sinnesspiel | Shiki Novel Translations 9.2

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Shiki Novel Translations 9.2

2

"Doctor, something from Tajima National Health Institute's arrived, were you waiting on something?"

At Towada's voice, Toshio looked up from the document he was reading. It was the written report on Giichi's death from somebody he knew at the National hospital. As expected Giichi had pneumonia. The cause of death was gram positive cocci, and arrhythmia caused by heart failure.

"It's come? Sorry, but could you fish out just Megumi-chan's results for me?"

"Megumi---Shimizu-chan, you mean?"

"Right," Toshio said, as Towada nodded knowledgeably and turned back. Soon there was the sound of someone hurrying, and Mutou rather than Towada came back with a single sheet of paper.

"Sorry about that, Mutou-san."

Toshio took the test results and looked to the main entries. Her total red blood cell count, white blood cell count, and platelet count were down, and her hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit were reduced as well. In contrast, her reticlocyte count was high, and her serum iron levels, TIBC, and serum ferritin levels were normal.

Toshio's brows furrowed. ---These were not happy results.

"How is it?"

Being spoken to, Toshio finally realized that Mutou was still standing in front of his desk, trying to peek, himself. He felt like telling him to let it go but Mutou was close to Shimizu. Never mind that Toshio was the one to say it was anemia, Megumi did suddenly die. Regardless of the difference in degree of sentiment, Mutou may have been the same in feeling some kind of guilt or something towards Shimizu.

"Ah--- yeah."

"Anemia after all?"

Toshio took a breath. "There was anemia. But, while it was anemia---it wasn't iron deficiency anemia. I misdiagnosed."

That can't be! Mutou made a grievous face.

"Serum iron levels, TBIC and serum ferritin, all of them are entirely within the normal range. If it were iron deficiency anemia, then their levels not being low is strange."

"But the results only came back today," Mutou said, dismayed. "That's right, that's, you shouldn't, you couldn't have made an accurate diagnosis until the results came in, you aren't a fortune teller after all. The reason the results came back late was because it was the Bon holiday----"

"It's nothing for you to get that worked up over," Toshio said with a strained smile. "Anemia is usually iron deficiency anemia. Especially since she was a young girl, any doctor would suspect that first. Certainly saying that there was nothing to worry about without due consideration was my mistake, but," the inside of his mouth was bitter but once he'd spit the words out and acknowledged it it felt better. "it might have been better to hurry the results. If I'd done that then at least the worst case scenario might've been avoided. ----That's what I was thinking but somehow or another it looks like that's not how it was."

"Ha?"

Toshio took a calculator out from the desk drawer.

"Mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration." He tried to calculate them roughly based off of the red blood cell count, hemoglobin concentration, and the hematocrit. "and the reticlocyte count are high. That'd mean normocytic normochromic anemia, then."

Mutou blinked. "What does that..."

"There are three general classifications of anemia. If it was iron deficiency anemia, it would be microcytic hypochromic anemia. With macrocytic hypochromic anema, that's three. Normocytic normochromic anemia occurs with acute bleeding, or possibly hemolysis, and if not that than aplastic anemia, or secondary anemia. But, in Megumi-chan's case, there weren't any particular external wounds and there were no signs of heavy internal bleeding. Total bilirubin, direct reacting bilirubin, LDH, haptoglobin--each of them are within normal parameters. That means the odds of hemolysis are low. With her high reticlocyte count, the odds of aplastic anemia are low. No problems with her other biochemical results, either."

"Haa," Mutou blinked, tilting his head. "...So, what does that mean that it was?"

"I don't know." Toshio toyed with the exam results in his hand. "I don't really know the cause. But at least what is confirmed is that it was secondary anemia. Besides sudden death, there was something wrong with some part of her body. And, that it was a big problem that couldn't be discerned from a glance. It was that problem that lead to the anemia showing."

"And so.... an example would be?"

"Like I know? Even if these results came out the day I examined her, all I'd have been able to do is a reexamination. The most I could have done is look if there was something wrong somewhere somehow with a thorough analysis but, there wasn't enough time for me to have done that and gotten any results. ---That's what it means."

