しろくまカフェ: Week 4 Discussion (Chapters 7 and 8)

Page 41, bis version

  • Panel 1

    • Panda: あー 今日もヒマだな~

      • あー - ah, etc.
      • 今日 - today
      • も - also
      • ヒマ - free time
      • だ - (copula/declarative)
      • な - right?, isn’t it?, etc.
    • Panda: Ah, another day off, huh?

    • Panda’s mom: またゴロゴロして!

      • また - still, again
      • ゴロゴロして - idling (a sort of very short/exclamatory version of ゴロゴしている)
    • Panda’s mom: You’re lying around again!

  • Panel 2

    • Panda’s mom: はいホウキ

      • はい - here, here you go, etc.
      • ホウキ - broom (in katakana for style)
    • Panda’s mom: Here’s a broom

    • Panda’s mom: 外 掃いてきなさい

      • 外 - outside
      • 掃いてきなさい - go out and sweep (imperative form of the てくる form of 掃く)
    • Panda’s mome: Go outside and sweep

  • Panel 3

    • Panda: 落ち葉がいっぱい~
      • 落ち葉 - fallen leaf
      • が - (subject marker)
      • いっぱい - a lot, much
    • Panda: So many leaves~
  • Panel 4

    • Shirokuma: やあ
    • Shirokuma: Yo!
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Page 42, bis version

  • Panel 1

    • Panda: あ シロクマくんおでかけ?

      • あ - ah, oh, etc.
      • シロクマくん - Shirokuma (name)
      • おでかけ - outing, trip
    • Panda: Oh, are you going somewhere?

    • Shirokuma: 買い出しの帰り

      • 買い出し - going out shopping
      • の - (possessive/modifying particle)
      • 帰り - return
    • Shirokuma: I’m coming back from shopping

  • Panel 2

    • Shirokuma: スイートポテト作ろうかなって

      • スイートポテト - sweet potato
      • 作ろう - let’s make (volitional form of 作る)
      • かな - I wonder
      • って - (casual quoting particle, possibly implying something like 思うった)
    • Shirokuma: Should we make sweet potatoes? (I’m not fully getting what purpose the quoting particle serves here, if any.)

    • Shirokuma: I’m thinking I’d make sweet potatoes (Thanks @NLeseul!)

    • Panda: サツマイモだ♡

      • サツマイモ - sweet potato (written in katakana for style)
    • Panda: Sweet potatoes!

  • Panel 6

    • Panda: ・・・この季節って

      • この - This
      • 季節 - season
      • って - (casual quoting particle, casual equivalent of the topic marker) (Thanks again @NLeseul!)
    • Panda: This season… (Similar to above, not fully understanding the quoting particle here, though I get the feeling it’s like Panda’s trying to be profound or something.)

    • Panda: なんかさみしいっていうか

      • なんか - something like that
      • さみしい - lonely, lonesome, desolate
      • って - (casual quoting particle)
      • いう - say
      • か - (question marker)
    • Panda: They say it’s lonely, don’t they?

    • Panda: またいっぱい落ちてきちゃった

      • また - still, also, again
      • いっぱい - full, a lot, etc.
      • 落ちてきちゃった - have fallen (past form of the contracted form of the てしまう form of the てくる form of 落ちる :wink: )
    • Panda: And so much has fallen

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Page 43, bis

  • Panel 1

    • Label: 死語

    • Label: Obsolete word

    • Panda: おセンチな気分になっちゃうよね~

      • おセンチな - sentimental (abbreviation of センチメンタル, with the honorific お)
      • 気分 - feeling, mood
      • に - (target/indirect object marker)
      • なっちゃう - become completely/unintentionally/regretfully (he contracted form of the てしまう form of なる)
      • よ - (authoritative emphasis)
      • ね - isn’t it?, right?, etc.
    • Panda: The mood has become sentimental, hasn’t it?

