ひとりぼっちの○○生活 (BBC) Week 3

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Week 3: Chapter 3

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Start Date: 2024-12-27T15:00:00Z

Vocabulary Sheet

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current section(s) and any content in future sections.
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  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they initially seem embarrassing. All of us are here to learn.
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It amuses me how the roosters on page 22 are considering going “cock-a-doodle-doo” like the English onomatopoeia (the Japanese version is usually こけこっこう).

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kép
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Once in a lifetime participation poll. Everyone has too much stuff to do and couldn’t read ahead 3-4 volumes.

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I already have a couple questions on the first page :smiley:

page 21

(Book cover : “how to make friends”)

Sharing your troubles / worries !

I hope we don’t need to share our troubles to become friends. (Not sure about this translation here. But I guess it makes sense: she doesn’t want to have to open up too much.)

But then, I could become better friends with Nakochan.

“Please hold on, Nakochan, I… I feel like I can do it”. (I’d expect her to say that she can’t. But I read this as the verb やる in potential form, with a そう linked きがする for “have the feeling that”.)

(Bocchi was the type of person who gets anxious at night)

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p21

I believe there is an い left off at the end, as in
仲良くなれないはずがない
はずがない is a grammar point meaning “xyz is impossible”
And with that we have a double negative here
“There is no way you won’t become friends if you share your worries” (I think this is stated as a general advice, not necessarily Bocchi talking about her situation)

After that of course the next sentence approves with this one, so
“With this, I’ll become even better friends with Nako-chan”

“Being anxious” feels a bit too negative to me in this context, but the idea is the same, yea

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Page 21

Yes, but also サルでもわかる is written above - (in a way that) even a monkey can understand.

I… sort of understand where you two are getting this vibe from (mostly DeepL, I suspect), but J-J dictionaries convey the opposite impression. goo, for example defines 気が大きい as 小さなことを気にしない - doesn’t sweat the small stuff. It uses as an example sentence 「酒を飲むと—・くなる」1 - the state of “not sweating the small stuff” happens when I drink alcohol, i.e. when the speaker is in an altered state of mind. She’s the sort of person who frets about things less at night - she’s making big plans for tomorrow, which we all know full well are gonna stop dead the moment she makes eye contact with Nako the next morning. Bocchi’s sillhouette and the ふふふ laughter are indications of a high degree of self-confidence.

1 A small note on dictionary formatting here, if you’re unaware of the standards - the word or phrase being defined (in this instance 気が大きい) is inserted into the example sentence in place of the —, while the interpunct (・) indicates that it needs to be conjugated to match the specified ending - i.e. 気が大きい → 気が大きくなる

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p21

That’s sorta what I tried to get at with my comment also. Being anxious about something can sort of be a positive, or at the very least a semi neutral thing. The only reason I didn’t write an alternative that fit better in my mind was that I just couldn’t think of a good english alternative. Maybe “being pumped” or similar, but that I don’t feel fits well.

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(^O^)

page 21

Ooooh, that’s a nasty one.

I initially read this as 気になる, i.e. to be worried about something. Wanting to check that 気がなる was also possible, I tried deepL, who gave me “to be anxious”. So I figured it was like 気になる, with an adverb. DeepL doesn’t really like 気が大きくなる or 気が大きい.

The definition linked by @Belthazar sounds like “generous” ? I suppose here it’s something like “she’s very ambitious” ? As in, she “generously” size her objective for the next day ?

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end of chapter spoilers

Today I learned that alpacas belong in the camelidae family. What a worthwhile chapter this was!

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This is getting harder. I’m not sure I’ll be able to follow when we reach 2 chapters per week.

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Don’t consider how long the reading is, but how much reading you need to do daily. Currently with it being 1 chapter per week it’s about 1-1.5-ish pages. Of course moving over to 2 chapters a week it would increase to roughly 2-3 pages. It’s probably more doable, reading that much every day than you think even. And worst case, if you do fall behind, no problem, not like the threads will disappear and you get banned from asking any more questions.

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True, but it’s not really about the thread being here. If it was just about that, I’d follow an old book club, at my pace. The whole point of the book club is to be motivated by the fact that we’re all reading together. Once you fall behind, it’s very hard to catch-up.

Also, I don’t usually try to perfectly read a set number of pages each day. Rather, I read the whole thing several time, with comprehension slowly setting in. I only do my proper translation at the end of the week.

A couple more questions:

Page 24

Is the left strip a play on 怪しい and 妖しい ?

Page 26

I tried to read the handwritten part, but it’s too much. Could someone please write them down.m ? Many thanks !

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Page 26

Nako’s note is

次は屋上せめるぞー！！
アルパカ

Bocchi’s response is

アルパカはもこもこした毛が特徴的ですが、ラクダ科の動物です。

Also, Bocchi’s response to receiving the note is 保管しとかないと, while Nako’s response to Bocchi’s response is 返事そこ！？

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Thanks, I’ll try to read that part again !

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It took me several re-read to realise that Bocchi was falling for the oooooool’ “tap the opposite shoulder” trick.

That’s how gullible I am.

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Small question on two sentences from page 24.

Page 24

学校で遭難してたまるか

Context indicates that’s it’s something like “what disaster/emergency would happen at school ???”
But I can’t parse that まるか

こんなに怪しいと
何かいそうだな
ぼっち

I’m slightly unsure about this one. Is it “when it’s spooky like that, it’s feel’s like there is something (alive) don’t ya think, Bocchi ?”

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p24

It’s
学校 で 遭難して たまる か

〜てたまる: ～てたまる – IMABI 今日

I mean, that feels mostly right, “When it’s this eerie/spooky, it feels like there is something here, doesn’t it, bocchi?”
It’s the usual “Doesn’t it feel like something is watching us?” trope, but Nako doing it specifically to mess with bocchi a bit

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Page 24

Ah, thanks !

But if I read this page correctly, then my understanding of the rest of the sentence seems off… “We’ll never suffer a disaster at school (we’re safe here)” ?

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p24

Which part?
The entire page goes like this:

It’s the school store
I-it’s not yet open

Next to it (or on the side maybe? I’m not sure honestly) they seem to sell bread for lunch
Bread, huh?

Shall we buy some next time?
Yes!

Anyways/Besides, what are you going to use that flute for?
It’s for emergencies, like if I got lost
(handwritten) It’s for dangers during an expedition (can’t translate it better)
As if you could get lost at school

It’s a/the spooky toilet

Spooky toilet-
Spooky, huh-?

?
?
When it’s this eerie, it feels like something is around, huh?

There is something here

Spooky, huh?

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Hum, deepL did give me the “lost” meaning, but I couldn’t find it in dictionaries.

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