獣の奏者 chapter 4, part 1 discussion

Japanese Language Reading
#1

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獣の奏者 Home Thread

Chapter 4, Part 1: カザルム王獣保護場、ジョウンの息子

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Start Date: April 25th
Previous Week: Chapter 3, part 3
Next Week: Chapter 4, part 2

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獣の奏者 chapter 4, part 2 discussion
獣の奏者 (Kemono no Souja) Home Thread
#2

What an interesting chapter. There were several sentences I didn’t quite understand, which I might go back to later. But the chapter was so interesting that I didn’t want to stop for too long to figure them out. And even with those sentences that I didn’t understand, it was an easy chapter overall. In some cases I went a page or longer without looking up more than a couple words, if that.

I’m really looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here. :blush:

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#3

tIt was a nice chapter. I like the character background and the relationtion between John and Eris. They are finaly back.

Usual I'm not sure about...

If I understood correctly, John was a teacher in a prestigious academy. He had two students, one nice and good but a peasant the other always lying but the son of a noble of something.(too lazy to find out what) They both pass an exam for the same job. The liar ask his father to go see John and tell him that the peasant threatening him to miss the exam. John did not believe him. The noble son killed himself but John believe he did it to put John in trouble. So John lost his job.

It’s really sad when John wants to go back but is hesitating, because of Enri. She also does not want to live without him but she wants to stay there.They found a compromise. I do wonder how Enri will interact with John’s family. His son didn’t seem to like her. She also doesn’t seem like she will be able to go to school because she is a girl. She seems to have a chance because of the job she wants.

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#4

Mostly right

Summary

They were both aiming to become bureaucratic officials or something like that. They both took the exam but the noble’s child was definitely going to fail, so they talked to John about it, to fabricate that the good boy cheated into passing instead. John believed they had so much pride that the son killed himself just to prove that they were right.

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#5

While reading this chapter I noticed several times 在る being used with living things and decided to check it in goo 辞書.

First of all, among other definitions we have: ６ この世に生きている。生存している。
More specific information about this meaning can be found at the end of the article in 補説 section:
古くは人に関しても用いたが、現在ではふつう人間・動物以外の事物についていい、人間・動物については「いる」を用いる。So the simple explanation is that it is just old fashioned language.

But after that there is also part: しかし、「予想外の参加者があった」「強い味方がある」など、人に関しても「ある」が用いられることがあり、この場合は人が概念化・抽象化した立場でとらえられていたり、所有の意識が認められていたりする。 So, as I understand this, ある can be used with people when they are referred to in an abstract way. Maybe not the way it was used in the context of this book, but I thought it was interesting.

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#6

I loved this chapter and I’m looking forward to reading about Erin at school
:nerd_face:

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#7

This didn’t feel like 23 pages! I’d say I liked it, haha.

Nice to get an easier chapter after the history lessons. :woman_student:

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#8

This was a personal history lesson. :joy:

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#9

I have several questions I need to post… but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. While this section was easy overall, there were still some sentences that I outright didn’t understand.

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#10

Huzzah! I was a few weeks behind for a while, but I finally caught up. The story ジョウン told this chapter did not end up at all how I was expecting.

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#11

One of my questions was going to be about 後悔させてやりたいがために because the が felt really odd. But apparently it’s a literary and/or older way of phrasing things. But it’s basically just ために・のために.

And definition #3 here, including the supplementary note. The note even gives それがために as an example.

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#12

Finished today with only a very slight delay :wink: and found the new events very encouraging! Good to hear that Erin finally opened up to John after four years, and told him the story of her mother and how she ended up at his place. Also, now we know why John has so many books!

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#13

There is also 〜んがために with basically the same meaning.

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#14

Her opening up to him now has something bittersweet. I really liked it! They did become family after all~ :heart:

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#15

Yes, I think this episode was very insightful for both of them. Also I found it interesting that she explicitly did not mention that her mother could tame the Touda with just whistling on her fingers. I’m expecting Erin to explore this skill more in the future :slight_smile:

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