Ah, Mutou said seeming slightly relieved. "Is that so?"

"This wouldn't likely have gotten any different result if I'd sent her straight to the university hospital or to a large hospital with the appropriate equipment for one of their top physicians to examine her. I mean, there were only three days until it was all over. That's why even if I were a fortune teller it wouldn't have worked. Of course, even if a fortune teller could nail the cause, they wouldn't be able to provide treatment, but."

"Then it was," Mutou said, sounding as if it were complicated. "bad luck, wasn't it."

Toshio gave an all the more bitter smile. "It's possible there were symptoms besides anemia, though. If there were, they wouldn't have been something that just started that day or the day before, though. And that little lady had a habit of kicking up a fuss any time anything felt the slightest bit off. So the people around her thought it was the usual too, took it lightly and forgot about it, probably, I'd bet. ----Well, no matter what, it's nothing but speculation, now."

Megumi was already dead. The corpse was in the ground. In the heat that had become the norm, the decay was probably already fairly far along. He didn't think Shimizu would agree to a pathological autopsy now, and literally digging up old buried bones at this point wouldn't have a point.

"This must be what they mean by a natural life span," Mutou said, shaking his head as he spoke with deep emotion. "All too short, all too out of our hands."

Toshio nodded.

"---You said it."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

No, Toshio. There was hemorrhage, but there was no evidence because all the blood disappeared into the Shiki's stomach.

aahh this part. One of many reasons I love Shiki is because there are a lot of med stuffs. This chapter especially, I just learned about hematology and especially IDA not long ago and what I learned were down here.

And the medi-babble begins! I felt exactly like Mutou reading that and I think I even tilted my head at one point. In my opinion, Toshio's guilt is normal but it's not really his fault. Really, he probably should have gotten more on top of it, but even if he did get the results earlier and found out it wasn't iron deficiency anemia, what would he have done then? She still would've died, unless he like sent her across the country or something. This sort of adds more negativity to Megumi's character too, because if she didn't have such a girl who cried wolf thing going on, she would have been taken more seriously.

But anyway, is it really hard to translate all of those medical terms?

Actually, more often than not the Japanese terms are easier to understand than English. The roots of the Japanese words are in Japanese, so that if you know the roots, you know the meaning. Liver + Burning = Inflamed Liver. Poverty + Blood = Low blood supply. Low + color = Pale. You don't need any medical experience to get the jist of what that means. An inflamed liver means it's not going to be filtering terribly well, and there's either an infection or, more likely, a virus at work. Being low on blood leads to the complications expected when oxygen and nutrients are not getting about the body well due to decreased efficiency of transport. Red blood cells will not be so red without iron, therefore paler red ones lack iron. Know some basic biology and, in Japanese, you're set.

In English, however, it's Hepa (liver) + titis (inflammation), an (without) + hemia (blood) and hypo (low) + chromic (color). You either have to know another language, Greek (and Latin in a few cases), or know the medical terms as English vocabulary. In some cases the roots are common enough in English as loan words to be easy to follow. I read medical texts as a hobby and for work, so I will usually know a word even if I can't always determine when reading it in Japanese what the English (or more likely Greek) word for it would be.

Sometimes the Japanese words are just English loan words though, just because why the hell not. Bilirubin is an example; I'm familiar with hematoidin because I'm more familiar with terms relating to blood, but wasn't certain was Bilirubin was (it's the exact same chemical compound, just renamed to link it to bile where it's typically found in testing rather than to hemoglobin which the term hematoidin alludes to).

