ケサランなにがしとスープ屋さん Week 1

[hotdogsuplex]

We’re reading this as part of the Absolute Beginner Book Club

Week 1	March 28
End page	9
Chapter(s)	1
Next week	ケサランなにがしとスープ屋さん Week 2
Home thread	ケサランなにがしとスープ屋さん ・ Kesaran Something and the Soup Shop Home Thread

Final panel(s)

Discussion Rules

• Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current section(s) and any content in future sections.
• When asking for help, please mention the volume and page number.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they initially seem embarrassing. All of us are here to learn.
• To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation; it’s fun!
• Always mention what kind of soup you ate while reading

Participation

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll. (You can change your answer later if you’d like.)

• I’m reading along
• I have finished this part
• I will catch up later
• I’ve already read this

[juicyt]

The first panel on page 8 when お兄ちゃん enters is my favourite bit so far. I’m also really liking the Finnish theme, definitely a nice change from the school settings lots of beginner manga have

Also, no soup but I ate pizza whilst reading, which I would controversially argue is just bread and soup in a different ratio

[hotdogsuplex]

Aaah, so you like to spread your tomato soup on your bread and then warm it up in the oven. Very nice

Also lol Kesaran is really just right now

[mitrac]

I kicked off with a soupy curry it was perfect to accompany this adordable start to the chapter.

Tip for pages with a dark background (the first page, one before Ch 1 started)

(p3 physical, p5 digital)

A dark background often signifies a time skip, mostly looking back into the past. Not always but it’s very common (I didn’t realise that until someone pointed out out to me and then I saw it everywhere). That is thing #1.

Thing #2 - why have a time skip at the start of a chapter? Here - if you’re used to this visual clue, it gives the reader (um, well, it gave me) a feeling of a narrator in the present looking back on recent events and saying ‘yes, that was how this all started’ (the text in square boxes is often narration not dialogue). And then chapter 1 kicks off that story they were remembering and wanting to tell.

@hotdogsuplex

so you like to spread your tomato soup on your bread and then warm it up in the oven. Very nice

All soup welcome here

[mitrac]

@hotdogsuplex

Also lol Kesaran is really just right now

PS I had to go back and look at all the art to get what you meant. lol, a spitting image

[mickeyp]

Hihi everyone! It’s soup time! I was super excited for this week’s reading… so I read pages 3-8 last night, and finished page 9 today! Sometimes I’m pretty loose with my translations, so let me know if I’m totally off the mark… On that note, let’s go!!

Translations:

Page 5

ありがとうございましたー : Thank you very much!

よいしょ: Huff! (/sound one makes when flipping signage over lol)

今日も一日働いたなぁ: I worked all day today too, huh?

今日 : today

も : also

一日 : one day/all day

働いた : worked

なぁ : don’t you think?

Page 6

お兄ちゃんもう帰ってくる頃だ : My brother should already be back right about now!

お兄ちゃん : older brother

もう : already

帰ってくる: to come back

頃 : about/around/approximate time (?)

だ : copula

あったかい．．．: It’s so warm!

温まったら仕込みしよっと : Once I’ve warmed myself, I’ll do the (soup?) prep.

温まったら : to warm oneself ~たら (when/if)

仕込み : preparation (of ingredients, etc.), training, education., etc.

しよっと : I will/let’s

お客さんの忘れ物かな？: Oh, I wonder if the customer forgot something…

お客さん : customer

の : possession/attribute particle

忘れ物 : left behind thing/forgetting something

かな : I wonder…

はーい今行きまーす！！ : Yes yes, I’m coming right now!

はーい : yes/ok/understood

今 : now

行きまーす : to go (towards)

Page 8

ティナただいまー : Tina, I’m home!

雪結構降ってきたよー : The snow came down pretty hard.

雪 : snow

結構 : quite a bit/fairly well

降ってきたよー : to fall/come down ~て came/approached よー

ニコラスお兄ちゃん丁度よかった : Nicholas, thank goodness, you’re just in time!

ニコラスお兄ちゃん : brother Nicholas

丁度 : literally means “exactly”, but according to a reddit post also means “perfect timing”?

