@Beyond_Sleepy I just had to say I saw your user-card after you liked a post of mine and I had to look up Toki Pona! Wikipedia’s general description has fascinated me! Do you mind if I ask what interested you in learning it?
1 Like
HAHAHA consider yourself atoned 
1 Like
jan Misali’s videos on it got me interested, so I bought the book this Christmas and I feel like learning Toki Pona is giving me both new insight and motivation for language learning in general. I plan to write about that once I’ve got the basics down:)
2 Likes
Awesome well if you remember, tag me in the post! I like that a primary objective is to focus on simplicity and promote positive thinking 
2 Likes
Oh… my… goodness.
I just spent 3 hours working through TWO pages of よつばと！ 
Just a couple things…
- I am SUPER grateful to anyone who wants to take the time to help me with this page. Don’t hold anything back!
- I have no idea what or who ジャンボー is… other than that’s how Yotsuba greets the other guy. I assume he’s a realtor??
- This was time consuming but SUPER fun!!!
MY ATTEMPT!
六 Box 1: ブウン Whoosh? noise of car stopping?
六 Box 2: ば「」？
六 Box 3 Father: よう hey; yo; hi
六 Box 3 Other Guy (Realtor?): うす ？
六 Box 4 Yotsuba: ジャンボー Jyambo!! ? いさしぶり It’s been so long! だなー!! I tell you!!
六 Box 4 Other Guy: おーー よつば honorific prefix greeting Yotsuba
六 Box 5: が indicates Yotsuba as sentence subject
七 Box 1 Other Guy: 元気に full of energy / spirit ブン ブン noise of patting her head? してたか？ aren’t you?
七 Box 1 Yotsuba:とあー Yes やめろ Stop (joyfully as he pats her head)
七 Box 2 Father: ヤンダは is it done? まだ？ more to do still?
七 Box 2 Other Guy: あーあいつ yes, correct. it’s time. 用が入ったから business to obtain is complete こねえって Oh?, だめだわ ([n] neutral point (in go); intersection owned by neither player at the end of a game?)
七 Box 3 Yotsuba: ジャンボ Jyambo?
七 Box 3 Yotsuba: しばらく見ないとらに for a while I’ve waited to see this place また大きくなった and become like an adult!
七 Box 3 Other Guy: お？どこで don’t you know おばえた understand, old lady, そのセリフ that it’s not that compelling.
七 Box 3 Father:まあいいか oh well, I suppose. ジャンボ がふたりぶん it takes two people 働くしな to function.
七 Box 4 Other Guy:そんな事はない Never! That never happens! 俺は働かない I work!
七 Box 4 Father: 働いて。。。 To take the trouble to work…
七 Box 4 Yotsuba: よつばがはたらく！！ Yotsuba can work!!
七 Box 5 Other Guy: おー！ えらいぞ よつば！Excellent Yotsuba! うーちゃんは ダメだなー little girls are not allowed!
七 Box 5 Father:とちゃんは だめだ！！ This is not good!!
@yamitenshi Just wanted to your opinion to see if I was somewhat close in the context of these two pages You don’t have to go crazy into detail, but perhaps just point out where I was terribly off?
2 Likes
I don’t have the time to go through your work right now (I’m sure someone will beat me to it when I do again, but if no one has looked by then I can take a crack at it eventually), but for this bit, it’ll become clear soon, but he’s just a friend of Yotsuba’s dad. That’s his nickname he is almost always referred to by.
2 Likes
If after that you’re ready to go back for more, then you’re definitely in a position to make good progress.
I remember my early days of spending a couple of hours to get through a few panels, and taking all kinds of notes on the grammar. Sometimes I’d see something and think it’s my first time encountering it, only to find a familiar set of web search results. But over time, the same grammar came up again and again, and I got used to it. Things that I struggled with back then, I now recognize, process, and understand without even thinking about it.
I mention this in case you encounter the same along the way. It’s easy to feel like some things just don’t make sense, or that you aren’t going to be able to remember them. But over time, it all works out, so long as you keep moving forward.
Others are replying, so I’ll wait and see if anyone else is tackling translation answers before I respond on them.
