has been created. The terminology for female masturbation in Japan is currently in the process of development, and it is very difficult at this stage to describe it in dictionary terms. I guess that the same situation is occurring in the English-speaking world. Again, language is a living thing.

Incidentally, it is not certain whether "ぬこぬこ (nuko nuko)" will become widely used in the future, but I personally like this expression best.

[For Japanese language learners]

In the article, I mentioned that "the act of a boy having a girl rub his penis" in Japanese is not "シコる (fap)". In Japanese, this situation is expressed as "彼女に抜いてもらう (lit. to have one's girlfriend pull out)". Pull what out?? I don't know. The etymology of the word is a mystery even to me. But the phrase exists.... Do you know anything about this problem?

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

Reverse-ECCHIcation: 'Cum' | English Is Not So Easy 11

I love ZONE-tan and ZONE-SAMA and consider them to be the standard for all the art I make. The ECCHIcation series is a very exciting project for me and at the same time I was surprised at the depth of their knowledge of the Japanese language. I am sure that they have the ability to come to Japan and live there without any difficulty.

However, there are some words they deal with that I personally would rather know about English words, and I would like to explain one of those English words, "cum," this time.

It's time for our "COMING ATTRACTIONS". If you're wondering why we're not spelling the "coming" in "coming attractions" with a "u", we're better than that.

(from "ZTV News Episode 1 (April 2012)")

Once, when I was studying English for a university entrance exam, I memorized the following phrase:

"Tom, dinner is ready!" "OK, mom. I'm coming."

We learned that the reason why "I'm coming" is used here instead of "I'm going" is that English focuses on the movement of the person toward the topic: "dinner". This may sound strange, but In Japan, most people choose to say "I'm going" because they focus only on the speaker's present location (I personally believe that this difference in thinking may provide a clue to the question that will come up later, but I will leave that out of this discussion).

Incidentally, "come" used in "I'm coming" is also a well-known verb that expresses orgasm. If this is the case, then I think that native speakers take care not to use the expression "I'm coming" in their daily conversation. This is because there are many examples in my own language where the popularity of euphemisms in pornography has, in turn, made it difficult to use them in everyday conversation (bukkake, gokkun, sempai, onii-chan, danna-sama...). But here is where a serious question arises: In this case, if an English learner like me uses the phrase "I'm coming.", will it give other native speakers a sexual image of me? Will a situation arise where you smile wryly and I ask you, "Why? Did I make a mistake?" and you answer "No, but... umm..."? There is a California-born English teacher in Japan, David A Thayne, who specializes in teaching these taboos that only native English speakers know, but there are not many saviors like him in Japan!

Let's get back on track. The main theme of this article is the English word "cum". Where did you learn this word first?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cum#English

Etymology 1: Learned borrowing from Latin cum (“with”). (e.g. This is my bedroom-cum-study!)

Etymology 2: Variant of come, attested (in the basic sense "come, move from further to nearer, arrive") since Old English. In the current sense and spelling from 1970s.

I see. "Cum" is a word with a long history, having its origins in Latin and Old English. But, "in the current sense"??

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Cum

cum

verb ("to ejaculate") and noun ("semen"), by 1973, apparently a variant of come in the sexual sense that originated in pornographic writing, perhaps first in the noun. This "experience sexual orgasm" slang meaning of come (perhaps originally come off) is attested by 1650, in "Walking In A Meadowe Greene," in a folio of "loose songs" collected by Bishop Percy.

What English learners like me should be aware of here is that "I'm coming" is an expression used in daily conversation, but "I'm cumming" is a slang used only in pornography. In other words, if I misspelled "come" as "cum," I would be in big trouble.

My next concern is how to distinguish between "I'm coming" and "I'm cumming" when I draw ero manga. I know your honest opinion is that "it doesn't matter which phrase you use," but I'm curious to know the subtle differences in meaning between the two.

https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/49051/i-am-cumming-or-i-am-coming

There was an interesting discussion on this site:

• People can say "I'm coming/cumming" seriously, with humor, with passion, as a joke, or in all kinds of ways, just as with most phrases or words.
• To enumerate how many times last night, I have only heard or read expressions like "I came x times last night" and "How many times did you come/cum last night?" It seems to me that "cummed" is less often used.
• Maybe "cum" is a kind of "eye dialect".
• Maybe "cum" is related to the French word "écume (foam)".