I could just slap down the words and call it a day without knowing their meaning, if I really wanted. I don't have to understand it. If it doesn't make sense medically, that's the authoress's fault and I should be at least confident enough in my grammar to be able to translate it even if it's the Japanese equivalent of the nonsensical Jaberwocky. But it's important to Ozaki's character voice to know when he's going medical vs. when he's trying to explain it in layman's terms. If he says "inflamed liver" rather than "hepatitis" in translation, even though I'd be correct in translating it either way, then it means there's some difference in the original text where he's he's trying to talk on an even keel with a non-medic and probably didn't use a compound word that might make someone's eyes glaze over as just 'medical talk' even if Japanese medical terms are generally more intuitive. In this case, Mutou works in a medical office so he's apparently more prone to medical babble than he would be at Seishin, even if Mutou is a paper pushing office man rather than a medic.

In a short answer to the question, 'is it really hard to translate all those medical terms': Sometimes.

That'd be an interesting way to study medicine; think of what medical signs various fictional situations, such as vampire attacks, would have on patients. The novel plays the medical thriller/mystery angle more sincerely than the anime/manga bothered to so look forward to medical examinations in abundance in the early middle (we're just shy of finished with book 1 of 5 at this point, I'd imagine--or halfway through book 1 of 2).

Poor anyone who have to listen to Toshio ramble about med stuffs even when they don't understand though. I think Toshio have this tendency to just babble about anything he wants despite his listeners probably not wanting to listen to them. Seishin is prime example. Not that Toshio is very talkative to begin with, but guess how those conversations will be when his listeners don't even try to stop him even when they actually don't want to listen to some certain things. (not that he's not allowed to vent, but he ought to watch himself) Toshio probably couldn't take the hints when he was younger, maybe he's still bad at it now. (because his main listener is Seishin)

it's one of many interesting aspects in their relationship. An aspect which have to be worked out on.

I've noticed in the chapters with both of them (or more) present how very few lines Seishin has. Just sayin'.

you know, it's really funny that prior to knowing the novel, I got this impression that it's Seishin who's likely to have feelings for Toshio first. (mainly from how they're represented in fanfics. Maybe that's just me because a lot of fics are from Seishin's POV)

but now that I finally know the novel... it seems more likely that Toshio has sorta-crush on Seishin but Seishin is totally unimpressed.

now I want to read fics according to the novel.

The basis in my case for seeing the crush angle from Seishin is how tortured he is by their bond; Ozaki, while clearly fond of Seishin, has no internal conflict over it, despite the setting being one where he certainly could, given his mother, given their divergent views. He'll argue and discuss with Seishin, and indeed their position as the last two of the three village pillars requires them to, but he ultimately does what he wants and asserts himself regardless of Seishin's position. He likes him, but nothing suggests it's to an abnormal or self-defining degree. I can see it romantically, but that does require me to put on yaoi goggles. I can see the argument for Seishin's feelings without them.

Seishin is tortured by his inability to do what he really wants vs. what others want of him. The fact that he has absolutely nothing else he wants to do specifically is a major reason that he doesn't break out sooner. When he first decides to ultimately join the human side, the single thing that breaks that resolution, which was decided on after several months of soul searching during the story, is that he can't accept Ozaki's methods. At least to me, it seems like a choice between Ozaki and himself more specifically than it does the village at large and his own desires. There is no "going his own way" in this even if that's apparently his theme; it's Ozaki's way or Sunako's.

Yet, he feels more over individual deaths than Ozaki does; Seishin's the more humane one. Megumi dies, Ozaki's thoughts are: "I might just want a way out of the blame" and "Sweet, I don't have to go to the funeral, Giichi's dying." Seishin's distinctly distraught over it, and desperately wants to comfort the people at the Shimizu funeral in a way that is not part of and in fact contradicts his duty.

Yet Seishin does not express the stress and pressure to protect the village that Ozaki does; his angst over his duty to the village is minimal, especially compared to his recognition of Ozaki's stress over it. His angst over the villager's deaths is a distant sense of tragedy, even though as one of the two pillars, even as a non-medic, it is his responsibility equally (particularly once its non-medical nature becomes clear). All help he offers is directly aiding Ozaki or at Ozaki's request. He recognizes early on the darkness in him that is all right with the village dying, yet it's not until Ozaki emphatically draws a line in the sand ("This is my justice, where's yours?") that he will enact his justice, even if it puts him against Seishin, that he completely abandons him. Even though as one of the other village heads, he has the power to stand up against him more than he does the village he serves. If it were ever about going his own way, he's had that option.

