Maddies Manga

In Japanese, not just within the confines of shoujo manga, but within the language as a whole, there is a lot of ambiguity! On top of that, there is a constant necessity to be able to read between the lines, and infer what people’s words mean.

While this can sound a little bit scary, you do catch the hang of this rather quickly! So, let’s take a look at one phrase that can describe understanding the atmosphere: to read the room!

Example Sentences

First, let’s try…: When my upperclassman invited me to lunch, I read the room and accepted.

Now, let’s make a word bank:

English	Hiragana / Katakana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
Upperclassman	せんぱい	先輩	Senpai
Lunch (casual)	ランチ	N/A	Ranchi
To invite (conditional)	さそったら	誘ったら	Sasottara
To read the room (te form)	くうきをよんで	空気を読んで	Kuuki o yonde
To accept (past tense)	うけいれた	受け入れた	Ukeireta

Now, let’s write it out in romaji!:

“Senpai ga (watashi o) ranchi ni sasottara, (watashi wa) kuuki o yonde ukeiremashita.

Let’s change it to hiragana:

“せんぱい　が　（わたし　を）ランチ　に　さそったら、（わたし　は）くうき　を　よんで　うけいれました。

And lastly, let’s add in the kanji:

”先輩　が　（私　を）ランチ　に　誘ったら、（私　は）空気　を　読んで　受け入れました。”

If we’re happy about this invitation, we could instead conjugate “Sasou” ”誘う” as “Sasottekuretara” ”誘ってくれたら”.

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What if we want to say… “I don’t like talking to people who can’t read the room” This sentence is a step up in difficulty, as the sentence structure is very different from English, so get ready!

First up, we need a word bank!

English	Hiragana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
Read the room (potential, negative)	くうきがよめない	空気が読めない	Kuuki ga yomenai
People	ひと	人	Hito
To chat	しゃべる	喋る	Shaberu
To like (negative)	すきじゃない	好きじゃない	Suki janai

Now that we know all of the relevant words, let’s put them together in a sentence!

First, in romaji only:

“Kuuki ga yomenai hito to shaberu no ga suki janai”

Now using hiragana:

”くうき　が　よめない　ひと　と　しゃべる　の　が　すき　じゃない”

Now let’s add in the kanji:

”空氣　が　読めない　人　と　喋る　の　が　好き　じゃない”

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Let’s try one more sentence! What if we want to say… “Please read the room, this is a private conversation“?

Let’s get the word bank started!

English	Hiragana / Katakana	Kanji	Romaji (reading)
Read the room (te form)	くうきをよんで	空気を読んで	Kuuki o yonde
Please	ください	N/A	Kudasai
Private	プライベート	N/A	Puraibe-to
Conversation	かいわ	会話	Kaiwa
To do (teiru form)	している	N/A	Shiteiru

Alright, let’s make some sentences!

First, using romaji only:

“Kuuki o yonde kudasai. Puraibe-to na kaiwa wo shiteiru kara.”

Now using hiragana:

”くうき　を　よんで　ください。プライベートな　かいわ　を　している　から。”

Now let’s add in the kanji:

”空気　を　読んで　ください。プライベートな　会話　を　している　から。”

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And that’s Kuuki o yomu! Have you heard this phrase before?

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Was my post helpful? I hope you learnt something! If you want to support me so that I can continue to share my love of all things shoujo, you can always buy me a coffee!