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N2 聴解, question as to why the answer is what it is

PetCal23

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29 Mar 2017
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Hi all,
I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask this or not, but I have a question about an N2 listening dialogue that I heard. I went ahead and transcribed it and translated it, but for some reason I am having some trouble understanding WHY the answer is what it is. I've omitted some filler words (like uh, sumimasen, etc) and just put the most essential aspects.


資料どうなったの = How did the documents come out?
コピの調子が悪いんです = The copy quality is bad.
じゃ、隣の部屋でできない = You can't do it in the room next door
それが順番待ちで、皆部数が多いんで、 = There's a line and people are making many copies
コンビのも最近が領収証が出るでしょう = Don't konbini's recently give receipts?
それなら、待ったほうが早いかと = if that's the case [going to the konbini], it's faster perhaps to wait
ちょっと急ぎだから = Be quick about it [whatever you do, because we are busy]
他も皆そうじゃないかと、はい、一応聞いてみます = It doesn't seem the other people are particularly busy. Okay, I'll tentatively ask them [if I can get ahead of them making copies]
とにかくコピ急いでほうしい = Whatever you do faster is better [hurry up with it please]
はい

男、これからどうしますか? The answer is go to the next room. I think the answer comes from the underlined segment and it is saying that he'll tentatively go to the next room and ask if he can cut them in line, because his boss is asking him to be quick and because they're especially busy.

Is this a correct interpretation of it? Or is there something here I missed. I more or less understood the conversation in terms of grammar and vocabulary, but my inability to get the answer seems to be more pragmatic in nature. My answer was that we would just wait where he is and that was wrong (そのまま待つ)
Thanks in advance all
 
typos
コピの調子が悪いんです
コンビのも最近領収証が出るでしょう
とにかくコピ急いでほしい (う is unnecessary.)

The only misinterpretation is about 他も皆そうじゃないかと. そう refers to 急ぎ there, so the meaning is opposite.
He said 一応聞いてみます. It's impossible to ask them unless he goes to the next room.
 
"他も皆そうじゃないかと. そう refers to 急ぎ there, so the meaning is opposite. "
What exactly do you mean by this? Thanks for the other info though. It seems I wasn't quite making sense of it but I guess it makes sense since he can't ask them if he doesn't go there in the first place.
 
A slight tangent, but some people may find it useful:

While many convenience store copiers will indeed print out a receipt if you need one, you may also get a receipt from the clerk at the register if the copier doesn't have that function. Just tell the clerk how many copies you made and they will make a receipt for you.
 
"他も皆そうじゃないかと. そう refers to 急ぎ there, so the meaning is opposite. "
What exactly do you mean by this?
そうじゃないかと is not negative. そうじゃないかなあと makes more sense, maybe? Notice that it's not そうじゃないと.
 
This is minor, and doesn't affect the answer, but the third line is a question (じゃ、隣の部屋でできない?), and so the translation is different from what you wrote. It would be something like "Can't you make copies in the next room?"
The line you are confused about (他も皆そうじゃないかと) uses じゃない in a similar way. This way of using じゃない is quite common in Japanese. It should not be translated as "is not", but rather is comparable to expressions in English such as "isn't it ....?" In this case, the meaning is similar to "those people are busy, too, aren't they?"
 
It's not a tag question because of the existence of the quotation particle と at the end of the sentence. The speaker actually said 皆そう(=急ぎ)じゃないかと思うんですが, i.e., he just said his opinion 皆急ぎだと思う "I think they are also busy", and didn't ask any confirmation to the one he was talking to, unlike "aren't they?".
 
To help me make sense of Japanese, I always try to mentally translate in a way that stays as faithful to the original as possible. In the case of this type of usage (as in 他も皆そうじゃないかと), I imagine it as a question, but a rhetorical one, not one seeking confirmation. This wasn't clear in my previous response, as you couldn't hear my intonation. It would have been clearer if I had added "well," to the start. ("Well, those people are busy, too, aren't they?")
 
By the way, @Toritoribe, I have a question for you regarding this dialog, if you don't mind.
The それなら in the line それなら、待ったほうが早いかと is unexpected to me. Is it used here with a meaning similar to それならそうと? In other words, would you translate it as "nonetheless" or "despite that" rather than "if that is the case"?
Translating it as "if that is the case" makes no sense at all to me in this particular dialog.
Cheers.

Edit: If "if that is the case" is the correct translation, then there must be some hidden nuance in the previous sentence that I am not getting. Either way, something seems amiss.
 
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Well, と is the key, as I wrote in my previous post. The speaker shows his opinion humbly, unlike the case without と, and there is no "pushy" or "self-confident" nuance there "asking confirmation" or "rhetorical question" has.

The speaker compared two cases 1)going to the konbini and copying there, and 2)going to the next room, waiting in the line and copying, and said コンビニに行くくらいなら待ったほうが早い. The OP added an annotation "going to the konbini" for "the case", so I think he interpreted it correctly.
 
OK, thanks, @Toritoribe -san!
Actually, native English speakers have an expectation of a clear, logical flow to their conversations, and the "if that's the case" translation, even when you add the "going to the konbini" annotation, disrupts the logical flow of that conversation.
(Japanese people may also have an expectation of a logical flow in their conversations, but there is so much implied content embedded in them that I can't be sure:))
I noticed that for the alternate translation you supplied (コンビニに行くくらいなら), some dictionaries translate くらいなら as "rather than." That translation would make logical sense in this situation, so it seems likely to me that それなら in this case has an implied "rather" in it, even though it is not usually translated that way.
Finally, that was a good point you made about how a rhetorical question can seem pushy, and therefore might not be the optimal translation in this situation, where the speaker is being humble. Thanks for the insight.
This exercise brought back many unhappy memories of the JLPT listening test for me! 懐かしい!
 
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