不可解なぼくのすべてを | Week 1 Discussion ♀♂

[Radish8]

Pages 5 - 16

Chapter 1

Start Date: 20th February
Next Week: Chapter 1 part 2

不可解なぼくのすべてを Home Thread

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Vocabulary List

FukaBoku Vocab

Please read the editing guidelines in the first sheet before adding any words!

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Discussion Guidelines

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[Radish8]

It’s one of those manga that only has page numbers every 50 pages DDDD:

[BarelyFragile]

Hope we’re all good at counting pages

[Radish8]

There is at least a number for page 18, so you’ll see if you’ve gone one too far this week

[NyappyTiramisu]

It actually took me until page 21 to notice it, I got waay too into it already haha

About the plot

At first I thought Tetsu was a teacher or random adult, so approaching someone outside the bathroom with a job offer creeped me out a bit. Well I guess it’s still a bit weird, I’m just glad they’re classmates.

[Sanluyene]

This might be the simplest thing, but I don’t understand how a negated and non-negated statement can mean the same thing. In reference to page 13:

“似合ってるじゃない!” and “似合ってるねえ～” are both stating “It looks good on you”, I believe?

[rodan]

It is confusing, isn’t it!

(joke explanation)

har har, get it? It’s… like that.
Seriously though, I’m with you and it’s easily confusing as a language learner.
A tip off here would maybe be that 似合う itself isn’t really negated, it just has じゃない appended.
I could be completely wrong on this part but if they were genuinely (and bluntly) saying it didn’t look good, I think they would be more likely to say 似合ってない

(P.S. I’ve already read this manga, but I enjoyed it and I’m happy to see a discussion about it!)

[Sanluyene]

I had a feeling this was exactly what I was missing. Thank you!!

[GhostMechanic]

Be me looking to start reading some native material as I am finishing Genki I. Sees the Beginner Book Club is starting a new manga in a few days and think well lets try it, it shouldnt be that hard. At worst I can do around 4 pages a day, so it should go smooth. 2 Hours and 5 pages later I am like… hahaha Ok I need to study.

So I will ask a few question that are probably really low level so pardon me here.

At Page 5 the little girl says 私もお願いごと、I understand the meaning but I was surprised by the ごと in the end, trying to look I found some info on nominalizers, but is it really this? I think I lost too much time on this.

Also at page 8 The boy says …やつあんまいね I couldn`t find the meaning of this part anywhere, maybe I am not looking that hard.

[NicoleRauch]

@GhostMechanic

So I will ask a few question that are probably really low level so pardon me here.

This is the beginner book club, so asking “low level” questions (whatever that means - I’ve encountered quite deep ones tbh) is its exact purpose

@GhostMechanic

At Page 5 the little girl says 私もお願いごと

That’s a word in and of itself: 願いごと - Jisho.org

@GhostMechanic

I understand the meaning

Pro tip: If you provide us with a quick sentence of what you understand, other people can help you uncover misunderstandings and other issues in case there are any
(of course it’s totally up to you, I’m not meaning you should do that if you don’t want to!)

@GhostMechanic

やつあんまいね

He is speaking quite colloquial, that’s why it’s hard to understand and to look up. I’ll break this down a little bit:

このトイレ使うやつ - people using this toilet やつ - Jisho.org
あんま - あんま - Jisho.org entry 2, colloquial for あまり - not many
いねー - colloquial for いない - don’t exist
から - that’s why

[GhostMechanic]

First Thank you!

@NicoleRauch

Pro tip: If you provide us with a quick sentence of what you understand, other people can help you uncover misunderstandings and other issues in case there are any
(of course it’s totally up to you, I’m not meaning you should do that if you don’t want to!)

On this it should be considering the whole phrase ママ私もお願いごと書きたい ー Mon please I also want to write on it.

@NicoleRauch

やつ - Jisho.org

So やつ can be used for people in general than?

[Aislin]

Re: About the plot

@NyappyTiramisu

At first I thought Tetsu was a teacher or random adult, so approaching someone outside the bathroom with a job offer creeped me out a bit. Well I guess it’s still a bit weird, I’m just glad they’re classmates.

I guess adults usually don’t look their age in manga so it makes sense to not be sure

And what do everyone think about protag using an accessible toilet? I have mixed feelings - on the one hand, there is no good solution when choosing one of the binary toilets, on the other hand, accessible toilets are specifically equipped with stuff for people with various physical disabilities, there’s extra room for caregiver and such.

[NicoleRauch]

@GhostMechanic

Mon please I also want to write on it.

If you follow the link for 願いごと in my previous post you will see it means “wish” (and not “please”), so in this case it’s rather “Mom, I also want to write a wish”

(the grammatically correct phrase would be 私もお願いごと を 書きたい but it’s totally normal to leave out lots of particles in short casual sentences)

@GhostMechanic

So やつ can be used for people in general than?

Yes, it means something like “dude” or “guy”. So it’s not the most polite way of referring to people

EDIT:

Plot Chat

@NyappyTiramisu

At first I thought Tetsu was a teacher or random adult

Yeah I totally thought so too! He looks so much taller and older than protag (who looks like 7 or something in the early drawings? I will never get into this art style I’m afraid) and then it turns out they are both senior high schoolers

@Aislin

And what do everyone think about protag using an accessible toilet?