What was particularly interesting to me was that "cum" is also a verb, even though it is a kind of "vulgar slang," so it has past tense, present progressive, present perfect, and past perfect tenses. For example, however, is "He cums three times every night." or "He had cummed before I did." a natural expression for a native English speaker? I would like to hear your opinion.

Conclusion

I learned that "come" began to mean orgasm in the mid-17th century, and that the word "cum" is a vulgar slang that appeared in the 70s. Some native English speakers consider "cum" to be an eye dialect for "come". The word "cum" was first spelled jokingly in pornography and became a buzzword, meaning male orgasm and semen, but now "cum" has lost its jokey nuance and has become a word used in serious situations as well.

Once again, what I am concerned about is the feelings that native English speakers have when they hear these words. For example, my native language has many "old-fashioned" words from the 70's that the younger generation would make fun of me if I used them on the street. So is "cum" an "old-fashioned" word for modern native English speakers as well? Or is "cum" already a common and widespread word, and is it considered a general verb rather than a coined word? I am interested in your opinions.

[For Japanese language learners]

As you might know, in English, orgasm is expressed as "come/cum," but in Japan, orgasm is expressed as "イく (to go / to die)". The Japanese word "イく" is also "vulgar slang" and has no orthography, but in most cases it is written in katakana イ and hiragana く to distinguish it from "行く (to go)" or "逝く (to die)". Most examples these days use "イク" as a kind of onomatopoeia, but I prefer the verb-like notation "イく (cum) /イった (cummed) /イかせる (make someone cum)" for my personal preference. As you can see, there is no correct spelling.

Also, please keep in mind that "cum" is used mainly by men, but "イく" is used mainly by women. Ejaculation is commonly described as "出す (to emit)", which is a shortened form of "精液を出す (emit semen)".

In recent years, artificial intelligence has made it possible to generate high-quality illustrations. The question that arises in this situation is: "Will artificial intelligence take away the jobs of creators?" I am neither a creator nor an artist, but I would like to write an article about my thoughts on this issue. The reason why I am writing this article is because I like English and writing is much more fun than drawing these days.

SCP-like approach

First of all, I would like to discuss this issue in an SCP-like manner, so I have constructed a world or "My Universe" in my mind regarding this issue. There are three standpoints in "My Universe". This means that no matter how much the discussion progresses, I will not be able to discuss the issue outside of "My Universe".

1. Creators: These are the ones whose jobs may be eliminated with the advent of high-performance image-generating AI.
2. Consumers: they are the ones who enjoy the creator's production. The majority of them have only an average person's level of aesthetic sense. Although they are comfortable with the fact that they are irrelevant bystanders to this issue, they are a little concerned about the possibility that AI will create works that surpass their own aesthetic sense. As this statement indicates, I belong to this category.
3. Operators: or "AI artists," are beings who have the ability to manipulate the AI to generate images.

When I would like to emphasize that they are inhabitants of "My Universe", I would label them as "1. creators", "2. consumers", and "3. operators". Thank you for your understanding. Now that I have modeled the inhabitants of "My Universe" as described above, let's revisit the issue. As a matter of fact, AI is now capable of producing illustrations of quality comparable to that of professionals, and further technological innovation is expected in the future. Assuming that within My Universe, an all-powerful AI that surpasses all human creations thanks to remarkable technological innovation will appear, I would like to consider the question, "Will AI eliminate humanity in this world?"

