The sentence in question:
そんな中、大阪・八尾市にある興味深い保育園を見つけました。ここでは５０年前の開園から変わらず、今でもおんぶを取り入れているというのです。

For full context:
<https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/web_tokushu/2018_0521.html?utm_int=news_contents_tokushu_004>

My attempt at translation: "...we found a nursery school of great interest in
Osaka yaoshi. There, without change since the opening before 50 years, they
adopt piggyback rides until now."

I just translated the sentence like という wasmt there. And I guess thats
basically how you do it here, but I still dont understand the function of という
and therefore Id like to know what it adds to the sentence ^^

Furthermore, Ive left out そんな中 because to be honest, I have little idea what
it represents here xD
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-31T08:39:32.277
59102
2018-05-31T15:57:06.313
20172
question
grammar
How does という work here?
In this context,

> 「Mini-Sentence + というの + だ/です/である」

means:

> "To my surprise/Somewhat surprisingly, they say/I have heard that (Mini-
> Sentence)"

The newly-found piece of information is " **just a little bit unexpected** "
is the nuance of the expression for us native speakers, which you will never
arrive at by literally translating it into another language.

For that reason, this phrase is occasionally used in conjunction with the word
「なんと」, which helps place more emphasis.

「そんな中」 refers to the present-day trend where holding the baby is more common
than おんぶするing it.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-31T15:57:06.313
59116
2018-05-31T15:57:06.313
59102
answer