Teasing Master Takagi-san 😝 ・ Volume 1, chapter 2

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VikingSchism

(Apologies for double post). My hands don’t work so well.

I had a much better time this week as rather than working on the chapter in one day and getting a headache. Worked on it through the week. Wrote the bits I didn’t quite understand. Like others though I got the gist. I’m keeping a dialogue notion log so I make a maps for each chapter and keeps my notes in that.

Many thanks for the grammar explanations. Some parts completely passed me by and your comments rescued me.

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p2

はあ。。。
Ah…
いいなあ。。。みんな楽しそうで。
Well… Everyone looks like they’re having fun.
そーねー。
Don’t they.

p3

くそ。。。プール授業初日だっていうのに見学なんて。。。
Shit… Even though it’s the first day’s pool class, just watching is… (NB: 見学 → study by observation)
この手のケガさえなきゃ。。。
If not for this hand injury…
そういえば西片、その手のケガって。。。
Speaking of, Nishikata, the wound on your hand…
え。。。あぁ。。。
Eh…hmm…
いろいろ。。。あって。。。ね。
Various… things… happened. (NB: Answering the unsaid question of “what happened to your hand”)
のらネコなでようとしたら嚙まれたんでしょ。
You tried to pet a stray cat and it bit you, right?
え!?なんで知ってんの!?誰にも言ってないのに!
Eh!? How do you know? Even though I haven’t told anyone!
あはは、正解なの!?テキトーに言っただけなのに!
Hahaha, is that right? Although you carelessly confirmed it! (NB: The old “guess and watch reaction for confirmation”. Takagi knows her classics.)
(Q: Though I’m not confident in the above. I feel I could be completely off the mark)
えええ!?
What!?

p4

ドジだねー。
What a blunder~
ぐ。。。
Hmph…
高木さんは今日なんで、見。。。が。。。く
Takagi-san, today why are you just obser…ving…
そいえば。。。
Thinking about it…
プールを見学してる女子はだいたい生理だ、
The girls who observe the pool often are (the ones) on their periods.
生理は腹が痛いらしいず。
(During) menstruations, stomach pains are common.
って、2組の高尾が!!
then, Takagi is part of the second group!
(Q: って → I think this frames the entire teacher’s explanation as the topic for the rest of his sentence?)
(Q: Is 高尾 Takagi’s nickname?)
(Answered: Better translation is “that’s what Takao from class 2 said”, with って quoting the explanation.)

I’ve been a ski instructor before, and I tackle these exercises the same way I taught skiing. At first, I had to teach kids enough balance to stand on their legs and not fall over or trip in their boots, then I taught them to turn and stop. After I got those down and I didn’t have to worry about them falling off the chair-lift, I gave them as much millage and they could take.

For me translating line-by-line is the same as finding a very basic and shabby balance on my feet. It takes time and energy, but it’s only necessary until I get to a point where I can just do lots and lots of millage. I’ll see how long I do translations for, but I try not to count the book club as my “reading” for the week. I have other manga and novels I go back to in between translations. I only plan to translate as much as needed to better read the other books I’m interested in.

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In this case, Takagi is referring to her question as 「テキトーに()った」. She came up with the petting-a-cat reason sort of on a whim, without giving it much thought, and it turns out she was right.

The だけ represents a “limit”, with a partial overlap of the word “only” in English. The のに gives contrast, along the lines of “Considering the clause before のに to be true, I didn’t expect the clause after のに to be true.” “Even though Clause 1 is true, Clause 2 is also true.”

In the case of Takagi’s line, “Even though I said it hand-mindedly…(it turns out I was correct.)”

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You’re comparison makes a lot of sense and I see it the same way honestly.
Overall my question wasn’t really aiming for the efficiency itself or the mileage you get out of the method, but rather the habits you create and the connections your brain makes.

I guess I just have this fear of conditioning my brain into being overly reliant on the english translation and having to parse everything through 2 languages before I reach the meaning, or the sentence structure+vocabulary usage not coming to me naturally when I want to output the language later on and creating an unbreakable habit in the future.