Pessimistic opinion

It is commonly asserted that "AI technology has already opened Pandora's box, and as the technology advances in the future, everything that humans would produce will be reproduced and creators will no longer be needed." It is interesting to note that many of these claims seem to implicitly assume that if 1. creators are to be exterminated in the future, this will be caused by an influx of 3. AI operators into the creator world. This argument is based on the natural law that an increase in supply decreases the value of a product. However, even today, there is already an oversupply of human-made products, and I hear that it is difficult to make a living as an artist. If this is the case, it seems premature to think that an oversupply will in itself cause the disappearance of artists.

Optimistic opinion

It is commonly asserted that "AI can produce the 'right' things that humans have produced in the past, but there is a power in the art produced by human suffering that AI can never emulate." If I were to force myself to question this as well, I would say, "Only humans may be able to create works that express suffering, but in 'My Universe' AI is already capable of creating works that 2. consumers cannot tell whether they were created by a human or an AI." No matter how much technology advances in the future, I think it will not be possible for AI to put their soul into something as human beings do, but they are already at the stage where they can create something that "looks like it has a soul". I have named this problem the "Ghost of the Philosophical Zombie".

Putting both opinions together, we can conclude that in the future, as the pessimists say, AI artists will replace human artists in some fields, which will lead to the elimination of human artists in those specific fields, while as the optimists say, human beings are still stronger than AI in specific fields, and such fields will not disappear in the future, so I think artists will not be completely exterminated. This is my (boring) opinion.

Has DeepL eliminated translators?

I think the translation business was the first to face this problem. There are three genres of translation: "practical translation," "literary translation," and "video translation (translation of movies and TV programs)." Currently, the performance of machine translation has improved dramatically, and its power, especially in "practical translation," needs no explanation here.

Here is a simple quiz for you. There is a joke in Japanese: "yokkora sex (よっこらセックス)". "Yokkorase (よっこらせ)" is the equivalent of *grunt*, and in Japan it is mainly used when lifting heavy objects or sitting on a chair. And "sex" is a word borrowed from English, meaning sexual intercourse. The word "yokkora sex," a compound of "yokorase" and "sex," is a vulgar word used by middle-aged men with a strong sexual appetite. How would you translate this joke into English? I am sure that this problem is unsolvable by machine translation.

(from "Yuugai Shitei Dokyusei" by kuroha)

The answer is "There we hoe." Frankly, I think the translator who came up with this translation is a genius. As a specific area in which humans can triumph over AI, literary translation work requires the ability to translate foreign language jokes in the work into one's native language, i.e., extensive knowledge of the foreign language and extremely high skills in one's native language.

From the above, I personally feel that in the world of translation, a situation similar to the (boring) conclusion of the previous section has already emerged, where "humans can win over AI in specific fields, but are still being eliminated in some areas," and I think this can be considered an analogy to some extent regarding this issue.

My dream

The topic up to this point has been the possibility that the role of "1. creators" will be replaced by "3. AI operators," but I believe that another factor, "2. consumers," should not be ignored.

A technology that I personally am intensely waiting for is the "lover robot." Even today, there are quite high-quality products on the market, but they are basically silicone dolls that do not move, and occasionally there are products on the market with a motorized waist swinging function. The use of this product is a horrifying sight to see from the side, but the current situation is that this product is being sold at a price of thousands of dollars. As a man myself, I cannot deny the fact that men sometimes show amazing adaptability as a "2. consumer" when it comes to satisfying their sexual desires, and this is also a point that feminists find offensive.

Whether or not a perfect robot will ever emerge, I hope that a conversational AI that can perform natural language processing flawlessly will emerge in my lifetime. The question of whether or not the perfect conversational AI will appear is similar to the question of whether or not there will be a philosophical zombie ghost AI that can "act like an emotional being" to 2. consumers, which I expect will come sooner. I believe that a large part of such technology will be supported by "3. AI engineers" and another part will be supported by the high adaptability of "2. consumers."

Artists who will survive

So far, "My Universe" has been structured in such a way that "1. creators" are threatened by two problems: "3. AI operators" are too good, and "2. consumers" are too adaptable. Also, a little while ago I concluded that artists can beat AI on specific fields, but will be eliminated on some. Then, in "My Universe", what kind of artists, if any, are there who will not be exterminated?

