Beyond Sleepy’s (pillow fort?) study log

This is the ()() 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.

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Thank you for your explanations :pray::blush:, 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 :grin:

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 ———

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

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-_-’

:ok_hand: I’ll make sure to remember it

Now I just want to go to sleep again
:sleeping_bed: :zzz:

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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 :four_leaf_clover::sweat_smile::four_leaf_clover:

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 ———

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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 :smiley: :+1:

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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🙏

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

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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 ———

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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!

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Thanks for the info anyway! :+1: 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 :upside_down_face:

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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!

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

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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 :stuck_out_tongue:

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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!

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Its from yesterday but I wanted to say something about it. So thats a bit of an unusual conjugation. Its causative combined with imperative. So causative means something like “let me do” はく → はかせる and imperative makes this a command “はかせろ!!!” (Let me at least wear pants!!! (command)). I don’t even know how I would express the combination of causative and imperative into any other language ^^. And I’m pretty sure thats the only one I’ve seen this far in my Japanese journey :confused:
EDIT: Maybe something along the lines of “I order you to let me at least wear pants” :thinking:

Nice translation touch :smiley:

微妙 びみょう is also a Japanese word which makes jotsubas mishearing even funnier ^^ (see especially meaning 3/4)

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“You have to at least let me wear pants” ? ish?

Thanks for your input, I’ll give it a go then :slight_smile:


Another question for anybody reading this: I’ve been thinking of investing in a dicionary of japanese grammar, and I’m wondering if I ought to get both the basic and intermediate volume, or if I should just go for the intermediate one? I’m slowly going through N5 in bunpro atm but since I’m reading native material and planning to read more I’d like to have a resource handy for grammar lookups. So the question is, with only the intermediate volume, how big of a gap is there between my current level and the material covered? Or is there some overlap between the books?

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The books are pretty pricy. So it depends a bit on how deep you want to empty your pockets :smiley: .
There is no overlap between the two books. I’m not too sure how they ordered the grammar points but it is definitely not according to JLPT. I’ve found N2 grammar in the basic one or N4 grammar in the Intermediate one. (を~下さい is found in the intermediate one for example. You use it basically every time in restaurants XD).

I use them mostly as reference material. The index in the intermediate one shows you where to find the grammar points in the basic one as well, so you can just look into the index and jump to the correct page which is pretty convenient. Since the grammar points are ordered in alphabetical order I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it purely as study material. If you want to look up grammar you stumble upon while reading having both is probably more convenient. Otherwise you can’t be sure if it isn’t grammar or its just not covered by the book.

I have not yet bought the advanced one. The first two cover most of the stuff you should encounter most of the time.

As for the contents. The explanations are pretty wordy and in english. Most stuff is enhanced by (as simple as possible) example sentences with an english translation for each. I find mostly it goes a bit too much in depth for my needs but sometimes it can be useful to get the difference in nuance between two grammar points.

The first book also has a pretty extensive descriptive section in the front (around 30 pages?) that goes into stuff like passive/ causative/ sentence structure/ mixing past and present tense, and other more general topics. They flew over my head pretty hard the first time I’ve read them but I’ve since come to value them quite a bit. So revisiting the book every now and then can be valuable in my opinion.

For a cheaper alternative I can also recommend this one https://www.amazon.de/Handbook-Japanese-Patterns-Teachers-Learners/dp/4874246788
It is also a grammar reference and some stuff I found is explained much easier in it. Though the explanations are much shorter they are often enough to get a feel for the usage. It exists in different Language versions and is structured a little differently from the DOBJG book. Its best you look at the sample page on Amazon to get a feel. It should cover roughly the same material as DOBJG and DOIJG books combined and so you can save quite a few bucks. Maybe also read some of the reviews. They often also compare it with the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar books.

The original is completly Japanese https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/グループ・ジャマシイ/dp/4874241549/ref=pd_vtp_5/355-4690676-2543000?pd_rd_w=21IO2&pf_rd_p=949e26f5-c2ef-4c96-bfde-49d7614d0317&pf_rd_r=KSVBFGFCB5B799RRYQV5&pd_rd_r=53069a79-fb3b-4313-b079-df60e120be3e&pd_rd_wg=X67QJ&pd_rd_i=4874241549&psc=1 and my teacher in Japan used it sometimes to look stuff up. So it should not be completely useless ^^.

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Thanks for the reply, it looks really helpful but I don’t have the time to read it right now-_-‘

I read another page:

よつばと!vol1, cha4, pp133 🍀

——— 133 ———

きれえな女の子って意味だ

It means a girl who is pretty

ふーか、きれいたって

Fuuka, (he) said (you’re) pretty

いやぁ〜

Noo~

で、今からその美少女風香ちゃんにテレビをもらいにいくのだ

So, (from) now let’s go get (receive) a TV from the beautiful Fuuka’s house.

じゃあ俺車もらおう

The let’s get it with my car

あげません、からかれれてる…

(I) haven’t given (it to you yet), (no idea about the last line… and no time either :confused:)

——— end ———

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Jumbo is joking here. Because koiwai gets a TV he said. “Okay I’ll receive a car” (もらおうis volitonal “let’s receive”) and fuuka rebuttals this with “I won’t give it to you” followed by a sentence (からかわれている) said more to herself “I’m being teased… ?”

I’m just leaving this here for when you have time :blush:

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Ah, a certain leader made some remarks about nuclear readiness that fucked with my head a bit, so I didn’t read anything yesterday. I read a page now tho, just to keep the habit up, although I’ve neglected Bunpro for a few days now. I’m pretty distracted by the war. Anyway, here’s todays page:

よつばと!vol1, cha4, pp134 🍀

——— 134 ———

奥さん、車ください

Ma’am, please give me a car

でか‼︎

Huge!!

どーしたのあんた⁉︎

How come you’re so big!?

父方の先祖がきりんでして

My ancestors on my father’s side are giraffes

え⁉︎あ!冗談だわ⁉︎

Eh!? Ah! You’re joking!?

——— end ———

edit: btw what’s up with this?


Horns radical or fins radical, which is correct or are they interchangeable?

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噂 you will find both it depends on your font. If I understand it correctly the one on wanikani is the slightly older version? (「噂」の書き方 - 漢字の正しい書き順(筆順))

JIS X 0213 - Wikipedia Read the text at the end about the change of recommended renderings.
PS.: We should probably encourage wanikani to update it at some point in time ^^ (I mean it renders correctly on my pc because of the font but still uses horns as radical)

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Adding to this:

Japanese font:

Chinese font:

Use in manga

Rabbit Page 29 1-2

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Hehe I’m in danger

These little changes somehow make me dread the prospect of learning to read handwriting:p

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