5 Likes
Ahh, I remember being ultra confused by page 7! Who the characters were and what they were doing … At first I thought Koiwai (Yotuba’s dad) was a female friend of Yotuba’s dad…?
Have you checked out this thread yet? I often find my questions answered in the book club threads.
6 Likes
Thank you for that! Clarifies a lot haha 
2 Likes
Haha well I’m glad I wasn’t the only person to be confused on that page 
Yes I also posted a link to my work tonight on their page! I posted in there 20 days ago that I would be starting soon and got a handful of likes, but there doesn’t seem to be too much activity there!
3 Likes
He’s a fried of Koiwai’s.
That’s a small っ. Indicates that the ばっ sound effect is short and sharp.
Very casual “hi”. Basically it’s an extreme abbreviation of こんにちは
こんにちは ＞ ちわっす ＞ わっす ＞ うす
No, that’s just “Ohhh, Yotsuba!”
Yanda is the name of another guy. You haven’t met him yet. With that in mind, you may want to reevaluate your translation of Jumbo’s (“Other Guy”) next line.
Think it’s more like “You haven’t seen me for a while, I’ve grown up.”
Sorry, I think you’re somewhat off the mark here. Maybe give it another stab.
That’s とーちゃん
4 Likes
Oh I’m super proud of myself for making it through those pages as best I could. Even if I only got the bits and pieces of what was happening despite the poor grammar that would be enough, but I’m sure I’m off on a bunch of context too 
Wow that’s amazing. It’s like I’ve started to realize with Wanikani reviews… sometimes I get distracted by my cat or something and I’m typing in the correct answer without even thinking. Amazing how that works!
Yes I like this trajectory too. Manga is cool because you actually have pictures to help you along (or sometimes confuse you when the grammar doesn’t totally match up to what you thought it was going to be!
Oh no worries I’m just appreciative of any help at all! You have already donated plenty of your time in this thread
4 Likes
Now, let’s take a look at these two pages.
For some effects, sometimes it helps to say them out loud. But also this one’s a bit special because it uses ブ, which can be a “bu” sound or a “vu” sound. I’d go with “vroom” as the sound effect here. (Coincidentally, the English release of the manga agrees.)
By the way, if you want to type the っ Belthazar mentioned, you can probably get it by typing “ltu” or “xtu”.
This one’s ガ, which looks similar to が except missing a line and with straight lines rather than curves…カタカナ.
Typically (not always) a single letter or word not in a word balloon is a sound effect. Here, it’s a sound effect for him grabbing Yotsuba’s head.
I don’t know if it’s quite patting, but it is indeed the sound of the action.
Welcome to the fun world of different fonts. Her response begins with 「うあー」 (an exclamation).
4 Likes
I meant more that if you read the conversation from back when the book club was reading this chapter, you may find that many of your questions have already been both asked and answered. Or learn something else new and interesting. There’s lots of good info there.
4 Likes
VERY good to know!
Ohhhh I’ve never seen a small tsu without a consonant after it…
I assumed it was something like that, but I could not find anything to substantiate it hah!
Ah, there we go! Well, I’ll get the hang of those darn ーーー extensions sooner or later.
I suspected it was more friendly than she would be greeting a realtor! But once I had committed to the idea this guy was handing over the keys to the house I couldn’t go back
Okay I will!
Okay so とーちゃん is informal for father correct? I think I I need to look at this one a bit more too…
Thanks for the guidance!
4 Likes
That just blew my mind. It’s too brilliant of an idea for me to have come up with on my own!
2 Likes
Haha, enjoy! 
3 Likes
I did not know about “vu” ! That’s great to know and that the English matches up! っ yes! “xtu” worked!
I can’t believe I missed that. I actually noticed the missing line but didn’t attribute it to the katakana… mistakes make me learn!
This is along the lines of what I was thinking!
Ugh the different fonts are challenging but worth the challenge! I had more of an issue with a couple of the furigana. I have fantastic near sight and I had to hold up a super bright flashlight to the page and look as close as I could to see it. If it had had rendaku I would not have been able to identify it!
3 Likes
The よつばと! vocabulary list is absolutely fantastic. Whoever put this together has my eternal gratitude.
3 Likes