If I were not reading this as a textbook/intensive reading I would’ve dropped this almost immediately. My problem is almost the opposite if something even looks like it’s gonna take more than a few minutes to decode and I already have the general vibe, I just move on.
Like on the first time I read this paragraph, I noted that there was a lot of grammar parts attached to 考える and just glazed over them mostly. I understood the intended meaning from the style of writing and context, and didn’t think super super hard about what was precisely being said. In anything else, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
I also feel like because now it’s a textbook, it’s a good opportunity to really go deep in the sentences.
I like how you guys have broken down sentences.
I have struggled more with the second reading so I will also post here sometime during this week which sentences gave me trouble and my interpretation!
Last night I read the first text and underlined the words I didn’t know. This morning I finished the after reading questions, read the grammar points and the strategies. I’m trying to come up with my own translation of the first text just to check how I understood the grammar points in use.
Text 1, paragraph 1
Speaking of Japanese animated film director, Hayao Miyazaki obviously (comes to mind?/is remembered). Among his productions, 千と千尋の神隠し is specially popular. It was the Academy prize winner movie in 2003. If you are the kind of people that is interested in anime films, you probably watched もののけ姫, トトロ, among others. The stories he animates have a environmental message in them, that can also make adults think about many issues.
I’m not sure I understood the 大人も考えさせられるものが多い part, help please.
Edit: I just realized I skipped the past on the 見たことがあるかもしれない thanks @javerend for the explanation above!
I want to continue with the rest of the first text after I rest a bit, and I’ll start reading the second text tomorrow! I spent around an hour and a half reading and processing just these couple of pages
My written answers to the questions are also truly embarrassing, we are not sharing those are we?
Thanks! Went to update and found a setting “Never expires” for the new link
Hehe good question. I’m so embarrassed myself by my writing skills that I didn’t even try yet to write for myself but next week is all about writing so I think I will do it anyway. If I do I will post it, with disclaimer of broken Japanese
Also, for me writing means writing on a computer / phone, but if anyone wants to share their handwriten answers, I love looking at those!
I don’t think there’s any pressure to post anything at all. I originally wrote mine in February so I imagine my Japanese has improved some what since then
Agreed! That and getting some writing practice were really what attracted me to trying out this series. I’m coming mostly from doing a lot of extensive reading where I just care mostly about getting the gist and a lot of vocab, so using this as an excuse to get some intensive reading and really picking into grammar and syntax seemed like a good idea
I think all of our japanese writing is probably going to be a relative mess so we’ll be in good company if we decide to share responses
I’m not sure that I’d completely understand this one if it was presented in English… It’s not really my cup of tea. Look him on Google. I didn’t really get it. He’s famous, I suppose, but with this Unit, I basically (have) re-read the the Miyazaki one multiple times and enjoy it, but the second one feels like a chore.
I recognized Miyazaki right away but also didn’t know Yamanaka. I was afraid that he would be a politician, quite relieved that he is a researcher! But yeah, way more complex topic.
Here are some sentences I need help with.
読み物２
それが、医者をやめて研究をしようと思った理由の一つだったそうです。
I think the first part 「医者をやめて研究をしようと思った」 modifies 「理由の一つ」? but not sure what is 「理由の一つ」. “The one reason”? as in one of the reasons or the number one reason?
声が聞こえた友人は、「すまんって。。。。。」と不安になったそうです。
I didn’t understand the story, or I didn’t understand the joke. He told his friend “sorry”, because it took him one hour to do a 15 minutes surgery, and the friend panics because he hears the surgeon say “sorry”?
Is it saying something like: “According to the research “The goal of the human life, is to have the technology of the iPS cells being delivered from the bedside, saving a lot of patients”.”? I don’t really understand the bedside thing, but maybe it is not yet an easy to use technology, and he wishes that it will be in the future, as easy as a perfusion while the patient lies in bed?
Didn’t understand this sentence on the first read. Now I think it says something like "To have successful results when you do research you need Vision and Work hard, to be decided to persevere.
「９回失敗しないと１回成功しない」
Anybody can help with this sentence? An explanation on the しないと and しない?
講演では必ず1回は笑わせるようにしているそうです
I absolutely needed to know if this was true. Watched a lecture to find out, and yup, he’s laughing right before the 2 min mark already.
This one I think I understood intuitively already as you have to fail 9 times to succeed once, but I wasn’t quite sure about what grammar was being used to make that meaning happen.
Pretty sure it’s this, Vないと meaning “must do” or “unless”, or I think most directly “if you don’t”, which I was under the impression was a bit casual, so it kinda caught me off guard that it would’ve been in this paper. Then I remembered it was a quote and the usage made more sense.
Using that 2nd meaning, the negative on 成功しない (the second しない is just a する verb but negative) makes more sense: Unless you fail 9 times, you won’t succeed once or even If you don’t fail 9 times, you won’t succeed once
The に here is ‘to the bedside’, and I think it might be a bit metaphorical. My impression was that this is still technology that’s mostly in the lab, and his life’s goal is to take it from the research facility to as many patients as possible.
So translated more directly: According to the professor “My life’s goal is to deliver iPS cell technology to the bedside, so it can save lots of patients.”
I think you did understand the story, but just didn’t find it as funny as the author. It’s probably meant to be not really laugh-out-loud funny but more mildly amusing, in that it shows Yamanaka as someone human and capable of admitting mistakes.
I think the first part 「医者をやめて研究をしようと思った」 modifies 「理由の一つ」? but not sure what is 「理由の一つ」. “The one reason”? as in one of the reasons or the number one reason?
I was wondering about that, too, and even thought of a third possibility (the One Reason = the only reason).
Didn’t understand this sentence on the first read. Now I think it says something like "To have successful results when you do research you need Vision and Work hard, to be decided to persevere.
I think the part in brackets explains what “Vision and Work Hard” means. My attempt at a translation:
“I.e., for your research to yield results, you need V (Vision) and W (Work Hard), in other words, the meaning is that it’s necessary to “decide on a goal and persevere”.”
Same. I’m interested in medical research, so I would actually have been interested if they’d properly explained what those iPS cells do. Instead, the text consisted of all kinds of boring (to me) details about his work ethics and job anecdotes and stuff.
Still…this is the second time I’m working through this chapter. The first time was about a year ago, and it’s very motivating to see how much easier this text is to understand now that I’ve become a bit more practiced in reading Japanese.
if something even looks like it’s gonna take more than a few minutes to decode and I already have the general vibe, I just move on.
but next week is all about writing so I think I will do it anyway. If I do I will post it, with disclaimer of broken Japanese 