  • Panel 3

    • Panda: それはフレンチね
      • それ - that
      • は - (topic marker)
      • フレンチ - French
      • ね - isn’t it?, right?, etc.
    • Panda: That’s French, isn’t it?
  • Panel 4

    • Panda: それはトレンチ コート
      • それ - that
      • は - (topic marker)
      • トレンチ - trench
      • コート - coat
    • Panda: That’s a trench (coat)
  • Panel 5

    • Panda: それはハレンチ・・・

      • それ - that
      • は - (topic marker)
      • ハレンチ - shameless, infamous, disgraceful
    • Panda: That’s shameless

    • Label: 死語

    • Label: Obsolete word

  • Panel 6

    • Panda: それはボランチ
      • それ - that
      • は - (topic marker)
      • ボランチ - defensive mid-fielder (in soccer)
    • Panda: That’s a defensive mid-fielder
  • Panel 7

    • Panda: それはBランチ
      • それ - that
      • は - (topic marker)
      • B - B
      • ランチ - lunch set
    • Panda: That’s a B lunch set
4 Likes

I wonder if it might imply …と思った or something like that? “I was thinking I’d make sweet potato” as an explanation for why he bought the potatoes.

Here, I know that って can be used as a really casual equivalent of the topic particle は. From quick search results, this post discusses that use a little bit. The implication is kind of like “Speaking of this season” or “Thinking about this season.”

I think this aside from Panda is meant to be more specifically about the fact that the sidewalk he just swept got covered in leaves again after that big gust of wind.

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That image and the phrase 「オーモーレツ」 seem to be a reference to something; image search brings up plenty of similar images. For example. Seems to be an iconic image of a model or actress named 小川ローザ (Rosa Ogawa)? The Wikipedia text is a bit too involved for me to get much out of it at a glance.

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Apparently it dates back to a 1969 commercial featuring said actress, and can also be written as 「Oh!モーレツ」. Including the phrase and year in a YouTube search brings up results for the commercial.

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I thought it was a setup for the punchline in the next box - “I want to open a cafe at the zoo…and then observe you! (evil laugh)”

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Page 44, bis

  • Panel 1
    • Panda: ボクがしみじみしてるのに
      • ボク - I (in katakana)
      • が - subject particle
      • しみじみ - seriously, earnestly
      • して(い)る - ている-form of the verb する
      • のに - though
    • Panda: I am being serious, though
    • Shirokuma: ごめんごめん
      • ごめん - sorry
    • Shirokuma: Sorry, sorry
    • Panda: シロクマくんはすぐふざけるんだから
      • シロクマくん - Shirokuma kun
      • は - topic particle
      • すぐ - (not sure of the right meaning here)
      • ふざける - to joke, to make fun of, to fool around
      • んだ - (explanatory)
      • から - because
    • Panda: 'Cause you’re making fun of me
  • Panel 2:
    • Panda: そうだ
    • Panda: That’s right
  • Panel 3:
    • Panda: 落ち葉がいっぱいだから
      • 落ち葉 - fallten leaves
      • が - subject particle
      • いっぱい - a lot
      • だ - copula verb
      • から - because
    • Panda: Since there are lots of fallen leaves…
    • Panda: 落ち葉たきしない?
      • 落ち葉たき - burning fallen leaves (たき from the verb 焚く - to burn)
      • しない - negative form of verb する
    • Panda: Shall we burn the fallen leaves?
  • Panel 4:
    • Panda: それで焼き芋しようよ
      • それで - and then
      • 焼き芋 - roasted sweet potato
      • しよう - volitional form of する
      • よ - assertive particle
    • Panda: And then (let’s) make roasted sweet potatoes
    • Panda’s thought: ナイスアイデア
    • Panda’s thought: Good idea
    • Panda: 焼き芋♡
    • Panda: Sweet potatoes :heart:
    • Shirokuma: どこがおセンチ?
      • どこ - where
      • が - subject particle
      • おセンチ - sentimental (from センチメンタル with honorific お)
    • Shirokuma: Where’s the sentimental feeling? / What happened to the sentimental feeling?
  • Bear Cupcake: おセンチとは、センチメンタルのことです!知ってた!?
    • おセンチ - sentimental (from センチメンタル with honorific お)
    • とは - indicates a word or phrase being defined
    • センチメンタル - sentimental
    • の - possessive/linking particle
    • こと - action, thing
    • です - copula
    • 知って(い)た - ている form of the verb 知る in the past
  • Bear Cupcake: ‘Osenchi’ means ‘a sentimental feeling’! Did you know!?

Well… this was my attempt at this interesting last page! I wait for the comments to improve the details.

6 Likes

Seeing that the translation is done, it seems, I wanted to ask the members and those who do them - how was the amount of pages? It jumped from 8 to 16 this week and I wanted to also address the pace.

