I mean I’ve read the whole 1st chapter so no worries about spoilers, but sure I’ll wait till then
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From back on page 11:
MrGeneric & TeaDrinker3000 quoted posts
This one threw me for a loop as well. Would it be phrased differently if it really was trying to say “well, you aren’t a half-human”?
An unrelated curiosity throughout the chapter: why use 龍 instead of 竜? My dictionary lists the former as a traditional or personal-name form for the latter, but given that, I’d have guessed the simpler form would be used to reference dragons as a species.
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It would work as far as I can tell. But you also would have the word 半人間 to mean “demi-human” pretty much. There’s also the word “竜人”, that would be specifically a half-human half-dragon hybrid. Neither of these would make sense in the context of course, but if you were to have a chuunibyou, you could theoretically say “あなたは半人間/竜人じゃない”.
They are mostly interchangeable, much more about the preference of the writer than anything else.
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Yes, because that would describe TROGDOR!
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I’m liking this manga pick already! I wanted to challenge myself a little bit by forcing myself to read through the whole section on my own first before looking up a lot of vocab and grammar stuff. It was pleasantly surprising to find out that I actually have a general idea of what’s going on just by trying to parse through the section on my own first. I know I’m missing some nuances by not fully understanding certain grammar and vocab yet (definitely a reminder to review my Genki grammar - looking at you conjugations and て-form things… 
), but I’m really enjoying the process thus far. As I have time during the week I plan on going more in depth with the parts I didn’t understand well on my own, so a big thank you to everyone who has already contributed such thoughtful questions/answers! I look forward to trying to keep up with everything in the thread this week 
It’s super helpful to have so many perspectives on everything.
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I think 龍 is more specific describing the chinese dragon and 竜 is more general and a synonym of the “trendier” ドラゴン (implying the eurppean dragon, at least from the google image searches).
Speaking of google 龍 has three times as many hits as 竜 and ドラゴン (306 million vs. 104/106 million).
This is all jsut my theory, no idea how correct it is.
I think the joke is that mom tells her the traditional, specific type of dragon and then simplifies it, as if she assumes Ruri does not know hte word, which results in the less-then enthusiastic reaction from the girl.
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“How” and “why” in this kind of sentence are kind of the same thing. It’s not “why” as in some kind of deep philosophical reason, more like cause and effect. And it’s not “how” as in the exact mechanics involved, but more as in “what led to this happening”.
So regardless of whether you translate it with “how” or “why” the question is the same, really - “what led to you having horns on your head?”
There’s a tendency to label European dragons as 竜 or ドラゴン rather than 龍 but there’s no hard and fast rule. See also this answer on Stackexchange. Both kanji can be used interchangeably according to whatever the author prefers.
The joke isn’t necessarily that her mom simplifies it so much as she’s just giving a synonym.
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Interestingly I found someone say the same thing on the yahoo forums, but then a google image search only resulted in long boy like snakes, all chinese, no fire breathing lizard
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Ruri thinks about the word in the next few pages next week, so maybe that’ll help/further confuse.
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I checked it out quickly, if you’re talking about the next few pages. She doesn’t seem to mention 竜 as far as I can tell
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Page 21, upper two panels, she’s reminiscing, albeit with mom’s kanji. It was more a general comment on the whole dragon thing, and I replied to you because you were the last one in the chain.
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Is it bad that I have to put most of this into ichi.moe? 
I’m trying but I’m only level 5 and the highest I’ve gotten on WK was level 10. I think I’m following overall between ichi.moe and the lovely spreadsheet you guys made.
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Have to start somewhere! I think it’s completely normal to have to look up almost everything at first. It gets a lot better very fast though.
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Ichi.moe won’t be a one stop shop to understanding a sentence either way, so as long as you do look at the actual words, their readings and meanings, and you don’t just try to suss out the meaning from the translations of each word, then you’ll be very fine.
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Not bad at all. Just keep in mind that ichi.moe is not perfect, and it can especially start to struggle with more casual sentences. If you notice weird things that you don’t understand, then always remember to ask for clarification here! It’s what the club is for, after all! 
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In this book club, the answer to any question that begins with “Is it bad that I have to” is “no” 
Glad you found a way to make it work for you! (And by the way, having to put everything into ichi.moe likely has less to do with your WK level and more with how much grammar you know and how much reading experience you have.)
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It’s normal! It’s exactly what is expected for the “Absolute Beginner”
I think people would have most trouble on the casual language of this book more than anything, so that might not work too well on ichi.moe
Just make sure you don’t shy away from asking your questions, if you scroll up you’ll see absolutely no one has a problem answering them 
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Time allowing, be sure you also check out the questions and answers earlier in the thread (if you haven’t already).
Even just one page’s material a day will help learn the grammar if you are unfamiliar with it or help you better understand it if you’ve learned it before.
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We all love and support you don’t worry you’re not going to go to japanese hell I promise
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Guys when I was doing my translating today, I only used DeepL once or twice and it was just for understanding nuance. I never thought a month ago that I’d be comfortable reading material without relying on ichi.moe/google translate/DeepL , but here we are!! Very proud of the progress
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