# 10 Minute Biographies - Chapter 1 (Absolute Beginner Book Club) **URL:** \ **Category:** Book Clubs\ **Created:** [November 5, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946 "2020-11-05T20:47:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![buburoi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/buburoi/32/333739_2.png) [@buburoi](https://community.wanikani.com/u/buburoi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 12:41pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/21 "2020-11-07T12:41:30Z")
I think I would translate and kanjify almost like you did. Just three things: I guess you forgot to translate なんでも at the beginning and も after 僕. And みる is usually not written with kanji when used as an auxiliary verb. ---
**Author:** ![Micki](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/micki/32/678994_2.png) [@Micki](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Micki)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/22 "2020-11-07T13:23:57Z")
> [@2000kanji](#): > > なんでも「どうして？」の子供が発明王に > A “why?” child becomes the king of inventors Thanks for sharing your translations. I guess if we include なんでも then we could translate it liberally as: A child who asks “why?” about everything becomes the king of inventors. . I love that Jisho specifically mentions Edison as an example when you look up: 発明王. ---
**Author:** ![joaopduro](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/joaopduro/32/307684_2.png) [@joaopduro](https://community.wanikani.com/u/joaopduro)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/23 "2020-11-07T14:46:00Z")
On page 12: Can someone help me understand what’s going on in these sentences: 1. やってるんだ 2. あこれたもんだ 3. うくんだろう I’m particularly confused by the usage of んafter verbs. ---
**Author:** ![2000kanji](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/2000kanji/32/310132_2.png) [@2000kanji](https://community.wanikani.com/u/2000kanji)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/24 "2020-11-07T15:03:39Z")
Here is p. 12 > **Summary** > > エジソンは、卵の上に座りました。 > Edison sat on an egg. > 一時間、二時間、三時間……卵は何も変わりませんが、エジソンは諦めません。 > For one hour, two hours, three hours … The egg doesn’t change, but Edison doesn’t give up. > すると、お父さんがやってきました。 > Thereupon, his father came along. > 「何やってるんだ。全く、お前の『なぜ』『どうして』には、呆れたもんだ。」 > “What are you doing? I’m totally exasperated at your ‘why’ and ‘how’.” > あるときは、「木は、なぜ水に浮くんだろう」と、湖で実験をして水に落ちたり、「小麦粉は、どうやって作られるの」と、工場を覗きに行って、小麦粉に生まれたり……。 > Once [he asked] “Why does wood float in the water” and he fell into the water when doing experiments in a lake, or [he asked] “How is flour made?” and went to a mill to see the making of flour. > 小学校でも質問ばかりのエジソンを、先生は、「おかしな子」と決めつけました。 > In elementary school, Edison was always asking questions and the teacher called him an “odd child”. ---
**Author:** ![2000kanji](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/2000kanji/32/310132_2.png) [@2000kanji](https://community.wanikani.com/u/2000kanji)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/25 "2020-11-07T15:08:09Z")
> [@joaopduro](#): > > んだ See [～んです・のです (JLPT N5) | Bunpro – Japanese Grammar Explained](https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/17) ---
**Author:** ![buburoi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/buburoi/32/333739_2.png) [@buburoi](https://community.wanikani.com/u/buburoi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/26 "2020-11-07T15:13:08Z")
> [@joaopduro](#): > > Can someone help me understand what’s going on in these sentences: > > 1. やってるんだ > 2. あこれたもんだ > 3. うくんだろう 1. 何やってるんだ。means What are you doing? It’s casual for 何をやっているのですか。You use the explanatory particle の to ask for explanations or explain stuff. 2. もん is short for もの, it’s often used to emphasize judgements or emotions. 3. This is like 1. You will find の or variations often in combination with words asking for reasons like なぜ and どうして. ---
**Author:** ![Ducklingscap](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/ducklingscap/32/273760_2.png) [@Ducklingscap](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Ducklingscap)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/27 "2020-11-07T15:19:34Z")
I didn’t know what that was either. I think your question helped a lot of there beginners too. There are no stupid question in an absolute beginner bookclub. No one expects a lot of knowledge from you or anyone else. So the majority of us is probably going to ask a “basic question”. ---
**Author:** ![Ducklingscap](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/ducklingscap/32/273760_2.png) [@Ducklingscap](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Ducklingscap)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/28 "2020-11-07T15:42:45Z")
> [@2000kanji](#): > > 工場を覗きに行って、小麦粉に生まれたり……。 I think you mistook うもれる (埋もれる) for 生まれる. Thanks for your translations. It helps a lot to have a translation available that I can compare to mine. ---