I also think Seishin could be reasonably have a certain crush on that aspect of Ozaki that can assert himself, even while remaining in the village's good graces. Whereas Seishin (Abel) has to "play" the good role and lose his sense of self (Cain), Toshio does what he thinks is right, even though his extremes most of society would see as not right, yet he manages to stay in its societal graces. He's the Cain who gives the sacrifice he wants to God and isn't ostracized. Their morals are too different to be compatible, but in a way I think Toshio would have an obvious celebrity charm to someone in Seishin's predicament. Indeed, in childhood, Seishin, the boy stuck to his role as a good boy, manages to break some rules even if just under Toshio's ham-fisted lead. I've only skimmed those flashbacks rather than having put them into a solid translation though so that's my impression more than my reading.

To Toshio, Seishin is important, but there's no particular sense of conflict in "do what I think is right" and "care about Seishin." He's selfish enough to put it all under "how I want to do things" no matter how much it contradicts. At worst he thinks it's out of his hands to protect him if the mob goes nuts. He stated he'd fight Seishin if he was against him, but we don't see that in action. Words, words, words. From a resolute man of action. Granted, this could be seen as a sign he's more resolute in his arguably romantic feelings, but this is how Toshio is in regards to everything in his life. For Seishin, Toshio is the exception.

8D - Seishin doesn't actually like to do what people expect of him, but he himself doesn't really have anything he wants to do. He isn't moved at all by a community, but several individuals are able to move him. Maybe because it's easier to reach and be reached by individuals than a community. And he already despises Sotoba, so...

Seishin doesn't have anything he wants to do/seemingly unable to decide things for himself, and he naturally follows people -- Toshio mainly by habit, and also that Toshio is too huge of a force that he cannot really help but submit (he's like this to everyone too) and Sunako because he can connect with her on spiritual level. Seishin is a natural follower and a passive person (he doesn't really do something unless asked to) only that when Seishin finds that Toshio has breached some boundary that he decides to break free (and immediately find other people he can follow)

I like the aspect of staying true to yourself/your values despite clashing with someone you like/someone important to you. So yeah, even though my inner fangirl is saddened a bit because they are now separated for good, I personally really admire that part of him. Of both Toshio and Seishin. (I like some angst to my ships too sooo...)

Even Seishin seems to be being convinced by Sunako over the course of their talks, speaking of him being passive. A negative part of me has the feeling he defaulted to Sunako due to lacking in anything else he really wanted to do or have when "free." Or in another negative view, he needed something as a vessel for his choice to follow his own values and casting aside society; as a writer, characters are symbols. I wonder if she didn't become that to him. And then I only look at it that coldly because I view her as less interested in him or what his novels mean for himself than she is in preaching to him to be sympathetic to her, to his novels as they reflect her and the Shiki. After all, like Ozaki, she does all the talking. When she dies, she wants him to die with her as her last sin. He seems to be an object to her as much as she is for him.

And yet I dislike that pair, while being fully aware of the complexities in Ozaki/Seishin that are less than healthy. You mentioned reading fanfic which affects one's view of things; I've seen quite a few fanwork takes on Seishin, but Ozaki seems to fall into two categories. In Western works, he consistently commits a pump and dump on Seishin, and in Japanese ones he tends to be a dry and somewhat distant but still consistent booty call. Japanese works also almost always skip the "how did this start and why?" aspect, however, so even if I find their characterization to be more in line with how I see him, the Western ones are more interesting to me. I like how they interact non-romantically so seeing it in a romantic context is naturally appealing, but what specifically leads to that kind of relationship out of the one we're shown is vital for me. That the default English answer is that Ozaki's enough of an asshole to initiate doesn't quite click with me; he may run off at the mouth, and he's not terribly nice, but he seems less impulsive when it comes to anything that requires much deliberate action than a quick angry shout or hissy fit, so it's hard to see him doing Seishin once without considering what it's going to mean for the long term. That's just my take though, and I've enjoyed fics of that nature never the less, if only for what comes after.

