Beyond Sleepy’s (pillow fort?) study log

[Daisoujou]

@Beyond_Sleepy

じゃあ、やっといて

Well then, (the cheat sheet indicates that this is a form of やる but I couldn’t find any conjugation that included っと so I’m unsure what to do with this…)

Oh this! So, what you’re looking at is ておく. Honestly I still find this sometimes odd to wrap my head around, in terms of when it’s considered most appropriate or not to use it. I would be extremely bad at output! But the general meaning is that something is being done/prepared in advance for the future. I always find Imabi a bit dense for my brain, but here’s the page on it.

Usage aside, to help with how you get there: やる conjugates to て form やって, adding on おく would leave us with やっておく. But in casual conversation it is very regularly contracted down to とく. やっとく. Then the auxiliary verb itself is conjugated to て form from there, so you get やっといて.

@Beyond_Sleepy

Between Wanikani, Anki, Bunpro, and よつば Japanese is taking more time than I can afford… I’m going to attempt to set aside two 1,5 hour blocks of time per day and see if I can fit everything in to those, if not then something has to go… Or I’ll have to slow the SRSs down further but I’m not going particularly fast to begin with.

Oh yeah, good luck figuring that out. I assume you’re not taking the pace too crazy, but I could always tell I couldn’t do more than 2 SRS at a time, personally. Bunpro looks good but I skipped it for that reason.

[downtimes]

@Beyond_Sleepy

あの子きのう私のアイス食べたのよ、許せないわ

Yesterday that child ate my ice cream, I won’t forgive her (I’d translate this as “unforgivable” meant hyperbolically to match the slightly dramatic tone of the panel, but 許すまじ is unforgivable so I won’t)

The やっといて was already covered by Daisoujou so I’m taking this one. (Btw I’m having the same problems on usage of oku as you @Daisoujou)
許せない is potential form. Therefore the literal translation would be more “I can’t forgive her”. Yours would have been 許さない which is equally as common.

@Beyond_Sleepy

とーちゃん、なにしてるー？またあそびかー？

Dad, what are you doing? (Will you) play (with me) again?

I read it as “Are you playing again?”

@Beyond_Sleepy

I think I get it, sorta, maybe, I at least get what’s happening with だ and な but would the meaning change if we wrote いいものんだ instead for example?

You can’t もの is a noun and attaching のだ to a noun requires な Explanatory のだ （んだ）
Nouns + Na adjectves = なのだ
I adjectives + verbs = のだ

[ChristopherFritz]

@Beyond_Sleepy

I think I get it, sorta, maybe, I at least get what’s happening with だ and な but would the meaning change if we wrote いいものんだ instead for example?

My head’s a little fried right now tbh, I can’t even tell if my question makes sense🙃

「とーちゃんはいいものだ」
“As for Dad, he is a good one.”

This is a basic noun is noun sentence. The subject is unstated, but based on the context we can infer that the subject is Yotsuba’s father. A noun is noun sentence is essentially saying that the subject noun can be categorized as the noun with だ attached. Yotsuba’s father can be categorized as いいもの, a one good one. Yotsuba’s father is a good one.

In English, this is like saying “A kitten is a cat.” The subject, “kitten”, is in the category of “cat”. The “kitten” is a “cat”.

Now, what happens if we take this sentence, “A kitten is a cat”, and make it the second noun of a “noun is noun” sentence?

We would get:

“It is (a kitten is a cat).”

That’s not really proper grammar for English, so let’s add a word:

“It is that (a kitten is a cat).”

This may sound like an explanation.

“Why are you giving a fresh fish to your pet kitten?” “It is that a kitten is a cat. (And cats like fish, so my kitten will surely like fish as well.)”

Note that in this “noun is (sentence as a noun)” sentence, the first noun (“it”) refers to the situation being asked about.

Going back to the sentence from Yotsuba:

「とーちゃんはいいものなんだ」
“As for Dad, it is that he is a good one.”

Again, this may sound like an explanation. What is this “it”? It’s the question of whether Yotsuba has an air conditioner at her house.