So, if we continue doing 2 chapters/week, the next week is gonna be 8 pages again, but the next after that will be 5, and then 22. So I can break them down to have 3 chapters and then one, so it’ll be 15 and 10. But after that we’ll have around 15 pages a week and one more time with 22 pages, which I can’t really break up.

And the question is, should I make the week after the next one 3 and then 1 chapter? Or would that be too confusing and you all are okay with the pace? Seeing that people voted for either 2 chapter or “depending on the length” I thought I had to bring this up

  • Continue doing 2 ch/week, or it’s confusing
  • Break up that week to 3 and 1 chapters instead
  • Other
  • I don’t know

0 voters

Also please tell if I counted something wrong /o/

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I like the idea of breaking it up so we’re doing a reasonable amount of pages per week, vs. sticking to a certain number of chapters, since the page counts vary so much. I can see how that will be confusing, though. Maybe including what chapters/pages that will be read next week early in the thread would help? (Probably either at the top of the first post, or as the first reply or something–it’s easy to overlook stuff in the middle of the first post, if you’re not specifically looking for it, since it’s mostly boilerplate or at least very similar week to week.)

In my opinion, the pages this week were about the limit of what’s reasonable if we’re doing the full translations as we have been. Admittedly, a lot of the people who have been doing translations up to now didn’t do any this week (not a complaint! People get busy, don’t feel well, have other priorities or just plain don’t feel like doing it, and it’s completely understandable and fine), but the amount I did this week was pretty close to my limit, and we just barely got it done before the week was over.

I don’t think I’ll be able to do more than this amount in future weeks, and honestly it was almost too much for me as it was–I could have done another couple of pages today, maybe, but on the other hand, I also did a couple of pages early since there were so many. And I’m planning on joining in on the next Beginner’s Book Club, so I’ll have less time in a few weeks.

Nothing should be decided based on that, of course, just offering it as a consideration, since I did 13 out of the 16 pages this week. (Though, if, like previous weeks, we have a lot of translators working on it, that won’t be a major issue.)

(I feel like this is going to coming across as a complaint or brag about “how much work I did” or something like that, and it absolutely is not. I just want to be clear about my personal limits, and I can’t speak for anyone else. And, even if I wrote a lot of the translation posts this week, lots of other people are helping with corrections, things I didn’t understand, etc., even on those, not to mention all the work everyone has done in previous weeks.)

8 Likes

I’d say this means “nearby zoo” and is being used as a pun. It’s a very generic name of the zoo. Instead of naming it, makes it funny to just say “nearby zoo”.

I think neighborhood zoo would be 近所の動物園

There were definitely a few tougher sentences in these chapters than previous one’s like
曜日相談に応じます and そのへんはしんぼうするしかないかもね

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I don’t know if it has been answered already, but if you watch the Misa video, she explains these が very well.

Mainly it is how Japanese people talk, being suuuuuper indirect

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Yeah, I figured that this amount of pages will be almost the limit of this book club (not as the bad thing or anything, just with these thorough translations), so I’ll break up that 22 pages week and when the time comes, I’ll see what I can do about another 22 pages week, or maybe we’ll be able to read it at that time as it is \o/
Thanks for answering!:3

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Next week’s thread is here! \o/ I totally didn’t forget to post it and turned off the computer, thank goodness I had a draft saved :eyes:

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Thanks to everyone who has posted this week. Has all been very helpful especially in a long 16 page week.

I’d prefer to keep the pace around 8-10 pages per week, and I don’t mind if we break mid chapter. For me reading more pages than that dominates all the time I have for studying Japanese (especially with WK to do as well). It may be different for those who are more confident with their Japanese but for an absolute beginner club I don’t think we should push the pace too hard.

The line by line translations shared this week have been AMAZING!!

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I am a few weeks behind but I’ll try to catch up this weekend.

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Thank youuu! I have been so busy this week (and will be next week too) so it has been so helpful to see these translations put up on time. I hope to get ahead of the reading soon so I can help with translations again.

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I’m re-reading a said una previous thread. So far I’m reading chapter 11 and catch up the forum up to here…

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Thanks everyone for there hard work this was tough to get though for me but with all your help it was awesome!

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I think its “Doesn’t it trouble you that there’s nothing to do?” or “Doesn’t having nothing to do trouble you?”.

こと turns する into a noun, so ‘the act of doing [something]’. ない indicates that it doesn’t exist, so “there not being anything to do”. Then し indicates that the preceding is the cause for こまらない.

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