What… magic is real!!! 
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ugh I keep getting myself so confused… this should be simple but …
Page 146 / p146
Bottom of the page
術使うばっかが
魔女じゃないん
だから
Can someone help get this into some English that makes sense… I’m either parsing it wrong or there are maybe grammar things unsaid that I’m missing… or im clueless 
術使う = art using (using magic)
ばっか = only
が = (not sure if this is the subject particle or the “however”)
魔女じゃないん = not a witch
だから = because
Can’t seem to get this to something that makes sense in natural English… help onegai!
It’s the subject particule.
Using only magic is not (characteristic of) a witch.
That is, it’s not what a witch does.
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I wonder if the emphasis on this sentence needs to be the other way around - at least for smoother English, even if it’s not implied by the Japanese (though I do kinda think it is, with the use of が). Namely, “(Being) a witch isn’t only about using magic”.
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That does sound better.
I was also thinking of “Relying on magic alone isn’t what being a witch is all about” but this is getting quite far from the literal translation.
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Thanks everyone! I was busy yesterday and finally getting back to reading now… this is why I was getting confused…almost every time I feel like I’m lost it’s this sort of thing where it could be interpreted differently even by level 60 folks!
Personally, I do like the literal translation but it doesn’t have a natural English feel…Relying on magic alone also isn’t a bad way to go and isn’t necessarily wrong…definitely more natural but it really emphasizes how some of these translations can go awry! Thanks … now to try to finish this chapter today!
I’m really hating how she talks! It’s so hard for me to parse… I’m never gonna finish at this pace
Page 147 / p147
Maybe I’m missing some grammar or maybe not… but the BLM version has a “should” but I don’t see it… so figured I’d ask.
自分のタイミングで = (your) own timing
術を覚えたり = learning things like magic
使っていけばいいと = if you use / it’s good
お姉ちゃんは思うの = for you I think
I end up with: I think it’s good for you if you use and learn magic (and other whichy things…hehe) at your own timing (pace).
Where is the “you should” or what grammar am I missing?
“I think you should” and “I think it would be good if you” seem extremely similar to me in what they’re intended to convey, so I’d guess the translator just went with the first due to it being a more common way to phrase it in English.
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What the???
I meant “that does sound better”. I’ve noticed that the autocorrect on my phone is somehow adding n’t to “is” making it isn’t on its own, but I’ve never seen doesn’t.
I just noticed thanks to @shuly’s quote. Sorry about that, I have edited my post.
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Autocorrect has screwed me so many times too haha…
this last chapter is going to be the death of me… I think this is an idiom but not sure…
Page 147 / p147
Just looking at this one piece of the whole thing…
なまっていくもの
I believe that the verb is なまる (to become less capable) … and then along with the ていくもの makes me think this is an idiom that’s equivalent to the English (If you don’t use it you lose it). So either I can’t find anything that says that or I’m way off … 
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My phone likes to suggest “DORAN” (in all caps) when I’m typing “doesn’t”, but I’ve not the foggiest idea why. An article I read recently suggested that iOS now populates the autocorrect with information from your address book, and it’s quite possible I’ve got a Doran in there, but I’m still not at all clear WHY it seems to think I like typing that. (Might need to go through the address book and remove the all-caps from surnames. I put those names in there back in the days when I still had a Nokia, and the surnames are all-caps because the Nokia’s address book didn’t distinguish between given names and surnames).
Yeah, she speaks quite casually and fairly rough - but hey, it’s good practice for real-world language. Most people probably aren’t going to speak like Makoto. 
～けばいい is “you should”. Literally, “it’d be good if you did”, but that’s clunky English.
It’s kinda similar to ～なければならない (must do)
That’s the general gist, yeah, but I don’t know if it’s a set expression in Japanese - it mostly works in English because it rhymes.
～ていく = the action (or state) will continue from now into the future
もの = functioning here as “because”. “It is a fact that” sort of thing.
