The order after 男女比


Here is a short text I've encountered in a manga I'm reading:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KKccR.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KKccR.png)

The main character talks about his school where 男女比 (the sex ratio) is 9 to 1.
At first I thought it means that it has 9 times more boys than girls since 男
is put before 女. However, from the next sentence as well as the events that
follow, it is clear that the school is actually full of girls.

My question is: would a native Japanese speaker think in the same way? Would
they be surprised by this reverse order at least a little bit? Or could it be
that the word 男女比 doesn't at all imply that the number of boys will come
first?




> "My question is: would a native Japanese speaker think in the same way?"

I am not every native speaker, but if I were given the phrase:

> 「[僕]{ぼく}が[通]{かよ}っている[学校]{がっこう}は[男女比]{だんじょひ}9[対]{たい}1の[共学校]{きょうがっこう}」

with absolutely no other context or information and no prior knowledge of this
manga, I am pretty sure that I would think the same way as you. In fact, I
thought exactly that way when I read that line today.

> "Would they be surprised by this reverse order at least a little bit?"

Not sure about others, but I myself was not so surprised when I read the
following line. I know such schools exist in real life. You have probably
heard about our shortage of children. Quite a few (private) high schools that
had originally been single-sex have gone co-ed recently in order to recruit a
sufficient number of students to survive as a school. For the first few years
after that major change, you will often find an unusually lopsided sex ratio
in the enrollment.

> "Or could it be that the word 男女比 doesn't at all imply that the number of
> boys will come first?"

The number of boys would certainly come first more often than not. The fact is
we could not change the word 「男女比」 to 「女男比」, and saying 「1対9」 instead of 「9対1」
would not sound as natural or impressive when the number you really want to
emphasize is the "9".

Japanese is a contextual language. A phrase or sentence does not always have
to make perfect sense all by itself. If you have read the surrounding
sentences and still do not understand that phrase or sentence, then you could
say that is a problem.




> "My question is: would a native Japanese speaker think in the same way?"

I am not every native speaker, but if I were given the phrase:

> 「[僕]{ぼく}が[通]{かよ}っている[学校]{がっこう}は[男女比]{だんじょひ}9[対]{たい}1の[共学校]{きょうがっこう}」

with absolutely no other context or information and no prior knowledge of this
manga, I am pretty sure that I would think the same way as you. In fact, I
thought exactly that way when I read that line today.

> "Would they be surprised by this reverse order at least a little bit?"

Not sure about others, but I myself was not so surprised when I read the
following line. I know such schools exist in real life. You have probably
heard about our shortage of children. Quite a few (private) high schools that
had originally been single-sex have gone co-ed recently in order to recruit a
sufficient number of students to survive as a school. For the first few years
after that major change, you will often find an unusually lopsided sex ratio
in the enrollment.

> "Or could it be that the word 男女比 doesn't at all imply that the number of
> boys will come first?"

The number of boys would certainly come first more often than not. The fact is
we could not change the word 「男女比」 to 「女男比」, and saying 「1対9」 instead of 「9対1」
would not sound as natural or impressive when the number you really want to
emphasize is the "9".

Japanese is a contextual language. A phrase or sentence does not always have
to make perfect sense all by itself. If you have read the surrounding
sentences and still do not understand that phrase or sentence, then you could
say that is a problem.

