I’m going into this at WK lvl 5 and Bunpro lvl 32 (N5 complete, N4 about 12% complete). Let’s see how long before I 
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@Radish8 I sent you a message on Discord. 
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I’ve just been re-reading the thread in anticipation of Monday’s kickoff and just wanted to say that I, who also found Yotsuba really difficult, am doing quite well with this book. As you are much further ahead with your kanji studies you’d probably have an even easier time than I, especially if you have been doing some grammar on the side. 
I think this was my difficulty with manga; might it have been yours too?
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If the book is too difficult initially, consider using this as a starting point to propel your knowledge, and you’ll be surprised how much progress you’re able to make in a short amount of time.
This, so much! When I started reading I was on chapter 10 of Genki (so very little grammar, really!) and I learned so much new grammar just by reading 10分 stories and looking things up in A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. It’s a very fun way to learn grammar I think 
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This post has been moved →
Kitty Detectives! | Week 1 Discussion
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Great notes! Thank you Rowena.
Will you post them again once the actual thread is up and running?
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Are we going to have a separate thread for the actual discussion then?? I had thought it would all be happening here 
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Oh! I see! Sorry! I’m so used to there being separate threads for chapters that I just assumed this one would do the same. My mistake! Please ignore me!
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You may be right - we’ll have to wait for Radish8 to wake up in the UK to find out!
But yes, if there is a separate thread I will def repost.
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Page 6
Well, just in case it is all happening in this one thread (I hope it is, but don’t mind either way) here’s my first question…
やあ, へんな事件に かかわっちゃって, いそがしくてさ
やあ, - yo!
へんな事件に - strange case + に
かかわっちゃって, - 関わる, to be concerned (involved) with + ちゃう, indicating completion, in て-form.
いそがしくて- 忙しい, busy, in conjunctive, て-form
さ - assertive ending
- why is ちゃう used? Surely he’s not completed his investigation on page 6 already!
- why is 忙しい in the て-form
Thanks for any help anyone can offer, and thank you Radish8 for setting up this great club!
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You may be aware of this already, but mentioning just in case; you can select to edit your post with the images and copy the text, then abandon the edit and paste into your post on the separate thread (if there is one). That way you don’t need to reupload.
I finished reading the first case in book one, but feel like I want to complete the second (and potentially third) cases before I start book two, so I’ll likely be playing catch up here in a couple of weeks. I’ll be looking forward to a lot of good discussion. I’m currently working my through the posts from the first book as I read through the stories.
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I was vaguely aware, but your reminder will ensure I do it the easy way, ta!
(Keeping in mind I haven’t read the material), ちゃう can be used for other meanings as well. Here I think it’s more regret, like, “I’ve been busy with this weird case, you see? Just can’t figure it out.” He really doesn’t want to be stuck on it, but it’s a strange case that he just can’t figure out. Or, more specifically to the actual line here, “I’ve been caught up in this weird case, and it’s kept me busy.” It’s a bit hard for me to translate the ちゃう into English, though… (I tried by writing かかわっちゃって as “caught up”, wording which in English can imply being stuck on something one doesn’t want to be part of).
Here’s a good video on it. You may have already seen it, in which case, it can be a refresher:
Since this isn’t a request (one reason to end in て), I get the feeling like he’s trailing off a bit. Like, he has more to say, but he just kind of ends it there. “I’m caught up on this weird case, and it’s kept me busy…you see?”
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I think it is because the involvement/busyness is ongoing…?
I believe (but haven’t the time just now to find references) that the て is actually a contraction of いて - from the verb to be / animated, so here it expresses an ongoing state (of being busy) not a conjunction.
Will sit down w books in an hr if no one more learned has responded…
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Aaaargh! Yes! I’ve learnt this as しまう (as in しまった!) and so don’t recognise it when it is ちゃう! Thank you so much ChristopherFritz, and for the link too. I don’t think I’ve seen that particular video before, and will watch it now! Thank you!
Ah ha! Thank you @Rowena!
In this case, it’s the て form of the verb 忙しい. When an “い-adjective” (most adjectives ending in い) conjugates into the て form, the final い is replaced with くて. This gives a meaning such as “busy and”.
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Here’s the bit from Tae Kim’s Japanese Grammar Guide that addresses the dropping of the い in ~ている for enduring states that I was thinking applied here:
So:-
Adj 忙しい ➞ Adv 忙しく modifying いて (being) with the い dropped as per TK4.5 = いそがしくて
But I’m just learning too and could be wrong… 
From what I’ve since read, to use the enduring state (which uses the verb いる) of an adjective, you must change the adjective into its adverbial form. For い-adjectives, you replace the final い with く to form an adverb. (For な-adjectives, you simply append に.)
- 忙しい = adjective (describes a noun)
- 忙しく = adverb (describes a verb)
Then you append the verb する followed by the enduring いる. (I guess いる needs to append to the て form of a verb, and する is your general use “to do”.) Mind that you have to conjugate する into its て form to connect it with いる. The result is:
- 忙しくしている = to be being busy (enduring state of busy)
- 忙しくしてる = same, but dropped い
Further reading:
- The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs (Kamiya, Taeko; published by Kodansha)
- Maggie Sensei: How to use V ＋ ている (Scroll down to “You can also form ている (=te iru) with adjectives”.)
- I’m keeping myself busy. ：忙しくしてるよ (Example of the enduring state of 忙しい in use.)
I feel I learned a lot (and re-learned things I’d forgotten) reading up on this. I’m going to be on the watch for adjectives in the enduring state from now on.
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Sorry I didn’t post it last night - ordinarily I’ll aim to get the threads up the night before (my time) for the sake of those further East. I didn’t want to post the first one and go straight to bed though.
We have started!
The first discussion thread is here:
You’ll notice we now have a vocabulary sheet, so please do feel free to start filling that in 
try to keep to dictionary form rather than inputting all sorts of different conjugations.
I’ll tidy up the home thread here once I get a minute at work 
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Ok, so there’s more than one language in which I have difficulty reading… 
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