It must be said here that it is very difficult to accurately predict such an existence, even within My Universe. This is because, even if we can predict to some extent what AI technology will be able to do, it is difficult to predict what 2. consumers will come to value. Just as consumers did not need board-type cell phones before the iPhone, it is natural to assume that the value criteria of "2. consumers" will vary greatly depending on "1. creators" and "3. operators".

But even so, can we predict the "specific fields" where humans can beat AI, based on the translator analogy mentioned earlier here? I think this can be "translated" as "areas where AI cannot reach". I think of it as if one real solution is "value added other than drawing technique which is also recognizable as value to the 2. consumer". In comics, it is "story," but it is hard to say because AI for writing stories is also developing remarkably. Another example is "who painted it," when Van Gogh's paintings are mentioned in combination with his life and suffering when they are evaluated. In addition, more and more artists are nowadays disclosing their production process on YouTube. Through this process, artists have succeeded in creating the extra value of "proof that it was created by a human being." The act of "educating people on how to draw" can also be of great value.

There are so many specific examples of "value added other than technique," which I listed as "areas beyond AI's reach," that I am sure there are many more options available, and I am sure that people will step out of this narrow framework of thought and find various options in the future. In this article, I state that it is impossible to predict how "value added other than technique" will be changed by 2. consumers in the future. If this is the case, my optimistic outlook is that many of these changes will work to push 1. creators into a corner, but some will work to help them. When I explained the characteristics of "2. consumers" earlier, while many "2. consumers" are indifferent to this matter, they readily accept "art" created by "3. operators," while there are a certain number of people who have the feeling that "I prefer something created by humans, but there is no way for me to tell the difference. I wonder if my eyes are not good enough to recognize them." There must be a way for 1. creators to survive, is what I am trying to say throughout the article.

Finally, in "My Universe," I imagine a more futuristic world where "3. operators" are treated in the same way as "1. creators". This is a society made possible by the high adaptive capacity of "2. consumers," but in such a dystopia, "creation" is likely to take a form that is unimaginable to modern people. However, no matter how much AI technology advances and the value system of the "2. consumer" changes, if the "2. consumer" is the one who enjoys it, the structure of "creation" by the "3. operator" who has the same or better aesthetic sense as the "2. consumer" will never be disappeared. So I believe that human beings will never disappear from the field of "creation". In other words, my vision of the future is that even if the world comes to a point where the standard for "what is creation" is changed by the adaptability of "2. consumers," the existence of Tadashi, who has programmed robots like Baymax, will not disappear.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

I wanna be a translator! | English Is Not So Easy 10

As an English learner, I have a long history of training in English-to-Japanese translation. I have never had anyone evaluate my translations, but I would like to translate some sentences to let you know how much I love and know English.

Each chapter of Hiroshi Mori's novel "Sky Crawlers" opens with a quote from J. D. Salinger's Nine Stories. And when you go to the next page, you will find a translation by a professional translator named Takashi Nozaki. This time, I would like to challenge Nozaki as an amateur.

The mouse, I've been sure for years, limps home from the site of the burning ferris wheel with a brand new, airtight plan for killing the cat.

(De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period)

The word "airtight" can have an obscene meaning today, but in this sentence it is used in a similar way to "elaborate". ... "The burning ferris wheel"? Do mice play in amusement parks? Or is the term used to refer to the hamster's famous plaything? Anyway, this sentence seems to describe the relationship between "Tom and Jerry".

<My Translation>

ネズミってのはね、これは何年も前から知ってることなんだけど、燃え上がる回転遊具から足を引きずって退散するときにはすでに、新しい、猫を殺すための入念な計画を練っているもんなのさ

I am not a professional translator and am prepared to receive a lot of criticism from professionals. However, I always try to write texts that are similar to Japanese light novels or sound novels. This time, I translated this text in a "BACCANO!" style.

