ARU- A User's Guide

Okay, so I saw one of those posts on Tumblr where people were really, really annoyed about the use of "Aru" in fanfiction. I thought I would appease some tensions here and add some tips of my own because there are a few different ways to play off China's speaking manner, and "Aru" is a valid one (though maybe not the most fluid in English speech). Hey, lil' Romano, get over here! Ask me stuff about aru because you're cute and a good plot device and OW! WHAT THE HELL?

Hmph. Fine. Why does aru exist, jerk?

Good. Sit there and look cute while I talk. OK, first off, I would like to point out that aru is not something exclusive to fanfiction. Pretty much all Japanese fanworks include aru at the end of China's sentences where appropriate. Even Tokyopop included it in their official English translation with a sidenote, which I'll get to later. With all this aru around, we can't blame people for using it in their works, especially people who end up trying to translate it other ways and giving up because without it they'd end up making China "speak like Yoda" as one author said.

Tokyopop's little explanation of aru goes along the lines- there are many stories about its origin, but the most popular is this. I'm sure everyone's heard of desu in Japanese speech. It's the verb for "it is" that, unlike in English, goes at the ends of sentences and can apply for all subject pronouns (no I am, You are, it goes for everything). De aru (ﾅ ) is another way of saying desu, though it's less common. Well, it's said that clumsy speakers of Japanese will drop that ﾅ (de) on the front, leaving the aru behind. That's why China always says aru at the end of a sentence- while translators will translate "kore wa pen aru" as "This is a pen, aru" and not "This aru pen" for simplicity's sake, the latter is actually the more literal translation. It's just a matter of Japanese word order.

In fact, if you listen to Tokyo Drift, you'll find an instance of aru. The lyrics go "They respect and keep it re-aru/ Not a China man, 'cause I ain't from China man/ I am a Japan man . . ." which is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of "real." (Dear Lord, I've wanted to point that out forever.)

That was too long, you idiot! What do I need to do?

Well excuuuse me for giving a decent explanation. Anyway, you don't necessarily have to drop aru if you don't want to. If you're doing a parody of China (ask blog, crackfic, etc.), I'd call using it however you feel like fine. But if you're not, and you REALLY want to use it, you're going to have to know a little bit of Japanese grammar.

Guidelines for aru usage

Put aru after "X is" statements, such as: "This is a pen." "This is a my favorite wok." "Homestuck can be depressing at times." "It's sunny out."

DON'T PUT ARU after "X isn't" statements: "This isn't a pen." "Big Brother is not watching." "42 isn't the answer to six times nine."

DO NOT PUT ARU in situations where the verb changes out of the present or future (fun fact: the present tense and future tenses in Japanese are the same! Cool beans, huh). Even if "to be" is involved in said tense, like the present progressive ("Prussia's face is bleeding"), Japanese particles like wa and ga take care of the idea of "to be" and the verb takes care of the rest. "Hungary was hitting Prussia with a frying pan yesterday" would not have an aru tacked onto the end because the past tense form is working differently. Same with "Japan took a picture," "Go get the phone for me," or "Please don't feed the squiddles" because of verb changes.

ANOTHER PLACE I WOULDN'T PUT ARU: After a question. While in Japanese, China says stuff like "Kore wa pen aru ka?"(Is this a pen?), it looks weird in a quesiton. "Is this a pen, aru?" is a valid translation along these guidelines, so I won't think badly of you if you do use it because to each his own.

ONE MORE PLACE NOT TO PUT ARU: See how many more don'ts there are than dos? Well, Japanese has a different verb for someone having something or something "existing." For example, "I have a pen" and "There are five birds on the telephone line" would not have aru. In fact, some of these WOULD have an aru at the end in Japanese- but using aru on their own in this way is the CORRECT way to say it, so there's no mistake there.

Example paragraph (My apologies to non-HongIce shippers)

"Hong Kong, you are a disgrace to this family, aru," China scolded, holding up the unlit firework. "Stop these shenanigans immediately. They'll throw us out of the hotel. Do you want to be thrown out of the hotel(, aru)? Because I don't."

Hong Kong muttered something under his breath.

"I don't care if Iceland bribed you into doing it. Different families have different rules. Your boyfriend may be a bad influence on you, aru. I will have to have a talk with Norway before I let you go on dates again."

(See how little I used aru there?)

Wow, who even writes that much? Also, I still hate aru. And your face.

God, you're such a little punk, aru! I mean... never mind. Anyway, since people with no experience in Japanese may have had a hard time following that, here's an option I'd love to see more people try:

Since aru is the result of people dropping part of "to be," a good English approximation that is also a Chinese stereotype would be leaving any variation of "to be" off at all!

Seriously, that would be hilarious! Hearing China talk like an old Chinese grandma would be funny and pretty accurate. Look at this paragraph again and tell me it isn't way funnier than the last one.

(Also: Take out a, an, the, and plurals to complete the effect. Chinese and Japanese don't have those types of words, so it'll make it sound perfect! Aiya would also sound fantastic.)

Example Paragraph: Take Two

"Aiya! Hong Kong, you disgrace to this family!" China scolded, holding up the unlit firework. "Stop these shenanigan immediately. They'll throw us out of hotel. Do you want to be thrown out of hotel? Because I don't."

Hong Kong muttered something under his breath.

"I don't care if Iceland bribed you into doing it! Different family have different rule. Your boyfriend may be bad influence on you. I will have to have talk with Norway before I let you go on date again."

(OK, that was definitely overdoing it. You should probably tone it down in your writing. But still, read that in your head and tell me it wasn't funny and accurate.)

A BIG REMINDER: You don't HAVE to make China sound like a bad speaker. He's a smart nation, debatably THE smartest, and he's had over 4,000 years to learn a ton of languages. If you're not comfortable with that speech pattern, don't feel forced to use it. And another big reminder: If he's speaking any Chinese language or dialect thereof, PLEASE WRITE HIM AS A NATURAL SPEAKER because obviously he can speak his own languages!