極主夫道 | Week 1 Discussion

So I’ve looked through the first chapter and the thing I’m stuggling most with is grammer. When you guys notice an unknown grammer point, how do you figure out what it means? I’m preferably looking for free online sources as that would be the most convenient.

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I usually use the Bunpro grammar index as a starting point to figure out what the exact grammar point I’m stuck on is. Their explanations are a bit short though (and at least partly behind a paywall I think), so from there I either check Tae Kim or just google something like for example ‘から grammar’ to get a more in depth explanation.

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This comment I made over in the ABBC has a number of resources that I use when searching grammar. You can skim past the explanations and just check out the links for yourself, if you like.

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If you have questions pertaining to this particular book, it might be helpful to ask some questions here because a lot of the dialogue is not standard Japanese so you might have trouble trying to use the usual sources. We may be able to help “translate” the sentence or phrase from kansai ben to standard Japanese before you look up the grammar.

Speaking of grammar, on page 30 upper right, 何で俺飯食ってんの? I’m probably missing something obvious here but what does the ってん mean? I’m getting confused as to whether the てん here is kansai ben meaning た or something else.

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食ってるの

shortening 〜ているの to 〜てんの is a pretty standard colloquialism

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On that note, this thread might be of some use to you. It lists some of the more common contractions that you’ll come across (and likely covers pretty much everything we’ll see here).

However, for a (much) larger list of contractions.

List of Japanese Contractions | Japanese with Anime

(Thanks @Daisoujou for posting these in the ABBC!)

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@theghostofdenzo @MrGeneric Ah, OK.
This kansai ben thing is making me overthink everything. :exploding_head:

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I started ‘reading’ this Manga a couple of weeks ahead, although I only got halfway through - that is; looking at the pictures, reading the hiragana and any kanji I knew - (without knowing most of the words meanings).

And I just read the first chapter again today, alongside the vocab sheet - I understand so much more, thanks guys!

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I’m done with Chapter 2. Major warning - do not read when hungry :bento:
Also funny how the main character says only couple of sentences, he is really a man of few words.

Chapter 2 translation

19.
いやぁチョロい
Well, it’s easy
売れる売れる!
Sale! Sale!
ここらは年寄りが多いからな // カモ easy mark, sucker
Because around here are many senior citizens aka easy marks (furigana カモ)
二束三文だぞこんな包丁
These kinds of knives are super cheap.
20.
ピンポン
Ring-ring
お忙しい所失礼しますぅ 私瓜田と。。。申しま[す]。。。
Sorry to bother you when you are busy. My name is Urida.
22.
お。。。えっあ お取込み中でした?
Oh… Were you in the middle of something?
え。。。あ これ?いやいや
Ah? This? Nah, it’s nothing.// Not at all
ちょっと捌いとったもんで
I had to deal with something//I was just cutting meat// Word play :slight_smile:
23.
俺もプロだ
But I’m a pro!
別にびびっちゃいねぇぜ?
Nothing to be scared of.
じじ実は
As a m-m-matter of fact // salesperson stutters a lot here
い今我が社の商品をご案内させてもらってまして。。。
Let me show you the products of our company…
ほー包丁か // ヤッパ
Hmm, kitchen knives? // ヤッパ - the guess it is yakuza knife
ヤ。。。はい
Yes
現物は今あるんか?
Do you currently own such products?
お?
Huh?
24.
こちらの包丁職人が一本一本丁寧に仕上げておりまして
The artisans carefully crafted these knives one by one
どんな。。。物でも
(What kind of …never mind)
簡単に。。。切れます
So that the cutting is very simple
ススススタイリッシュ
and s-s-stylish
25.
所で
By the way
最近ここらで二束三文を高く売りつける詐欺が流行っとるらしい
Recently, around here there is a trend to sell cheap knock-offs for a high price.
試してぇぇか?
Wanna try?
ちょっと
I beg your pardon?
28.
これは!
Here you go!
ハンバーグプレートや
Hamburger steak [dish]
29.
このハンバーグ派手じゃないが。。。
This hamburger steak may not be the most presentable but…
魚のすり身を使ってるから口当たりが優しい。。。
because I’m using the fish paste, the taste is tender.
それに合わせて少し味の濃いクチャップライスそして素朴な付け合わせ。。。
Besides, in addition there is a little bit of intense flavor of “kuchappu” rice and also unsophisticated garnish.
懐かしいなぁ
I feel so nostalgic…
故郷を思い出す
Reminds me of my hometown.
30.
何で俺飯食ってんの?
Why am I eating?
包丁関係ねぇし
No relation to knives
でもこの人なんか怖いし
But this person is someone scary.
帰る
I should go home.

