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I don’t think I have much to add to what others have already said. You’re quite a bit off in quite a few places, especially on page 7. Some of it is gonna be what other pointed out already:

That’s a ひ, not an い, but yes that’s does mean “it’s been a while” - one thing though, な is just ね, and ひさしぶり is a noun (or a na-adjective, same thing really), so ひさしぶりだ is one thing, だな is not a separate addition to it. This is really just “it’s been a while” with ね basically asking the listener’s agreement (which doesn’t have to be explicitly stated, you don’t actually need to confirm everything marked by ね, it’s more intended to convey that you presume the listener agrees and/or what you’re saying isn’t new to them) - so something like “it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

As already stated, おーー is just “oooooh”, not the honorific prefix. You generally wouldn’t use the honorific prefix for people’s names anyway, there’s honorific suffixes for that (さん, さま, etc.)

Just the sound effect of a hand being placed on Yotsuba’s head

Not sure why you separated this in this way - 元気にしてたか is one sentence - “have you been well?”

That’s うあー - just an excalamation, basically “whaaaa”

Yanda is a different person

And that means he’s implicitly the subject of this - Yotsuba’s dad is asking if he’s not here yet

This one’s also one sentence. You’re paying too much attention to line breaks, really - a sentence can be split over multiple lines, just like in normal written text.

あいつ用が入ったからこねえって is the full sentence. あー is just “ah”.

あいつ is a colloquial/familiar (and sometimes disrespectful) way of referring to someone. Think of it as an informal form of あの人. There’s also こいつ, そいつ and どいつ which are basically the colloquial この人, その人 and どの人 (but more in the sense of “who” than in the sense of “which person”) though I don’t think I’ve ever seen そいつ or どいつ used.

こねえ is こない, あい can become ええ in some contexts (usually in very casual speech), like with うるせえ being the same as うるさい. って is once again a quotation marker, から marks the preceding (あいつ用が入った) as the reason for こねえって.

So: he said he wouldn’t come (こねえって) because (から) he had things to do (あいつ用が入った)

This is basically nitpicking since the transcription is accurate, but a more natural way of transcribing this nickname would probably be Jumbo. Probably because he’s a full head taller than Yotsuba’s dad :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

This is one sentence split over multiple lines as before, with a misreading as pointed out by others:

しばらく見ないうちにまた大きくなった

うちに is a grammar point you haven’t encountered before, and just means “while” (as in “during the time in which the previous bit took place”).

大きくなった is also a general pattern you’ll see a lot, replacing the い for an i-adjective with く makes it into an adverb, and [adverb form of adjective]なる just means “to become (more) [adjective]”. 大きくなった means “you got big” (or “you got bigger”). しばらく見ないうちに marks the timespan for that, so she’s saying “you got big while I didn’t see you for a while” (or more naturally “you got big since I last saw you”) - she’s mimicking the people who say that to her every time, as people tend to do with kids :slight_smile:

I think a big part of your misunderstanding here is you’re splitting a sentence again because it’s over multiple lines. It’s one sentence (and you have a typo - that ば is a ぼ): お?どこでおぼえたそのセリフ

どこ is just “where”, で marks it as a location for the verb, which is おぼえた (to learn - by memorisation, not by being taught). セリフ is a bit of a tricky one to translate, but it can refer to anything spoken, basically. Stories, words, phrases, comments, remarks, etc.

He’s asking her where she picked up the phrase she said (しばらく見ないうちに大きくなった) since it’s clearly something she’s just mimicking off someone.

まあいいか does happen to be a separate part of the sentence, so you got that more or less right. It’s basically just a “filler phrase” he uses to say “I think we’ll manage” (though literally he makes it a question but I guess that’s more so to soften it, in a way)

The latter part of it is once again a single sentence: ジャンボが二人分働くしな

し is something you haven’t encountered yet, and marks a reason for something. You’ll often see this when listing multiple reasons for something (目が大きいし頭が丸いしその猫が可愛い - that cat is cute because its eyes are big and its head is round) but you can also see it used like this for a single reason.

な is once again just ね

二人分 means “two people’s share” (or “a portion for two”)

So he’s explaining why they’ll manage - it’s because Jumbo will do the work of two people.

You’ve got the gist, but keep in mind that Japanese doesn’t really have a present tense, just a non-past tense, so ない can be present or future tense. This is more “that won’t happen” than “that never happens” - but “never!” or “no way!” covers it nicely.