<Nozaki's Translation>

年来私は確信しているのだが、二十日鼠という奴は、燃え上がるフェリス式観覧車を後にしてびっこを引き引き家へ帰るときにはすでに、今度こそ間違いなく猫の命を奪う新手の計画を巡らしているものだ。

Umm, very "wet". First of all, one of the worst parts of my translation compared to the professionals is the omission of vocabulary. I translated "limps home" as "足を引きずって退散する (limps away)," but Nozaki translated it as "びっこを引き引き家へ帰る (limps home)". He translated this sentence much more accurately.

This is an excuse, but I believe that which sentences to omit and which to translate accurately depends on whether you are writing a subtitle, a novel, or lyrics, and that you need to choose the appropriate means for your purpose. In my case, my purpose was to write a "light novel," so I translated it very anime-ish.

What little blood he had left trickled thinly down his wrist. He ordered Omba to look away, and, sobbing, Omba obeyed him. The Laughing Man's last act, before turning his face to the bloodstained ground, was to pull off his mask.

(The Laughing Man)

The timeline is complicated, but the phenomenon seems to occur in the order "pull off the mask" -> "turn his face to the ground." Since it is extremely difficult to translate this into other languages, I have resorted to translating it as "pull of the mask" AND THEN "turn his face to the ground". The purpose of the translation is "for readers who are not familiar with the original text to enjoy his work as a work of literature," and I thought it necessary to write the text naturally as a single novel.

<My translation>

わずかに残った血が彼の腕を薄くつたって落ちていった。彼はオンバにあちらを向くようにと言って、オンバはすすり泣きながらそれに従った。笑い男の最後のショーは、彼のマスクをとることだった。そして彼は、血に染まった地面へとうなだれた

I placed particular importance on the meaning of the word "act" and replaced it with the word "show (ショー)," which is also used in Japan. I think this is an acrobatic translation, reminiscent of a scene in the movie "JOKER".

<Nozaki's translation>

今や、わずかに残っていた彼の血も、細い筋をなして彼の手首を伝って滴り落ちた。彼はオンバに顔をそむけるように命じた。オンバはすすり泣きながらその名に従った。それから、笑い男は自分の仮面をはぎ取った。それが彼の最期だった。そしてその顔が、血に染まった地面に向かってうつむいたのである。

It is apparent that professional translators also had difficulty with J. D. Salinger's complex sentence structure. To my surprise, he translated the same sentence order as I did.

Also, I replaced "act" with "show," but he translated "The Laughing Man's last act" as "それがかれの最期だった." The expression "最期" implies that he will die shortly after this. This is also a very dramatic translation.

"Well," he said, "you know how those things happen, Sybil. I was sitting there, playing. And you were nowhere in sight. And Sharon Lipschutz came over and sat down next to me. I couldn't push her off, could I?"

(A Perfect Day for Bananafish)

The speaker of this line seems to be a very handsome man. Therefore, I must use the language spoken by handsome men.

<My translation>

「なぁ」彼は言った「何でもないことなんだよ、シビル。僕はそこに座ってピアノを弾いていた。君は僕の見えるところにはいなかった。そこにシャロン・リップシュッツがやってきて、僕の隣に座ったんだ。彼女を押しのけるわけにもいかないだろう？」

In fact, I was so fascinated by the line that I bought Nine Stories and read this story. The characters in Salinger are very American and fascinating. I now have a feeling similar to a love affair with this novel.

<Nozaki's translation>

「あのね、シビル、聞けばなあんだってきみもいうようなことさ。ぼくはあそこに座ってピアノを弾いてた。君の姿はどこにもなかった。そこへシャロン・リプシャツがやってきてぼくと並んで腰かけた。押しのけるわけにもいかないだろう？」

The two translations are similar, but I am NOT cheating. Frankly speaking, the text is not so difficult that I cannot make much difference between my translation and a professional translation. However, I felt Nozaki's translation is even more archaic and handsome than mine.

Lionel was either unwilling or unable to speak up at once. At any rate, he waited till the hiccupping aftermath of his tears had subsided a little. Then his answer was delivered, muffled but intelligible, into the warmth of Boo Boo's neck. "It's one of those things that go up in the air," he said. "With string you hold."