Edited 2013-11-26 19:18 (UTC)

8D - I don't remember Sunako related stuffs except very little, so I don't really have a say in that -- but maybe that can be the case too. (the truth is I somehow shipped them when I first read the manga, but now I'm eeehhhhhh ~__~ just nooo) Seishin is too easily convinced by others that he doesn't really seem to have a backbone on his own, haha. Not good, Seishin, not good.

Can it be that Seishin follows Toshio because in a way Seishin relies on him/believes in him/looks up to him? Maybe it's a subconscious thought and not a main reason of why he follows him (habit), but it's still there. (he's been following him all his life after all) He seems not to be able to decide for himself, so he naturally follows people he thinks are worth following. But he still have things he's comfortable about and things he isn't -- and when Toshio breaches this boundary, he decides that it's enough.

Though... I don't know, but could it be that he decides to abandon Toshio because he's been thoroughly influenced by Sunako? (hahaha this sounds so silly? But I think he's a bit too apathetic that he wants to actually break free from Toshio or anyone in general after all, or maybe he really holds some grudges about him that he decides to act, like he does Sotoba) That his values are actually rather ever-changing too, because he's so easily convinced/influenced by others. (he's indecisive) It's easier to be convinced by Sunako because they're similar to begin with, that he's able to feel with her, while he can't really do this with Toshio. He's able to feel with the Shikis, while he cannot really feel with the humans, not when they openly do nasty things. While Shikis kill to survive. Seishin is rather this type to judge from how things appear? (he's rather superficial after all about external things) it could be that he doesn't have a sympathy about a community of humans to begin with. But this doesn't include the individuals he's already close to. And while he sympathizes with the Shikis, it's not that big of a deal that he wants to kill/die for them after all. ~_~

I don't know, I'd say he has a backbone where it counts. In the anime, his expression is set and sure when he decides which side he's on, when crashing into Ozaki and co.'s car, when fleeing with Suitcase-ko. He can and does argue with Ozaki when it's something important (more so in the novel). Ozaki may be the more immediately assertive one, but he shows more visible signs of emotional uncertainty, particularly when faced with Seishin as an element in the entire mess.

Maybe the bigger problem for Seishin is not having anything in particular he wants in many cases, making it difficult to do anything assertive or anything other than following somebody else. Rebel without a cause. He's writing as an outlet; he doesn't seem to want to be a writer as a career. He doesn't want to necessarily be a monk. But there's nothing in particular he seems to want to do instead, either. He doesn't even take to protecting Sunako on his own; Tatsumi asks him to. Before that he's dormant, without taking in food at the Kirishiki mansion, waiting for the end.

I now feel sincerely sorry for Sunako for ending up with Seishin, for meeting him at all. Seishin indeed doesn't seem to actually care about her in the end. While about everyone else, it seems like his emotional caring is only superficial/he definitely doesn't feel as deeply as others about interpersonal stuffs. Maybe slightly deeper for Toshio and his family/temple people.

Ah I see, thanks for the explanation! Japanese sounds like it's simpler to understand because it doesn't have the complicated root words that English does. It's kind of like that in Russian, too--well, they have a lot of loan words from English that are so weirdly pronounced that are hardly recognizable, but like Japanese many of the terms are exactly what they sound like, like I don't know a lot but there's 'pneumonia' which they just call 'the corruption of the lungs'.

I like that you're adapting the language from the Japanese to something that would make sense in English. It's more than just a rough translation; it makes an effort to align the small details too, which is great! I guess I should maybe be taking notes off of Toshio's medical babble if I want to be a doctor. I wonder just how much research the authoress did when she wrote this, poor lady!

If you're seriously looking into medical school, I can recommend a text that a coworker's daughter used during a summer pre-vet school course which I was loaned. It's a workbook with medical root and suffixes for body parts, ailments, positions of the body (useful for forensics, which my job uses and medics would as well) etc.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Language-Medicine-Davi-Ellen-Chabner/dp/1455728462
(ISBN: 1455728462 ; I'd recommend price shopping, as all of the prices on Amazon look rather high right now. The original owner picked it up for about $30.00. Wait until the end of a semester season to try to buy.)