I have absolutely no issue with that (as long as people are not unnecessarily blocking those toilets while others who need the special facility cannot use them).

@Aislin

accessible toilets are specifically equipped with stuff for people with various physical disabilities, there’s extra room for caregiver and such.

The extra room is actually quite nice And the other stuff is usually not bothering me even though I might not need it.

[GhostMechanic]

@NicoleRauch

If you follow the link for 願いごと in my previous post you will see it means “wish” (and not “please”), so in this case it’s rather “Mom, I also want to write a wish”

(the grammatically correct phrase would be 私もお願いごと を 書きたい but it’s totally normal to leave out lots of particles in short casual sentences)

Ok, I see at first I thought it was related to お願いします, but even looking at Jisho - お願いごと it just means request and that threw me out. So the お there is just a polite form like in the words お茶 and お弁当?

[NicoleRauch]

Oh I did not see that there is also an entry for the word including お
Yes, this is the same politeness prefix as in the examples you mentioned.

The meaning probably depends a bit on the context - if you request something in a business situation (I’m thinking restaurant or hotel or something) then “request” might be a better translation, but in our case it’s more like writing a letter to Santa Claus - I would not call that “request” but rather “wish”. Dunno why Jisho is so much more specific in this case.

[Aislin]

plot/art chat

@NicoleRauch

older than protag (who looks like 7 or something in the early drawings? I will never get into this art style I’m afraid)

I’m starting to worry I’m too far gone, because this art style seems natural to me. I only thought it looks cute

@NicoleRauch

(as long as people are not unnecessarily blocking those toilets while others who need the special facility cannot use them)

I guess what is bothering me is that you cannot know if you’re not blocking anything, because you don’t know what’s happening outside.
For people with disabilities everything is taking up more time already so I guess I sort of want to minimize queue for them as much as possible Maybe I’m overthinking this.
But sometimes it really can take up time. And sometimes people aren’t only using toilet for uh, toilet purposes, but also for mirrors and such. In a shared restroom, mirrors are outside of the stalls, but with an accessible toilet, everything is all-in-one (also because mirror/sink should be lowered for the wheelchairs).
But maybe it’s true that for now it’s a marginal problem.

[NicoleRauch]

More toilet chat

I can totally relate to your thoughts about „what if somebody appears right when I‘m blocking the toilet“, and sometimes I‘m concerned about that as well. But if I just use the toilet normally without staying in there for ages for fun, then I think that’s a waiting time that everybody should expect every now and then. I mean, there could (at the same time) even be two people with special needs, and then one of them would need to wait as well.

(But in my reality it’s rather the opposite, so I guess we are overthinking this a bit either way…)

[KlutzKaiju]

In page 7 panel 3, I have a question about the nuance of 事{こと} in the phrase

ぼくのことをわかってくれる友達

I see two ways to understand this:

1. a friend that understands me
2. a friend that understands that thing about me (as in, that special thing about me that no one understands)

The word こと makes me feel that the writer is referring to a specific thing about themself, and so I prefer #2. But am I reading too much into this? Is this just a colloquial way of saying #1?

[KlutzKaiju]

@GhostMechanic

Be me looking to start reading some native material as I am finishing Genki I. Sees the Beginner Book Club is starting a new manga in a few days and think well let’s try it, it shouldn’t be that hard. At worst I can do around 4 pages a day, so it should go smooth. 2 Hours and 5 pages later I am like… hahaha Ok I need to study.

Don’t worry! I’m even father behind than you . I’m only 2/3 through Genki 1 and on Wanikani Level 13. The only way to learn how to read is to start reading, right?

I spent nearly 30 minutes trying to understand the grammar of page 7 panel 3: ぼくのことをわかってくれる友達を下さい. But, wow, the time was worth it. When the cartoon lightbulb in my head finally lit up, I felt like I had gained a new super power: I can now parse the grammar of native sentences found in the wild (as opposed to spoon-fed textbook sentences).

I could have waited to begin reading this book until I had completed Genki 2 Lesson 14 (the lesson that introduces くれる), but… nah. When learning this way, by struggling with real sentences in a real story, I expect my learning retention to be much better than through merely studying Genki. (Not dissing Genki, btw, I’m still working to complete it).

[rodan]

@KlutzKaiju

I see two ways to understand this:

1. a friend that understands me
2. a friend that understands that thing about me (as in, that special thing about me that no one understands)

I would personally lean more towards interpretation #1, I don’t think it has to be a specific thing.

One pattern that comes to my mind with Xのこと is like, clarifying what some people are talking about.
Like:

A: blah blah blah bases loaded blah blah pitcher’s mound
B: (それは) 野球のこと？
( Is that baseball stuff? / “are you talking about baseball?” )

So I guess what I mean is “general stuff surrounding thing X” springs much more naturally to my mind for Xのこと than something specific. I think for the latter they would use a noun that is itself more specific, like 衷心 or 秘密 or something.

(disclaimer: not an expert, so I might be wrong)