少女終末旅行 Home Thread (Beginner Book Club)

Me…I will be using it! :grin: Already have it printed out and scribbled on. I’m grateful that this exists…otherwise looking up everything would take away all the fun.

わかりました. I didn’t realize that at the time, but it did confuse me.

Hmm, I can add it but not sure the best way to translate it. There are so many variations…I’ll leave that to the experts for now (unless someone else already did it).

I agree…ugh the grammar I haven’t seen yet. I didn’t realize this when I looked at Jisho.

So here’s why I thought no big deal with beginner book club…

This came from the other Beginner Book Club post first post in Sept 2017. I started learning Japanese at the end of July last year and am just beginning to read native Japanese books and manga…that’s right on target…right?

Very different from what you are describing…I’m in no way complaining, just pointing out that maybe the main post should be updated on the other thread to say hey warning…yadda yadda yadda…whatever that is…

It’s hard to know when you are a self learner where you fall into different categories. Honestly, if I had seen I needed all N5 I would probably held off before starting this. However, I’m stubborn and I got through Ch1 so far kicking and screaming with the help of the spreadsheet)…so heck I’m going to finish this book…it may kill me but I’ll finish it :skull_and_crossbones: Besides if I wanted something easy to learn I would have started with English :rofl: So grateful it’s my native language…:wink:

I look forward to learning a heck of a lot from my Senpais!

I’m with you on this one!!! Spreadsheet FTW! (for noobs anyway)

Sadly this is always the problem…not enough time to get everything done we want to! Appreciate everything though!


Thank you everyone who responded…It wasn’t my intention to get everyone excited :wink:

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It’s really tough to add stuff like this to the spreadsheet. Most things are easy since they’re in jisho, but every once in a while you get something like this.

Maybe you noticed now, but there’s a Show Inflections link under verbs. If you click that it shows various conjugations, including しろ.

Yeah… It’s really hard to define what “beginner” or even “beginner to reading” means… And it got even more confusing when the Absolute Beginner Book Club was started. Unfortunately I don’t have a good solution for this.

Perhaps the main post should say something like “You should have a solid understanding of N5 grammar and at least some understanding of N4 grammar”? I wouldn’t want to scare too many people away, but that quote perfectly describes the grammar level I had when I started reading with the book club and I’ve done fine.

No worries, hopefully nobody was too mean to you! :slight_smile:

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There usually is…but since it’s a suru verb there wasn’t. It’s probably because I was tired and/or frustrated and couldn’t put it together but this is all that shows up for typical suru verbs…(which isn’t wrong… it’s suru…duh! )

But I thought all you 50+ folks were like total and complete experts in all things Japanese :open_mouth: I think I’ve been deceived :smile:

Yeah I don’t have a solution per say either so I can’t complain.

I agree and I like that…it would keep away those (like me) who jump into the deep end … but I’ve come this far now… I must do this!

Everyone was horribly mean…I’m going to take my toys go home quit Japanese all together… :wink:

I appreciate the thought…

If I let stuff like this get to me, I wouldn’t have made it through engineering school and there’d be no way I could have spent every day doing a little bit of Japanese even if I wasn’t in the mood to study for 7 months now.

That’s what makes everyone and this group so great…keeping everyone motivated and helping one another.

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My two cents for what it’s worth, but that was about where I was/am also and have been able to manage about 80% comprehension for both 夏目友人帳 and 時をかける少 without too much of a struggle. 夏目 was the harder of the two I think. I don’t think there’s any helping the occasional higher level grammar since it’s native material, but the books aimed at this book club seem to keep those to a minimum or at least isolated to shorter sentences… Usually.

I think if someone was considering joining, it might help to know that that’s a good basis? I think it’s possible to work through it with a lower level if someone was willing to spend the extra time to work through each sentence, but imo N5 with some N4 is “comfortable”, I guess?

Vocab is a completely separate animal (thank goodness for vocab sheets, floflo, and kitsune)

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Ah, my bad :sweat_smile:
You’d only have known to check the inflections of する itself if you already knew the verb was する. That’s not helpful now is it. :joy:

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Alright, I think I got it. New description is:

This book club is intended for people who are just beginning to read native Japanese books and manga, rather than for beginners to Japanese. To be comfortable reading with this book club, you should have a solid understanding of N5 grammar and at least some understanding of N4 grammar. If you’re at that level (or don’t mind putting in more effort), then you should fit in great. If you’re not at that level, check out the Absolute Beginner Book Club. If you’re well above that level, consider trying the Intermediate Book Club.

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:+1: Looks good to me. I especially like the links to the other clubs directly above and below us.

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I’m a fan of that description, @seanblue :+1:

@Voi, it’s a bit of a work-in-progress defining the two clubs :wink: I think the description we had before it was created worked reasonably well, and it’s not like we can dictate how the absolute beginners club describes itself. So we’ve kind of been feeling our way towards helping people choose between them.

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I was exactly at that point when I started reading 時をかける少女, so it looks perfect to me :+1:

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I took a peek at this last night and ended up reading the first chapter, and was pleasantly surprised how easy the dialogue was to follow and how much of the kanji I knew. Actually, I found it easier to follow than the first chapter of Yotsuba, probably in no small part due to the characters speaking in much clearer Japanese than all the childish phrases Yotsuba and her father use together.

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Hopefully I don’t forget to make the chapter thread on Friday. I haven’t had to make one in two weeks.

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Set a reminder on your electronic calendar - email / phone alert / etc

Now …If only remember kanji was that simple…

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Super excited to start this. Maybe I’ll jump in and start it two days early.

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Nooo, bad. No cheating.

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Oh wow it’s so soon already! I’m excited \o/

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Felt the need to look up the schedule again, just in case it changed.

Also feels like I need to make a plan for when exactly to read what, now. Book club first, I guess, for the sake of discussion. :thinking:

How are you guys handling book club + other/personal reading scheduling?

Oh, man. It’s already gonna be time soon? I better get cracking on my reading! :sweat_smile:

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Hmm, I usually prioritise reading the BBC pick first, on Saturday if I’m able. I’m also cough reading along with the Aria book club I may be quite far behind there so that’s my second priority.

I just try to get those done as early in the week as I can (both run from Saturday to Saturday) and then read other stuff if I have time. Which I never do at the moment :wink:

I prioritise those so that I can join in the discussion, as you say (it’s very motivational wanting to read the spoilered comments :grin:), but also because I really don’t want to fall behind.

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I usually prioritize book club reading so I can read the comments and discuss. But it also depends on my mood. Occasionally I get behind because I just felt like reading something else.

It’ll probably only take me 15-20 minutes to read a chapter of 少女終末旅行, so I’m not too worried in this case.

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Oh, I just remember about this, have you made one? Sorry, if I’m annoying, you just said that you might forget, so here I am :sweat_smile:

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