I found it more helpful than a reference book as it gave me a better idea as to what the symptom may be called in English, rather an going "Okay, types of anemia defined by color which is really just a secondary symptom anyway, since low red color is based on iron it's probably iron deficiency anemia in English but is it just called something different in Japanese or is there another word for iron deficiency anemia (there is)..." and looking up general anemia information, I can go "Ah, I bet this under-colored anemia will be hypochromatic, based on roots I've learned" and look from there.

I was and still am to an extent in that awkward position of being fairly comfortable with biology but not necessarily with the common use terms. I had something of an unorthodox biochem education as it was more of a private hobby than a class. I can make an educated guess what a chemical compound will do to the body or which parts excrete what, but the odds of me knowing the name of the compound if it's not just the typical -ide, -ate, -acid, are slim. For example, dihydrogen-monoxide (2 hydrogen, 1 oxygen) or hydroxic acid is more commonly known as "water." Of course I know that one, but I'm pretty lost on most other common or business names of compounds which means I'm ultimately less fit to discuss or even read complex research on medical science in any remotely practical context than a first year high school chemistry student. The name of the complications those chemicals would be given off by or would instigate are even less likely to be known by me. It's the absolute mark of an amateur. I can't even bullshit being intelligent; if you know the language, you can probably pretend you know what you're talking about for a good long while before anyone realizes you don't know anything.

Don't be me. There's no money in hobby science. You'll just end up a candidate for an autism diagnosis with it as a "special interest." Learn it correctly. Read books. Educators go to great lengths to present material in a format ideal for learning.

This had been a paid promotion for The Language of Medicine.

Thanks so much for suggesting the book! I really do think I'm serious about pursuing a career in medicine, and it's almost time for me to make that decision too, eep! I'm going to bookmark that link and watch the prices for it, maybe since Christmas is coming up I'll see an offer I can't refuse/resist. In any case, if I get the book and then look through it during my free time sometimes, it'll give me an edge for when I have to learn this stuff for a grade.

With my experience so far, the textbooks that the school gives me are really poorly written and hard to understand, so I always try to fish out a better, cheaper (maybe free?) one. Like my physics textbook is full of typos and is way more confusing than it needs to be, so I always refer to one of those paperback AP prep ones you can get at bookstores...it's really ghetto.

I don't think lack of profit is a good reason for not having a hobby for learning science. A hobby for reading biochem is a lot better than a hobby selling drugs, right? If it's interesting enough to do it on your own time, that's great! You always learn more if you're actually interested in the material and are willing to give up some free time to dive into the sea of learning.

I've taken bio and chem, and I loved bio and hated chem. In bio class, I did all sorts of extra credit and read more than I needed to and really aced the final. In chemistry...eh...it was the chemical formulas that got me!

(re: Read books) Heh, last week I took a test that was based off of a passage reading, and it was this whole rant about how books are a modern invention and make our memories weaker. Apparently, before we had writing systems, we functioned much better by just memorizing stuff down and passing the lore down by word of mouth. Obviously this guy hasn't played Telephone...

That's terrible; what is wrong with your instructors picking such poor material to learn from? Only your Bara Loving English Teacher has any signs of proper taste.

Stoichiometry is a completely uninteresting but unfortunately essential element of chemistry, and it's basically all math and memorized equations. I don't have any great resources for that on hand. Even the proofs for the formulas or equations require rote memorization to switch between metric units and moles.

I've heard people declaring the internet is making us dumber too since what's become more valuable than the individual having the information is knowing how to find and access information. The same silly logic is practiced by math teachers who don't allow calculators or cheat sheets with formulas on tests. The end result of improved technology (from writing to printing to the internet to calculators) is improved productivity, with anything useful enough to be worth memorizing becoming memorized after being looked up enough.

