That could well be what the author was going for, now that I think about it.
This lead me to think that the many registers our characters use is one of the delights of this manga.
山田 speaks extremely respectful customer service Japanese, way beyond just polite 丁寧語. She is using 尊敬語 or “respectful language” patterns and set phrases like お返しになります.
田山 speaks in a much more relaxed, casual and direct way. Direct forms and even one さ-ender. It’s quite the contrast to 山田.
佐々木 seems to switch his register depending on who he talks to. With 山田 he uses polite language, but with 田山 he also seems to relax a bit and speak much more directly.
I’m really loving what I can understand so far. Even though this title is a stretch for me, there’s so much charm coming through. I’ll definitely ask any specific questions I come across but for now I’m having a nice time trying to read it on my own, reading the discussion here, and pretending I’ll absorb some knowledge through osmosis.
This was my second or third manga ever and my first book in Japanese. I read the whole thing in one (very long) sitting on a lazy day alone at home. I absolutely loved it. I’m dying to get the next volume now!
The announcement post for the book club is what inspired me to get it, as I have many fond smoking memories, and I feel like it was a massive confidence boost for me to start consuming native material as well as an eye-opening introduction to how much the visuals help a language learner compared to trying to read novels (which is what I had been doing!), so thank you, thank you!
I happened to see that book at the japanese bookstore near work. I saw that the reading club just started and was like “hey why not ?”. I’m currently waiting for ABBC Horimiya to start.
I started reading the first couple pages in the book… It’s kinda hard. I think I could do it, but the 15 pages per week will probably be a bit much. Oh well, maybe next time.
Have you also considered that you could read at your own pace too? Since the threads are posted on a schedule, you don’t have to open them until you’re ready. The spoiler system makes it easy to avoid bits even within a chapter that you haven’t read yet
Week 2 is here everyone! I’m really happy to hear so many people have been enjoying it so far. Week 2 is still only one chapter (and a little shorter at 14 pages), so don’t hesitate to join even if you started a little late!
For くれたりして, I could tell this was a conjugated form of “give me”, but nothing more… Might the た be related to “want to?”
Sorry if a basic question. This is my first book club, and I’m vacationing in Japan and happily found a copy of the manga, so thought I’d push myself a little!
Not really on solid ground here, but I took the ~たりする to mean that he’s wondering about the possibility of what he just said. Something like “she might be unexpectedly happy if I gave her this”.
Maggie-sensei has an article on たりする that briefly touches on ending a sentence with this pattern.
I’m slowly working through this in the background, but there’s a kanji on Page 7 when Sasaki is saying '…だろ今…’ but I have no idea what the kanji before だろ is. I can’t even find it anywhere. Jisho gives me similar kanji but not the same one. Any help would be appreciated.
Hello everyone! After much lurking I decided to join you for the read-along of this book club after all, even if a bit late. So for catching up:
Page 13
When 田山 says:
頑張ってお上品でいてね
Is this simply an encouragement like:
do your best (getting closer to 山田) and be/stay refined/elegant
Or is there possibly a hint of sarcasm as implied by this answer on HiNative?
I’m not even sure if refined/elegant fits as a word choice here, but that seems to be the most likely meaning going by the majority of results that come up doing a Google (image) search for お上品.
Finally starting this only a few pages in but I’m liking the vibe so far
pg 5: I cannot tell for the life of me what kanji this is
It’s not in the vocab sheet… unless it’s supposed to be 癒し again? But it looks like there’s the 糸 radical on the side so I don’t think so. Almost looks like 綺 but not quite (and 綺し isn’t a word afaik)
only a few pages in but I’m liking the vibe so far
