Doggy Detectives! おかわり Week 9 Discussion 🐶

Pages 78 - 85

Story 2: うなぎ病院 実験

Start Date: 15th March
Last Week: Case Part 3
Next Week: Story 3

Doggy Detectives 2

わんわん探偵団 Home Thread


Vocabulary List

Please read the editing guidelines in the first sheet before adding any words!


Discussion Guidelines

  • Please blur / hide any major events in the current week’s pages (however early they occur), like so: [spoiler]texthere[/spoiler]

  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked

  • Join the conversation - it’s fun!


Participants

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I miss the chit-chat these threads used to have :crying_cat_face:

I also seem to be the only one filling in the vocab chart at the mo - is anyone using it?

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I know :cry: I’m sorry I haven’t been more present personally.

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I really miss you! I’m guessing you’re busy with some of the other more advanced book clubs.

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More busy offline, unfortunately :purple_heart:

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I have had few quite stressful weeks and because of that unfortunately almost no energy for studying Japanese :slightly_frowning_face: And it is supringly difficult to restart when looking piles of reviews and tasks to do :sweat_smile:

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I’ve been batching my reading to a whole case part or solution part in one go, so I’m typically reading through shortly after everyone else had. (Just read through week 9’s material tonight.)

As for vocabulary lists, they do tend to get smaller and smaller the longer a book club goes. I do wonder how much it impacts longevity of readership for some readers, as the number of words they have to look up increase (after drastically).

That reminds me, I’m waaay behind on populating the Rental Oniichan vocabulary. Maybe I’ll work on that this weekend…

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Sorry! I wish I could, but my vocabulary’s still very limited.
I’m using the chart though, thank you for doing it :heart:

Recently I’ve been too lazy to actually go back, check what I don’t understand (because I normally just keep going) and ask questions. Maybe I should :sweat_smile:

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Thanks for this reply - knowing that the extra work is helping someone else makes it well worth the extra time it takes. :relaxed:

I am so grateful to the previous ワンにゃん探偵団(たんていだん) book club members who helped me get to the point that I am able to fill in the vocab sheet so much more easily.

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Yes. I am using it and I eagerly await it each week. I have felt brave enough to add one or two items.
I haven’t contributed much to the discussion because if I asked about everything I didn’t know I would be asking about everything! I do really benefit from reading what others say.
Thank you so much for filling in the spreadsheets.

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I intend to get the week-9 pages finished off this weekend; sorry for the delay.

I can’t profess to having a strong enough understanding myself to answer everything, but please do go ahead and ask your questions - it makes being in the club so much more interesting and worthwhile for everyone.

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Please do ask your questions :slight_smile: We benefit from explaining things as it increases our own understanding, so it’s not an imposition at all!

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I’ll third saying to ask anything you’re unsure of.

Since I’m currently in insomnia mode, here are random bits from this week’s reading:

Passing by with すれちがう (Page 79)

The narration includes the line 「さっきすれちがったあの(おとこ)だ」

The verb すれ(ちが)う has a few meanings (all similar in nature), but in this scene is means two people pass each close enough to touch while going in opposite directions. It combines ()る (“to rub”) and (ちが)う (“to differ”).

Anyone who’s owned a Nintendo DS handheld game system may be familiar with this term…or perhaps its English language counterpart, StreetPass. This feature allows two Nintendo DS-owning strangers to transfer game data simply by passing by one another.

This appears in the manga 「三ツ星カラーズ」:

For our case here, すれちがった (the “competed” or “past tense” form of the verb) is used as a modifier for (おとこ). There are many (おとこ) in and around the hospital, but Spitz is referring specifically to the (おとこ) that he すれちがった. The man he passed close by going in opposite directions.


Kanji Missing from WaniKani (Page 79)

The narration mentions the man’s 松葉杖(まつばづえ) (“crutch”). The first two kanji are covered by WaniKani, but (つえ) (“cane” or “walking stick”) is not. Its radicals are the WK level 1 木 (tree) and level 15 丈 (height).


Dine-and-Dash Man (Page 80)

The culprit is referred to as ()いにげ(おとこ). Again, we have (おとこ) being modified by a word, only this time it’s ()いにげ. This is a combination of ()う (“to eat”) and ()げる (“to run away”). As the combination suggests, it refers to the act of leaving a restaurant without paying.


Calling Out (Page 80)

Often times you’ll encounter a series of words that are often used together, as an expression.

Here are examples of a few expressions in the English language:

  • hang in there
  • plain as day
  • take it easy
  • cold shoulder
  • to be on solid ground
  • out in the open

As expressions, these have meanings that are lost if you split them into individual words.

