時をかける少女: Week 11 Discussion (Chapters 18 and 19)

Japanese Language Reading
#1

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Chapters 18 and 19: 西暦二六六〇年／意外な告白

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Start Date: February 2nd
Previous Chapters: Chapters 16 and 17
Next Chapters: Chapters 20 and 21

Vocabulary List

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Pre-learn the vocabulary in the book here:

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.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun!

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.

  • I’m reading along
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this chapter yet
  • I’m no longer reading the book
  • I’m skipping this book

0 voters

6 Likes
#2

image

:tada:

5 Likes
#3

When did THAT happen??

#4

Last week, right @Whologist?

#5

Yep :tada: :partying_face:
LMAO I love how surprised you both are :laughing:

(Also I’m out of likes)

6 Likes
#6

I voted for “I’m no longer reading the book” because I finished it. It seemed like the closest thing.

8 Likes
#7

That’s what @sigolino picks too. I wonder if I should add a new option for “I’ve finished the book”. :thinking:

6 Likes
#8

Some people might have already read the book before the book club too.

#9

I think that would be a good idea as it would help distinguish between people who’ve finished reading and people who started with the club but dropped out for whatever reason (no time/gave up/didn’t find the book interesting/etc.)

2 Likes
#10

Too be fair though, most of those people don’t vote in the poll. :joy:

5 Likes
#11

I pick that option for this reason, actually. Just seems to be the closest thing.

2 Likes
#12

In other news, I just dropped everything to grab my book so I don’t have to vote “haven’t reached this chapter yet”
Curse you resident evil…!

Edit:
There. Hmph.

8 Likes
#13

General comment about chapter 18 - pretty dense language with subject matter that is quite out there compared with previous chapters.

6 Likes
#14

Ah, so this is that chapter then. People who’d finished the book already mentioned that there was a really dense chapter toward the end.

2 Likes
#15

I think this was the hardest chapter yet. 19 had more back and forth dialogue so was a bit easier in comparison but still pretty hard to understand for me. I definitely need to go back and look up a lot of vocab I missed.

2 Likes
#16

I didn’t have much issues with these chapters, but am a bit confused about some colloquial phrases.

Near the end of chapter 18

でも、だからこそ精神と肉体とのつりあいがとれるわけだ。だってそうだろ？ 大学程度の学力がある赤ん坊なんて、気持ちが悪いだけじゃないか

With “だってそうだろ？” here, is he asking himself “Why is it so?” before giving the explanation?

The end of chapter 19
なんて、おませなんだろう！
I understand that this is some kind of exclamation expressing surprise, what are these words though? I guess it does not mean “precocious child Nandaro” like Jisho says, and google just returns 時をかける少女 references.

And a little bit before that:
じゃあ、いってしまおう。
Is he talking to himself again here meaning “Well, I’ll just say it!”?

Oh, and by the way, close to the beginning of chapter 18:
医者や科学者は、この状態に驚き、なんとかしようとして研究に研究をかさねた。
Here’s an explanation of the grammar if anyone needs it.

3 Likes
#17

It’s something like asking “you know what I mean?” in English. Translating more or less literally to understand this yields something like “Isn’t that the way it is?” with the だろ(う) being used to just ask the listener for confirmation to something the speaker already knows to be true.

Well, that is it, actually :joy: If I remember correctly, he is actually younger than her, so she has every right to say this to him when he just confessed to her out of the blue.

Pretty much, I think.

4 Likes
#18

If the なんだろう part is what is confusing you, it’s kind of like “What a precocious child!” or “Such a precocious child!” and she says this for the reason @sigolino said.

4 Likes
#19

:sob: I thought, if I could just get through chapter 17…

2 Likes
#20

Oh no, now I’m a bit afraid to read the chapters :DD

2 Likes