Was initially planning to read another Tadoku book today, but @soggyboy’s update on reading Harry Potter made me want to go back to my own e-copy of the book and give it a shot again (I’d started reading Philosopher’s Stone last year but was tripped up by the vocabulary and didn’t continue ). Started reading the book on the ttsu reader, and while I could only read one page today, I’m finding the book much more readable than before - maybe the fact that I’m doing a Harry Potter movie marathon this week has to do something with it; nostalgia helps
There’s still a lot of vocabulary that I have to look up with Yomichan, and I’m adding most of them to my anki for later study, but I’m hoping that if I push myself hard enough, I might be able to finish the book by the end of this challenge. がんばります!
New find!
I was confused about the meaning of 「いやしない」in the line 「…こんなにできのいい子はいやしない…」as the definitions on Yomichan were coming up like this:
I couldn’t find any explanation in English for the phrase, but a quick search in Japanese brought up many results out of which I found the second answer here the most helpful. I’m quoting a portion of it here:
The explanation here also fits the context of the original English text, since here the narrator was talking about the Dursley’s kid, Dudley and how “in their (the Dursleys’) opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.”
What made me happy about this whole process is that I realised that I’ve become much more confident in reading and understanding J-J definitions and explanations as someone who still relies on English definitions of Japanese vocab most of the time
Also, thank you all for so many interesting History book recommendations! Loved reading about the recommendations and everyone’s insights so far
Today I didn’t have much time to read, stopped in the middle of the chapter since I need to sleep. Also listened to lessons 23-24/26 from JapanesePod101.com Lower Intermediate Season 2 and read the dialogues when I got home.
My influence grows ! The beginning of the book is harder because there’s more narration and scene setting. Chapter 2 is where it gets easier because there’s a lot of dialogue and daily life stuff.
Yeah, that’s why I chose it over any number of children’s books… I simply read it more times, so I know the English text really well. It helps with the parts where the japanese grammar is harder.
そうですね! I’ll probably be sitting with my physical copy of the book in English whenever I’m reading the book just to make sure I understood the Japanese text correctly
If I was going to start Potter again I would probably just go straight for Azkaban. A great pity I can’t bring myself to ever read that series again… now, if there was an easily accessible Pratchett, now that could be fun… and impossible, probably
Thanks for this. I just checked WaniKani and it seems that this vocabulary will come up in level 30. That’s 2 levels away for me. That’s probably why I got confused. It’s a kanji with multiple meanings but WaniKani only has one for level 28 and introduces the other meanings later with the vocabulary.
Thanks for the translation. Yeah, it seems that I got the gist but now I understand why that kanji is used there.
I’d read a fan translation back in the day and even watched the anime so I have nostalgic memories of this series. Now I am trying it in Japanese to see how my memories hold up. I will also get the English versions but I will go slow on those. However, Shugo Chara was another manga that I read back in the day and had nostalgic memories of but when I read the Japanese version of vol.1, I didn’t enjoy it. I even got vol. 1 in English and still didn’t like it. That’s why I will go slow on checking out Cardcaptor Sakura. Stories featuring children less than 10 years old are not quite to my taste these days.
Oooh! Thanks for reminding me of this grammar point. I did learn it back when I did formal Japanese lessons but that was almost 10 years ago now.
If I wasn’t absolutely dying for a nap right now I could’ve finished this volume for sure I may start adding a News Web Easy article alongside my daily manga chapters, just to round out what I’m reading with a little extra non-fiction content. See you tomorrow!
Finished the しまなみ誰そ彼 chapter I was reading yesterday
Read the new year’s chapter from スキップとローファー, which was a very seasonal read, and finishes up volume 5. This series often makes me feel emotional I took a peek at the next chapter, which seems to be set near Valentine’s Day, so I won’t be starting on the next volume until then (since I’m aiming to read at a seasonal pace for this series)
Started on chapter 1 of ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, which I’m reading with the book club! Was a bit nervous since it seemed like it’d be harder than what I’ve read before, but it’s actually going okay so far! (Definitely slower-going than usual though)
Yeah, that totally makes sense! When I read it, it did often feel like the series was aimed at readers much younger than me, but I still enjoyed it. (I went slow too though, which probably helped with some of the repetitive parts)
I read three Tadoku books on my lunch break: 赤い、彼氏がほしい、 and 夜の空で. They were all very cute. I feel like my understanding has increased. I wanted to tackle the next unit in my grammar textbook, but I was too tired when I got home.
