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Discussion Guidelines
Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
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Page numbers
The schedule is based on the page numbers that sometimes appear on the bottom of the pages. Both the Kindle and the BookWalker versions seem to be 2 off (44 instead of 42)
Live readings are currently not organized. If you are interested in organizing one, tell me and I’ll update the post.
Discussion Questions
Questions
What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
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To be totally honest, the part I’ve found hardest so far is the background study about the different types of cells. I could have just gone along with the book to teach me through the story, but I did enjoy learning it first in English and it’ll be reinforced via the story (I’m hoping)
I liked the phrase かいがあった . I’ve been told its fairly common and it felt comparatively useful to a lot of the other new vocabulary I was reading - I’m enjoying learning but it’s not every day I’ll need to talk about specific cells lol
That’s probably because this is the first chapter, we need to nail down the basics, like our main characters and their jobs. I believe besides the cells appearing in the inside cover, there will only be viruses and bacteria
A quick tip for those that find the book to be on the lower end of difficulty for them (and those with a lot of free time).
One way to make sure you actually understand what you’re reading, while also helping beginners, is to translate the chapter. Either as a literal or natural translation, both are a great way to practice and cross-check!
Hello, I ended up making cards with brief descriptions of what each of the characters do because I thought it could be fun to learn a little about these cells, while also learning the Japanese. I now wish I spent more time making cards on some of the more everyday Japanese used in the first couple of pages, as a lot of these cells seem to overlap job wise and I don’t have the time to delve in to the nuance to understand them.
Hopefully the further we get in the book the better my understanding will be!
Here are the card pics in case they help anyone else!
Anki cards with the characters shown from the starting page and a brief description of what they do (from a very brief google search)
If anyone could give me info on the two that I left out I would really appreciate it as I don’t know what they are at all and I couldn’t figure it out. 制御性T細胞 and ヘルパーT細胞
As well as that, If I have any mistakes on my cards do say so I can fix it. (Or if you dont have time to tell me how to correct it just knowing it’s wrong is a big help!)
Excited to read more once I rest from my excessive googling !
good luck everyone
ps- I just want to say I’m not going to memorise these and their meanings, they are more there to have something fun pop up while doing my other cards. and If I naturally cement and understanding that’ll be a bonus!
Yeah it’s actually been really fun to learn and I think it’s a big part of the appeal of this manga - it’s certainly why my husband bought it in the first place and I even have it at home to read (although he didn’t enjoy it, so I’m waiting to get a bit further through and guess why)
This is starting off strong! I like the concept. Reminds me a ton of Ozzy and Drex from my childhood. I have to look up every other word, but most of the grammar is pretty simple, which is nice. One part I just can’t understand is 一匹でも逃げたら大変なことになるからな on page 10.
I can understand the words separately, but putting them together doesn’t make sense to me.
The first part of the sentence, “一匹でも逃げたら” is “even if only one of them escapes”
でも is “even only” here
たら is the conditional form
The second part, “大変なことになるからな” it will be very bad for us"
technically “ことになる” can be considered a grammar point, but I find it much more logical if you take the parts at face value 大変なこと is a very bad thing, so it will be a very bad thing
not exactly sure, how to describe what から and な is doing exactly at the end
な as far as I can tell is just emphasis here, but no clue about the exact role of から.
I looked what came up with からな online, and from what I understood, it’s the same から used for causes, but the second half might be implicit. So “if even one escape, it will become bad, you know why”. I can imagine that the hidden half could be “it will be bad because they could multiply”
Looks very conversational to me. Probably the kind that’s not easy to grasp for learners. I tried to come up with an explanation but I’m only speculating
Not sure about this, the から sentence is the “because” sentence, so at best this would be “Because it will be bad, if …”, but I don’t think that’s happening here.
Maybe から here acts more like “so” here, with an implied “so don’t let them escape”, which of course is obvious from the first part, so it’s left out.
That’s right, the から sentence is the ‘because’ sentence.
In this case, it gives the reason for the sentence immediately before it:
「細菌は一匹も逃がすな！」
Don’t let even one bacterium escape!
一匹でも逃げたら大変なことになるからな！ Becauseif even one single beastie escapes, it will be very bad!
Vocabulary:
細菌（さいきん）(n) bacterium, germ
~匹（ひき・びき・ぴき）(ctr) counter for small animals
逃げる（にげる）(vi) to escape, to run away
逃がす（にがす）(vt) to let (something) escape
逃がすな！ = Don’t let it escape!
sorry it’s been a while! I managed to finish week ones part. (just have a couple of cards to make for parts/words that interest me still )
sorry it took me a while but I just have to say thank you @polv! Regulatory T cell and T helper cell have been added and it makes my heart very happy!
one thing I did see was 熱すぎず寒すぎず (pg6) which translates to not too hot, not too cold as far as I can tell. I wondering how the grammar works and if it can be used for other things like " not to tall, not too short" Grammar wise I’m assuming すぎ is the same すぎ for when something is over done/ too much (eg. 熱すぎる would be too hot) but the ず at the end of the 熱すぎず is some casual way of making it a negative (so “not too hot”) Anyway, that’s just my guess! I found it interesting and wondered if other people had a clearer view on it.
Anyway!! Sorry for the late chapter msg and see yall on next weeks chapter