**Author:** ![buburoi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/buburoi/32/333739_2.png) [@buburoi](https://community.wanikani.com/u/buburoi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/29 "2020-11-07T16:10:05Z")
卵は何も変わりません If I interpret this correctly 卵 here is the topic but 何も is the subject. Therefore my translation would be more like: Concerning the egg, nothing changes/happens … 小学校でも質問ばかりのエジソンを、先生は、「おかしな子」と決めつけました。 Edison is not the subject but the direct object, that is modified by the part before it. My translation would be: The teacher called/scolded Edison, who in school too asked questions all the time, an odd child. 工場を覗きに行って、小麦粉に埋もれたり another time he was covered in flour because he went to peep at the mill ---
**Author:** ![2000kanji](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/2000kanji/32/310132_2.png) [@2000kanji](https://community.wanikani.com/u/2000kanji)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/30 "2020-11-07T16:20:02Z")
> [@Ducklingscap](#): > > I think you mistook うもれる (埋もれる) for 生まれる. Yes, I missed that one. ---
**Author:** ![Micki](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/micki/32/678994_2.png) [@Micki](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Micki)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/31 "2020-11-07T18:13:58Z")
> [@buburoi](#): > > 卵は何も変わりません > If I interpret this correctly 卵 here is the topic but 何も is the subject. Therefore my translation would be more like: Concerning the egg, nothing changes/happens … Page 12. I see what you are saying and I think yours is a more literal translation. But in natural English I would translate it like 2000kanji. > [@buburoi](#): > > 小学校でも質問ばかりのエジソンを、先生は、「おかしな子」と決めつけました。 > Edison is not the subject but the direct object, that is modified by the part before it. My translation would be: > > The teacher called/scolded Edison, who in school too asked questions all the time, an odd child. I think the Japanese word needs a more negative translation than “called”, Jisho suggested “to scold” or “to take to task”. While the Japanese technically says “the teacher scolded Edison”, it also emphasised Edison by placing him as the object before the teacher as the topic. So I think I would change it to passive form in my translation, and say “Edison was scolded by his teacher”. I think we also need to include the も from the start of the sentence, perhaps: Even in school (where you would expect his inquisitive nature to be praised by the teacher), the constantly questioning Edison was scolded by his teacher as an “odd child”. ---
**Author:** ![buburoi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/buburoi/32/333739_2.png) [@buburoi](https://community.wanikani.com/u/buburoi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/32 "2020-11-07T18:47:01Z")
Thanks a lot for your feedback! I guess there are always many possible translations and it’s interesting to see what other people come up with. That’s why I’m glad kanji2000 shares his translations. Personally, I’m not aiming for natural English but I‘d like my translation to be close to the original sentence structure to get a feeling for the way Japanese sentences are composed. Maybe once I‘m more comfortable and advanced I‘ll translate more freely. ---
**Author:** ![jesijac](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@jesijac](https://community.wanikani.com/u/jesijac)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/33 "2020-11-07T18:50:00Z")
I’ve tried jumping around the attached links and I’m sorry if I missed it, but is there a link for this book? I know I’m a bit late to jump in discussions, but I’d like to see if I can follow along on my own. ---
**Author:** ![2000kanji](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/2000kanji/32/310132_2.png) [@2000kanji](https://community.wanikani.com/u/2000kanji)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/34 "2020-11-07T18:58:43Z")
> [@jesijac](#): > > is there a link for this book? Are you looking for this? The message includes some links to where you can buy the book or e-book. > [@10 Minute Biographies Home Thread (Absolute Beginner Book Club) - Finished!](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-2nd-grade-reader-home-thread-absolute-beginner-book-club-starts-7th-november-2020/45780): > > Welcome to １０分で読める伝記（２年生） - 10 Minute Biographies (2nd Grade Reader) Book Club! We read this book between November 2020 and April 2021. The book is available as a digital book or a physical book. We read this as the Absolute Beginner Book Club. This book club aims to help readers who are new to native Japanese content successfully read their first book. We try and pick books that are a good level for beginners, read at a steady pace, and encourage readers to ask any basic question about the … ---