(Down at the Dinghy)

Maybe, Lionel is talking about kites. There are a lot of difficult words and translation seems to be very difficult.

<My translation>

ライオネルは一度に話そうとはしなかった。あるいは話せなかったのだろう。とにもかくにも、彼は涙の後のすすり泣きがやむまでずっと待ち続けていた。それから、彼の口からはこんな答えが飛び出した。それはブーブークッションの首元のぬくもりに口を押し当てた、くぐもりながらも聞き取れるような声だった。

「空に高く上がるものなんだ」彼は続けた。「糸を持ってなきゃならないけど」

As you might know, the word order in Japanese is completely different from that in English. However, I try to translate as much as possible without breaking the English word order.

<Nozaki's translation>

ライオネルはすぐには口を利く気がしなかったのか、それともきけなかったのか、いずれにしても彼は、涙の後のしゃくりあげが少し収まるまで待って、それから暖かい母の首筋に顔を埋めながら答えた。それはこもった声だったけれど、言葉はとにかく聞き取れた。「ユダコってのはね、空に上げるタコの一種だよ」と、彼は言った「糸を手に持ってさ」

Bravo ... I underrated him.

Finally, I have prepared some Japanese sentences so that you can experience what it feels like to be a translator. Since I am Japanese, I am not capable of evaluating your English translations, but if you are interested, please share your translations with me in the comments section.

This is a scene from NHK's manben (lit. Comic Study) program in which manga artists Naoki Urasawa and Junji Ito refer to the beautiful women Ito draws. They are both speaking colloquial Japanese, which would be extremely difficult to translate into English.

===================

No.1

浦沢：最悪の事態に巻き込まれる美女タイプ、が非常にわかってる

伊藤：言葉遣いも、「何々だわ」とか…

浦沢：「だわ」って言いますね。ちょっと「深窓の令嬢」のような…

伊藤：ええ。

浦沢：僕もね結構、セリフ、そういうところあるんですよ。声優の皆口裕子さんが、「YAWARA!」のセリフをつけるときに、「『だわ』とかいうから、すごい恥ずかしい」って

（笑い）

伊藤：まぁそうですよね。あんまいないですよね、現実には。

No.2

浦沢：僕も『MONSTER』のときとかに、結構、医学生が使うような資料写真とか一杯使ってるときに、最初「うわ、キッツいなぁ」って思ってたんだけど、不思議なことに、じーっと見ちゃうと平気になる、っていうのありますよね

伊藤：あぁ、そうですね

浦沢：ちょっと、チラッと見えたものってのは、もうなんか、すごい恐怖として残る。恐怖を克服するには、一回じっと見ることなんだろうね。

伊藤：目が慣れちゃう

===================

Even If you use Google Translation or DeepL, you would probably get sentences that don't make sense. Machine translation can accurately translate official documents and academic papers, but it still cannot translate spoken language. I could not translate this into English because I did not know the English equivalents of some of the words they used. However, this program has English subtitles. I was very surprised at the skill of the nameless translator who put English subtitles on this program. It was a good study of English for me. If you want to know the answer to this question, please play the video found by searching "manben junji ito" on YouTube starting at the 10:00 point, or please let me know.

<My attempt; not the right answer>

===================

No.1

Urasawa: You really understand women caught in the worst situations!

Junji Ito: And language. You know, my characters use old-fashioned language.

Urasawa: That's right. I felt they were a bit like "classy daughters", right?

Junji Ito: Yeah.

Urasawa: In fact, my characters also use old-fashioned language. When the voice actress Yuko Minaguchi performed "YAWARA!" she told me, "The language is so old, it's embarrassing!"

(Laughter)

Junji Ito: I feel you. Not many women use such language in reality.

No.2

Urasawa: When I was writing "MONSTER," I was looking at a lot of pictures that medical students would look at, and at first I thought, "Ugh, disgusting!" but strangely enough, once I stared at them, I became okay with it.

Junji Ito: Uh-huh.

