COPY + PASTE into my grammar Google.doc
Thank you TokeruKonkoyo! ![]()
Languages are always in a constant state of change. So a lot of standard language will have been slang at some point in time:)
It also doesn’t help that in English, we write things the way they’re properly spelled rather than how they’re spoken.
For example, if I’m saying “Would you like a glass of water?” it comes out as “Wujya like a glassa wader?”
I mean, it’s great for written English, but it doesn’t prepare you for manga where words are written as they’re commonly spoken.
such an interesting thing about languages!
goooood point! I guess an exception would be artistic style, like if a character in a book had a stutter, they might say “wu-wuja like uh-uh glassa wa-wader?”
Well, you’re not wrong, actually ![]()
It’s definitely not something you’d characteristically see, a high school girl telling a grown man (and basically a stranger at that) to get it together, but that’s partially just “it’s a manga so it’s okay”, partially highlighting just how immature he is, and partially painting a bit of an absurd picture for humorous effect.
See, when a mommy verb and a daddy verb love each other very much…
…What, not that kind of embarrasing question? ![]()
Ask away! I promise I won’t laugh ![]()
No, just その referring back to what was said earlier. So, その時 just means “that time” and which time that is exactly is mentioned before, “that time” being when Yotsuba’s dad (I really need to look up his name) was in high school.
Oh don’t worry, he’s a weirdo
But then, so is Yotsuba, in more ways than one.
Honestly, the weirdness is the best part. Doubly so when it confuses the everliving hell out of the other characters ![]()
I honestly wouldn’t worry about recommended WaniKani levels at all when it comes to reading Manga. WaniKani levels tell you very little about how much Japanese someone knows - just looking at your own struggles, for instance, kanji aren’t what’s getting in the way here, especially with the furigana everywhere.
And/or made up on the spot by a certain 16th century playwright ![]()
I absolutely thought about that guy when I wrote that ![]()
“Gotta” is another example of colloquial, which actually appears in American comics.
I have a feeling I’d have an easier time understanding that in Japanese ![]()
Oh wait… I misread it due to the lack of spaces…
I FIGURED THIS! See, this is my first manga, and really, the only stylistic comparison I have is English dubbed anime. But, I did know because of anime that I’ve seen this wouldn’t necessarily be beyond the realm!
HAHHAHA okay good. I’ll ask tomorrow when my brain has had a chance to rest. BE PREPARED! ![]()
OHHHHHH I get it now! TYMUCHLY!
HAHAHA glad my assessment of him based on 2 pages is accurate. And I assumed Yotsuba was a weirdo, but since she’s disappeared, I miss her!
Yes, the furigana is SO helpful. Otherwise I’d be spending another hour on Shirabe Jisho drawing them out with my finger… (seriously though, mad props to Shirabe Jisho, it seems way more accurate than Jisho.org when it comes to drawing!)
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Brilliant!
Jisho’s accuracy can be… questionable. I’ve had much more luck with https://kanji.sljfaq.org/ - especially because it can ignore the stroke order if you don’t know it, but even with the correct stroke order I can’t always get Jisho to recognise the kanji I draw.
Also you’re gonna get a good impression of just how much of a weirdo Yotsuba is in the next few pages ![]()
Yes, I believe Shirabe Jisho does the same, but I think it’s iOS only…
It’s even easy to use on my iPhone without a stylus, but on an iPad it’s epic either way.
I think what makes me most excited about Yotsubato is the every-day-life-oddness that I’ll encounter. It will remind me of cartoons in the '90s as I was growing up. Cartoons nowadays are absurd distractions for children not to bother their parents (I’m not a parent, but this is just an observation
)
Eh… I grew up in the 90s as well, and I can’t really say the cartoons I watched were any less absurd ![]()
Cartoons just start to look absurd when you grow too old to “get it” I think (writing as a 28 year old😅).
I’m talking alien kids who just bonk around doing nothing but things that relate to the fascination humans have with fireworks and then it ends… poof, there goes 20 minutes of your life with commercials!
I had: Doug, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Angry Beavers, Real Monsters, Rocko’s Modern Life…
Okay Ren and Stimpy, too, but they were just classic! ![]()
DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON “Courage the Cowardly Dog” - HYPER FAN!
I forget the name of the cow / rooster one…
Courage the Cowardly Dog was my favorite show🙃
Fun fact: it’s an abbreviation for “am not”, because “amn’t” is really annoying to say. By the 1800s, though, it had also picked up “are not”, “has not” and “have not” in its list of usages, which made it appear to be a fake word, but it was actually real all along.


