#no contractions

[swan-orpheus]

I got a new swivel chair for my desk, with actual lumbar support and arm rests. It is sleek and black. I am not sure how I lived without it. My back is very happy. 

But the best part about this chair (aside from twirling about in it to gaze out the window periodically), is sitting on it likes it’s a throne.

[youarentreadingthis]

Another strange confession time!

When I’m tired, I don’t use contractions.

Maybe I should just do random strange confessions from time to time...

[randomthoughtpatterns]

Hi!Your meta are always accurate and full of information, so I'd like to thank you for your work! I love the passion and the effort you put into this blog. Can you tell me something more about hanbee's way of speaking? I find it really interesting!

Thank you very much! Hanbee uses keigo most of the time when he talks, even if he talks to ghouls. 

Keigo is a special very polite form of Japanese, and let me tell you, not a lot of characters in TG use it. For Japanese people IRL keigo is often considered a hassle and nobody I know actually likes it, much less use it all the time. The normal polite form is acceptable in most situations. Seriously, there are a lot of people who can’t even use keigo correctly (people like me, tbh). The thing about keigo is that it’s seen as inherently deferential, which informs where you’re most likely to hear it (from salespeople, on TV and radio etc).

Hanbee uses keigo when he addresses Suzuya, strangers (like Kurona), people he isn’t close to (like Kaneki).  Although sometimes he’d go down a notch and use normal polite speech (and I’d be like, “why is he so casual all of a sudden”). The only time I recall seeing Hanbee use informal speech when talking to other people is when he was writing a card to Mizurou in the calendar.

He also often talks about himself in the third person! Which is something children and young women do. His manner of speech has a certain softness to it because of the keigo and the fact that he consistently uses “watashi” even in informal speech or when thinking. Hanbee also uses archaic or old-fashioned words and forms a lot.

Oh, and the last thing that comes to mind is that Hanbee would sometimes phrase things like they’re newspaper headlines. I swear I can just see the capital letters. He does it by removing all particles and the like from a phrase. Remember that “forced ignorance” line from the latest chapter? It means “Ignore her!”, but reads sort of like “Local Man Forcibly Ignores Woman”. It’s a bit hard to explain.

[shaindyl]

Students, please, please listen to me. As a university TA who has spent the past year trying to teach first year students how to improve their writing, I implore you to do your profs and TAs a favour. For the love of god:

DO NOT USE CONTRACTIONS IN ACADEMIC WRITING!!!

[rahabs]

[me, over the summer, helping to write and edit textbooks for German students learning English.]

[textbook contains a section on formal English.]

me: “i didn’t know we had that”

[gonedotr0gue]

my anaconda does not

[alittlenonsensenow]

I have a remarkable amount of respect for people that manage not to use contractions in their daily speech. Contractions are fun but rather immature.