After reading that chapter I need some ワイワイワイン🍷!
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One question please meow~
Page 92
I’m having trouble figuring out what 何留 means… 留 doesn’t seem to a counter, and the two meanings I can find in jisho don’t make much sense (Russian ruble? Stationary?)
Any help is appreciated!
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I think this is based on 留年 meaning ‘repeating a year’. It seems to be used as a counter for 'years repeated. ‘How many years have you repeated (to be of age in high school)?’
This question used the term 何留, and the answers seem to confirm that.
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That explains everything. Thank you!
Had to read four chapters in a row, but I did it! Yomikawa’s tree metaphor monologue gave me a headache, both because of how difficult it was Japanese-wise as well as metaphor-wise. At least I understood what Shimeji didn’t (pretty girls read books!).
I loved the shopping mall chapter. The egg’s physics explanation, the make-over (kinda) scene, and the ongoing joke from the previous chapter of having theories about everything. I have one quick question from that chapter:
On page 80
EDIT: Just in case someone saw my first post, I realized I was misreading 脱 as 説 just after I posted the question! 
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たち does not only mean “multiple of the same type” but also “and those who belong to”; (e.g. 私たち does not mean “multiple instances of me” but “we” in the sense of “I and my friends”, for example).
In this case this means going shopping with the whole family (where only the mother is being singled out and mentioned).
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Ooh, okay, thanks! So Majime doesn’t have several moms 
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I’d go as far as saying the latter is the only “real” meaning, and the former mainly exists as a misunderstanding of learners…
not finished the last chapter, but dropped in to say that I wasn’t expecting a topology lesson going in 
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Although I must say that 犬たち rather evokes an image of multiple dogs and not that of a dog and its owner to me - but maybe that’s one of the learners’ misunderstandings as well 
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fair point, but it’s still talking about a particular group an 犬 is part of (which you assume is multiple 犬 due to lack of context) rather than how the plural “dogs” works, for instance…
I guess that’s pretty subtle though
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Yeah, that sounds plausible. I’ll keep an eye out for it from now on 
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looks like it’s even more subtle than I thought, and depends on stuff like empathy and uchi/soto as well 
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For what it’s worth Dictionary of Japanese Grammar breaks it down like this. So maybe 犬たち (technically) isn’t even a proper formation? 
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Between this and 日常 you’ve sent me down a highly interesting and questionably useful Imabi rabbit hole.
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glad to hear it. have fun 
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Chapter 19: 穴ほり機
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I love that last panel! I think I know where we are going in the next chapter…
Having managed to understand the parts about thermodynamics, I feel a bit embarrassed that I didn’t really get what happens at the end of the first page - page 97:
The conversation goes: Today we are going to build a perpetual motion machine. What’s a perpetual motion machine? It’s an engine that moves for ever. I see.
Then big sister (I think) says - With that, do you understand?
Majime then says: えっ違うの？
Shimeji replies: 合ってるよ
How did others understand those last two sentences? I presume Majime is saying, “Er…no?” but not sure what Shimeji’s response means. Perhaps “that fits” or “that’s correct”?
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Not very confident myself, but my interpretation is that the conversation goes like this:
- Today we are going to build a perpetual motion machine
- What’s a perpetual motion machine?
- It’s a machine that perpetually moves
- Oh, I see!
- それで納得するのか (You are satisfied with that explanation!?)
- えっ違うの？ (Eh? Is that not what a perpetual motion machine is?)
- あってるよ (It is).
I believe the joke here is that Yomikawa’s explanation of a Perpetual Motion Machine just uses the same words “Perpetual” “Motion” “Machine” - it doesn’t really explain much. However Majime for some reason seems to be satisfied with such explanation, which surprises the others. Majime misunderstands this surprise, and thinks she has failed to understand some part of the explanation.
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I have two questions.
What to make of この世界の原理に on page 99? And what to make of 自分で掘りたいんなら自分で掘るって言うでしょ on page 109? In both cases I understand vocab and grammar and still don’t know what it means 
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Page 99 - I read この世界の原理に… as big sister continuing her science talk. Just a fragment of a sentence - “The fundamental truths of this world…”
Page 109 - They are discussing why teacher seems dispirited, and consider it’s because she doesn’t have a hole to dig any more (the machine is doing all the work). Shimeji feels bad for asking her big sister to help, but remembers teacher had said “どうしても” - do whatever it takes.
Majime replies - 自分で掘りたいんなら自分で掘るって言うでしょ. I read this as: “If you want to dig it yourself, then maybe say, ‘I’ll dig it myself’”
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