よつばと! Vol 2 Discussion Thread (Yotsuba&! Reading Club)

#1

Join the よつばと! Reading Club!

よつばと! Volume 2 (Chapters 8-14) Discussion Thread

Current Chapter: 14 (Jump to Discussion)

Reading Schedule

Start Date Reading Jump To Discussion
January 14 Chapter 8 link
January 21 Chapter 9 link
January 28 Chapter 10 link
February 4 Chapter 11 link
February 11 Chapter 12 link
February 18 Chapter 13 link
February 25 Chapter 14 link

Reminders for Discussion:

  1. Feel free to discuss grammar, vocabulary, comprehension questions, as well as interesting plot or character development.
  2. Include references (page, panel, character speech bubble, etc.) so that others can help you.
  3. We’re all here to learn and read together, so share your thoughts and ask questions!

Resources

  1. Volume 2 Vocabulary List: The Living Japanese Blog offers a page-by-page vocab list, like the one used in Volume 1’s discussion thread. You can pay or download it for free.
  2. Manga Reading Circle: A YouTube series that does a guided group reading of Yotsuba (recommended by @Kazzeon). This is when the group starts Volume 2.

User-Provided Translations

Please contribute translations to practice your comprehension and get feedback! Keep translations within spoiler blocks, for example:

[details="Chapter X"]
your translation for chapter X
[/details]

Don’t read these translations until you’ve made a serious attempt at understanding the manga! :slight_smile:

Chapter English Formal Japanese
Chapter 8 @BobaGakusei @BobaGakusei
Chapter 9 @BobaGakusei @BobaGakusei
Chapter 10
Chapter 11 @BobaGakusei
よつばと! Reading club
Best Manga books for (post)beginners
Manga recommendations for practicing Japanese
#2

This is really great! Thanks for starting it up :slight_smile:

#4

Happy to help! :slight_smile:

There’s a 17-hour time difference between JST and PST, so as a compromise, let’s start Chapter 8 in about a day (e.g., JST 1/14 12:00pm and PST 1/13 7:00pm).

#5

Huh. This looks like it could be fun. Fortunately, I happen to live in a city with a Kinokuniya, so maybe I’ll pop down there tomorrow and see if I can grab volume two. Only got volume one in Japanese at the moment…

#6

i’ve slacked on the beginner level because it is too difficult, maybe i should find a copy of this to read aha

#7

So we can’t discuss things until tomorrow then?
I have volumes 1-4 but haven’t been through them after struggling with the first chapter and deciding to improve vocabulary first.

#8

Welcome! We’ll officially start the discussion tomorrow, so you might not get a response until then.

In the mean time, I suggest downloading the free list of vocabulary from the Living Japanese Blog’s Vol 2 Reading Pack. It also comes with a set of key sentences and their associated translations. The blog also created a reading pack for Volume 1, if you wanted to go back and read the earlier chapters.

#10

Hi! Feel free to start posting any questions you may have (it’s already 01/14 somewhere in the world) - everyone will help you out as much as we can. Just keep in mind (as @BobaGakusei said) that you might not get a prompt response just yet :slight_smile:

#11

Page 8

On page 8, ふうか (風香), talking about her t-shirt, says かわいいっしょ？
I’m sure this must mean “Its cute, isn’t it” with the っしょ being a contraction of でしょうか
Is that right?
(Once again, just writing this question got me three-quarters of the way to the answer!)
And, does anyone know who the character on the shirt is?

#12

Probably a contraction as you say, the character is from Azumanga Daioh iirc, another Azuma Kiyohiko manga.
(really funny)
image

#13

This is what I surmised as well.

#14

Thank you!

#15

Omg, could you imagine seeing wheelies for the first time as a kid?? Yotsuba is literally me.

#16

Page 10

On page 10, えな (恵那) says 何してるのー？
Of course this means “what are you doing?”

I know that this can also be said more formally as 何をしていますか
But えな’s sentence doesn’t seem to be a contraction of that.

Could someone please tell me what 何をしてるの is a contraction of?
And a pointer to the grammar behind it would be very useful too!
Thank you so much!

#18

First, います is being switched for the informal form いる. In informal Japanese, the い in いる (and its conjugations for that matter) is often dropped, givingしてる instead of している. The の on the end is the explanatory particle. The nuance is kind of difficult to get your head around, but I recommend checking out this article:

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/explanation

Also, を is often dropped in this situation. I can’t really explain it, it’s just something I’ve seen a lot when using している/してる.

#19

To add to @UntitledName, I think the equivalent of 何してるの in polite form would be 何しているんですか though you can still drop the い or add を if you want. Here ん is the short version of の from the original.

#20

+1

I’m out of likes so this is all you’re getting for now

#21

I’ve never run out of likes before haha

#23

Page 10

@UntitledName and @seanblue, what brilliant replies! Thank you both so much!

So… “what are you doing?”

何をしていますか (but lacking the explanatory particle - thanks @Kumirei)
何をしているのですか
何をしてるのですか
何をしてるのー？
何してるのー？

Got it! Thank you! Thank you!

#24

Mind that these are not equivalent, as the former is lacking the explanatory particle.