Then again, I have zero clue when it comes to learning new languages, and if this is just something that goes away on it’s own after you read enough. I assume it does like Phryne said.
Instead of speculating about it I’ll just try it myself like ChristopherFritz recommended I do, think I’ll try to do it in a more literal way though, like Tae Kim does in his grammar guides.

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The initial conditioning does go away eventually, in much the same way you forget mnemonics as you learn to intuitively grasp the words. Just the other day, I found that I answered both meaning and reading of some kanji, yet had absolutely no idea where the understanding of it came from. It was eerie to just know, and yet be unable to recall how I know.

Two months ago I was struggling to parse the hiragana in sentences. Now, I intuitively recognize most of the hiragana patterns and read them without pause.

I think the fear of failure can hold you back more than trying different methods, even though they are inefficient or suboptimal. So long as you keep trying and adjusting the method so it fits you, you’ll see progress. :slight_smile:

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Once you get the mileage, you’ll come across the grammar points in so many different scenarios, they end up being engrained.

のに is a great example. I found that one quite complicated at first, cause I had learned that it means ‘despite’ but that wouldn’t work in every sentence, so then I had to come up with alternative translations. After a while, I had seen it so often it just clicked and I don’t ‘translate’ it in my head anymore, I just process it the way @ChristopherFritz explained it, as an “I’m surprised B happened” marker (where B is often implied in manga, as well!).

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When you see 山, which comes to mind first?

  • :mountain:
  • やま
  • mountain
0 voters

When you see ねこ, which comes to mind first?

  • :cat2:
  • cat
  • “I don’t know this word.”
0 voters

Regardless of which is true for you today, keep at learning and reading (and watching), and you’ll reach a point where seeing 山 makes makes you think :mountain: and ねこ makes you think :cat2: without English being involved.

The same will become be true for intangible concepts and grammar, as well.

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Here with another two pages. Like last time, there were a few things I wasn’t sure on but overall I think I got the main ideas.

p4

「ドジだねー。」
What a blunder.

「ぐ…」
Ggh…

「高木さんは今日なんで、」
「見…」
「が…」
「く…」
Takagi-san, why are you doing… observational… study…

This one was a bit spaced out across multiple bubbles, so I’m combining them together

「そういえば…」
Come to think of it…

「プールを見学してる女子はだいたい生理だ、」
Generally, girls who are on observational study at the pool is because they’re on their period;

I’m taking quite a few liberties with this but I think the general meaning is the same

「生理は腹が痛いらしいぞ。」
pain in the stomach is typical of menstruation.

「って、2組の高尾が!!」
is what Takao from class 2 said!!

p5

「ん?」
Hm?

「…なんでもない。」
…Nevermind.

「見学の理由は聞かないでおこう…触れてはいけない気がする…」
Let’s not ask the reason why she’s on observational study… it feels like I shouldn’t bring it up…

The ~ないでおこう construction was new to me, but it seems it’s basically a way to negate the volitional

「なんで今日見学してるかって?」
You asked why I was on observational study today?

「聞こえてんのかよ!!」
She DID heard me!!

I’m not 100% on this one. ~かよ as a sentence-ender expresses doubt but I’m not sure how it applies here.

「じゃあ、私西片のケガのこと当てたんだから、」
Then, because I guessed Nishikata’s injury,

「当ててみてよ。」
you try guessing.

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Well, this chapter definitely had me scratching my head a bit more in terms of not feeling completely confident I understood what was being said (though I think I’m still getting the gist). I definitely have a few questions, though. Apologies in advance for the formatting. I’m not sure how to do the neat drop-down everybody is doing. If somebody tells me how to do so, I’ll edit the post and make this less ugly on the eyes! (Or, if there is some thread here somewhere that t.eaches how to format posts on here, I would love to go through it!)

Anyway, question time:

"Pg. 6, Last Panel:

I read: わかったよ!! 当てればいいんだろ!!
As: “I get it! I just need to make a good guess!”

However, that doesn’t really jive right in my head. I’m struggling to connect that with the surrounding sentences.

Similarly, I’m not confident in my interpretation of Takagi’s response either:

一発でね。まぁ当たらないとおもうけど。

Is it along the lines of: “Just try. You dont have to guess exactly right.” ?? Again, it doesn’t jive well for me, and I’m totally not confident in that interpretation.

