🐱 にゃんにゃん探偵団 🕵️‍♀ Kitty Detectives 2 Home Thread!

Really glad about that because I’m behind and need to catch up!

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Oh good! That’s exactly what I was hoping it would help people do :grin: how far back are you?

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I’m at page 34 now. Didn’t study any Japanese the past 2-3 weeks (except for a bit of WK once or twice a day) and no reading for almost 3 weeks either.
2-3 pages of nyan nyan per day is managable, so I’m pretty sure I will be able to catch up until story 2 starts :slight_smile:

Will put Flying Witch on hold, though, and will most probably not start Mysterious Town with the beginner book club :neutral_face:

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Glad you’ll be able to catch up :blush:

That’s a shame to hear you won’t be able to join for Mysterious Town though :pensive: best to focus on and keep up with one thing than not be able to manage several though ^^

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sneaks in

Wow, I haven’t been able to keep up (again… :slightly_frowning_face:) and will catch up while you’re taking the break. I’m so excited about the solution of the first story :D.

I plan on reading the next stories, but presumably it will be playing catch up again. :pensive:

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These look cute - I own a few of what I think might be the ancestors of this series, the Jitsugyo no Nihonsha なぜだろう なぜかしら books. The editions I have were set down in 1977 (although my copies are reprints) and have really nice two-tone illustrations with a real Tezuka-vibe to them:

An example from page seven.

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We’ve completed story one! Well done to everybody who’s made it this far :tada:

This week will be our first break, so there’s no discussion thread and we’ll be starting story two on the 9th of December. If you’re a bit behind, this could be an excellent opportunity to do some catching up :grin:

Story two is very short, so we’re only spending two weeks on it - one week for the case, and one for the solution. There’ll be another break after that.

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My new Japanese word for the day: クールビズ.

(Just got to reading カポネのおすすめブックガイド1. I love his take on the cover of The Three Little Pigs.)

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Done with catching up :grinning: now I just have to / want to read through the last two weekly threads.

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Awwwww yiss! Nice work :grin:

I’ve actually been trying to sell my colleagues on this as we head into the Australian summer! I remember it from working in Japanese schools in the mid-2000s. :slight_smile:

This isn’t really related to anything, but I learned a Japanese word today that sent a shiver down my spine: like in English, the Japanese have turned the noun “Google” into a colloquial verb (as ググる) - but according to JMDict it didn’t become a する verb… it’s 五段 and conjugates accordingly!!! Augh! I don’t think I’ve even seen another godan verb that is written using katakana before.

See you all for resumption tomorrow on the 9th. :slight_smile:

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Here in Sydney it’s less summer and more the End of Days.

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Well of course it is. ググる is clearly an う-verb. ググます just sounds daft, hence ググります.

オバむ1. Or for a non-joke answer: サボる

1 That being the verb form of オバマ (as in Barack), which used to be in Jisho as "to chant ‘yes we can, yes we can’ " but is curiously no longer apparent.

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We’re back! Time to tackle story two.

We’re reading the entire case in one week, for our most pages yet. Don’t worry about it though, because next week’s solution will be our shortest read yet!

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We are starting Story Three on the 30th of December, and as we’re currently tackling our longest week’s page count so far I thought this would be a good point to vote on the pace.

Vote on the pace for Story Three

Story Three is exactly the same number of pages as Story One.

Option (a) is that we similarly read it over six weeks, at the same average pace as Story One. We would tackle exactly eight pages every week, and finish the book mid-February.

Option (b) is that we read it over four weeks - on the basis that hopefully people are more used to the writing style and vocabulary by now, and are reading faster! This would be on average 12 pages per week (see the schedule in the OP), and we’d finish a bit before the end of January.

It might be good to try pushing ourselves a bit for the final stretch :triumph: but I don’t want us to go faster if it means people can’t keep up right at the end.

  • (a) read it over six weeks (8 pages / week)
  • (b) read it over four weeks (12 pages / week)

0 voters

Edit - quick ping to make sure everyone currently reading gets a say - @Kappa420 @2OC3aOdKgwSGlxfz @catbus @curiousjp @jaearess @riiibu - I’d like to close the poll this weekend

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I realise I am pretty much a lone voice here, but I was under the impression this was supposed to an Absolute Beginner Book Club read - how many of those voting would consider themselves more advanced?

A part of me does understand that if the majority of those currently participating want to go faster that makes some sense, but should it be done if anyone who is actually an absolute beginner reader gets pushed aside? I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up.

For your consideration…

(This will be the first Japanese book I will have completed)

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It… it is? Haven’t I regularly seen you in book clubs?

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I can’t speak for @Radish8, but I felt this poll was along the lines of “let’s see whether or not everyone’s fine with a faster pace”, with weight on keeping the slower pace if anyone wanted/needed that.

I feel the general reasoning is sound: the further one gets into reading a single work by a single author, the more you get used to their writing style, and the faster pace some readers will be able to go. A good indicator in this is a drop in the number of questions over time, but looking looking at this thread, it looks like each week’s had roughly the same general number of comments.

I answered the poll based on what I can handle, but I don’t mind either way! Every page fewer for me to read per week is that many more manga pages I can get in =D

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Pls note the word ‘completed’ :slightly_smiling_face: - this is the 4th time I’ve joined a group, but will be the first time I don’t give up part way through because it’s too hard.

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I’m am not an absolute beginner, I just wanted to read a book about kitties (I wish there were more :crying_cat_face:).

I am more than happy to read at at whatever pace people would prefer, which is why I did not originally vote. Since Radish8 tagged me, I voted for four weeks, but feel free to disregard. I’ll read with you no matter what!

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I quite agree. I’m not joining you for the next story as I have to get on with my next project (I keep saying that… one of these fine days I’ll actually make a proper start!), but if I were joining you then I’d be pushing for the same pace as currently.

There is a tendancy in all these groups to keep raising the level. That’s one of the reasons why the ABBC started, because the Beginner bookclub, which started with Yotsuba, soon got more and more advanced. If the ABBC gets faster as it goes along, how long till we’ll need a Totally Absolutely Genuine Beginners Book Club?

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