Notice the negation: he’s saying “I won’t work”

働いて is just the て-form (conjunctive form) of 働く, linking it to the くれ you missed here (which is a colloquial form of ください, essentially). He’s saying “please work”

That’s とーちゃん, not うーちゃん - he’s saying “your dad’s useless”

That’s said by Yotsuba, not her dad - she’s repeating Jumbo’s とーちゃんはダメだ

I hope that helps! In general just try to see where sentence boundaries are. Most of the time they’ll be marked by either punctuation or the end of the text balloon, but line breaks can happen mid-sentence. Keep that in mind, I think that’s where a lot of your misinterpretations/mistranslations come from.

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It gets even more interesting, because I’ve seen the same grammar point being listed as N2 and N1 or N3 and N2, depending on the online resource. There might also be some flux and re-arrangement going on in the JLPT system itself so grammar points can perhaps change levels.

I also come across several N2 points, despite not yet knowing all N3 points.

I think there are 2 ways to look at it:

  • You need a specific JLPT N* certificate for a job position or education placement (likely N3-N1)
  • You want to know where you’re at roughly per self-assessment

I usually lean towards the latter. It’s a useful metric, but for self-assessment one would also have to judge production and JLPT tests don’t really check that, because there is no writing or speaking part sadly.

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Okay! I feel like this similar phrase was running through my head last night too.

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HAHA got it!
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Hmmm I can’t remember if I saw anything like “well” or a synonym like good or anything when I looked into that sentence… so perhaps I did separate it wrong or ichi.moe got me confused at some point :sweat_smile:
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Ah yes, I can see now where the font is tricking me into getting う wrong, と clearly points the opposite way!
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Eek I would not have known this, clearly.
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THIS was a huge question I had. That may solve a decent amount of confusion for me…
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Well, I read this all twice but I can’t say it all makes sense yet!

HAHAH! I get it, and of course the word Jumbo did cross through my mind a few times…
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Ohhhhhh Okay - yes I can definitely see where the splitting of sentences is tripping me up quite a bit - I feel stupid for thinking I needed to do that! :sweat_smile:
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:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :white_check_mark:

Okay, I was WAYYYYY off on SO Many of these…
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WIN!
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Ohhh okay!
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:angry: :white_check_mark:

Okay I am starting to see some things I got tripped up on…
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Got it!!!
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Yup!
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Yeah I could tell I was missing something there haha!
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:angry:
I am confusing way too many と and う s. I swear, I never have a problem with them without being new to weird fonts!
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WOW THIS helped a ton Yamitenshi! Seriously, I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time AGAIN, but I felt like I was way off with a lot more than the feedback I had gotten on certain things. You definitely pointed them out. The good news for me (and you not having to help me this much!) is that someone linked me a complete Yotsubato Vol. 1 Grammar Guide today, so this should help immensely as well!
:star: :star: :star: :star: :star: REVIEW OF THIS CRITIQUE!
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THANK YOU YAMITENSHI AS ALWAYS!

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Perfect! This is what I was thinking but I think I’m so new it’s blatantly obvious I’m still reaching for the stars at N1 :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I did not know that there wasn’t a writing or speaking part, that is interesting. I wonder why…

Thanks TokeruKonkoyo!

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Oh for sure, I’ve noticed that as well! I believe I’ve heard there is no “official” listing of JLPT content, though that may have been specifically in reference to vocab? So my assumption is that, also, it might be that everyone is stuck making their best guesses at where points lay.

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My understanding is that it would make the enterprise of organizing those exams outside of Japan more challenging, because:

  • writing would require PCs or assume everyone can write in Japanese by hand (and then assume a certain number of kanji one can write per JLPT level)

  • speaking would require native speakers as speaking session moderators or require recording sessions and then sending them via mail / e-mail to affiliated examiners for grading

At one point I believed there is something like that, but honestly I don’t know anymore. Perhaps for vocab, because I do vaguely remember looking for mandatory vocab for N5 when doing JapanesePod101 courses.

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There are no official grammar, vocab or kanji lists for any of the JLPT levels, the lists you find are built off what has been on previous tests - which also explains the discrepancies, those are just different resources going off different tests or arranging grammar points into different levels because if a specific point has been on one N3 test in the past few years, some resources may put it under N2 because you can easily pass N3 without it, and others may put it under N3 because it has been on there.

