Translation dialogue


> A: でも好きな子ぐらいはいるんじゃないですか  
>  B: そういうのも含めて分かんなくなりました  
>  誰も僕の話を聞いてくれなかったから

How would you translate this dialogue between 2 people without any context? My
class is doing translation pratice out-of-context to familiarize ourselves
with stuffs like characters who has unidentified gender and I'm stuck at this
dialogue.

My attempt:

> A: But isn't there anyone around that likes you?  
>  B: Even if there is, I wouldn't be able to tell.  
>  It's not like anyone is willing to listen to me.

Since there is a severe lack of context, that's the best I can do with being
liberal. I'm having trouble identifying the subject of the first sentence and
I couldn't tell how it relates to the second one.




> A: でも好きな子ぐらいはいるんじゃないですか  
>  B: そういうのも含めて分かんなくなりました  
>  誰も僕の話を聞いてくれなかったから

You're close, but I'm going to break it down just a little bit, and see if I
can help with this. I'll start with person A:

**でも** - But

**好きな子** - A 'child' (subject) likes. As you have noted in your translation,
they aren't talking about a child, but rather a girl, as this seems to be a
conversation between two boys (teenage boys don't get called 子, but teenage
girls do). The subject of this sentence appears to be person B in this
sentence.

**ぐらい** - At least (see [definition two at
jisho.org](https://jisho.org/word/%E3%81%8F%E3%82%89%E3%81%84))

**は** - Topic marker, this specifically marks 好きな子, or the girl that person B
likes.

**いるんじゃないですか** - Don't they exist? This is similar to saying 'Is there
not....' in English.

So my translation of person A:

> (Speaking to person B) But isn't there at least someone that you like?

If someone were to be liking person B instead, you would see something to the
effect of 'あなたのことが好きな（人/子）', so the direction of the liking is definitely
coming from person B.

* * *

Now to break down the response:

**そういう** - like that

**の** - nominalizer of そういう to form the phrase 'thing like that.' Thing in
this case can be exchanged with person.

**も** - this も behaves kindof like 'even if,' but it really just depends on
the circumstance. Here's a [good
explanation](http://maggiesensei.com/2013/10/08/japanese-particle-%E3%82%82mo-
to-emphasize-the-number-%E3%80%8C%E4%B8%80%E2%98%85%E3%82%82%E3%80%8D/) of the
も particle.

**含めて** - the て-form conjugation of
[含める](https://jisho.org/word/%E5%90%AB%E3%82%81%E3%82%8B), or to include.

**分かんなくなりました** - Became so that I do not know. You probably noticed the
slurring of the ら in wakaru. This is fairly common in daily speech.

So my translation of Person B's first line:

> Even if there was someone like that, I can't tell any more.

* * *

The last line you had pretty good, but you put a negative connotation on it
that I don't really think is there. In English, 'It's not like...' uses
sarcasm, which is very rarely, used in daily Japanese conversations. It gives
a negative connotation to what is being said. I'm not getting that feel.

**誰も** - No one

**僕の話** - My story (more like 'what I have to say'). This is the object of the
sentence.

**を聞いてくれる** - Will give of their listening to (object)

**から** - because

So my translation would be:

> It's because no one will listen to what I have to say (about the matter).

I included the 'about the matter' in parenthesis because it was implied, but
not specifically stated. In English, you have to make inferences in the
translation, especially when taken out of context. This is one of those cases
where I think that it might be useful to include it, but you can probably get
away without including it as well. Just depends on your preference.

