時をかける少女: Week 1 Discussion (Chapter 1)

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Chapter 1: 理科教室の黒い影

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Start Date: November 24th
Next Chapter: Chapter 2

Vocabulary List

Floflo

Pre-learn the vocabulary in the book here:

https://floflo.moe/toki-wo-kakeru-shoujo-tsubasa-bunko-ed/

Vocab Sheet

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
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First chapter wasn’t too hard. I was able to get the gist of it with just looking up a handful of words. I’ll try to read it again more thoroughly later in the week.

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That was fast :slight_smile:

Same - I got a bit of a head start. Did a once over to get the gist, now I’ll go back and make notes so that I can post questions!

the first chapter was the point at which i had to fight with the writing (top to down) a lot, and then, hiragana made me wonder. words such as 彼女 are written かの女, that was a bit surprising the first few times, but you get the hang of it.

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Dangit. It looks like my book’s not arriving in time :persevere:
I can read the first couple of pages on the amazon preview though and I could read all of it so I should be good to catch up pretty quickly.

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Newbie here! How long have you all been studying/what Wani Kani are you at that you can begin reading books?

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Hello!
I would suggest starting to read native material at around 20-30 (Or at least that’s what the guide suggests) At that point you should know enough words so that you won’t need to look every other word up in a dictionary
But no matter what level you’re at on Wanikani you need to make sure you do grammar studies as well ^^ Otherwise everything will just be random Japanese sounds

That being said, if you already know the grammar you can read native material at any level. It just might take a bit longer because you’ll be needing a dictionary a lot. Before I even discovered Wanikani I read manga and I was fine :smile:
Welcome to Wanikani by the way :crabigator:

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I haven’t received my book yet either, so I’ll start late (but, @Whologist, the amazon preview is a good idea! Maybe I’ll do that too…)

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I’d suggest going through atleast N5 and N4 grammar first. After that you can technically read any book, you’ll have to look up tons of words though if you’re just starting, which can get frustrating. So ideally, I’d say atleast level 10 before trying a manga and around 20 for a light novel. It’s not like you won’t find new words then. A person who’s level 60 said even he had to look up many words every page in a certain light novel.

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I absolutely second that. 6000 words from WK might seem like a lot, but it’s totally not. (Well, it’s huge, but there’s more to learn, lol)
Wow that came out kind of nonsensically but I think I got my point across

I just made an account on FloFlo and read through the filtered list of vocab. Filtering out infrequent words, WK words, duplicates, etc. it says I have 332 unknown words. I don’t think I quite understand all that it’s doing with filters and stuff yet though

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I suppose I’ll start off the questions :stuck_out_tongue:

理科教室の黒い影
Kadokawa Page 7 (1)
「そうかい、すまないなあ」I have no idea except すまない is casual すみません. I’m not sure who’s talking either

ぼんやりのようにも見えるし、なにを考えているかわからない、きみ悪さが感じられるときもある。My attempt at translating: Because Kazuo appears to be absentminded, and you don’t know what he’s thinking, -----------. I don’t understand that last clause at all, and I’m not sure of the usage of も in the first one.

Kadokawa Page 8 (2)
吾郎は胸をそらしていった。まっかにふくらんだ顔のため、しょっちゅうりきんでいるように見える。
Attempt: Gorou puffed out his chest. Because of his red face, he often appears to be bluffing.

「芳山くんは、まるでぼくたちを、赤んぼうみたいに思ってるようだぜ。」
This one was tricky but I think it’s: Yoshiyama seems to think that we’re just like babies/children <EDIT: This is the correct translation>

一夫は、夢みるような目つきのまま、ぼんやりとそういって、のろのろと手を洗いつづけた。
Attempt: Kazuo, his eyes remaining dreamy, said so vacantly, and slowly continued washing his hands. <EDIT: As is this>

Thanks in advance d(^^)

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It may be confusing and hard to look up in a dictionary because it’s partially in kana, but きみ悪さ is actually 気味悪さ (きみわるさ), the “noun-fied” version of 気味悪い, which means something along the lines of “creepy”. So that last clause is just saying that there are times when you feel some creepiness from Kazuo.

That’s how I see it too.

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I think it is using the word きみ that means feeling/sensation. 悪さ = badness, 感じられる = can be felt/is felt.

There are also times where a bad sensation can be felt.

@sigolino beat me to it!

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@sigolino @Darcinon
That totally makes sense!

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Also, I forgot to mention it, but すまない/すみません isn’t necessarily used for apologizing. It can be used for thanking too, which in the context is more likely to be the case.

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[…]Because of his completely red, swollen face, it always seemed like he was straining.
I do not know a good translation for りきむ, straining is the best I get. That’s when you gather all your strength to do something (which gives you a face red and sweaty from exertion)

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かい can be a masculine/casual version of か, right? So I took そうかい = そうか. So basically just a confirmation that they understood. I think 和子 speaks right before and one of the boys is responding.

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I think かい is specifically for yes/no questions (though here it appears to be rhetorical anyway).

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I found this in a monolingual dictionary for 力む: 必要以上に力を入れる。力のありそうな様子を示す。
So straining, or gathering more power/might/gusto than needed. So in this case Gorou is going over the top with puffing his chest out to hide that he likes/admires Kazuko from Kazuo, I think.

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