"What a waste" - colloquial Japanese?

[Nils Gustaf Lindgren]

Hello;
I noticed, once or twice, that Usagi, when learning about somebody´s death, said "What a waste". While completely understandable, it is hardly something somebody in a West-European country would say, nor, do I think, in US English.
I read a Japanese book in English translation, "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea", in which the main female character has lunch with a (female) customer, who confides that she had contemplated suicide. The main charcter answers, What a waste that would have been.
It leads me to the perhaps unintelligent question, wether I am looking at the English translation of a colloquial Japanese expression?
TIA

Nils Gustaf

[kviksverd]

Hey Nils,

I don't know anything about the translation, but it is a phrase that you would hear in U.S. English in similar situations--I've even used it myself on occaision. Its use isn't always appropriate however. As with most language, it is highly context dependent.