The base for this vocab sheet was prepared using a fair amount of OCR/parsing.
Some notes for using/improving it:
Some words might have been recognized or parsed incorrectly, e.g. they are split even though they belong together, or they are simply wrong and aren’t even in the manga. Feel free to correct/remove those if you see them!
Words might be missing. Feel free to add them!
By default, translations in grey are auto-filled with a list of possible meanings (from a Wiktionary database). If you know the specific meaning in this context, feel free to fill it in! (It’ll turn black then.)
Discussion Guidelines
Please blur / hide any major events in the current week’s pages (however early they occur), like so: text here (that’s: [spoiler]text here[/spoiler]).
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked
Join the conversation — it’s fun!
Not all pages have page numbers on them, so you may need to find a page with numbers to determine which page you’re on.
Welcome to Week 1 of ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん ・ The Wolf of the Small Forest!
The following is slightly edited from @TobiasW’s post from the RuriDragon book club:
Ask questions!
I know that some of you might be feeling shy, or don’t want to bother others with their questions, but you don’t have to worry: People love answering questions. You’re making the thread more lively, and you’re also helping everyone who has the same questions. Please, ask a lot of them!
Here’s what to you need to know:
Please include the page number: [details="Page 54"]Your question goes here[/details] (See “How should I post my questions?” in the FAQ below for more.)
Check if your question has already been asked. (See “How can I quickly find out if my questions have already been asked by someone?” in the FAQ below.)
Please mark any spoilers for the current/future chapters like this: [spoiler]text here[/spoiler])
Also, it’s fine to only read the thread, but consider participating at least a little, even if it’s just short posts like “This is really hard, but I’m giving my best!” or a “Wow, reading this chapter was fun.”. It’ll help you feel more part of the club which makes it easier to stay motivated, and it’ll make it easier to ask questions later if you have some.
Some general advice
Don’t give up just because you have to look up so much that it “doesn’t feel like reading”. That’s how we all started; if you keep at it, you’ll get better. (There’s more on this in the FAQ below under “Is it too early for me if I have to look up a lot of grammar/vocab and often don’t understand sentences?”)
If we’re too fast for you, you can go at your own pace. Post your questions in the appropriate thread for the pages (see the schedule) then. You’ll get answers surprisingly quickly!
Google: Great for finding more about grammar/expressions if you can identify them. (Example)
ichi.moe: Tries its best to identify parts of a sentence for you. (Example)
DeepL: Tries it’s best to translate a sentence for you. Sometimes helps to point you in the right direction.
You can find out more about using these tools in the FAQ below under “How can I approach a sentence I don’t understand?”
FAQ
About questions and answers
I have a lot of questions, but I don't want to be a nuisance.
Questions being annoying is a really common misconception. Luckily, the opposite is the case. Asking questions helps everyone:
The people who answer usually enjoy helping others and answering questions. Many people say they are even learning a lot when answering questions! Those who can’t or don’t want to answer them simply ignore them. So, literally, the worst thing that could happen is that your question doesn’t get answered, and even that is highly unlikely.
All the people who have the same question will be really happy to see them already asked by you. It’s not uncommon to see people thank others for asking a question they had.
The thread gets more lively.
You get your questions answered - and on top of that, when you participate in the threads, you are probably more motivated to continue and keep up with reading!
So not only are you not a nuisance if you ask a lot of questions, you make the club better for everyone. Please ask a lot of them!
My questions feel really basic, and I'm kinda reluctant to ask them.
This is a club for first-time readers. No question is too simple or silly - we are expecting first-time reader questions. Please ask them, and help all the other participants who have the same question!
How should I post my questions?
Here’s an example format used:
Using page numbers helps anybody quickly go to the page, and typing out the sentence makes it searchable and provides context for those who want to answer. Sometimes they don’t even have to open the book to answer your question.
And here’s how to make it:
[details="Page 7"]
ツチノコがごみ？？らします 必ずネット
What are the ？？ on the trash sign?
[/details]
[details="Page 18"]
Kon: 隅のほう......っぽい方向から埋めていこう
"Let's fill it up... sort of into the direction of the corner"? I guess he might be talking about filling in the map?
[/details]
[details="Page 23"]
Kon: まぁ部屋とまともに繋がってない廊下なんて意味ないけど
Does Kon mean that there's no point in having the normal second floor corridor if it's not connected to the normal second floor rooms? And まともに is "normally"?
[/details]
Two things to keep in mind:
Be sure to post it in the weekly thread to which those pages belong. You can find an overview over them in the schedule.
If you don’t use physical pages, mention it. Ebook readers often are off by one or more. Many books or manga have physical page numbers printed on some pages though - you can find one of those and count forward or backwards to your page.