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yeah but the hiragana is killing me… I’m never sure where to break things… 
So I’ll just keep begging for help along the way
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I’m never gonna finish this page… is this part of the death level that’s coming for me on WK haha…
Page 147 / p147
それで = and therefore
腕ならし = skills + ??? not sure if this is a nara with a shi or a na adjective with a ra shi or a nara and a
しとこう = will do to prepare for (する＋ておく)
then BLM has
… and I just go wth!!! 
I’m making this way too hard or it just isn’t easy …
You know, when people speak, they don’t have kanji coming out of their mouths either 
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True…but as a beginner, I cannot read at a fast pace, don’t have a massive vocab yet, and when a native speaker is talking there are natural pauses, even short ones where the words are which make it easier to understand. I’m not at a level yet where I can understand what the usual normal phrases are for everything so I have to just struggle through.
I really wish I could buy a set of 3 of the same manga, one in Japanese, one as a direct literal translation, and one in English. That way I could work through things w/o having to ask questions, but that doesn’t exist 
anyway… are you able to explain that bubble on that panel? how it becomes the English that it does?
肩ならし is a warmup exercise. One imagines - with assistance from Google - that 腕ならし is the same or at least similar, but I’m not clear on why it’s not in Jisho.
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First, something I wrote on これで, which applies to それで as well:
As @Belthazar mentions, 腕ならし is similar to 肩ならし. I believe ならし is from the verb 慣らす, mean to accustom (oneself to doing something), or to train (like training one’s ear for music).
Big Sis had just said she can teach Makoto a simple spell. This is what she’s refering to when she says それで (the “that” in “with that”).
- それで = with that (spell I’ll teach you)
- 腕 + ならし = build up your skills (in its connective い form)
- しとこう = (to put into the state of)
That last part is する (to do) in its て form (して) + おく (with the お dropped) (to put in place). You’re doing something, and putting it in that state where, and it remains in that state. Since it remains in that state, it can be accessed in that state later, which is why dictionaries give the meaning “to do in advance / to leave in the current state expecting a later change”.
In this case, Makoto can use the spell her sister teachers her to build up her skill training. Afterwards, Makoto will remain in the state of having her skill trained. (She won’t lose all that training afterwards. Hopefully.) And then from that trained up skill level, she’ll be able to work on her magic further later.
I might translate the line as:
“With that, you can build up your skill.”
But “build up your skill” is a bit clunky in English, so we may want to simplify it to “practice” or “train”.
“With that, you can practice.”
However, “with that” being at the front of the sentence is a bit awkward in English, so let’s move it to the end.
“You can practice with that.”
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As you build up your vocabulary and grammar, you’ll find reading becomes a lot easier. But that might mean learning over 2,000 words and a lot of grammar first. Eventually you reach a point where you feel reading is easy and effortless.
And then Makoto’s big sis shows up and you have no idea what’s being said and you find yourself looking up every little thing.
This may already have come up in a previous thread, but have you considered buying the official English release of the book? I don’t know how well done the translation is, but I’d hope it’s better than the Bilingual Manga translations.
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I’ve got the official English translation. It’s pretty good.
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All of you … this is why the book club is awesome… I can be totally lost and people help! If I could I’d buy everyone a round of drinks!
You both are onto something here for sure! I also couldn’t find it in my printed dictionary either…but that’s the key… it’s knowing ならし is “running-in; breaking in (e.g. engine, etc.); accustomizing; warming up” per Jisho and then with the “skill kanji” it can become practice! That’s how you get there! Whew! Here I thought it was some grammar thing when it’s just a noun.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I didn’t read kitty detectives. Very helpful! I wish I had your grammar knowledge at level 17 I’m jealous! haha I’ll keep practicing and finish this book. It will only be the second book I’ve done in Japanese cover to cover so… yeah for small victories.
For some reason I was doing fairly well until this crazy witch shows up with her weird gifts and text bubbles haha
Never had thought much about it before…but now I may see about doing it for the next book! I still have a week and an English version I might be able to get easily enough… I’ll take a look. Now only if someone created an English translation that was literal to bridge the gap
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