“Do you not have an air conditioner?” “No, because it is that Dad is a good one.”

It takes a little time to get used to it. (And I might not be the best at explaining it.)

[Beyond_Sleepy]

@Daisoujou @downtimes @ChristopherFritz Thank you all for your help, it’s super valuable

My time management experiment seems like it might work out. I managed to fit all three SRSs into 97 minutes just now, and I actually had higher accuracy than usual, probably since I did them first thing in the morning. This leaves me 90 minutes to read よつば and the resources you’ve linked this evening Now it’s on to my uni studies

[Beyond_Sleepy]

Read three pages today, it was a pretty good day in terms of the balance between Japanese, university, and free time as well I think I’m on to something if I can keep this up.

よつばと！vol1, cha4, pp121-123 🍀

——— 121 ———

先っちょを持ってじっとしてろ

Hold the end still

なんだこれー？あそびか？

What’s this? A game?

これでここにつけるカーテンの幅を計るんだ

This is (we’re doing this) to measure the width of curtains (we’ll need) here.

いいか？はなすなよ

Are you good? Don’t let go

うん！

Sure!

はなすなよ、はなすなよ

Don’t let go, don’t let go

うん！

Sure!

——— 122 ———

おー‼︎しゅるるるっていった‼︎

Oh-!! It went Shuururururu!!

だから、はなすなって‼︎怖いんだから‼︎

That’s why I said don’t let go!! Because it’s scary!!

これが鳴ると人が来た合図だ

This is the sound signal for when people come

たぶんジャンボだ、今日来るって言ってたから

It’s probably Jumbo, because he said he’d come today

ジャンボ！

Jumbo!

——— 123 ———

？ジャンボー

Jumbo~

ちがうー

Wrong

え？ちがう？

Eh-? Wong?

おじゃましまーす

Excuse my intrusion/I’m coming in

こんにちは

Good day

ふーかだった‼︎

It was Fuuka!!

あれ？違った？

Huh? I was wrong?

——— end ———

[Beyond_Sleepy]

Two pages today, I could do more but I feel the need to reserve an evening for just relaxing with some silly YouTube videos once in a while. I haven’t done that in a week and a bit so it’s time

よつばと！vol1,cha4,pp124-125 🍀

——— 124 ———

俺は服着た方が良いですね？

I should have put on some clothes, shouldn’t I?

そ、そうですね

Yes, you should have

とーちゃんはいっつもパンツまるだしだ‼︎

Dad always has his underwear fully exposed!!

まるだしか

Fully exposed, huh

——— 125 ———

回覧板が回ってきたりとか

This circulating notice is passed around and such (???)

ふーん

Hmm

じゃあ、ここに名前書けばいいの？

Alright, is it good if I write my name here? (Is this where I’m supposed to write my name)

はいそうこに

Yes that’s the right place

ふーか、これもて

Fuuka, hold this

そこに名前と住所と

Write your name and address and… (there)

——— end ———

[Daisoujou]

@Beyond_Sleepy

回覧板が回ってきたりとか

This circulating notice is passed around and such (???)

So honestly I’m only throwing out my uncertain thoughts, but I think this is just a bit of Japanese indirectness. Kinda trailing off a “This notice is passed around and stuff like that…”. Like, when I played Ace Attorney, every time you show evidence to someone during the investigations Phoenix would pretty much be like “So… I have this thing, but…” and then wait for the other person to respond. I mean with たり it’s just trailing off the other things they do (have people sign it etc) but either way you’re kinda left with the same vague empty space at the end I guess. I feel like I’ve rarely ever seen たり and とか used together though, which makes me lean towards there being a reason for it being… double vague, haha. But I’m stepping into nuance well beyond my level.

If that kind of makes sense? I guess all I’m trying to say is that you’ve got the point of what is being said and the rest of it is, at least to my inexperienced perception, sentence dressing that makes it more natural and probably “softer” but that you can’t think TOO literally about.