How can I quickly find out if my questions have already been asked by someone?
Use the search function with “in this topic” selected to look up part of the sentence you are interested in:
About reading and understanding
Is it too early for me if I have to look up a lot of grammar/vocab and often don't understand sentences?
That’s pretty normal for your first book(s) - we all started out like that. If you keep at it, I promise you that you will get better.
Feeling strongly like that actually happened to me twice, once with my first Absolute Beginner Book Club, and again with my first Beginner Book Club. Both times I felt ill-prepared and like I’m not even really reading because I had to do oh-so many look-ups, and like I should give it up for now and try again once I’m better because there’s no point continuing right now.
Well, turns out there was a point. While I actually gave up that ABBC, I did power through this feeling and stick around for that BBC, and I’m so glad I did. I learnt so much, and once I was done I went back to try that ABBC book again, and this time I could actually read through it in a few days! (Still with many look-ups, of course, but by then I was totally fine with that.)
So… the solution is usually not stopping to read and going back to learning vocab until the feeling goes away - it’s to make peace with having to look up a lot.
I read a sentence. Do I know all vocab? If not, I look it up as I’m reading by typing the words I don’t know into jisho.org (vocab) or thejadednetwork.com/sfx (sfx).
Does the sentence make sense to me? If yes, I continue with the next one.
If I almost get it, but some details I missing, I try to google for those details (e.g. if I have never seen the sentence ending よね, I will google “yone japanese grammar”). If it that solves it, I make a bookmark of the info I found and continue with the next sentence.
If I can’t find out what the heck is up with the sentence, I transcribe it and stick it into ichi.moe, which will analyze the parts the sentence is made up of. Often that allows me to look up grammar or just solves my problems, and I continue with the next sentence.
If I still don’t know what’s going on, I put it into DeepL. If the automatic translation makes sense to me and fits in the context, I look at the Japanese sentence again and try to figure out how DeepL got there.
If I still can’t figure out the sentence, I check the weekly thread (if I’m reading with a club). Was the question already asked?
If so, I check (or wait for) the answer.
If not, or if the answers don’t help, I make a question with the sentence and my best guess of a translation.
if there’s no answer: My best guess at translating + asking a question.
How much should I try to understand?
That depends on three things: How hard the book is for you, how much time and energy you want to put in, and how much you want to understand.
If it’s hard and you only have little time/energy, try to understand the gist and learn a few new things each week. Remember to ask questions when you struggle.
If it’s hard, but you have more time/energy, go for as many details as you want to after you get the gist! Ask lots of questions, the community is a treasure trove of information!
If it’s not that hard but you still want to deepen your understanding, feel free to ask questions about more minor details you don’t completely get.
Pace and don’t overexert yourself. It’s more important to finish the whole book and learn a lot throughout, than to go for 100% understanding of chapter 1 and 2 only to be burned out and stop reading there. If you realize you can’t keep up what you’re doing, start doing less - you’ll still learn a lot!
And lastly, if you don’t actually care about e.g. getting all the details and just want to have a nice reading experience, that’s totally okay too and you’re still very welcome to read with us!
About the club in general
The club is too fast for me, or I'm starting late. Can I read at a slower pace?
Feel free to read at your own pace. If you have any questions, just ask them in the weekly thread they belong to (see the schedule here). It doesn’t matter if it’s been weeks, months or years since the club read that chapter - you’ll likely get an answer surprisingly fast. (And don’t forget to use the search function first to see if your question has already been answered.)
Am I doing the book club wrong if I'm __________________?
I think the only time you do a book club wrong is when you neither enjoy it nor learn anything from it. Do as much or as little as you are comfortable with.
Any suggestions on how to get the most out of the book club?
For me, the best thing about the book clubs is that you can learn so much - but that’s only if you actually participate in the club. So, my recommendation is: Read the threads, and ask all the questions you have!
And if you feel up to it, answering questions is another way to learn a lot.
Oops, I should have known I’d miss something. That’s what happens when I’m not prepared and am trying to do things on my morning break at work!
Page 8
Adding to Markdg’s answer, here’s a bit about the words used here:
気になる
The word 気 essentially refers to one’s mind, one’s consciousness.
気 appears in many expressions. For example:
気が遠くなる = ki becomes distant
This is used to mean one has become lightheaded. Without your ki, you may feel faint or easily become overwhelmed.
気が大きくなる = ki becomes larger
This time, one’s ki grows big. This is said when you feel courageous, uninhibited.
気が散る = ki scatters
When your ki scatters, you are distracted. Your ki is going off in different directions.