よかった : a phrase that means to be happy about something (him coming home?)

あれ見て : Look at that!

わあ… うちのスープ飲みに来たのかな？ : Wha…! Did it come for our soup?

わあ… : Whaattt

うち : family/home

の : possessive/attribute particle

スープ : soup

飲み : drink/spigot

に : location or target marker

来た : came or approached

のか : sentence-ending particle that questions the preceding statement

な : particle used for confirmation or emphasis

それは絶対違うと思う！ : No, I think you’re wrong about it!

それ : that

は : topic particle

絶対 : absolutely/definitely

違う : to be different or wrong

と : particle for quoting Tina’s thoughts?

思う : to think

何か…ケサランパサランみたいだな : It seems like it’s some animal from folklore.

何か… : Something

ケザランパサラン : Kesarampasaran (an animal from folklore)

みたいだ : it seems that

な : particle seeking confirmation or providing emphasis

てさらん…？ : a poor pronunciation of the animal Nicholas referred to (“Tesaran…?”)

Page 9

大丈夫それなら害はないやつだよ : It’s okay! That’s a harmless fella.

大丈夫 : Okay/alright

それ : that

なら : as for (that)

害はない : harmless (literally harm is not)

やつ : guy/fellow

だよ : copula + emphasis

本当に…？: Really…? Are you sure?

いいから本で調べてみて: Yeah! Don’t worry about it - we’re going to try to learn more about it from a book.

いいから : Don’t worry about it!

本 : book

で : particle that marks the means by which something is done or the location of an action

調べてみて : to examine/investigate/study/search ~てみて (to try to)

わかった : Understood!

えーっと辞書は… : Ummm… The dictionary…

ケサラン… : Kesaran…

Questions:

1. How is 頃 used in お兄ちゃんもう帰ってくる頃だ ? Was I close? (Page 6)
2. How is 飲み used in わあ… うちのスープ飲みに来たのかな？ ? (Page 8)

[mickeyp]

@mitrac

Tip for pages with a dark background (the first page, one before Ch 1 started)

Wow, thank you for this explanation! I kinda skipped that first page because I didn’t understand what it was doing there Now I know!

[mitrac]

@mickeyp

How is 頃 used in お兄ちゃんもう帰ってくる頃だ ? Was I close? (Page 6)

You nailed it, and this is how you’ll see it used very often

@mickeyp

How is 飲み used in わあ… うちのスープ飲みに来たのかな？

This is a fixed pattern from the verb 飲む → 飲みます and then just using the stem 飲み.

The pattern is [verb -masu stem] + に + 来る (line 15 in the grammar guide, which includes the other common pattern with iku)

And it means ‘came to [verb]’ in this case 'did it come to drink our soup? ’

[mickeyp]

Ahhh, that makes sense! Thank you so much!

[hotdogsuplex]

@mickeyp

お兄ちゃんもう帰ってくる頃だ : My brother should already be back right about now!

もう has another meaning: soon, before long, so here it’s “My brother should be home soon.” You got 頃 right.

You can see more about にいく on Bunpro

[JupiterJesus]

Nice and easy one, no inexplicable slang like the last book.

Page 3

フィンランド田舎町 - A rural town in Finland

ソレは突然扉をノックして入ってきました - Suddenly, it knocked on the door and came in.

Page 4

Chapter 3: A Chance Encounter (or maybe just meeting for the first time, but I think the translation I gave is snappier)

Page 5

Keitto Shop - Half english, half finnish, no japanese - Kesäkeitto, traditional finnish soup, thanks Wikipedia.
ありがとうさざいましたー - Thank you so much!
よいしょ - Huff (I guess she must be tired as heck after a long day, rather than exhausted by flipping a sign).

はーーー - (breathing out in exhaustion?)

今日も一日働いたなあ - I worked all day today too didn’t I… (Now I know that ichinichi can mean “all day” instead of just one day)

Page 6

お兄ちゃんもう帰ってくる頃だ - It already will be about the time when big brother will return home / Big bro will be getting home soon.