One non-WK kanji: 捌 handle, deal with. Vocab: 捌く to deal with, to prepare (meat or fish) for cooking.

Questions:

  1. Did anyone figured out what is クチャップライス (rice with ketchup?)
  2. More seriously, there is one longish sentence where I had to go by intuition and ichi moe and deepl
    Page 25
    最近ここらで二束三文を高く売りつける詐欺が流行っとるらしい
    If anyone can break it down, much appreciated.
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I’ll do my best

Page 25

最近ここらで - recently, around here
二束三文 - dirt cheap (things) - (I think)
高く - expensively
売りつける - to palm off
詐欺 - fraud
二束三文を高く売りつける詐欺 - fraud where dirt cheap things are palmed off for a high price
流行っとる - is popular (the とる ending is a kansai-ben thing indicating ongoing state)
らしい - seems like

Putting it all together:
最近ここらで二束三文を高く売りつける詐欺が流行っとるらしい - “Recently, around here, it seems like there’s a scam going around where dirt cheap items are palmed off for a high price

If anyone thinks I’ve got something wrong feel free to correct me

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It’s ケチャップライス, and yeah, pretty much just rice with ketchup (and other stuff) mixed in.
image

I made omurice once from a home cooking cookbook (with a hamburger recipe similar to what Tatsu makes here), and it involved mixing ketchup and bacon and stuff in with the rice. Ended up really tasty! (even if I completely failed the omurice-assembly stage…)

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Today I learned that apparently this isn’t just a common thing everywhere. :sweat_smile:

My family always made something similar growing up, though we used more tomato sauce/tomato paste and only mixed in a little bit of ketchup (it turns out much too sweet, IMO, if you use too much). We would also would throw in some green peppers and onions, and a bit of garlic. My grandmother always just called it “red rice,” as opposed to “ketchup rice,” but they seem quite similar. I haven’t had it for quite some time… Maybe I’ll have to try and make some here soon!

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Ooh, please ask here! Asking your grammar questions helps other people who maybe didn’t even know what to ask, and there are plenty of members who love explaining what they know.

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Kenzo already explained the ってんの, but I wanted to add because I didn’t always know this that:

食っている

Is くっている

食う(くう) is a manly/crude way of saying 食べる.

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Thank you very much!

Oh boy, I mistyped ク instead of ケ and it completely threw of google, I was how come no results in images and cookbooks :woman_facepalming:

Well, you can eat almost anything with ketchup, especially when hungry.

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I’ll break this part down a little more:

流行る (はやる) to be popular (dictionary form)
流行っている (はやっている) to be popular
流行っておる Kansai version of the above.
流行っとる abbreviated version of the Kansai dialect.

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:nauseated_face: Sorry but I need to object here… this sweet stickiness completely throws me off. Tomato sauce, on the other hand… :grin:

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Some comments

I actually read this as being spoken by Tatsu, but now I’m not sure anymore. I thought that he was asking the salesman “Do you have the actual product with you at the moment?” and that the お was a slightly threatening (isn’t he always threatening?) ‘ey that he adds at the end.

This might also be 試してええか (= 試していいか) - is it okay if I try them out?

Small typo at the end (should be 帰ろ).

This was my favourite part with the sales guy enjoying the food so much, but ending with “why am I eating this??”. And Tatsu really is quite 怖い looking in that last panel :joy:

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I’m pretty positive it is spoken by Tatsu also, fwiw; the salesman speaks fairly politely (out loud) the entire time, and this line is not polite speech. I also read it the same way you did.

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Ah yes, good point. The politeness vs the slurring makes it pretty clear who the speaker is. I guess that also applies to the 試してええか. It’s not the first time in a manga that I’m unsure about who’s talking whilst the speaking style should have tipped me off (use of male vs female speech is another example of something that often can be used to determine who is speaking, but I’m just not attuned to it enough yet).

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