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Grammar Sheet
Discussion Guidelines
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Participation Poll
I’m reading along
I had already finished this part before the thread was posted
Definitely struggling a bit, but some weeks’ pages are harder than others… the last 2 weeks especially for me.
That’s kinda what I expected though. Going into this as a beginner (N5-ish level grammar) seemed like it would be punching above my weight. But, I’ve learned a lot along the way with all the lookups I’ve had to do, plus the helpful discussions here. Overall I enjoy that. And when I do get a panel that I completely understand with zero lookups, it feels good.
The manga itself is a charming story so far, both in actual content and the way it’s illustrated. Haven’t read this week yet but looking forward to it.
I’m really enjoying it! I have to stop myself from reading too far ahead. I think it’s a great manga for my level, there’s plenty for me to look up and learn but also the odd nice bubble/panel/page that I feel comfortable with without any aid.
This is also my first manga and my first book club and the only downside is that I didn’t find out about it sooner!! Thanks for everyone’s questions and helpful replies
It’s still quite difficult. I’ve noticed my reading speed has increased dramatically though. However, now I just read words that I don’t understand faster!
I love it, the art is wonderful and the story is fun to read. I’m struggling to find the right amount of energy and time I should put into this book club, since it’s my first one!
I tend to want to take the time to understand each grammar point, every little sentence… and I think it’s great to do so, but I don’t always have the time and energy to do it, so I’ve been doing 2 weeks at once twice in a row… I think I would rather go one week at the time
So either it means I’m struggling a little too much, or rather I’m just pushing myself a little too much, and I could read more casually?
It’s really helpful to have a reading structure though, the weekly format is great!
It’s my first time on a book club and sometimes I find myself struggling with the exact translation or the grammar used on a sentence although most of the times I can understand them. I’m having a lot of fun on this new experience, this kind of practice is making me review all the things I’ve already studied so I think it’s extremely useful.
Also the help I’ve been receiving and the way everything is so well organised is I’m really thankful, and also glad I can now read along (winter break helped a lot haha).
The manga is very nice, I love the drawing and I feel the story so wholesome
Now it’s time to read week 7 pages (i didn’t know the thread was already up)
Well, I’ve already read the pages from week 7. It felt easier than the previous part of the manga also added new words to the excel, and already found all the answers I needed searching on google. I’m slowly getting used to this
Same boat as you @Marriachan, I usually can understand the sentences but it’s often a struggle to push deeper into the grammar haha. But also it’s really good and motivating to see all that grammar we learned outside of the textbooks! Also agree that this week’s feels really easy to read
That being said, I still have a question for this week
Page 74
I believe this is another grammatical form I haven’t studied yet here I don’t know how to break down ねばならんのぅ
I think I have this down but just wanted to check:
When Tamamo says わらわはすきじゃもん
Is she essentially saying 私のことは好きじゃないんだもの, i.e. [Haru] Doesn’t like me…
I got here after refreshing my knowledge on もん/もの so hopefully I used it correctly!
So by using もん (and her very sad face ) she’s conveying that she’s disappointed by this? (understandably )
Slight side note - I presume this is also kind of playing into the naivety of Tamamo that the author introduces in this chapter. So when Haru said (Page 75) 「ちがう！好きな人とって意味でー」Tamamo naïvely took 「好きな人」literally, thinking it meant that Haru doesn’t like her at all (or that Tamamo isn’t a likeable person), whereas Haru meant a crush/someone you’re romantically interested in. What do you guys think?
With 好き the target of the affection is always marked with が. So in this sentence Tamamo is doing the liking/loving of the unmarked target Haru.
The もん is generally used to indicate reason, excuse or dissatisfaction and is often childish/cute-sounding. She’s giving her reason for wanting to hold his hand here, makes clear that she was not mistaken and is clearly dissatisfied with the whole thing. I feel like in context “but” sounds fitting.
So what I think she’s saying here: “But I do like/love you.”
Between the ambiguity of 好き and her apparent naivety on romantic matters such as dating I feel like it’s hard to say at this point whether she understood it to mean “You do this with someone you like” (which she does) vs “You do this with someone you love romantically” (which she maybe does?).
Ended up going ahead and finishing the whole manga. It got so good at this chapter! Still going to hang out in these threads though! First Manga I’ve ever read (in English or Japanese). Thank you SO MUCH for this group!
My journey on this got a little bit winding. The first chapter was so smooth that I kind of felt I wasn’t learning much so I also joined another book club on BBC to fill that void haha but then that one was just A LOT MORE difficult there were pages wich i couldn’t understand a thing sometimes. Then I stopped both because of travelling, now I am just catching up with this one. The following chapters had more content to read and now I feel it just fine for me, maybe I rushed with that.
As for the story, at first it was a little bit weird for me because it seemed like the typical story when a girl just makes everything that a man wants, just seemed a pretty common story, but as I read on I’m starting to get attached to the characters, I think it’s a cute and nice slice of life.
There are also many things I dont understand when I read but since I am trying to catch up I am not stopping so much on that. I invited a pair of friends to join the club and we are reading along so that motivates me to keep reading too.
Thanks everyone that is posting questions here, answering and filling the vocab sheet, it’s helping me a lot. I want to finish this and overcome the challenge
I’ll be joining for the next reading of the ABBC so hopefully I will have second chance to apply all the things I learned here about my journey learning and reading.
I’m just a little bit lost with this よろこんでくれてる. I already read the てくれる explanation in Giving and Receiving Verbs: くれる, あげる, and もらう but still… Why is he using くれる? It’s like she is happy and that happiness is being given to him as favor…?.. weird, I’m puzzled. Doesn’t make much sense to me
While “favor” (either receiving it or giving it) is the most common way to translate くれる・あげる・もらう, you have to keep in mind that the original meaning simply implies that there exist some sort of benefit involved with the action being modified by these auxiliary verbs.
In this case, よろこんでくれてる means that he receives an implicit benefit from Tamamo being happy (that benefit, would be his own feeling of happiness or satisfaction). He’s implying that he’s happy that she’s happy - in this particular case (like you said), using the word “favor” doesn’t make any sense.
If he simply said よろこんでいる it would be a flat description of Tamamo’s mood (she’s happy), but there would be no implication of there being any benefit for him from that.
although most of the times I can understand them. I’m having a lot of fun on this new experience, this kind of practice is making me review all the things I’ve already studied so I think it’s extremely useful. 
I’m really thankful, and also glad I can now read along (winter break helped a lot haha).
also added new words to the excel, and already found all the answers I needed searching on google. I’m slowly getting used to this 
) she’s conveying that she’s disappointed by this? (understandably 
)
Thank you for the help!
there were pages wich i couldn’t understand a thing sometimes. Then I stopped both because of travelling, now I am just catching up with this one. The following chapters had more content to read and now I feel it just fine for me, maybe I rushed with that.