**Author:** ![jesijac](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@jesijac](https://community.wanikani.com/u/jesijac)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/35 "2020-11-07T20:08:38Z")
ah, yes, I feel like an airhead, I had scanned up and down that thread and completely bypassed the source links. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![cgolner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/cgolner/32/344316_2.png) [@cgolner](https://community.wanikani.com/u/cgolner)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/36 "2020-11-07T21:58:11Z")
For more information on たい and たがる, you could also look at [this CureDolly video](https://youtu.be/vk3aKqMQwhM?t=520). (I’m a big fan of this account/series so I’ll likely often link to these videos if I recognize a grammar point.) ---
**Author:** ![diego\_barreto](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/diego_barreto/32/318180_2.png) [@diego\_barreto](https://community.wanikani.com/u/diego_barreto)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/37 "2020-11-08T01:17:19Z")
Page 12: あるときは、「木は、なぜ水に浮くんだろう」と、湖で実験をして水に落ちたり、「小麦粉は、どうやって作られるの」と、工場を覗きに行って、小麦粉にうまれたり……。 Is this [verb]～たり related to [this](https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/79)? Although this sentence contains a list of actions, I’m not completely sure because the する is missing in the end. ---
**Author:** ![NicoleIsEnough](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nicoleisenough/32/87285_2.png) [@NicoleIsEnough](https://community.wanikani.com/u/NicoleIsEnough)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:35am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/38 "2020-11-08T06:35:24Z")
Yes, that’s the grammar point. I guess they left out する to indicate that there are still lots of examples that did not get mentioned (even more than when they simply closed the sentence with する), and used the dots instead. ---
**Author:** ![repdesu](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@repdesu](https://community.wanikani.com/u/repdesu)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 11:24am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/39 "2020-11-08T11:24:02Z")
Hi everyone, thanks for the discussion so far, it has been really helpful! I think I get the gist of p.11 but there are still three things I don’t understand: 1. This is probably very trivial, but: Why is なかった used in the second sentence? I’m reading it as if it was ありませんでした (“At a time when telephones and electricity _didn’t exist_ (…)”). I only knew なかった as an ending to adjective/verbs to negate them, but I didn’t know it could stand alone. 2.\* How do you break up あたためるんだそう grammatically? In particular, what does ~そう add to it? I’m thinking as follows. あたためる=to warm (up), and ~んで is “asking for explanation” and ~そう turns a verb/adj into a supposition (thanks for teaching me this!). So I want to say that the sentence 鳥はなぜ、たまごをあたためるんだそう is something along the lines of “Why do birds warm up their eggs (I want an explanation)?”. I don’t understand what “~そう” adds (it seems he _knows_ that the eggs are warm and he asks for an explanation of why). \*Edit: I guess I was just being silly. He knows the eggs are warm but only supposes that the bird warms them, hence the そう. 1. Is the following an OK grammatical breakdown of やってみよう (next to last sentence on p.11)? We have やる≈to do and [て-form]+みる≈to try to [verb], and finally ~よう≈let’s. That’s why it’s (roughly) translated as "よし、ぼくもやってみよう”=“Let me also try do do it.” (Related to 3.: Why is やる used here and not する? Would it be wrong to say “よし、僕もしてみよう。”?) ---
**Author:** ![NicoleIsEnough](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nicoleisenough/32/87285_2.png) [@NicoleIsEnough](https://community.wanikani.com/u/NicoleIsEnough)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946/40 "2020-11-08T12:46:21Z")
Hey, welcome! 😀 Let’s see if I can help you a bit: For 1: You got it right that the meaning is ありませんでした, which is the past negated form of ある in polite form. If we look at ある in negated dictionary form (non-past), this is simply ない, which leads us to the negated past dictionary form of なかった。 So basically | | positive | negative | | --- | --- | --- | | dictionary | ある | ない | | polite | あります | ありません | Usually, polite form is only used at the very end of a sentence, therefore everything before that is in dictionary form. For 2: This is not **そ** う but **ろ** う: 温めるんだろう. This last bit is [だろう - Jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%A0%E3%82%8D%E3%81%86) which means “I wonder”. The other stuff is like you said. For 3: Yep, your understanding is correct. やる is a colloquial form of する - see Jisho’s annotation at #1: [やる - Jisho.org](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%82%84%E3%82%8B) He is basically talking to himself, I take it, so there is no need for him to be polite. [Previous page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946.md?page=1) [Next page](https://community.wanikani.com/t/10-minute-biographies-chapter-1-absolute-beginner-book-club/46946.md?page=3)