Ah that makes sense, thank you!
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Oh duh she’s definitely saying “ごちそうさま” while choking on food, lol
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Page 17
何すんねん！
Does that mean 何する？ as in “what are you doind?”
Yeah, る → ん is a common contraction when speaking casually, then ねん here is a kansai version of んだ
いっちゃんええとこやのに！
I don’t understand the grammar combination at the end of that part. やのに what’s the meaning of this?
I read it as a combination of the kansai-ben や replacement for だ and のに in the “despite/even though” sense, but I could be wrong.
Page 18
Is that なん a casual variation of の as explained somewhere in this thread? And if so what is it refering to in the sentence?
This is the explanatory んだ and the な is just connect the noun to it.
Page 20
んだな
I guess んだ is just indicating the usual explanatory sentence ender? What’s that な thoigh?
It’s a sentence ending particle that has a bunch of uses, but generally they all basically make the sentence less strong/assertive.
In this case, it basically gives the sentence a tone of it being Touya musing to himself.
Page 20 again
じゃないもん
Is that もん just a cutesy way of speaking by Sakura? Someone herr previously mentioned it shortly. I’d love if any of you guys confirm that this is indeed the case in the part that I’m quoting and that I understood that usage correctly
It’s more childish/assertive than cutesy. Bunpro for more info
わい here is a masculine pronoun to refer to yourself in Kansai-ben, like おれ or ぼく in standard Japanese.
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For those still new to all this, it’s worth mentioning that you don’t need to worry about going out of your way to memorize these contractions.
You can if you want to, but you’ll see them enough that you’ll likely absorb them over time, so don’t stress over it if you have so many things to learn that you’re not able to keep track of it all.
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Really glad you asked the question on もいるし。 I also found it hard to parse, mostly because I felt like there was something missing after it? I’m guessing the reading is
もいるし
(despite not having my mother around), my father/brother/kero-chan is here…
I felt the reading this week was both easier and harder in some ways. I saw a lot more of the typical beginner’s vocabulary (ie basic introductions, schools/courses…even finally saw a wild 考古学 after burning it all those levels ago and wondering when the hell that would ever come up again!), but the longer sentences full of kana and the odd sentence endings were throwing me quite a bit. I was leaning a lot on ichi.moe to help out with breaking sentences up. Starting to think I might benefit from something like bunpro, or even just brushing the dust off Genki/Japanese The Manga Way. Grammar has always been one of my weakest points, unfortunately.
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Phew! Overall these pages weren’t too bad, but there were definitely some grammar points I more or less skipped over because I didn’t understand them on first read. I was able to piece more of the puzzle together thanks to the questions in this thread, thanks all! Also cannot decipher the handwritten sections for the life of me.
Quick question on this passage:
Kindle page 21
年が離れてるせいか
何回けんかしても勝てないの！
Does this read something like:
The result of our years being separated? How many times do we fight and I not win!
Side note, my japanese teacher told us about くやしい just this morning and how it’s very common in manga, so I was pretty tickled to see it pop up again on my re-read.
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Rather than “result”, I’d translate this usage of せい as “consequence”. She’s considering it may be because of (a consequence of) their being apart in years (age difference) that she can’t even win in any of their fights.
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I think せい is mostly used in a negative way, for negative results.
It’s like the opposite of おかげ.
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Alright, on to the second half of the my attempt at a somewhat literal translation.
Page 17
It’s Cerebus ! Cero-chan isn’t good !
handwritten: Cerebus is too long
handwritten: Don’t you dare changing my cool name !
That kid (I need a better english word than than) is not a plushie. It really is alive.
Although it’s not a dog or a cat.
So, wa-what is it ?
It would be a long story (literally, if I were to tell you, it would be long. And indeed, she doesn’t)
Aaaah ! Now I’m late ! (translating the ーてしまう ending in english is sometimes awkward, but I suppose starting the sentencing with “now” does the trick quite nicely)
Well, so, I still haven’t told you about my family composition.
Good… good morning !
Page 18
What was all the ruffling ?
There was no ruffling ! (again, I’m struggling more with english than japanese here)
You were only walking. There was a sound like a kaiju striding.
Sakura is not a kaijuuuuu ! Childish talk again, with the もん ending and using さくら instead of わたし
This annoying one is my older brother Touya, 2nd year in High school. (I’m sorry but he looks like he’s 25)
He goes to the high school that stands right next to my elementary.
Because of the years that separate us, no matter how many times we fought I could never beat him. (not sure what that か is doing here after the せい ? I would have expected a で or nothing)
Hnn, That’s really because he’s taller… Annoying !
handwritten: Clearly, aren’t you a bit too small for a kaiju ? (not sure about that ちみつちゃ) but I suppose he saying something along those lines
Only two more page to go !
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Is it only me or when I write the phrase on the horizontal, I understand it better than on the vertical? I think I’ve gotta read more vertical sentences tho!