I wonder how the guy who's against printed information expects people to properly peer review anything passed on by word of mouth. With books (and other printed media) came the ability to cite sources, in a much more significant fashion than "someone said." With the internet, the next step, sources are not only cited but directly linked for immediate reference. I can't even imagine what the next big technological development will entain on that front. I'd be hard pressed to be convinced that each of those steps hasn't vastly improved our critical thinking skills, enough to be well worth whatever they've "cost" us in memory.

I'd never like to try anything that a Bara fan likes to taste!
Although that *is* probably true. My English teacher has been teaching English for like 14 years at my school, and you can tell she really loves her subject and knows what she's talking about. She's a lot stricter than other teachers, but then again we probably learn more. We don't have a textbook in that class either (surprise, surprise) but she typed out and compiled some useful notes and made a booklet for everyone. But Lit is a subject where you just analyze books, so a textbook isn't really needed. If only she could read some of my Shiki analyses, she'd totally let me skip the rest of the year.

Oh, 'stoichiometry', the word I hoped I wouldn't hear of again. I guess the one good thing about it is that if you know stoichiometry, then you know a good chunk of chemistry. I remember the one thing I couldn't seem to do no matter how much I studied was water compounds (I forgot the right name for them but they're when you have some water molecules bonded to the main chemical)

Hearing anyone start saying how technology is making us dumber makes me automatically start rolling my eyes. Are people allowed to think that? I guess so. But no matter how much they try to deny technology, it's going to be there anyway so it's like, 'don't beat 'em; join 'em.' Technology makes memorization and mental calculations not so important in some cases yeah, but it also opens up lots of opportunities for learning, and I wish people took more advantage of that. Like the math teachers that don't let you use calculators could instead look up different ways you could use those calculators, because it's not as easy as just typing in numbers either. You have to know why you're typing in those numbers and the theory behind it; calculators are just tools to make computations easier. Even if you have a calculator, that doesn't give you the ability to do trig without learning it first, so you still need to learn, calculators don't take that part away.

Another mystery is how the anti-writing guy feels about studying. Nowadays, people are more educated than before, and it's necessary to study to become educated. But studying's done through textbooks and then you take notes, and then you reread them before exams to better memorize them. Of course it's easier to study if read written notes than if you try to memorize eeeverything your teachers ever tell you! So way back when, maybe people really did have better memories, but they were also dumber.

Since you said it was the formulas that were a problem, I figured it was the stoichiometry that was the pain. It's pure mathematical formula memorization until you're far enough along in chemistry to understand the proofs. I hate those topics where you just have to take something as given and use it for a stretch before you can circle back around to how/why it works.

Do you mean hydrogen bonds or water soluble ionic compounds ? I think those are best explained with pictures to illustrate the effect of the dipole ends/Vanderwhals (sp?) forces. You could mean something else entirely, too. I can probably find a good book about the chemistry of water, though, if you want to conquer that past course. Or not, if you'd just rather never touch it again.

By the time you're out of arithmetic and into algebra/trig, geometry, calc, stats and things based on formulas, tests should involve writing out proofs to show you understand why you're multiplying this by that, or presenting a practical problem and showing that you know which formulas to apply. One can usually reconstruct a forgotten formula by considering what they need it to do. Granted, I' not an educator; this may just be speaking from my style of learning. Maybe some people do do better with rote memorization for faster immediate recall and have better retention. And of course no teacher wants to be the one responsible for the kid who can't add without using his fingers, but one could know how to perform the basic four calculations (add, subtract, multiply, divide), with a 1 in 20 error rate for whatever reason (in a rush, short attention span, misread your own hand writing, etc.). That means that in a test of 100 independent arithmetic questions, they'd pull a comfortable 95%. If a tested formula involves 10 calculations, you're going to get a 50% on a test of 100 questions even if you don't make one single mistake in the formula/new material. Some see this as a reason to push for greater emphasis on the arithmetic side and require a passing standard of, say, 2,000 questions with each 20 counting for 1 point; I'd like to see a study on whether this leads to any practicably improved outcome in performance between those who can calculate themselves (but may use a calculator if they wish) and those who are poorer at it but (also) have calculators. While it would seemingly fly in the face of sense, I'd concede that technology is an impediment at certain stages if a distinct difference in performance could be demonstrated.

