Me three. Got the book four weeks late due to the 
virus , and since then I’ve only managed to stay a consistent four weeks behind lol. Turns out it’s quite a jump from Nyan Nyan or Yuru Camp!
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@Cathm2 and @nienque hard same on the catchup game haha. I’ve been powering through ~20 pages this weekend because real life made it hard for me to sneak in reading.
I’ve conceded on finally lowering my expectations for reading, haha. Not to say that this isn’t still valuable for me learning-wise, but I’ve taken more of a lenient approach that doesn’t involve meticulous parsing out of every sentence to make sure I have total comprehension. While that would certainly be nice, I’m learning to be quite happy with just getting the general idea of a phrase down and not necessarily worrying about getting stuff like conjugation right on the first try.
What really helped was that I finally buckled and have been using an English translation of the book to double check my answers, which keeps my pacing a lot steadier. I’d say 9/10 times I’m pretty dang close to getting the meaning spot on. It takes away a lot of the stress of being stuck on a single page for half an hour, and is honestly a lot easier than cross-referencing Jisho or ichi.moe.
That said, with meaning being less of an issue, syntax is now the main offender haha. A particularly notable one for me was on page 84, where Kiki is getting ready to deliver the birdcage. As she’s prepping, the prose is written as a list of itemized clauses:
キキは鳥かごの取手をほうきの柄に通し、ラヂオのすぐうしろにぶらせげると、「うしろからしっかり見ててね」と、ジジをほうきの房の上にすわらせました。
It struck me as odd to have Kiki’s instructions to Jiji written as dialogue instead of narrative prose, which is how the translation did it and just sounds more natural in English.
Kiki passed the broom’s handle through the bird-cage ring, hung the radio above it, and set Jiji on the whisk of the broom, telling him to keep a careful eye on their cargo.
I’d say I’m at a point now where, odd syntax aside, I can generally understand a phrase. I just don’t necessarily know how to construct phrases myself, haha.
OKAY BACK TO READING
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Hi @mintyfresh!
I read that as the first of the annoyance “needles” as far as Jiji was concerned. Because Jiji was directed to sit waaay back on the bristles of the broom… I think was like “[Uh uh] You have to watch FROM BACK HERE.” Then Jiji starts grumbling about “fancy fashion boy” up in the front, in the gilded cage…
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Oh yeah for sure, as far as intent and meaning behind that totally makes sense. My confusion was in the syntax, which was as a quote rather than descriptive prose of Kiki saying it.
For example:
John got his car keys, put on his jacket, and told his friend to hurry up, saying that they were going to be late.
vs.
John got his car keys, put on his jacket, “We’re going to be late”, he told his friend to hurry up.
Contextual grammar is still something I’m trying to wrap my head around haha. I’m getting better about thinking in Japanese rather than translating from Japanese into English (wherein I often make the mistake of doing so literally). This particular passage threw me for a loop just because I hadn’t seen things written this way before.
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Is it up in the front at that point, though? I think it’s behind Kiki at that point because
- Jiji can reach it.
- later, after they look for the dropped doll, it says キキはこんどは、用心して、鳥かごを自分の前にぶらさげ、おおいそぎでとびあがります。
Which suggests that hanging the birdcage in front of her is different than last time.
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I think it was behind Kiki, but in front of Jiji?
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Oh, totally. I see what you mean by “in front” now-- just in front of Jiji, who is in the way back.
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Oh, I see @mintyfresh. Syntax like that is sooo waaay over my head! I’m barely getting the verb forms!! お邪魔しました。 頑張りましょう。
@Wildjinjer, I agree with you, Jiji had to reach the cage for “hijinx to ensue…”
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Here’s a grammar questions fir someone with some serious knowledge.
On V2 page90, おソノさん says 「働きものだこと」what the heck is the だこと part?
I’d ask in the relevant chapter thread, so that the answer will be more easily findable for others (who knows, repeat club #2? 
)
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Fun fact, as I was reading your post, my spouse used that structure. Nice timing 
Anyway, it’s short for であること, so it’s a way to put emphasis on what came before. It’s similar to the English structure “what a …!”
Edit: didn’t realize we were not in the proper thread (cf @nienque’s post). Way to add to the noise, self
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え？I thought I was in the chapter 5 thread…
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Nope…this is the main thread.
welcome to book club 
cuz no one has ever done that before
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Week 9 - finishing Chapter 5
I. Am. On. Holiday!! Finally, finally might actually have some time to catch up on everything I’m behind on. Though, that sadly includes various “life things” I should probably prioritise first…
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Oh lordy I’m sprintin’. Hit Chapter 5 today, but I think that’s plenty of hustle on my part. Time to play some video games hahahaha. Planning on getting Part 1 down tomorrow, then catch up on my Yuru Camp reading…
Still, I’m very glad I took this book up. This has been a very challenging way to dive into more immersive studying, especially with a movie that’s near and dear to me. So far, it does seem like the movie has done a rather good job of capturing the original book.
There are a few differences I’ve noticed, like Jiji being more snarky, Kiki feeling much more childish, and some interactions being a tad more standoffish. These last couple weeks have been pretty event-focused as well, so I hope I get to see more scene-setting!
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Have you seen the original release of Disney’s dub? They gave Jiji several snarky lines that weren’t in the Japanese version (giving him lines when he’s off-screen or not facing the camera).
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Oh, I have seen the Disney dub haha. I actually think I meant more bratty than snarky. Jiji comes across as a lot more childish in the book.
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One of these days I’ll catch up and be current with the club’s pacing…
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