あったかい… - Warm…

温まったら仕込みしよっと - Once I warm up, I’ll do the putting in (of ingredients) / Once I get warm I’ll start prepping the ingredients, っと is her talking to herself

コンコン - Pound, pound!
ん？ - Huh?

お客さんの忘れ物かな? - Could it be something left behind by a guest? / I wonder if a guest forgot something here.
はーい今行きまーす! - Okay, I’m coming now!

Page 7

Not going to bother translating this page, as everything she says can be translated as “what, huh, what’s that” etc

Page 8

ティナただいまー - Tina, I’m hooome.
雪結構降ってきたよー - It’s started to snow quite a bit. (てくる probably being used temporally rather than spatially here, though snow does technically fall and “come” to you, but that seems redundant)

ニコラスお兄ちゃん、丁度よかったあれ見て。Nicholas, you were just right (probably where we’d say “perfect timingg”). Look at that.
ん？ - Huh?

わあ… - Wow…
うちのスープ飲みに来たのかな? - Think it came to have some of the soup?
それは絶対違うと思う! - I think that’s definitely wrong!

何か…
ケサランパサランみたいだな。- It looks like a kesaran pasaran, doesn’t it? (fluffy hairball dandelion creature)
てさらん…? - Tesaran…? (That really isn’t what he said, kid)

Page 9

大丈夫。それなら、害はないやつだよ。- Don’t worry. If so, it is a thing without harm / it’s a harmless thing.

本当に…? Really?
いいから本で調べてみて。- Don’t worry about that. Try looking in the book.

わかった。- Right / I agree.

えーっと…辞書は… - Let… me… see… the dictionary…

ケサラン… - Kesaran…
(shocked face! tune in next time kids!)

[StevenSB]

Man, I really need to read more often. I feel like there’s about a 15% chance I’ll understand something if it’s written only in hiragana, but I can generally piece together what they’re saying based on the meaning of the kanji.

Overall, I was able to understand 66% of the text bubbles without looking things up (not counting sound effects or expressions like ‘えっ?’). Grammar is definitely my weak point, and kana-only words are hit or miss. I waited way too long to start doing anything besides WaniKani.

Edit: I realize that sounded pretty pessimistic, but I definitely enjoyed reading the manga. I didn’t have any trouble understanding what was going on, even when I didn’t understand what some of the text said. I’ll definitely keep reading this.

[Tonitaco]

I got this！

いいから本で調べてみて

Could you think of this as like ”I got this so you go look it up”？

[bubble_Demo]

Happy start to the week yall! 2 secs in and I already got some questions

I’m unsure on the meaning of the title. I think ケサランis related to the cute little dude in the cover (ケサランパサラン). What I’ve found on ケサランパサラン so far: Animal from popular folklore with a white fluffy down made from dandelions and a rabbit’s tail resembling a fluffy hairball [/details]

So then is the title meaning something around: A story about things ケサラン (cute little dude described above) does and Soup Shop dude?

[StevenSB]

I’ll be honest, I don’t really get the title, either. At least, not the なにがし part.

Interesting side note, I was talking to a friend about this a few weeks ago, and they interpreted ケサラン as Katherine, which would make the title sound something like Katherine’s soup shop, but we weren’t sure about the なにがし part. I know it’s not correct, but it was interesting to see what another Japanese learner around my level thought from the title alone with no context.

It reminds me of something I forgot to say last night, that I’m honestly horrible at figuring out the meanings of katakana words even when they’re taken directly from English. It took me way longer than I’d like to admit to figure out that ノック was knock, which was even worse because it was used in the sentence “扉をノックして入ってきました”. It wasn’t until I sounded it out and thought what it could mean to “nokku” on the door that it made sense to me, haha.

[Ka5]

なにがし

I provisionally read ケサランなにがし in the title as “a certain ケサラン (name)”, depending on who or what ケサラン ends up being.

なにがし is an archaic word, and a j-j dictionary gives one similar example:

鈴木なにがしという男性

It’s something you could say (if you wanted to sound archaic) when you don’t really know who that is, only that (in this example) his last name is Suzuki.