Pg. 7, First Panel:

高木さんめ… オレが生理って言えないと思っての自信か?

My interpretation: “Damn Takagi-san… Does she know with such confidence I can’t say it’s because she is on her period?”

Alternatively: “Damn Takagi-san… Can I say with confidence that I know it’s because she is on her period?”

I’m not sure which of those would be closer to the intended meaning.

I have other questions, but I don’t want this to be too awful on the eyes as far as walls of texts go. I’ll post this, then search the forums for some formatting advice before I ask more questions.

Thank you again to everyone who is answering questions here. You’re all amazing!

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I read it as “Understood. I’d better make a guess/I have to guess”.

I think this means “You get one shot. But I don’t think you’ll guess it.”

I’m not sure of this. But I interpret it as “Is she confident in thinking that I won’t mention menstruation?”

On the cool dropdown:

Here's how

[details=“Summary”] This text will be hidden [/details]

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Ah, thank you! The second line especially immediately made more sense.

Er, sorry to make you hold my hand. I’m so out of practice with any HTML formatting. What do I have to do to make that get along with my paragraph breaks? It seems to only want to work for me if I put the text all on one line. I’m a bit of a dunce with HTML nowadays. All that knowledge left my head completely once I stopped using it regularly.

1 Like

I’d never tried it, but it seems it works if you use paragraph breaks < p > and < /p > (no spaces) or line breaks < br >. The problem is, you still need to write in one line yourself, plus insert these strange symbols. Hitting enter instead seems to break it. Maybe someone else knows a better way?

Example

Paragraph1

Paragraph2

Line1
Line2

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Thank you very much! @Jiell_1 @meaniezucchini

I knew about ておく, but couldn’t really make the meaning fit in that sentence. I was also thinking ておく as “to do in advance”, but seems like that meaning doesn’t really work for that sentence.

What I understand from Cure Dolly’s video is 聞かないでおこう should mean something like “Let’s leave it not asked” in this case, right?

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That’s what I’m getting from it too. The official translation of that line is I won’t ask her, which is a bit more subtle but does carry that same nuance of intending to not ask, not just in the moment but also into the future. So I think we’ve got the right idea.

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Tried my hand at page 9, really need some clarification, especially the first sentence.

ch page 9/volume page 27

First and second panel, second thought bubble:
オレは暑い中こんなに頭をフル回転させて高木さんと戦っているのに…

“As for me, in the middle of this kind of heat, despite letting my head run at full operation to fight with Takagi-san…”

Very very unsure about 暑い中こんなに, im assuming the に means this is the location where the rest of the sentence takes place and not referencing his head warming up due to the fight or something like that.
Absolutely 0 real clue what this part actually means, just guessed in my translation.

頭をフル回転させて

させて being the causitive form of する, so letting or making his head run at full operation

高木さんと戦っているのに…

The sentence before modifies this one, と hopefully just meaning “with” in this case, otherwise im stumped. I’m assuming のに means despite, the sentence is cut off so i can only guess what he would say, despite doing all that hes still losing maybe?

third panel:

西片ちゃんと考えてる?

“Nishikata thinking seriously?” ている but shortened to てる

なんか
さっきから泳いでるじょしばっかり見てない?

Reffering to his thoughts: “something like, from a short while ago/just now, weren’t you looking at nothing but swimming girl(s)?”

Grammar guide says: 「ばかり」 is used to express the condition where there’s so much of something to the point where there’s nothing else, so I think I’m pretty close.

panel 4/5:

男子ってすぐにじょしの胸ばっか見るって言うし。

“As for boy(s), immediately only look at girls chest they say.”
Assuming that って is used instead of the topic particle here, ばっか even shorter form of ばかり and って言うし just being a general quote, like the saying goes, or they say.
I have no clue what the し does, to many options, something like an explanatory because, or the thing is etc.

edit: Thought I was doing page 8, only noticed after the fact, sorry for skipping one.

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For [details], my best recommendation is to put the opening and closing tags on their own lines.