Those are examples where 気 is the subject, the one doing something.
But what about if something is being done to your 気?
気になる = to become ki
If something becomes your ki, it becomes what is on your mind, what you’re thinking about, what’s bothering you or being your interest.
The girl here saw オオカミちゃん’s ears and tail, and it caught her attention. It “became her 気”.
追いかける
The verb 追う means to chase after someone or something.
But you will also see compound verbs, made from joining two words together, which adds extra meaning.
One common verb used in this way is かける, which is used in many situations. I’m not very good at conveying the meaning of かける, so I’ve sort of just absorbed it after seeing it used all over the place.
When put together, 追いかける changes the meaning from simply chasing after to chasing after with the intent to catch. However, it can also mean chasing after something you like (such as if you see your favorite mangaka at a convention and you chase them down to get their autograph). That’s the sense used here: the girl is chasing after something (someone) of interest to her.
Finally, when you catch up with your target, that is 追いつく. This combines 追う with 付く (to attach).
You don’t need to learn all this, but I find having associations to compare and contrast with helps me understand new material.
page 6: 迷い込む Finally learning how this compound works!
I always see 込む as a compound word attached to the stem form of verbs, including on page 6 in the phrase 迷い込む, so decided to finally look it up. With action words, it gives the nuance of an inward movement.
So to take an example from this article, 飛ぶ by itself means “to jump or fly” with no “inward” movement associated with it. When you add 込む to the stem to make 飛び込む, it becomes “to jump into (something).” e.g. プールに飛び込んだ。I jumped into the pool.
So with this manga’s vocab, 迷う (to be lost) becomes 迷い込む (to get lost inside something) in this case the woods !
Mia says だって耳としっぽ丸見えだもん (Cuz your ears and tail are in plain sight)
From what I understand, both だって and だもん are ways of saying “because” casually/in a childlike way.
Can anyone tell me why she uses both? Are they doing different things?
I’m not sure about the second half of the sentence. My best guess is something like this: “From long ago people have been afraid of the forest and wolves living there”.
Page 1: My idea of the sentence in question
Hi Yabashiri, I can only give you my personal idea. The first half was something like "People from a time long ago", and the second "afraid of the wolves living in the forest". So I'd loosely put this together as "Since ancient times people feared the wolves living in the forest." But I suppose there's too much of my own style in it, now that I wrote it...
In English I struggle to express “people from long ago” but bent so that the frame of time is the main topic, not the people of that time. I think that’s how the sentence works, though. It’s about the span of time within which people were afraid of the wolves living in the forest.
I think first part is pretty obvious, for second part I thought:
オオカミの住む森として
として - I think this is it’s own grammar point and means “as”, “in the role of”
So I thought related to 森 it becomes something like:
“It (The forest) was/became feared as forest where wolves lives.”
with おそれられ being a passive form (? could also be pontential?)
I’m not very sure if this make sense related to the first part though.
Other thoughts:
The first pages passed so quickly. And the drawing is so cute. I’m excited to read more.
Also another thing I kind of realised:
Mia really talks in a child-like manner, but somehow I feel she is also talking in a pretty rude/condescending way. Even for a child.
Okay… I should‘ve known that going from Death Note to this will be … weird
I feel like I could read through the whole volume in one go
But on the up side - she is terribly cute
… this cuteness paired with „I‘m scaring people rawr“ actually got me chuckling a bit
Managed to tear myself away from Zelda to read a few chapters… It’s quite simple and kiddy atm but there’s still words I need to look up, so definitely worth the time. Bit of a change from Ruri!
I was wondering why ある came right after に and this article explains it.
Second Panel:
What does it mean when a verb (住む) is following the の particle?
I assume this grammar point follows. @sakuchu 's translation makes sense to me but the whole sentence is a bit hard to understand in terms of grammar. Maybe someone could dissect it.
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to WK level in regards to book club.
At least in my opinion high WK level/very good vocab knowledge doesn’t equal good grammar knowledge and/or a lot of reading experience.
I’d say it depends when someone decides to start taking the plunge and try taking part in the reading.
Also… I think this one looks like such a cute read, I’d just want to join for that.
@wanisnani
Actually didn’t realise this at all. It just sounded okay to me?
But when I checked on ichi.moe it says の can be a ‘substitutes for “ga” in subordinate phrases’.
I think that makes sense here?
This should be illegal, this is way too cute, what the heck.
I also need my cute wolf girl fix, ya know
p1
I took that second panel to mean
“Since long ago, it was feared by people as a forest where wolves live”
or in more natural English
“Since long ago, people were afraid of the forest because of wolves living in it”
!
It just sounded okay to me?