No, it shouldn’t be that difficult for them because they are immersed in a language that uses this system. The same is for any language, native learners don’t learn explicit rules to these things, so even defining the meanings for some of these words isn’t down to a science.
@seanblue I haven’t read through the whole book myself because they’re just a lot there. I’ve decided to use it instead as a reference book for the time being.
@trout it’s a huge challenge because many dictionaries do not define these words, or the definitions are incomplete.
@damienneil English has it’s share of onomatopoeia as well as some mimetic words (words that define conditions, etc.). It wasn’t until recently that I realized native English speakers use quite a few of these words in normal speech.
It’s nice that she’s writing to her parents, and not surprising that she’s only talking about the good stuff that has happened so far. Though I wonder if she did mention the hijinks that happened with Jiji and the stuffed animal cat. It’s not expressly bad (compared to the people spouting stereotypes).
Quick question about「こんど、ジジのすました顔を絵にして送ります」.
Is the meaning of こんど here “shortly; soon; next time” as in, Kiki will send a copy of the picture the artist is making of her and Jiji next time she writes to her parents?
To those that have the red book, any chance they included the artist’s picture of Kiki and Jiji? The blue book doesn’t have any pictures but it would be really cool to see it.
I interpreted as next time. Alas, the challenge of reading books that substitute words commonly written in kanji in kana. When trying to confirm their meaning, that since of ambiguity is certainly not my favorite.
Yeah, I could use some more kanji. There have been a lot of words in the book that I didn’t recognize in kana but would have recognized if they were in kanji.
Yay, made it! =D
Was afraid I might have to skip parts of the chapter to catch up, but made it on the “final” day so to say (to not fall behind at least)
If you think Kiki’s Delivery Service has been drastically changed, you should read Howl’s Moving Castle. It’s so different that I hardly consider them the same plot, not unlike what happened to The Hobbit, frankly.
Fell asleep early yesterday. Luckily, I hadn’t had any real questions regarding the last page-and-a-half of chapter 3. That said, if I’m only going to allow myself the one cheat day per week, I’d better make sure not to miss today completely. So, from the first ~page and a half of Ch. 4:
かあさんのコキリさんのつくてえくれたおべんとう… …ベッドのはじにぼうっとすわったままですごしてきました。- Phew, this one was nearly half a page! Sorry for cutting so much of it out. I think I’ve got a handle on it, but… By my understanding it’s saying that Kiki has just been on the bed slowly eating the rest of her bento and butter bread without much appetite.
わけもなくおびえてしまうのでした。- Kiki had no reason to be scared? This does seem like a sudden turn after the optimistic ending of the previous chapter, but I’d say she had enough of a scarring experience.