[details=“Example”]
Something like this.
[/details]

Spacing between two consecutive [details] blocks is a bit more difficult, because (from what I can figure), either you can have them up against one another (no space between the two), or with a large gap between.

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That first sentence gave me some trouble as well. I ended up breaking it down like this:

(あつ)(なか)こんなに: this does indeed seem to give a location for where the verb フル回転(かいてん)させて is taking place. The context seems to support this, but we need to read the next part of the sentence for it to make a bit more sense :grin:

(あたま)をフル回転(かいてん)させて: we seem to have a similar translation here: Nishikata is making his head run at full operation. Note that this is the て-form, which seems to make it more part of a list of actions than something that modifies 高木(たかぎ)さん directly.

高木(たかぎ)さんと(たたか)っている: the と here does indeed seem to simply mean “with”, so he’s battling with Takagi-san.

のに: I ended up translating this one as despite (that), in reference to the previous sentence, which seems to be the other way around from the usual sentence order. I’m taking it to refer to the entire text bubble, so not just the (たたか)っている. I’m not too sure about it though, but it does sound plausible enough in context :grin:

If we put it all together we get something like:

Despite that, I’m making my head run at full operation in this kind of heat and battling with Takagi-san.

In the frame, Nishikata seems to be staring out over the other people in the pool, looking at them having fun, then complaining to himself that instead of swimming he’s stuck on the side of the pool in a mind-game with Takagi while it’s hot outside.

I have no idea if I’m right though, it took me a few tries to make sense of this one as well :grin:

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Note that this is the て-form, which seems to make it more part of a list of actions than something that modifies 高木(たかぎ)さん directly.

yeah that makes more sense thanks for catching that.

Despite that, I’m making my head run at full operation in this kind of heat and battling with Takagi-san.

This is where I’m still not sure, because stuff like から、ので、のに seem to affect the first sentence and it always confuses me, because the order is reversed in english, see here:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/compound#Using_to_mean_8220despite8221

so overall i still think it could mean: "Despite making my head run at full operation in this kind of heat and battling with Takagi-san… something something (everyone else is having fun? im still losing?).
No idea really, just throwing in some ideas.

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Some stuff here that was already answered, but could maybe do with more breaking down, and some stuff that I don’t think has been asked about yet. Please, as usual, let me know if I’m off anywhere as well

Chapter pages 6 and 7

「た・・・大著不良?」
P… Poor health?

「そんなあいまいなのダヌだよ。」
Something vague like that is no good.

「いや・・・別にいいよ知いたくないし・・・」
No… I don’t care, I don’t want to know…

「じゃあ 私の勝ちでいい?」
Well then, is it ok if it’s my win?

「わかったよ!!当てればいいんだろ!!」
I know!! If I guess then it’s fine!!

「一発でね。まあ当たらないと思うけど。」
Worth a try, right. Well, although I think you’ll be wrong.(? think this implies a statement like “you may as well try”)

「高木さんめ・・・オレが生理って言えないと思っての自信か?」
That damn Takagi-san… is she confident in thinking I won’t mention her period?

  • I mainly got this with the help of previous questions and answers, but I think a more complete breakdown might be useful if anyone is willing to provide one

「だとしたらオレを甘く見すぎ・・・」
If I suppose that she’s not taking me seriously…

  • すぎ here appears to be an intensifier? Not sure

「いや待て!高木さんのことだ!」
No, wait! Takagi-san’s reason is!

「これはトラップの可能性もある!!」
This is probably also a trap!!

「オレが勇気をふりしぼって「生理」と答えたところで・・・」
Even if I reply “menstruation” using all of my courage…

「失礼な奴。」
Rude guy.

「十分にありえる!!」
That’s probably enough.

「いや、しかしそこまで読んでの・・・・・クソ、わけがわからなくなってきた・・・」
No, however to go as far as a guess… damn, I’ve become incomprehensible.(?)

  • the first part here I’m not sure with - I’m guessing the の is nominalising 読んで so that it’s “a guess” instead of “to guess”? The second part I’m also not entirely sure on
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Really basic question on chapter page 6:

「一発でね」

I get the general meaning, Telling him to make an attempt, but can someone clarify what the role of で is here?

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