Intermediate Japanese Book Club (Now Reading: 地球星人)

Japanese Language Reading
#1102

If it’s not too late to suggest the next book I’d like to add one more.

I really think the level of our current book is perfect, which is why I’d like to suggest:

「悩み部」

Synopsis:
Linked short story collection about three slightly awkward high school kids who form a club in which they solve the problems of other kids. Sounds like a cheesy anime premise, but it’s not really. The three main characters manage (mostly) to avoid the more obvious and obnoxious tropes of the genre and are actually quite individual and interesting. Also, while they are always around in each story, the main narrative often centres on other people - a lonely teacher, a job hunting older sister etc.

Why it would be a good choice:
Similar level to current book (which I think is ideal)
Authentic Japanese setting
Another nice physical book to own
Real world setting
Short stories (although not as short as current book) so good for people coming and going
Natural and modern speech

Why it might not be a good choice:
Kind of similar to current book
Some might be put off by high school setting
Not very, very exciting

Available from:

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#1103

Since the official poll has been up for about a week already, if everyone who voted in the last poll would like to have another poll to take this entry under consideration, then I’m okay with that. Otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you. I do know that this 5分後に意外な結末 has several iterations. Something to take into consideration…

#1104

@AngelTenshi
I’m so so sorry!!! I was going to participate Saturday on Discord! BUT my pc broke Friday, and i sent it to get fixed, but i could only borrow a notebook from my sister today T___T!!!
I totally forgot to notify you because of the chaos!!

I’ll be avaliable for next Saturday, this time for sure. ;__; my apologies!

#1105

Oh, there’s already a poll? I didn’t notice. Just voted. Don’t worry about adding this one then - I’ll try and remember to suggest it for next time.

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#1106

I want to join. It looks like you are about to start a book, but not clear to me which one?

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#1107

It’s 赤い悪夢 (5分後に意外な結末), a collection of short stories ^^

It was just started last week, here’s the discussion thread, you’ll find the proposed reading schedule and all that there as well :slightly_smiling_face: (the first two short stories were just finished and one of them is currently being discussed – but since they’re short stories, you can jump in at any time!)

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#1108

Since the poll was supposed to be up a week, and はたらく魔王さま! has a good lead I went ahead and bought it =)

Finding a copy that sent to my address was not easy though… I wanted to buy a set, since it existed, but none of them sent to Norway (well, one did, at a price so high it would be much less to just buy them all one and one) so ended up with just the first book for now.

For the first book only I found some interesting shipping differences:
4826
I looked through several before finally finding that cheaper one, which is the one I got.

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#1109

@riccyjay yeah, your submission is quite late, but I’m sure someone will probably remember. Or at least the beginner club should take it up since it should be significantly easier than what they’re reading now.

@Toyger :roll_eyes: wow that’s expensive!

@bolaurent we’re already on week two on the schedule. Whenever you get your book, just check again and someone will tell you which week we’re on. Each story averages around 5 pages or so, so it shouldn’t take too long to at least read the one we’ll discuss for the week.

@MissMisc actually, we finished two stories this week, but we only discussed one on the forum. The discussion leaders be only discussing one at length each week unless other people put together questions about the other stories on their own.

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#1110

I’ve got the book (kindle ebook from Amazon.co.jp). @LucasDesu What story are we reading?

edit:

Looks like it is these for week 2:

父の時給
幸せグラフ
空席

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#1111

Hey welcome! We’re reading all the stories but just pick one out of the batch to be the main focus of discussion. So, go ahead and spend the most time on that one/read it first if you’re too short on time to read them all. Discussion/questions about the other stories are still welcome though.

I’m the discussion leader this week so I’ll go ahead and pick 幸せグラフ as the main story. Hopefully folks are okay with that. XD It just seemed the most interesting to me thematically.

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#1112

Oops! Thanks for clarifying :see_no_evil:

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#1113

Just a random question: When you all read, do you think only in the target language or are you needing to think in your native language? I am finding that I am having to translate in my mind what I am reading and wondered if I am getting all I can out of this reading exercise if I am still thinking in my native language.

#1114

It’s no problem at all. In the past we discussed every story. This book has 33 short stories which consists of two or three in a week. So that’s how we came across the idea of just discussing one of them.

@bolaurent we are reading all three for the week, but like Snowflying said, we are discussing 幸せグラフ this week (on Sunday the 11th?). So if you focus on that one, you can actively participate in the discussion. If you’re having trouble understanding something, you’re free to ask questions about any of the stories, provided you have spoilers put in (if necessary).

@Snowflying please be sure to announce that on the book thread as that some people may not be following this thread.

@Steffy47 usually try to stay in Japanese unless I simply have no idea what’s going on. I also look up words I don’t understand as well. So there are times when I’m not 100% about how a certain grammar point works, but I don’t fuss about how to translate it into English because it always seems to turn out to be a lot of work.

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#1115

I would say it’s best to try not to translate it to your native language. If there’s something that you’re really having a hard time understanding, then it’s probably ok to translate, but you should work towards being able to read without translating. And I agree with LucasDesu, for English it can be a real chore to figure out how exactly to translate things sometimes since the grammar is so different. I know that I miss a lot of nuances, but as long as I understand the main idea I just keep going. Doing that also helps with reading speed so that I don’t get bored or tired by my lack of progress.

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#1116

My rule of thumb is if I get lost, I break down the sentence and translate. But if I’m not lost yet, I just keep reading. Sometimes I read the same sentence twice in Japanese to fully ‘get it,’ though. Or I might summarize what just happened in English in other words to check my understanding instead of translating exactly. Like, ‘this sentence is saying X, so Y, which meant Z…’ Especially if there are a lot of clauses or conjunctions.

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#1117

Can you tell me where the discussion will take place? I’ve read the three stories for this week and am looking forward to participating.

#1118

My understanding is that discussions for the stories happen on Sundays on the forum in this thread the reason being everyone can’t participate on Discord due to timing and location. But I’m sure there will be some discussion of the stories of the stories there, I’m not 100% sure, though.

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#1119

How does one find the discussion on Discord?

#1120

The link is in the original post of this thread, toward the bottom (the section is titled “Discord”)

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#1121

Moved the discord link to the top of the post for easy access.

The main place for discussion is still the discussion thread! We’re just gonna have a bit of a meetup on the discord for people who can attend and want to discuss things live. Last time we voice called and took turns reading from the book; I imagine we could do that this time, or just have some discussion. :+1:

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