Haha was just gonna say, Pratchett in translation (into any language) is something that goes beyond my imagination I assume it will be a whole new book in the end.
I also heard in the German text of one book they literally just inserted an add for maggi noodles in the copy which I found hilarious and Terry, apparently, didn’t
I read a bit more in my Swedish mythological creatures book, today about älvor. And I just went to wikipedia to see if they had an English version of that one, but nope. Only 3 other languages outside Swedish. If you search for it though, you might get to elves, but obviously the Fantasy version of elves are different, and there are also other creatures that are translated to elf from nordic mythology.
This is one depiction of them that was on the Swedish wikipedia article: Älvor – Wikipedia
Yesterday, I read nothing at all, because I woke up with frozen pipes and after I fixed that, I lost electricity to part of the house, and after that my car wouldn’t start so I couldn’t run needed errands to safeguard better against the pipes freezing again. It is currently around -33 to -36 C here, which is almost the same as in F, because C and F is the same at -40. So… it is cold. Coldest it has been in a decade, and the only time it has been colder was once back in the 1960s. So we be having real weather related problems since things are not adapted to this kind of cold. Up to -30 for a couple of hours, maybe even a day? Sure, but we’re on day 3? 4? I’m losing track of time, I can’t remember how cold it was on Monday, but definitely since Tuesday. (I also had problems on Tuesday, but that was after I read and posted, so…)
So far no problems today.
I’m hoping you all are safe. Hopefully not living in any of the places that are starting 2024 crap-ily due to weather or earthquakes or anything else awful.
Even in the German news, we had an article about the current cold wave in Sweden, with temperatures going below -40°C even… I remember sometimes having cold waves in Germany that went down to -20°C for a couple of weeks, but -40? That’s really insane. Please take care of yourself and make sure you don’t get stranded outside or anything!
By the way how is Kiro faring with the weather? I’d assume he is now twice the usual floof
I don’t doubt there is overlap (there is overlap between folk/mythology stuff across a lot of cultures) and since some Danes went and scampered around UK, I’m sure there are some actual connections, but it feels very silly to call them the same. They aren’t. I know very little about Celtic stuff, but it definitely feels weird to lump them together. Roman and Greek mythology are rarely lumped together despite one being based on the other (well, that is what I was taught in school, I haven’t actually checked if that is a true theory or not (or how accepted it is) so maybe I was taught incorrectly, please educate me if so, preferably with some reliable sources )! They are still seen as distinct. One would think two mythologies that don’t even have that connection, wouldn’t be lumped together.
And yeah, I specifically looked for books in Swedish because I figured I’d be able to find more in depth ones. Norse mythology is much more wildly written about in Swedish, but not the more nordic or folk stuff from the same countries.
Indeed. The book I’m currently reading, actually talked a bit about that in the introduction. And was a reason she was more focused on 1700-1800 beliefs (if I remember correctly, more towards the later I think; more sources too), it is also the introduction that told me a bit of how she selected the creatures to feature. So I know they are all ones that had basis in Sweden specifically. Considering how many there are if you include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Island (the Nordic countries), any book author will have to pick and choose.
What I like also in the book I’m currently reading is that it is using old paintings/sketches for illustrations of the creatures. I’m probably moving on to the children’s book creature collection book after, which has art by the actual author, and it will have its own charm. For the one I read now, I do enjoy getting to see art from history, some of which I’ve seen before in history books and the like.
Day 3 | 1月3日、水曜日
). Started reading the book on the ttsu reader, and while I could only read one page today, I’m finding the book much more readable than before - maybe the fact that I’m doing a Harry Potter movie marathon this week has to do something with it; nostalgia helps 
１月 ３日 
I assume it will be a whole new book in the end.
)! They are still seen as distinct. One would think two mythologies that don’t even have that connection, wouldn’t be lumped together.