[Beyond_Sleepy]

One page again, one of my flat mates is having his b-day party now so I’ll join them in lieu of studying/reading more

よつばと！vol1,cha4,pp126 🍀

——— 126 ———

おこられた

(He) scolded (her)

あー、カーテンですか

Ah- (you’re getting) curtains?

うん、あとは風呂のマットとか、あ、洗濯機もいる

Yes, after that I’ll get a shower mat and such, ah, we also need a washing machine

それとテレビ

As well as a TV

てれび！

TV!

あ

Ah

テレビなら家にひとつ余ってますけど、いります？

If it’s a TV (you’re after) our household has one redundant TV but, do you want it?

え？テレビを？

Eh, a TV?

リサイクルに出そうと思ってた奴なんだ、ちょっと古いのでよければ

I think (something about recycling it), it’s a little old if that’s alright

——— end ———

[Daisoujou]

@Beyond_Sleepy

リサイクルに出そうと思ってた奴なんだ、ちょっと古いのでよければ

I think (something about recycling it), it’s a little old if that’s alright

So! I’m pretty sure this is 出す (to put out, and some related meanings) conjugated into the volitional form, 出そう. That form is usually kind of a “Let’s _____” but when combined with と思う it’s better to think of it as a sort of “intending to / thinking of doing.” So that whole first part is modifying the noun やつ. The kind of やつ, or thing, that it is, is “a thing I was thinking of putting out as recycling.”

Honestly I love that you post these because the last time I looked at Yotsubato vol 1 I was barely hanging in there identifying isolated words and doing my best to make up the meanings haha. And since I keep upping the difficulty of what I try to do, my experience with Japanese has only ever been that of having a hard time. Nice to see this improvement.

Have fun with the party!

[ChristopherFritz]

@Beyond_Sleepy

おこられた

(He) scolded (her)

This is the 受(う)け身(み) form of verb (often poorly labeled “passive” in English language materials that teach Japanese grammar). Here, the subject is the one receiving the action of the verb. (That’s why I like the term “receptive” for this verb form.)

The subject is Yotsuba, so it’s that Yotsuba received a scolding from her father.

It’s nothing major to worry about right now, but later on, down the line, I think it’ll help to remember that the subject of the うけみ form is the one receiving the action of the verb.

[Beyond_Sleepy]

Thank you for your explanations , verb conjugations are hard and what with juggling three SRSs and university I don’t really have the mental and temporal surplus to dive deeply into unfamiliar grammar all the time… At the moment I’m progressing slowly through Bunpro (max three new grammar points per day) and trusting that that will get me where I want to be in the long run. But getting these explanations for the specific sentences I’m reading still feels really helpful to me

よつばと！vol1, cha4, pp127 🍀

——— 127 ———

そりゃ助かる、よつば、お姉ちゃんテレビくれるって！

(Probably:) that saves us some trouble, Yotsuba, she’s giving us a TV!

やさしいー‼︎

Nice (of her)!!

アイスクリームもくれるか⁉︎

Will you/can you give me ice cream as well!?

まぁ、あったらあげるよ

Well, you can have some if there is some

くる

(Can I) come

よかったなぁ

That’s good

(as in “something good happened” I suppose)

じゃあ取りに行きます？すぐ渡せますけど

Well then, shall we go get it? (Not sure about this second part, maybe “however, we’re just about to get rid of it(so get it while you can)”?)

——— end ———

@Daisoujou

And since I keep upping the difficulty of what I try to do, my experience with Japanese has only ever been that of having a hard time. Nice to see this improvement.

This is the future I see for myself as well, in part I’m motivated to post all my translation attempts to provide a record of my progress to compare myself against in the future when I’m no doubt still struggling:p

@Daisoujou

Have fun with the party!

I did! It lasted from 8pm to 3am and I woke up with the worst hangover I’ve had in like 7 years or thereabouts. Made for a fun 50min Anki session in the morning as well-_-’

@ChristopherFritz

It’s nothing major to worry about right now, but later on, down the line, I think it’ll help to remember that the subject of the うけみ form is the one receiving the action of the verb.