I work with a couple of former school teachers, so I'll ask which journals or resources they get their research from or see if they recommend anything on this topic and see what I can find!

It's not only stoichiometry that gets me, but it's definitely a big chunk. It's really useful for converting units, but it makes you think to figure things out, and then after you have your answer you have to convert it into mole ratios and stuff and it's just painful. I meant like actual formulas as well; well, the terminology is probably all wrong since I've tried to forget chemistry, but another hard thing is the compound names like 'NaCl' that's what I meant by formulas. Just stringing those elements together is hard, and then there's a step up by figuring out their transition metal charges, and which one comes first and everything.

Nah, I didn't mean intermolecular forces; I don't know how best to explain it but a sample problem would be "A NaCl compound has 5 molecules of water attached to it and weighs 80 grams. Figure out the NaCl to H20 mole ratio" or whatever. So the equations I'm talking about would look like NaCl•5H20 or 5H20•NaCl?
Unfortunately, I do have some chemistry testing in my future yet...and also you can't be a doctor without knowing chemistry (though it'd probably be more biochemistry) very well. Surprisingly, I'm actually good on chemistry reference books, so you don't have to look! I have one of those AP prep books, and I also recently acquired a full-on up to date textbook. I, uh, haven't really done anything except open it yet, but it looks legit.

There have actually been studies that find that on tests, students who aren't allowed to use calculators actually work faster than those who do get to. I totally understand where this is coming from because if you have the option of using a calculator, there forms a temptation to use it to check every little thing. Nobody wants to get points off for a tiny calculation mistake, right? So even if the calculation is easy and there's really no need to use a calculator, many students would anyway to double check, which would definitely slow them down. On timed standardized tests, one of the main suggestions is to avoid using your calculator as much as possible because that wastes valuable time.
I might be strongly on the side of the calculators just because I'm already way past 'easy' arithmetic; but I do think it's important for kids to learn basic math in their heads before they're allowed to use calculators, just for the purpose of being able to function in the real world. There are actually real life situations where one would need to do some kind of quick math, and we don't always have calculators on hand. But when you do get to calc, trig, etc., most of those kinds of problems won't be encountered in real life; and if they do then it'll be a situation when you can use a calculator, no problem.
So overall I think as long as you know the theory behind how to do a math problem, a calculator is just a tool that facilitates that process. And since most teachers make students show work anyway, it's not like calculators are replacing actual math, so to say they do is stretching it a bit.

Let me know what comes up! I'm interested in this now; I only have the perspective of a student, so I'm open to what "the other side" has to say on it.

I don't think there's much that can be done for that outside of learning the proofs for the formulas involved. I think just about everyone is more comfortable with theoretical chemistry than applied chemistry like that.

Then I'll definitely defer to the experiments on the speed. Anything in those tests about accuracy? Obviously those who can do it correctly and quickly would ideally be hired first, and get the best pay, but slow and capable is better than nothing and will still likely be functional in a real life setting. Those without accuracy, regardless of speed, are just useless. That'd be interesting to read.

Chemistry is the one subject that I really have a hard time with. Even if I remember the formulas, I fail to grasp the basic concept about how it fits into the big picture and have a clear picture of it in my head. Hopefully someday it'll be easier, especially if I continue taking classes on it.

I got into a conversation with a customer at work about that topic, and she said she used to be a math teacher and she said that she and her colleagues all agreed that tests needed to have both a calculator part and a non-calculator part, so that you could hone your skills to be both more efficient and tech-savvy at the same time. Then she said that she liked challenging her students, and had math essay questions where they have to write out their reasoning step by step, to which I replied "You're one of THOSE teachers" and kinda recoiled in the face of my natural enemy. Yeah, though, if you can't be efficient, at least be accurate. Slow and steady wins the race.

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