Teasing Master Takagi-san 😝 ・ Volume 1, chapter 1

I haven’t started, but I will read this week, I hope.

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You are absolutely right, of course. This is exactly how I approach vocabulary, but for some reason, I got a little impatient with grammar. Thank you for your encouraging words.

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Confidence is low in some sentences, but here’s the next few pages:

pg. 4-5

ゆがんじゃったのかなー、ちょっと西方あけてくんない?
Is it bent? Hey Nishikata, won’t you open it for me?
あ、うん。
Uh, sure.
なんだ、簡単にあく…
What, it easily opens…
うわぁ!
Aaaaaaahh!

なんだ西方。
What is it Nishikata?
な、なんでもありません。
N-nothing at all!
くつくつく。
Heh, heh
西方ってホントいい反応するわー。
Nishikata, you react really well!
う、うるさいなっ。
Sh-shut up.
くそ…また、まんまとやられた。
Damn…again, it was successfully done.
しかもオレがやろうとしたことを先に…
Moreover, right before I was about to do it…
そもそも高木さんがオレに助けを求めるなんておかしいんだ。
Anyway, it’s suspicious that Takagi would [do] something like request help from me.
そこで気づけよオレ…
From that I realize…
さすが高木さんだ。
That’s just like Takagi.

I’m not sure about the sentence しかもオレがやろうとしたことを先に…
I looked up that volitional verb + とした means “try to ~” or “be about to ~”, but does adding こと mean something else?

そこで気づけよオレ… ← Not a lot to go on here. I looked up そこで and 気づく separately and gave it a shot, but my translation is probably really off.

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This line uses smaller っ. You should be able to produce them by typing “kukkukku”. You should also be able to type っ on its own by typing “ltu” or “xtu”, depending on the software you use for tying Japanese.

The particle を can only attach to a noun. 「オレがやろうとした」 is a clause (ending in a verb). Since this clause represents an intangible thing, we can use the generic noun こと (“thing”). The clause modifies こと telling what kind of thing this こと is.

Rather than “what I was trying to do”, we get a result more like “the thing of what I was trying to do”. And since こと is a noun, we can attach を to it.

At a glance, I’d say your translations fairly right, including this one.

Edit: For anyone wondering about recognizing つ vs っ, it can be difficult to tell the two apart in manga. Here’s a comparison from the aforementioned page:

i-0007

Notice the different in height used for the two in this font. That’s the clue to knowing whether it’s full-size or half-size. Some manga, it’s not so easy to tell.

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While I certainly struggled with the finer points of grammar in this chapter (there’s a lot of heady contractions, would be lost on me without these grammar breakdowns :grin:), this story was especially easy to follow along with the pictures, which helps a lot! Hopefully that continues in the upcoming chapters.

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Another pair of pages done - this surely is slow going, but I feel like I’ve already learned a lot. Really enjoying the story too. As usual, please do let me know if I’m off anywhere

Chapter pages 10 and 11

「ち・・・違うんだよ、」
Th… that can’t be, (the んだよ here adding strong emphasis)

「誰かが書いたんだよきっと!!」
Someone (else) must have written on it!!!

「何も書いてないじゃん!!」
There’s no writing here!!

  • Something I’m wondering with this is that 何も is “nothing”, and 書いてない is in the (continuous) negative, but the sentence isn’t “there is nothing not written” or something like that, so if someone wouldn’t mind breaking this down that would be helpful

Edit: I’ve done some research and think I’ve worked this one out now - apparently 何も can meaning nothing when paired with a negative verb - so I was just confusing myself

「てか高木さん消しゴム持ってるじゃん!!!」
I mean, Takagi-san has an eraser, doesn’t she!!!

「でっ」
Ow-

「うるせえよ。」
Stop that now.

  • Here I believe the what’s happening is that うるさい has had the ending vowels slurred into an え sound, which I’ve read sometimes happens with adjacent vowels. I imagine the teacher is practically growling this at Nishikata.

「ス・・・スイマセン。」
S… sorry

「ぷくく、あわてちゃって怒られちゃって」
Haha, didn’t mean for you to get so flustered and angry.

  • I’m not sure on the ちゃって, but after doing some reading on Imabi it seems like it’s using the function of showing regret, but maybe this is off

「もーいいかけんにしてよ。」
Oh well- it’s over now.

「こっちのセリフだ!!」

  • No idea with this one. Not sure how to make sense of it

「先生ートイレ行ってきていいですかー?」
Teacher~ is it ok if I go to (and return from) the toilet?

「くそっ・・・たかぎさんめ。」
Damn. That damn Takagi-san.

「今に見てるよ。」
Now you’ll see.

「そうだ!!」
That’s it!!