I’ll make sure to remember it

Now I just want to go to sleep again

[Beyond_Sleepy]

Just a couple short pages today, I’m quite busy with uni atm so that’s all I have time for. March is going to be a beast in terms of assignment deadlines so I probably won’t be able to read daily until the 27th starting next week. I’ll do what I can tho and probably won’t stop updating completely, once or twice a week most likely

よつばと！vol1, cha4, pp128-129 🍀

——— 128 ———

あ！なんだっけ⁉︎そうだ！ジャンボだ！

Ah! What was that!? That’s right! Jumbo!

ジャンボだ‼︎

It’s Jumbo!!

——— 129 ———

うーす、ヤンダ暑いから来ねえって、やっぱダメだー

Yo, Yanda said he didn’t come because of the heat, as bad as expected (or as expected of someone bad?)

ジャンボきたー‼︎

Jumbo came!!

な…でか‼︎

Wh… huge!!

——— end ———

[downtimes]

@Beyond_Sleepy

うーす、ヤンダ暑いから来ねえって、やっぱダメだー

Yo, Yanda said hi didn’t come because of the heat, as bad as expected (or as expected of someone bad?)

I’m not sure if you got everything in your translation (hi = he?), but it’s not past tense, and the last part has a little different connotation:
Yo…, Yanda says he isn’t coming because of the heat. (He is) Useless as expected.

Perfect timing with the busy time in march. No Reading every day challenge during the month

[Beyond_Sleepy]

@downtimes

I’m not sure if you got everything in your translation (hi = he?), but it’s not past tense, and the last part has a little different connotation:
Yo…, Yanda says he isn’t coming because of the heat. (He is) Useless as expected.

Ye, “hi” is a typo. I thought Jumbo was explaining why Yanda didn’t come help out the day they moved in, which is why I used past tense. If they were expecting Yanda today then wouldn’t he (Koiwai) have told Yotsuba “it’s either Yanda or Jumbo, we’re expecting both today” or something like that the first time the doorbell rang? That was my reasoning in any case.

“Useless as expected” - ty🙏

@downtimes

Perfect timing with the busy time in march. No Reading every day challenge during the month

That’s what I thought too, I’m grateful for it🙃

[Beyond_Sleepy]

So I finally reached these two pages. I was looking forward to them:p

If anyone reading my study log has experience with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, how much do you recon I’d struggle if I tried to play it in JP on the Switch at my current level? Is it possible to progress through the game without understanding most of what’s said? I’m kinda tempted to get the game in April, but I’m also skeptical of my chances:p

よつばと！vol1, cha4, pp130-131 🍀

——— 130 ———

ん？

Huh?

あ、こ、こんにちは

Ah, h-, hello

うわっ‼︎美少女だ‼︎

Wah-!! A beautiful girl!!

おいクイ‼︎この犯罪者ア

Oi Koi!! (you) this criminal

犯罪じゃねぇ‼︎

It’s not a crime!!

あんた何才？

How old are you?

16才です

16 years old

未確認飛行物体発見‼︎

UFO sighting!!

(Or something like that, I think he’s basically saying her age is as shocking as a UFO)

おちつけ‼︎

Calm down!!

——— 131 ———

あ‼︎なんでテメェズボンはいてんだ⁉︎

Ah!! Why are you wearing pants!?

カッコつけてんじゃねぇ‼︎

It’s to show off isn’t it!!

ズボンくらいはかせろ‼︎

At least I’m wearing pants!!

なんだとぉ⁉︎やるかぁ⁉︎ホアーッ‼︎

What did you say!? Wanna fight!? Hoaa!!

テョアー‼︎

Tyoaa!!

どっちもがんばれー‼︎

Do your best, both of you!!

なにこれ？

What’s going on?

