Definitely agree that answering questions has forced me to properly learn some things that I kind of just understood but not the logic behind it.
But also as Gorbit said, I’ve also been corrected a couple times when trying to answer.
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I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, either, to be honest. I’ve made mistakes when answering questions that got corrected as well. That’s the benefit of the clubs and having higher-level readers hang out in them as well. I don’t know about you, but I tend to remember quite well the things I’ve been corrected on. 
Obviously, I’m not saying that one shouldn’t always try and give the best answer they know how, but hey, it’s a pretty common adage on the internet that the fastest way to get the right answer is for the wrong one to pop up first and have it be corrected. At least here, everyone is pretty friendly when they correct mistakes. 
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Fun fact, it’s called Cunningham’s Law
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Thanks for the encouraging replies everyone <3
I actually already bought them and with quickly browsing through it, it also felt to me much much easier. So I’ll definitely will take part in that one 
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Kinda off topic, Suggestion to try something else
I just finished another Absolute Beginner Book Club read, Happiness, and wow I actually finished it in less than a week 
I think that Ruri is tough because there is so much dialog, in comparison, I would say that the whole volume 1 of Happiness has as much dialog as one week and a half of Ruri 
and half of the dialog is “大丈夫?” 
So maybe you could try that for something less discouraging. Still gets you a nice introduction to reading manga, slang, and so on, but much lighter on the text. Also the vocab sheet is extremely complete, even has the onomatopoeias, super useful to get familiar with them!
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i agree with @Akashelia who recommended Happiness! i just started it and it’s been a breeze compared to Ruri Dragon. Chi’s Sweet Home is also a good recommendation, it has a book club and aside from Chi’s baby talk speech (which you’ll pick up on the more you read), it is immensely easier than Ruri Dragon. It was the first manga I completed, and has motivated me to push through Ruri Dragon! Happiness has also been helping me push through Ruri Dragon, having something easy to read in between Ruri Dragon reading sessions is very refreshing.
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@Akashelia @Kikikois
Thanks for the suggestions! I will check them out.
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Seems like Happiness Vol 1 is free to read on Amazon JP until April 20th also. I think I will look into reading the first Volume too
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As info for anyone who is interested: It’s the same on bookwalker. The first three volumes are free until 20. April. I guess I gonna join and read them while they are free
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The only thing with Happiness is that it is depressing af lol. I didn’t want to continue after that first vol, the vibes were too freaky
It is sort of reassuring that something that heavy is still readable by relative beginners
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Those books just get darker and darker. Really, truly disturbing content. An entertaining easy read though I guess if you’re ok regretting a few more images in the mental vault. Only 10 volumes too. I would actually also recommend the series as a whole. even if maybe it doesn’t sound like it
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I went ahead and ordered the whole set of Happiness mangas 
Thanks everyone for the suggestion.
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Hehe nice. I’m a volume 3 now and really enjoying it 
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Does it get more difficult over time? Volume 1 had a pretty odd difficulty curve.
Beautiful chart to illustrate the difficulty curve:
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It’s only difficult each time they speak, which is not a lot, mostly they only say 大丈夫 or どうしたの and then plenty of pages with no dialog at all
But when they do speak I find it easier than Ruri, it’s shorter sentences with not that many clauses in one sentence
Nice drawing skills by the way
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So basically never, got it
I’ve bought a drawing tablet specifically because I was teaching so many people through a discord call, that it was just worth it. So I obviously went and drew this with a trackpad.
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Not easy to find a page with text in the manga, here’s a heavy dialog example:
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So I was really feeling confident before this section after finishing chapter 1 this morning and finding the later half relatively easy, but I guess that was decieving since so much of that was different characters repeating the same questions. This content was definitely much harder, and probably on par with when I started on week 1.
Question time:
p63
- What is with that 出なぁい? Why isn’t it just 出ない? I couldn’t find an explanation for that little ぁ anywhere, nor does assuming it’s a badly scaled extra あ help either. My best guess is that it’s meant to represent Ruri’s voice wavering after the sneeze? My IME didn’t even want to type that until I went kana by kana.
p68
ーてか何でピクニック気分なんだよお母さんは
Not quite sure I get why it starts with てか here.
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p63
Listen to it in the voice over video: https://youtu.be/PIuIZEVY9p8?t=14
These are usually meant to show an extended sound, and are definitely just a way to transcribe actual speech.
FYI, in an IME, you type them with either xa or la, and that’s true for all small kana.
p68
It’s pretty much “I mean”
“I mean, why did you feel like having a picnic today?”
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