Urasawa: A glimpse of a scene will remain in your mind as a terrifying experience, and on the other hand, I think it is important to take a closer look at it once to overcome your fear.

Junji Ito: Because your eyes get used to it?

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

Jokes | English Is Not So Easy 9

In my article, I mentioned that it is very difficult to translate swear words in American movies into Japanese. There are other things that are difficult to translate. Jokes.

Skipper: Leopard seals! Nature's snakes.

Kowalski: Aren't snakes nature's snakes?

Skipper: How should I know? I live on a flippin' frozen tundra!

             ―from "Penguins of Madagascar (2014)"

These kinds of gags are relatively easy to translate.

<My Translation>

隊長：アザラシ。奴らは自然界の蛇だ

コワルスキ：蛇も、自然界では？

隊長：知るもんか。カチンコチンのツンドラにいるんだぞ。

But, this example is very difficult to translate:

Mike: What's the special prize, and who gets it?

Wonka: The best kind of prize is a surprise! Hahahahaha...

             ―from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)"

This is because the gag is formed by the similarity in pronunciation between "prize" and "surprise. In other words, when translating it into Japanese, it is necessary to prepare something similar in pronunciation to "keihin", which is the translation of "prize".

<My Translation>

マイク：特別な景品って何、誰が貰うの？

ウォンカ：最高の景品（keihin）は自鳴琴（jimei kin; music box）！ははははは…

I don't think anyone would laugh because it is not very funny, but I think this is an appropriate translation because no one but Mr. Wonka laughed in the movie.

Now, I would like to ask you to experience the feelings of translators. The next example is a gag from the Japanese anime "Paranoia Agent (2004)", which I saw both subtitled and dubbed in English, and both were really great.

================================

 (Middle-aged detective Ikari talks to Maromi, a stuffed animal held by a girl Sagi)

Ikari: "君はどうだい？犯人を見なかったかな？ずっと一緒にいたんでしょうね、マロミちゃん？ん？！(Sub: How about you? Did you see the attacker? I know you were there. Right, Maromi-chan! Huh?!; Dub: Well listen, so how about you? Did you see anybody suspicious? I know you were there wither. Isn't that right Maromi? Huh?!)"

Sagi: "大丈夫ですか？ (Sub: Is he all right?; Dub: Is he brain damaged?)"

(Ikari blushes.)

Sagi: "川津さんの様態 (Sub: I meant, Mr. Kawazu's condition...; Dub: I mean Mr. Kawazu.)"

Ikari: "命に別状はないそうです (Sub: He's in stable condition, Miss.; Dub: He's in stable condition, thank you.)"

================================

However, one compromise is seen in both sub and dub. In Japanese, Sagi's remark "大丈夫ですか？（be okay?) + 川津さんの様態 (Mr. Kawazu's condition)" is just a natural inversion that can be correct regardless of Ikari's reaction, implying that she is unaware of Ikari's feelings, but in English, "I meant … / I mean …" is added, making it more likely that Sagi is conscious of Ikari's reaction. This is a problem caused by the linguistic structural differences, but can we create an English that resolves the differences between the two? Is such a script possible?

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

"Do you know how hard is it?" asked Precip.24 | English Is Not So Easy 8

Not to brag, but one of the authors of the textbook I mentioned in #7, David James, was an English teacher in Japan and I took his class. His lecture was very interesting and the content was something that even a Japanese English teacher would not know. For example, he forbade Japanese students from using "get" in a sentence. The reason, he said, is that "get" sounds a little childish. And when he was lecturing on speech in English-speaking countries, he said, "The grammatical rule of quotation marks is very complicated. Beginners should not use them." However, that is a serious problem for me because one of my goals is to write a novel in English in the future.

So how difficult is it? The best way to find out is to observe actual samples. I have a book, "ZEBRA and Other Stories" by Chaim Potok, which has probably drifted to Japan after a long journey. It is a well-known children's literature in Japan, and there are few words in it that one would have to look up in a dictionary to understand. However, through the stories, the complex emotions of children who are neither children nor adults are clearly described. It is a novel that can be enjoyed from both a child's and an adult's point of view.