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I highly recommend watching this CureDolly video on ちゃう. It’ll expand and help round out your knowledge of ちゃう beyond what imabi gives. (I’m short on time, or I’d try to summarize the relevant parts. But the whole thing is worth a watch.)

For me, ちゃう is one of those ones that I had to see used many times, in many contexts, with many meanings before I really started to get a feel for it.

This one is かげん. If you re-translate this line, does the セリフ line after it make sense?

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Oh must have made a typo there - though I was going off the definition in the vocab spreadsheet for いいかげんにする being to put an end to something, but I see that maybe I was off here in what I interpreted it as originally. I guess the してよ at the end here would suggest that it’s imperative? So she’d be saying something like “You should stop now.”

Still, that gets me no closer with the other line

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I’m equally stumped on this one. I’ve got:

もーいいかげんにしてよ

Just quit it already

Because:
もー: Contraction of もう, ‘already’
いいかげんにする: To put an end to + imperative ending

こっちのセリフだ

That’s my line

こっち: Pronunciation of こちら, ‘that’
セリフ: line, speech, remark

So I’m reading it as Takagi telling Nishikata to ‘quit it’ and he’s upset because he should be telling her that

But that’s largely based on context :slight_smile:

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You’ve pretty much got it.

Nishikata getting flustered and yelled at by the teacher is causing Takagi to struggle not to laugh at loud, so she tells him to “cut it out”. But Nishikata’s only reacting to what Takagi’s doing, so he’s saying “That’s my line!”, because Takagi’s the one who should cut it out.

こっち is indeed an informal version of こちら. The word is used to indicate direction. Nishikata is saying that Takagi’s セリフ (spoken line) is from (should be from) こっち (his direction). It’s the equivalent of saying “that’s my line” in English.

For anyone who’d like to know more about the meaning of かげん, I recommend watching the first half of this Cure Dolly video:

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i had a few questions on page 5 and 6.
sorry about my bad formatting, this is my first post.

Page 5
  1. 「西片ってホントいい反応するわー。」

*what is the 「って」for?
*what is the 「わー」for?

  1. 「しかもオレがやろうとしたことを先に…」
    *im unsure of what 「やろうとしたこと」means. It seems like there are multiple words together though.
Page 6
  1. does 「次の手を考えなければ。」mean something along the lines of “if I cant think about the next trick” ?

2.「どうすればいい!?」and 「どうすれば高木さんをはずかしめられる!?」
*what does 「どう」 mean in these sentences?
*what does 「すれば」mean
*im also pretty unsure of the sentences meanings as a whole.

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First of all, welcome. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, and please everyone, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe って in this case is just used in place of は。And わ is a sentence ending particle that softens the tone.

やろう is the volitional form of やる (to do). Volitional form+ とする means attempt to do. So this phrase would mean the thing that I attempted to do .

I believe it means I must think of the next trick . いけない after なければ is understood and therefore omitted.

どう means how, although it might be translated as what in this case I think. すれば is, I believe, the ば form of する, so it means if I do. I’d translate the first sentence as How could I act that would be good? or more freely, What should I do?

Again, please everyone correct me if I got anything wrong.

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pg. 6-7

次の手を考えなければ。
I must think of my next move.
どうすればいい?
What should I do?
どうすれば高木さんをはずかしめられる⁉︎
What should I do to be able to humiliate Takagi?
ねえ。
Hey.
な…何?
W-what?
消しゴム貸して、忘れちゃったの。
Lend [me] an eraser, since I forgot [mine]?

ははん!消しゴムを忘れるなんてドジだねぇ。
Haha! Something like forgetting an eraser is a blunder, huh!
そーね。
That’s right~
うーん…
Yeah…
そーいえばさー
If you say so~
消しゴムに好きな人の名前書いて、使い切ったら両想いになれるってやつあったよね。
They say that if you write the name of the person you like on an eraser and wear it out, that mutual love will develop.
あー、あったねそんなの。
They…they say that kind of thing?
今考えるとホント子供だよなー。
If you think [like that] now, then you really are a child, huh?

These pages weren’t too bad, especially with all the assistance on this thread! For clarification though, would はずかしめられる in this context be passive or potential form? I thought of it both ways, but couldn’t definitively choose between them.

On a story note, on the top 3 panels of page 7, is Nishikata just embarrassed that Takagi had no reaction to his taunt? It’s a cute exchange, but a little vague.

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This one has more of a connotation of “speaking of which” in English. It’s fairly common, so you’ll certainly encounter it more in the future.

Here is my understanding, which may have flaws:

In potential form, the が-marked noun (subject) is (potentially) performing an action on the を-marked noun (object).

In the receptive form*, the が-marked noun (subject) is receiving an action by the に-marked noun (agent).