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I WAS WAITING FOR YOU いちにち!!!!BACK TO GURU II ! :laughing:

Screenshot 2022-01-02 6.50.04 PM

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Nice!

…but do you remember the other reading too? :wink:

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AH I didn’t, just had to look it up :angry: ついたち! Hopefully that will help me remember now. THANKS Daisoujou :laughing:

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Haha, no problem. Just wanted to tease you. And いちにち is the more important word for sure. I dunno how many times I’ve heard it and I don’t think I’ve heard ついたち outside Wanikani just yet. Turns out concepts like “one day” or 'all day" come up a bit more than specifically “the first of the month.”

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The first of the month only happens once a month, after all, while all day happens every day. :slightly_smiling_face:

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いい !!!!!!!!!!:smiley:

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HAHA great quote! :laughing:

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Just FYI - (especially for @yamitenshi :laughing: ) I just read through pages 12 and 13 of よつばと! and I don’t even need to ask for help tonight! The vol. 1 grammar guide was very helpful, AND actually inputting the sentences in full (as yamitenshi pointed out that I hadn’t been) is making a world of difference! I feel so much better about this!

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My mom had given me a Christmas gift inside this tiny little Chinese envelope because of the kanji written on it. She can’t remember where it came from, and it’s a little taller than a tea packet. It looks pretty vintage, and because I love old/antique things, I almost liked it more than the gift itself! Today, I am proud to report that I drew out all the kanji on Shirabe Jisho app and found all 11 of them! They have meanings that do make me think it was some sort of tea or spice from China. The back has a Chinese brand name written in letters but I did a web search and nothing was to be found. Anyway, I just wanted to log this in my journal :slight_smile: Goodnight friends!

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Congrats. There’s actually twelve, though - did you miss the 一 in the top panel of the sail? :stuck_out_tongue:

And then there’s the seal script in the top-left corner which, to be fair, can be quite hard to read even for native Japanese (or in this case, Chinese) speakers. Uh, let’s see… um… I think it’s 錦繡前程, but since that appears to only be the name of a movie released in 1994, I’m not completely certain…

Did you try feeding each set of four characters through some manner of translation service? They’re all phrases in Chinese wishing various kinds of luck and good fortune. :slightly_smiling_face:

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AH! I did haha! Wow GOOD CATCH! :laughing:

Yes, I could not make out the seal :frowning: I’m super impressed that you could make it out! Hmm it’s a little too small for movie popcorn :laughing: perhaps some Skittles?? I have some Chinese artwork that is very difficult too. I do have much appreciation for seal stamps though!

Yes I noticed that and that’s EXACTLY what I told my mom. I did not, but I assumed it was trying to tell the buyer - “this brings fortune and good luck!” It also could be a novelty kind of item, who knows! The company name is “XHYW - Xiaohuayinwu” … couldn’t find anything on the Google machine though.

Question About Flash Cards:

I’ve been chatting with @crmsnprincess89 in her study log about flash cards, and I’m already aware of the different sites/apps for using them. However, she made me think a little more about using them myself for kanji or vocabulary or grammar that I encounter while reading. At this point my main aim is to use WaniKani SRS levels for Kanji, and I’m trying to keep up with the self study quiz, which is sort of like a WK only flash card system of testing if you will, but takes some time out of my day. Then for grammar I really want to use reading immersion, which I know will take time and isn’t easy, but I also imagine I’ll pick up a kanji/vocabulary here and there too that I retain.

Ultimately I don’t want to add too much to my plate, but my question is: Should I be coupling a flash card system with my reading? I can see the benefit for sure, but I don’t want to overwhelm myself.

Just gonna tag some peeps for help :slight_smile: お礼 in advance!!!

@ChristopherFritz @yamitenshi @Daisoujou @TokeruKonkoyo @Belthazar

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I would kind of advice against it unless you’re planning to do a lot of reading to compensate for the lack of a textbook to understand the nuances of grammar structures. If not, you might run into “do I actually understand the nuance correctly?”. In Japanese there are some grammar points like でも and various conjugations of する and よる which don’t always point to the same nuance. For instance:
によると - according to something/someone
によって - through something/someone, by means of

Understandable. Doing too many SRS reviews is fairly taxing. I would say “yes” to Anki or whatever other SRS for vocab. I usually focus on common words, words which define the meaning of a kanji or cover readings one doesn’t encounter often.

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