Another thing, some word are presented in hiragana, but they have a kanji version. why is that? is it because the target answer are little girls or because it is more common to see those words in hiragana? Should I learn the word in hiragana as presented on the manga, or should I learn the kanji version (as my yomitan saved)
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There’s no good answer to that unfortunately.
The author can decide to use kanjis or not, there are no set rules. There is common usage tho, some examples:
- Verbs appearing as an auxiliary are usually written in kana, e.g. 持っていく not 持って行く
- Adverbs are usually written as kana. e.g せっかく has a kanji form 折角 but it’s much less common in modern texts.
- Basically, anytime jisho tells you “usually written using kana alone”
It can also be a stylistic choice. It’s quite common for instance to have small children in mangas speaking only in kana (children don’t know kanjis yet, right ?).
Also, sometimes when a character is from another country / world and speaks broken japanese, it can be written entirely in katakana to convey that “weirdness” in their speech.
Similarly, using atejis instead of katakana (which was more common in the early 20th century), can make a character “sound” different.
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oh I didn’t pay attention to that! thanks anyway! I think the more I expose myself to the language, those things will become natural, right? This is my first japanese book I’ve read, there’s a lot of questions, but I’m gonna trust the process and let it flow .
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I recommend learning it as you see it as you go.
If something is presented in hiragana, but Yomitan shows it with kanji, there’s no harm in learning the kanji version. However,
If a word is usually written in kana, learning the kanji version may not be the best use of your time right now because you might not see the kanji version for a long time.
たくさん is a good example. I see it written as 沢山 from time to time, especially in manga without furigana, but 90% of the time, I see it written in kana. Before I started reading more difficult series and series without furigana, the kana-only percent was much higher.
Add in not knowing whether a word is commonly written in kanji or kana, and that’s all the more reason to focus on learning it as you see it.
Over time, you learn enough of the basics, and you’ll gain enough exposure and experience in reading that you’ll find yourself able to recognize when certain words are typically written one way or the other.
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thank you very much! I’ll keep that in mind!
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Yep. Don’t worry too much about the kana vs kanji. It will come naturally.
On to the translation of the last 2 pages !
page 19
One day, I’ll definitely become tall like an electric pole and crush [step on] you, you’ll see ! (-てやる is actually an N1 grammar.)
It’s morning, so be nice [to each other] ok ?
My father Fujikata is teaching archeology at university, he’s kind and very good at cooking and sewing. I looooooooooove him.
(this one is quite a mouthful because all the attributive forms are piled up together. A more literal translate would be something along the lines of “my gentle, good at cooking and sewing, teaching archeology at university father”)
Eh ? My mother ? My mother passed away when I was little. I was 3 so I can hardly remember anything about her. ( 
I don’t know anything about Sakura, but somehow suspect that she’ll get to discover a couple more things about her)
Also, her father looks younger that her brother. Both are giving me strong late 80s manga vibes.
page 20
But I don’t feel lonely ! Because there is dad, there is my brother even if he’s annoying, and there is Cero-chan !
It’s CEREBUS !
(mumbling) thank you for the meal.
You’re already leaving ?
There’s the morning soccer training session.
Have a nice day !
(Then Sakura says something I don’t get and quickly finishes her bowl. Her father asks her whether she’s okay "大丈夫 ?)
Why is she rushing like that ? The suspense is killing me. 
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Seeing this the day after I submitted 沢山 as a typo on bunpro 
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Alright, I’ve just met 桃矢お兄ちゃん！That’s enough for today.
There’s definitely more text in this week than the last, but it’s easier to parse. A lot of it is just names!
Grammar Points Of The Day:
conditional form ～ば
This means “if”. conjugation is dictionary form → change the “う”ending to the equivalent “え”ending → add ば.
I was only familiar with the conditional form たら before. there seem to be slight differences, and たら has other uses, but i’ll suss out the details with practice, i’m sure.
って
casual way to mark indirect speech (like quotes or thoughts), can be used to replace と言いますor と思います. conjugation of the replaced phrase is inferred from context.
there’s another related usage that i’d heard of before: って can be used as a casual subject marker when the subject is a quotation.
Ex: 「桜」ってなに？or “What is ‘sakura’?”
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Another thing, some word are presented in hiragana, but they have a kanji version. why is that?
I had the same exact question. In my case, some words have so many meanings that I end up thinking “damn, this would be so much easier if I knew the kanji for this one”.
I suspect my relationship with kanji will be one of enemies to lovers.
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THANK YOU! I had such a hard time with that モデル sentence. I had to read it multiple times and I was like “Nope. Let’s move on”
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I’m so glad I could help! I had so much trouble with that sentence I thought I’d better write down my thoughts on it for posterity 
It’s definitely designed to be wordplay, there’s no practical reason they had to put so many えs together lol
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