しろくまカフェ: Week 2 Discussion (Chapters 3 and 4)

Hmm. I’m thinking that the 「:heart:」 isn’t meant to be read as a grammatical part of the sentence; it’s just an emoji signaling Panda’s tone of voice. So the actual verb is omitted, but it’s probably just implied to be ある. He’s just saying “There’s food somewhere like this! <3”

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Much better explanation!! Thanks!

I finally caught up and finished chapter 3. Chapter 4 another time. Quick question. Do these chapters exist as anime? When I search for shirokuma cafe chapter 1 I find a different episode than the one in the book.

I think the anime is just an adaptation and starts later in the book

I see, thanks :slight_smile: Still fun to see the characters talk.

This was my interpretation as well. The first one would be possible as well, I think, grammatically. Meaning that he enjoys food at “vacation places”. However, that would assume that panda expected to have food while snowboarding. So, the ommitted ーある makes more sense to me. He is suprised that there is food in a place like this :).

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Yeah it’s 滑っていない shortened to 滑ってない making it more casual (the い in いる gets dropped a lot in casual speech)

Affirmative example: 滑る → 滑っている → 滑ってる (more casual)

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Page 17, bis version

  • Panel 2

    • Penguin: 今年もきれいに咲いたねえ
      • 今年 - This year
      • も - (also particle)
      • きれい - pretty, lovely, beautiful
      • に - (manner particle; turns きれい into an adverb)
      • 咲いた - bloomed
      • ねえ - right?, don’t you think?, etc. (with an elongated vowel)
    • Penguin: They’ve bloomed beautifully again this year, don’t you think?
  • Panel 3

    • Panda: うんうん

      • うんうん - Uh-huh, mm-hmm, etc.
    • Panda: Uh-huh

    • Shirokuma: うんうん

      • うんうん - Uh-huh, mm-hmm, etc.
    • Shirokuma: Uh-huh

  • Panel 4

    • Penguin: も~ 食べてばっかし

      • も~ - Jeez, come on, etc. (exasperation)
      • 食べて - eat (て-form of たべる)
      • ばっかし - only, nothing but (related to/possibly a colloquial form of ばかり?)
    • Penguin: Jeez, you’re just eating

    • Penguin: もっとお花見らしいことしょうよ

      • もっと - More
      • お花見 - cherry blossom viewing
      • らしい - -ish, like, appropriate for, etc.
      • こと - action, matter, event, etc.
      • しょう - let’s do (volitional form of する)
      • よ - (authoritative emphasis)
    • Penguin: Let’s do more cherry blossom viewing stuff

    • Panda: お花見らしいことって?

      • お花見 - cherry blossom viewing
      • らしい - -ish, like, appropriate for, etc.
      • こと - action, matter, event, etc.
      • って - casual quoting particle
    • Panda: “Cherry blossom viewing stuff”?

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Yes, I think it makes better sense. I have seen the い omitted in the present and past, but not in the negative! In those cases there’s no confusion between the verbs, but omitting the い in いない… I wouldn’t have thought that was even possible!!! Guessed wrong…

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One thing about reading Japanese manga in general that gets me is that they use Katakana to emphasize certain words like how we use italics. Sometimes I have to shut my brain off to think it’s gonna be a phonetically translated version of a foreign word.

Haha the ガイダンス thing got me though. I actually laughed at that one. I didn’t even realize Japanese people use it as a word.

As usual, though, it probably doesn’t mean quite what you’d expect from the English word. As far as I can tell from poking at Sanseido’s definition, it looks like it’s meant to mean something more specifically like “guidance counseling” for university students.

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Page 18

Panel 1:
Penguin: 歌うとか

  • 歌う - to sing
  • とか - particle ‘or something like that’
    Penguin: Singing or something like that.

Panda: ボク歌下手~

  • ボク - I
  • 歌下手 - bad (下手) at singing (歌)
    Panda: I’m bad at singing / I can’t sing.

Shirokuma: 右に同じ

  • 右に同じ - like he said, same for me, ditto (fixed expression from 同じ ‘same’ and 右に ‘on the right’)
    Shirokuma: Same for me!

Panel 2:
Penguin: 踊るとか

  • 踊る - to dance
  • とか - particle ‘or something like that’
    Penguin: Dancing or something like that.

Panda: 踊りねぇ

  • 踊り - dance
  • ねぇ - sentence ending particle, right? (with lenghtening)
    Panda: Dance, right?

Shirokuma: うーん・・・

  • うーん - hmm, well
    Shirokuma: Well…

Panel 3:
フラダンス = Hula dance

Panel 4:
ベリーダンス = Belly dance

Panel 5:
Shall we ダンス? = Shall we dance?

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I feel like most people probably know this, but Shall We Dance was a big hit movie in Japan from 1996 about a salaryman who takes up ballroom dancing. You can watch the trailer on youtube here.

It was so popular, in fact, that in 2004 it was remade in America starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, and Susan Sarandon. You can watch that trailer here.

They’re good movies.

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Oh that’s cool to know! I always thought it was the other way around!

Oh my god, that Volvo/Golgo joke. :joy:

ガイダンス also got me. :stuck_out_tongue:

Which ダンス were they going to do with the wigs and stuff? I need to know!

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I reckon the one that @Saruko posted here is a good contender.

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Oh I just listened to it and realized that I know this one from 太鼓の達人 :OO As well as 手のひらを太陽に from it, which was one of the songs Yotsuba was singing in the shop. Such a cool and weird feeling /o/

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The one that I posted was Matsuken Samba II, which was apparently popular in 2004 (the first one was performed starting in 1994), and it looks like the Shirokuma Cafe manga was first published in 2006, so the dates line up ok.

Mr. Saruko has been reading along a bit, so I asked him what that panel reminded him of, and he didn’t even bother to say anything, just started humming and doing the dance :joy:

Yay for cross-cultural references! \o/

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I love when people point out the specific references like that! It adds another depth that goes beyond the translation. Thanks!

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Oh! I confused the names!! In Norway we have something called “Skal vi danse?” (Shall We Dance)
image

Which is basically an adaption of Dancing with the Stars:

And that image is so similar to the panel too :wink:
I forgot for a moment that the English name was so different, so thought it referred to that show until I saw your post!