Since the が-marked subject is often unspoken when it’s clean from context, it’s possible looking for を-and に-marked words may help out. (There’s more to it than that, but it should help raise awareness of which other nouns are in play as a first step.)

*I personally avoid the term “passive”, as it’s an English term that’s completely unrelated to the Japanese grammar it’s ascribed to. (I’ve written a bit about passive voice vs receptive form on an earlier club read.)

I’d say so. He tried out an insult, and got a normal response as if he’d made a non-insulting statement.

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p7 (panels 3-6)

ふーん子供ね。
Hmm, a child eh.
へぇー
Hmm
なんだよ。。。
What is it?

p8

何も。。。書いてないだろ。
Nothing… There’s nothing written, right? (NB: だろ → “I think”)
オレ。。。そんな子供っぽいことしないよ。
I… wouldn’t do something that’s childish.
ほほー、そーなんだー
(laugh), Is that so.
ウソだ、またからかってんだろ。
It’s a lie. You’re kidding me again.
書いてるのか!?
There’s something written?
書いたのかオレ!?忘れてるだけで。
Could I have written it? So I just forgot.

p9

か。。。か返してくれよお!!!
G-G-Give it back!
はい。
Sure.
ち。。。違うんだよ、誰かが書いたんだよきっと!!
I-It’s not me, someone must have written on it! (NB: 違うん → different. I assume this to mean a different person)
何も書いてないじゃん!!
There’s nothing written!
てか高木さん消しゴム持ってるじゃん!!!
Or rather, Takagi-san you have your own eraser!

At this point, I feel the biggest struggle is to come back to the thread and parse it for those replies that already answered similar posts so I can compare my answers. I keep scrolling up and down trying to find the right posts.
Is there a way for people to keep track of the relevant posts?

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It can be difficult during the first couple of weeks. After that, (unfortunately) we start seeing people dropping off each week, and the number of posts reduces.

If you’re reading specific pages on specific days, one thing you can do it bookmark posts from others for pages you haven’t gotten to yet, and set reminders. Then after you read them later, trash the bookmarks.

Bookmarking Steps

If you’re not familiar with this, select on the … icon at the bottom of someone’s post to expand the icon menu. The last icon on the expanded list should be the “bookmark this post” icon.

Select the bookmark icon, and you’ll get a prompt for a reminder. If you don’t see a good date and time listed, you can use the “custom date and time” option to enter something appropriate.

Then, on that day at that time, you’ll get a green reminder from the forums, similar to the blue reminder you get when you have notifications turned on for a thread.

You can then delete the bookmark by doing the same steps, but instead of setting a date, select the trashcan icon that shows up if the post is already bookmarked.

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Bookmarking is a good idea. I really haven’t gotten into a routine (this is my first book club!) but I figured out something over the weekend that works okay.

Whenever I have trouble reading something, I search in this thread for the sentence, or parts of the sentence. To search, click the magnifying glass icon on the bar at the top of the page. You have to make sure to click the checkbox that says “Search this topic” or else it will search the entire WK forums. Once you click on a result it will hide the search results, but you can click the magnifying glass again to make it reappear when you want to look at the next result.

I’d love to hear what other people do. I’m pretty new to this and it’s taking me a long time to understand each sentence. Maybe I need to lower my standards for how much grammar I’m actually going to understand, and just enjoy the text?

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The way I work is I read one sentence, type it over in a text editor and write my best guess as to what it means. Then I try to confirm this by using several different tools: Ichi.moe, Jisho, Google Doc, DeepL, or just plain googling it. I try my best to understand every part of the sentence and take notes on which parts I need to look up, or have trouble translating.
Rinse and repeat. After seeing a grammar point a few times, it becomes easier to guess the next time around.

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I’m doing something similar - writing up sentences and then trying to take a best guess as to what they mean and looking up bits I don’t understand through a combination of means

As for keeping track of things that have already been answered, I just try to keep track of the thread throughout the day to check for new posts, and then when I get to bits that have already been answered I usually remember having seen something about page x

Obviously this method is probably not helpful to someone who’s busy and can’t check their phone or computer regularly

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It comes down to what works for you. What keeps you reading each day? Does looking deep into the grammar deter you from reading, or does it draw you into reading?

Regardless, any common grammar you have trouble with one week, you’ll see it again in a week or two. Then another week or two later, you’ll see it again. And again. So you’ll have plenty of time to get used to it.

Any uncommon grammar you have trouble with, you might not even see it again for several weeks, so you’d have a good chance of forgetting it anyway.

How do you know if grammar is common or uncommon? You’ll have a good feel for it by weeks three and four. You’ll recognize certain things keep coming up again and again, so you’ll know those are what you want to give extra attention to.

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