I have researched a number of sample conversations from this novel.

             "You always tell such sad stories," Andrea said.

             The bell rang. Mrs. English dismissed the class.

             In the hallway, Andrea said to Zebra, "You know, you are a very gloomy life form."

             "Andrea, get off my case," Zebra said.

             ―ZEBRA

One example can be found: "blah blah blah," one said. It seems that when "one said" is placed after a dialog, the comma must be placed in an odd position for me.

             At one point during the day, I astonished myself by suddenly asking Seth why his parents had divorced. … But he took two or three deep breaths and finally said, "Because of my dad's drinking. He tried to keep it from us, but we all knew."

             By the time he finished telling me that, there were tears in his eyes.

             —B.B.

His novels sometimes contain conversational sentences without quotation marks. This is a technique unique to his novels in which the reader is never told what kind of wording the protagonist uses to ask him such a question.

             "He asks if he may touch your hair."

             "What?"

             "May he touch your hair?"

             Moon took a deep breath. All those questions, and now this. Touch my hair. Well, why not? He turned his head to the side....

             "He says he likes the way your hair looks and feels," Mr. Khan said to Moon.

             —MOON

In this scene, Mr. Khan interprets the words of a boy named Ashraf. In his novels, the past tense is basically used, but "asks" and "says" are used when the characters make statements in the speaker's conversational text.

             I said to Mom and Dad over breakfast the next morning, "I had this dream last night. Joe Redhill was carrying me."

             "What do you mean, carrying you?" said Dad.

             "Over his shoulder," I said.

             "Why was he carrying you?" asked Mom.

             "I don't know."

             —NAVA

Interesting expression used here: "blah blah blah?" said/asked one. When the speech is in the interrogative form, are the verb and subject swapped? The rule remains an enigma.

             "What?"

             "Your hair, it's so long and beautiful. Did your dad have red hair?"

             "My dad's hair was blond," Isabel said.

             "Can I touch it?" Betsy asked, and without waiting for a reply, put her hand on the hair alongside Isabel's forehead. Isabel felt Betsy's fingers lightly stroking her hair and saw a strange look enter her eyes: they appeared to grow enormous, translucent, the color of watery gray ink. She ran her tongue over her lips, drew her upper lip back, and caught her lower lip between her teeth.

             "It's like silk," Betsy said.

             Isabel stepped back. "Please don't," she said.

             —ISABEL

What is the difference between "'blah blah blah?' asked one" and "'blah blah blah?' one asked"? I give up.

Mr. James is right, it seems to be very difficult to use quotation marks. I hope this article will give you an idea of the grammatical difficulties of quotation marks and the fascination of Chaim Potok's works.

I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

100 Spells | English Is Not So Easy 7

In Japan, there are 100 magic sentences that must be memorized in order to learn to speak English fluently. To see the text of these 100 sentences, you had to buy the book in Japan (I have bought this book three times in my lifetime), but they are now illegally uploaded on this page.

The 100 sentences were written by a Japanese high school English teacher Hironobu Takeoka based on the advice of an English native speaker David James, and are intended for those who have already mastered basic knowledge of the English language and wish to acquire practical English skills. In other words, the basic practical knowledge of the language is packaged into the 100 sentences.

Q1. Please fill in the blank.

It (   ) dangerous to drive a car after drinking two bottles of whiskey.

An English(US) speaker in HiNative:

"is" is preferred …

https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/14428647

The answer is "would be". According to Takeoka's view, the word "would be" contains the nuance "I don't think you are the kind of person who would drink and drive," and English speakers are very conscious of whether the remark is hypothetical or not, so "would be" is more appropriate.

Q2. Please fill in the blank.

Anya has nice drums, (  ) she never lets anyone else play them.

An English(US) speaker in HiNative:

I'd say "but" …

https://ja.hinative.com/questions/12635329

The answer is "and". Because the fact that she has a good drum set has absolutely nothing to do with her letting someone else play it.

I think English used by native speakers is the most correct, but this is a great book for me.