It can also be used as a placeholder noun with a description:

俺も人の心を持ったなにがしだ。
I’m also someone with a human heart/soul.

But grammatically it would be a stretch in this title. ケサラン would probably need to be connected with a の or な.

So, so far looks like a name, but we will see.

On a side note, there’s a similar word それがし that samurai use as a humble first-person pronoun in period drama. It came up relatively recently in anime Mattaku Saikin no Tantei to Kitara where a genius detective Yuu Asunaro called himself that. Clearly out of place in modern Japan, but that’s part of the comedy.

[bubble_Demo]

What a cute read! I’m looking forward to getting to know the characters..

Page 3 (ebook pg 5)

田舎町

A rural town in Finland
(Originally read it as Town called Inaka…learn something new every day)

ソレは突然 扉をノックしてはいってきました
There was a sudden knock on the door, then someone entered.

Page 5 (ebook pg 7)

ありがとうございましたー
Thank you for your service (based on context)

よいしょ, 今日も一日働いたなぁ
(yiosh from long day of work) Today was another long day working

Page 6 (ebook pg 8)

お兄ちゃん もうかえってくる 頃だ
It’s around the time Older bro should be coming back

あったかい。。
Nice and warm

温まったら 仕 込みしよっと
If i’m warm, I should start preparations..

ん？お客さんの忘れ物なら？
Oh? Did a customer forget something?

（sf:コンコン）はーい 今行きまーす
(In response to knocking on door) On my way

Page 7 (ebook pg 9)

パタパタ Sound of foot steps

ガチャ door opens,

え。。。えっ？ 何 アレ。。。
Eh? What? Is that?

Page 8 (ebook pg 10)

ティナ ただいまー 雪結構 降ってきたよー
Tina, I’m home! A good amount of snow fell

ニコラスお兄ちゃん 丁度よかった. あれ見て
Nicolas, you came at just the right time! Look at that

わあ。。うしのスープ飲みに来たのかな？
Wow…. Did it come to drink our soup?

それは絶対 違うと思う！
I think thats super off

何か。。。ケサランパサランみたいだな
It kind of looks like ケサランパサラン doesnt it?

てさらん。。。？
Tesaran?? (questions like doesn’t know what Nicloas/bro is talking about)

Page 9(ebook pg 11)

大丈夫 それなら害はないやつだよ
It’s all right. If that’s the case (about it being ケサランパサラン), then its not harmful.

本当に。。？
Are you sure?

いいから本で調べてみて
Look, go find a book investigate and see

わかった えーーっと 辞書は。。 ケサラン。。。。
I understand. lets see…a Dictionary… (looking through a room at home for it)

Kerasan (looking through dictionary)

Going through this, it was interesting for me to see how much I felt like I needed to search up to check if I got the nuance of things

I was curious how yall felt about:

いいから本で調べてみて , which after some time I’m interpreting as “Look, go find a book investigate and see“ (which I think has more negative nuance/frustrated nuance that it actually is …what do yall think?

[hotdogsuplex]

@Tonitaco

Could you think of this as like ”I got this so you go look it up”？

I’ve never seen it used like that, but given that Tina and Nicholas separate right after he says that, I suppose it’s not completely out of the question.

@StevenSB

I’ll be honest, I don’t really get the title, either. At least, not the なにがし part.

We see the deal with なにがし in week three,

but if anyone doesn't want to wait

Kesaran is the little puffball guy, and he has two names, ケサラン and なにがし. He’s referred to with both throughout the series.

[JupiterJesus]

I figured it was just 某, taught at level 60 https://www.wanikani.com/vocabulary/某 as “something/someone or other”. I just assumed he’s a weird little freak who can’t talk so they don’t know his name, so they call him “that thing”.

[JupiterJesus]

いいから

I don’t have much experience with the word, but it literally means “since it’s fine”, so it sounds to me like he’s dismissing her concerns. He’s telling her it’s not dangerous, she’s like… Really? (sounds unsure), and he responds “Look, it’s fine, stop worrying about it and go look in the book for more information.” It sounds pushy to me, and he is the older brother…