Things have been hectic for me this past week since I moved. I’m catching up on all my book clubs today, and I just started reading without checking what the readings actually were
Me reading the first chapter:
Oh, this chapter’s pretty long!
Me after reading the first chapter and reading 2 pages of the second:
Wait, I should check where the readings end. Chapter 1 was long, so it may have been split up into 2 weeks.
Me after seeing I read all the way through week 5:
Welp, I guess I’m taking a break from this book for a while!
Once I saw in the schedule how many pages it actually was, I wondered why I didn’t catch on sooner that chapter 1 is way too much to even fit into 2 weeks, especially for the Absolute Beginner club.
Realized today that I had this artwork hanging above my main reading chair. It was fate for these two horned girls to meet! Though hopefully ルリ will keep hers attached…
Hi hi! I’m going to post my attempts at translating here, just for my own practice’s sake. So far it’s really fun, I love Ruri’s not-impressed faces. I am also going back and reading other’s posts afterwards since I know a lot of you will have addressed these points already lol.
p18
学校行くかあ: “I guess I’ll go to school…?”
やばやば: “Dang it!” - I feel like I often see やばい in the context of character going “oh no!” as they’re running late, but otherwise I don’t have a good sense for when it applies!
ユカもう来てるかな: “I wonder if Yuka has already come”
p19
よっし 間に合う: “Oookay, it’s time!”
やっぱ目立つかなあ: “I will definitely stand out”
p20
まあ生えてしまったもんはしょうがないしな
Okay, this one confused me a bit. “Well, since they’ve grown in already, it can’t be helped”. I parsed this one fine but I’m not familiar with しな . Note to self: search in thread later…
“Aren’t dragons, like, flying fantasy animals or something like that?”
“If my dad’s a dragon, then…whoa, what am I?”
p21
“Mom said “龍” first…what’s the difference (between that and ドラゴン)?”
“Maybe…Japanese dragons…like fish?” (I’m honestly not sure if these are related phrases, but I assume she’s wondering about e.g. if Japanese dragons are specifically the scaly serpentlike ones without wings)
“Ugh, stop thinking about it!”
“Heyyyy, Yuka!”
p22
ギリギリ。。。
信号全部青でよかった
“Phew…barely made it…thank goodness all the lights were green”
For those that come across the koi dragon thing and don't have a clue what's going on
There’s this Chinese legend, the waterfall legend, that can be read here.
Tl;dr for those that are too busy: There was a school of golden koi, and a waterfall that the demons made unclimbably tall. Most fish failed and gave up, but a hundred years later one koi, that persevered, got up it, and the gods as a reward, turned it into a golden dragon. Sorta like this:
Ok so I finished my initial read. Once again, the main difficulty is not grammar, it’s mostly working one’s way through all the the colloquialisms.
I wanted to maybe do a full translation this time to really see the grammar at play, but maybe I should do that on another book. I have that Totoro book that looks perfect for it.
I also realized that it’s usually not that hard to understand what’s being said, thanks to the context, once you get only the main words and the final particle / tone. Although I suppose that also means missing some more subtle meanings.
Once again most questions were already covered by @TeaDrinker3000 and the answers to their message.
I have a few questions remaining.
Page 21
Is this いってたな in the first panel actually a いって いた な (with the ending particle な ?)
Page 20
On page 20, for the しまったもん sentence. I understand the しまった meaning “to do by accident”, but what about the もん ? I don’t see what it is. Or is it actually two particles ?
It’s short for もの. In this case, not the grammar point that means “because,” but 物 (though, technically, these are related). Literally just a stand-in “thing,” for the horns.
I think that もん is this もの, which is a different entry from 物. I see definition 5 of 物 is reason though, so maybe that’s it. Although that’s a noun, and not a particle.
EDIT: Ignore me, I forgot to check the context before posting. I posted this based on the snippet, but based on the whole line, it’s definitely 物.
I just finished reading this week’s section and I’m happy to say it went smoother and quicker than last week’s. For my first Japanese language manga/book it’s going pretty well and I’m enjoying the story and art
(pg. 26 content) I thought it was hilarious when one of the boys in Ruri’s class was like “Wow your horns are sick! I’m gonna grow some too!” and the other boy was like “How are you gonna do that??” Lolll
Can someone help me understand what’s happening with this verb on page 26?
Pg. 26
「俺もツノ生やそ」- I’m just not sure what’s going on with 生やそ. From this thread I can tell that the そ is a sentence ending particle, but I can’t figure out this conjugation of 生える at all.