The same comes up in Japanese, such as seen here with 「(こえ)をかける」, meaning “to greet; to call out (to); to start talking (to)” (among other related things).

This expression pairs the noun (こえ) (“voice”) as the object of the action かける.

You’ll find かける is a fairly versatile verb:


Should and Shouldn't (Page 80)

After Spitz calls out to the bilker to stop, the narration goes that 「とまるはずはない」.

There are a few things going on in this sentence that are good to know of, although those early at learning grammar may not fully get to know them until later:

The verb ()まる means “to stop (moving)”.

When adding はず onto a verb, it means the speaker expects that the action of that verb should take place, or they are certain it will take place.

Here, 「とまるはず」 (“should stop”) is the topic of the sentence.

Japanese is a topic-prominent language, wherein sentences are typically in the topic-comment structure. That is, a topic (the thing being comment on) is established, and then a comment (about the topic) is made.

The comment made about this topic is ない. This word is essentially an adjective that describes something as lacking existence.

On the topic of “should stop”, the comment being made is “non-existent”. In other words, there doesn’t exist an expectation of the suspect stopping just because Spitz called out for him to do so.


An Unchanging State of まま

The noun まま refers to a state (or condition) which is unchanged or unchanging.

In one chapter of the manga series 「よつばと!」, the eponymous Yotsuba gets into paint without permission and ends up with her hands painted blue. After she fails to wash the paint off her hands, her father tells her the blue will never come off. Later, when questioned by a store cashier about her blue hands, Yotsuba says that her hands will always be this まま. They will always be in this state, this condition, of being blue. Forever.

Back to our case, the narration goes, 「そのまま、ボーボとエドワードのよこをすりぬけていく。」

This まま refers to the state of the suspect fleeing with no reason to stop.

By the way, similar to すれ above, here’s a すり. This time it’s すり()ける (“to slip through; to make one’s way through quickly”).

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Pro-tip for anyone doing the magnificent work of filling out a vocabulary sheet: Enter the whole sentence (even if you know some of the words already) into ichi.moe. It’ll help for finding these “compound” words:

Screenshot_20210320_111832

This is important because a compound word is more than the sum of its parts. Breaking a compound word in half takes away its meaning.

This can be seen in English as well:

Word Definition
brain an organ of soft nervous tissue contained in the skull of vertebrates, functioning as the coordinating center of sensation and intellectual and nervous activity
storm a violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain, thunder, lightning, or snow
brainstorm an idea that someone thinks of suddenly

(This example is US English. The compound meaning may differ in other regions.)

Using ichi.moe isn’t doesn’t just help catch compound words. It also indicates expressions. Similar to compound words, expressions are groups of words that lose their meaning if you break them down to their individual words.

Screenshot_20210320_111716

We also see this in English:

Word Definition
cold of or at a low or relatively low temperature
shoulder the upper joint of the human arm
cold shoulder a show of intentional unfriendliness

Using ichi.moe in this way is basically like having a superpower for filling out vocabulary sheets. For those who’ve populated vocabulary words without this superpower, I highly recommend trying it out in the near future.

Eventually you start to recognize new compound words when reading. And then you start to get a feel for when you’re looking at an expression, as you sense that the words mean something more than the individual words are telling you.

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Yup, that’s precisely what I meant, and by the large list of corrections you chose to put here to show me up rather than adjusting the list itself, I’m evidently not up to the task. Over and out.

Anyhow, I definitely would be reading this book with a lot more trouble if not for the vocabulary sheet, so thank you to everyone who helped fill it out.

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This is the first time for me seeing words which run together- so even when I know the vocabulary- which is not often! I don’t recognise it and look it up and am surprised to find I know it… And I sometimes don’t know enough to formulate a question.
But here is one page 84- わかってないんだから
I know it means understand in the negative past tense. I know we have “because” and I know when ん is used. But I don’t know how you know who is not understanding what.
Thanks again!

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Yes it’s not very clear is it! Often if the topic is not explicitly stated it’s because the topic continues the same as the previous sentence. So on that logic the topic of the previous sentence was “any dog”, and this continues as the topic for the following sentence.

So my attempt at translating the two sentences would be - “Any dog is useful somehow. They just don’t know it.”

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@Rowena I hope you are coming back to join us in case 3. We’ve missed you this week. I feel bad that my post meant with only kind intentions came across as critical when you read it. You’ve been such a great contributor to the discussions in these books, I hope you’ll be back to finish this book off together.

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Late to the party but yes, I am! Thank you for filling in the vocab!

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