(What’s this)

——— end ———

[Daisoujou]

@Beyond_Sleepy

If anyone reading my study log has experience with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, how much do you recon I’d struggle if I tried to play it in JP on the Switch at my current level? Is it possible to progress through the game without understanding most of what’s said? I’m kinda tempted to get the game in April, but I’m also skeptical of my chances:p

So I picked it up thinking I could play it as a casual side game, but life has gotten in the way so I haven’t made much progress. My impression of my first few hours (mostly all dialog) is that it’s a lot harder than I expected! It seems to be targeting an older audience than usual. The use of furigana with kanji (rather than Pokemon’s frequent all-furigana or all-kanji options) is nice, but yeah, while the sentences are short, the writing is actually no joke at times! I chalk this up to how it seems to be aiming for giving some people a bit of an older speaking style, but the N1 and N2 grammar parts are there, as well as all sorts of words I had to look up that ended up being things like “dying on the side of the road” lmao.

But you might be able to play just picking up the bits you can? I mean there are the direct tutorials cause this Pokemon is a little different than the others, but nothing has been too hard to figure out where I am yet, and most of the dialog is fluff. It also very much points you to objectives. That said, later I think the goal starts being “see X Pokemon do this move X times” or other specific things that you might have a bad time if you can’t read? My knowledge is limited sorry!

[Beyond_Sleepy]

@Daisoujou

My knowledge is limited sorry!

Thanks for the info anyway! It sounds like I might like to give it a go tho. I could challenge myself with things like “today I’m going to figure out what this person is asking me to do, and then do it” to get a bit of reading practice with my gameplay:p I was worried the game might hide important info and objectives in dense dialogue, but if it’s mostly fluff + the objectives being easy to find for example in menus then I think I have a decent shot at a good time

[ChristopherFritz]

@Daisoujou

The use of furigana with kanji (rather than Pokemon’s frequent all-furigana or all-kanji options) is nice

I didn’t even give it a try in Japanese as I figured there’d be no furigana. Nice to know that it’s there!

@Daisoujou

while the sentences are short, the writing is actually no joke at times

That’s how I feel about the English translation, even though English is my native language!

[Beyond_Sleepy]

Just a short one page reading session today. I did level up again, pretty much on pace according to my plan, so just 6-8 weeks until I start seeing new material:p

よつばと！vol1, cha4, pp132 🍀

——— 132 ———

そっかー、よつばの友達かぁ

So that’s how it is, you’re Yotsuba’s friend

ふーかだ‼︎

This is Fuuka!!

綾瀬風香ですよろしくー

I’m Ayase Fuuka, pleased to meet you

ジャンボだ‼︎

This is Jumbo!!

ジャンボですよろしく

I’m Jumbo, pleased to meet you

よろしく…それ名前じゃないだろう…

Pleased to meet you… that’s not a name, right?…

しかしこんな美少女と友達になるとは、えらいぞ！

But to have made friends with such a beautiful girl, that fantastic!

やー‼︎ビミョニョってなんだ？

Yeah!! What’s a byulifumerl?

ビミョーじゃない美少女だ

Not “byulifu”, it’s “beautiful girl”

——— end ———

_{I’m guessing at some of the grammar again}

[lucylavelle]

@Beyond_Sleepy

If anyone reading my study log has experience with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, how much do you recon I’d struggle if I tried to play it in JP on the Switch at my current level? Is it possible to progress through the game without understanding most of what’s said? I’m kinda tempted to get the game in April, but I’m also skeptical of my chances:p

The furigana makes it easy to look things up, but there is a lot of story stuff especially at the start of the game.
I’m at roughly N4 level, and I can muddle my way through a lot of the dialogue as long as I have a dictionary available, but its taking me a lot of time, and I do sometimes need to use a translator to make sure I understood something.
Sometimes after a big chunk of dialogue or an important story bit, I go and watch somebody play that segment in english on Youtube to make sure I’m following it - so far I have generally been managing to follow everything though often my understanding of it is basic and missing some nuances!

That said, I’m really enjoying it, and its really satisfying when I encounter bits that I can read easily, or recognise kanji and vocab that I had to look up earlier in the game. There is also an open-worldness between the story parts that allows me to just run around catching pokemon when I don’t feel like doing too much reading!

I’d say at your current reading level its going to be pretty challenging - but not impossible.
If you are a person who doesn’t get disheartened or frustrated when its difficult to understand something then definitely give it a go - I’m having a lot of fun with it!