Just as I was thinking “man imagine the car accidents this could cause” in the very next panel Doraemon says it doesn’t effect anyone else. I want to see some scientists read this manga and come up with possible explanations for these tools.
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I want to thank the organisers for this reading session, I have been reading along in the past weeks but this book is the perfect level for me. It really is fun reading Doraemon!
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- What is the こ used in panel 33?
かわりばんこ is a colloquial expression for “taking turns”.
- What is the もの used in panel 39?
It’s a grammar point. It’s also often shortened to もん in casual conversation.
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On page 20 かったものからじゅんばんに threw me for a loop. Others’ comments here have been helpful about getting to the correct translation, but I’m curious how people got there.
I haven’t checked my children’s dictionary at home yet, but online dictionaries don’t have the word かったもの. Without the kanji, how are you supposed to know that かった means 勝?
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I agree this one was probable the trickiest sentence. And for anyone reading their first manga, rest assured it’s totally normal to lean on the club thread to get the meaning.
Here's how my brain works through something like this
When I hit it, my first reaction was to cycle through the most common verbs like 買う that come to mind that would conjugate to かった and see if I could get a logical hit. But if nothing makes sense immediately, and in this case it didn’t, then I back up and read the page before again and keep reading after - in this case in the page before there was the rock paper scissors, yet the winner doesn’t get to ride. Using that context, since I knew the word 勝つ then it’s possible to guess correctly because it’s what makes sense. Don’t underestimate the value of moving on and tackling other sentences, sometimes your brain sorts it out by the time you get back to it.
But what to do if this happens and you don’t know the word 勝つ? well, in a club always ask! And if you’re up for sleuthing, then de-conjugate the verb to possible dictionary forms and look for entries that make sense. かった could be かう かる or かつ .
This kind of thing gets easier the more you read, I promise. Patterns repeat and you get a feel for and learn the most common words so your guesses get quicker and more accurate
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Doing this has given me the push to really start getting into grammar - I’ve recently reached level 12 and am half way through Tango N5, and have been feeling more comfortable with reading and getting use to patterns, and so felt like it was time to make that shift.
While Ive been resting heavily on ChatGTP for reading this, this has still being a really valuable exercise that has been rewarding. Incidentally, I’ve been rewatching K-On - the first time since beginning to learn Japanese. There was a scene where I felt like I understood every word. That was fun 
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I needed the vocab sheet so much on page 21 and 22 for the various descriptions of the road, somehow I’d never run into any of that kind of vocab before. I’m sure I saw it on a sign but never read it. They seem like good terms to know so I’m happy they’re in my head now.
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I think I did ok this time. Did not struggle as much as I usually do, recognizing more vocab to guess general statements with the context. As always, the thread and ichi.moe helped glue everything else together.
Summary
I recognized 車 from the car radical, the car is completed!
二人 - two people. ジャンケン - they need to do rock paper scissors to determine who gets to ride first.
かった - I won! Figured out from context.
ぼくが一ばんにのるよ - I’m the first to get on. I recognized ぼく, 一ばん
Panel 7, I recognized the 目 kanji but that’s about it. Had to jump to thread and ichi.moe to figure it out.
Panel 9, recognized 虫. He’s comparing the kid to a bug? I see in the thread a possible meaning for this is to call him weak?
ドラえもん！
(^○^)
Recognized レバー as a loan word for lever.
Also recognized これ in panel 14.
Panel 23, 車に - location is the car, 人 and 見る - sentence is referencing how others see the car.
ガリバートンネル - loan words, Gulliver Tunnel
ひろい - could this be 広い from the WK vocab? The tunnel is wide!
こわい - scary
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Panel 9
The word he’s using is 弱虫, weakling. This is once again a slightly unconventional combination of kana+kanji for a word that is usually written in kanji, due to 弱 being a grade 2 character.
Same with Panel 7’s 役目 written as やく目, and also 粘土 as ねん土 in the very first chapter.
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Well done getting through week 3! This club only has 1 increase in pace, which you should be ready for now that you’re more used to this manga and the speech patterns you might expect. From week 4, we’ll read two episodes per week. Join the discussion thread here!
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Wow, I feel really sheepish because I read かった as cutter, like scissors cuts paper! 
Well, now I know it means 勝! 
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Hi all! I’m catching up on Week 3… if anyone is willing to help out 
Panel 23: I think they’re saying from the person looking who is not in a car, this isn’t a hill road but just a flat road. Is that right? The whole sentence was pretty complex for me. Also, that may be a literal translation, but I don’t understand the point of it within the context of the story.
Panel 24: I don’t know what なりすぎた means and jisho wasn’t helping
Overall I’m a little confused by the flow of what happened on page 22. It seems like (something from panel 23…). The boy is saying “it’s fast, (something…)”. Doraemon tells him to pull back the lever. The boy is glad he stopped. The kids ask for a ride. Doraemon says highways are dangerous (and then から, which I didn’t expect). Then the kids ask where this kind of narrow place exists(??). I don’t know where “narrow” came in from the context of the story.
Page 23…
- おれにかせ – I’m thinking this is “I [something]” but Jisho was lost. DeepL says “give me that” but I’m not sure why.
Then overall: I don’t understand what exactly the lever is doing. I thought initially it was a brake, or a steering system… but then in panel 36, it seems to either cause the car to go or maybe causes the land to magically slope downward?
Thanks to anyone for your time 
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Attempting to break it down...
おれ is a pretty rough way of saying “me” or “I”, に in this context means “to”, and かせ is from the verb 貸す which can mean “to hand (over); to give” and it’s in the imperative form, I think it roughly translates to, “Give it to me!”.
In chapter one, the same character (ジャイアン) on page 9, panel 20 says something similar:
おれにもねん土をかせ。
That sentence has the same usage of おれ, に, and かせ, the sentence translates to something like, “Give me clay too!”.
Hope that helps with that part!
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Page 22
Panel 23:
Yep, your understanding of the sentence is correct. In terms of what’s going on overall - basically if you push the lever while sitting in the car, from your perspective the road becomes a downhill road, and the car starts rolling due to gravity (I guess). So the sentence here says “From the standpoint of a person that is not riding the car, the road is not downhill, but flat”. As in, only the person sitting in the car can percieve the change in, uh, gravity vector’s direction.
Also, から見ると is its own grammar point - から見ると (JLPT N2) | Bunpro
Panel 24:
Its 速い (fast) + なる (become)＋すぎる (too much) connected together, in past tense.
So literally “It became too fast”.
See ～になる・～くなる (JLPT N5) | Bunpro and すぎる (JLPT N5) | Bunpro
Panel 29
From what I can gather, when から is used as a sentence-ender, it sort of implies an unstated continuation, something like “the road is dangerous, so… [let’s play somewhere else]”.
Then, in the next panel Doraemon points to the door, and the boy asks こんな せまい ところ で？“[we’re gonna play] In this small/confined space?” The -で here indicates location (at, in).
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Hello again, everyone!
Can I start by saying I’m happy ジャイアン got what he deserved in the end? Probably not hehehe
A couple sentences threw me off in the chapter, but with everyone’s help I managed to understand it all. Thanks, everyone!
Panel 39 note
I’m not sure I got the meaning right, but this panel reminded me of an expression we have in Portuguese: “Se cair, do chão não passa.” It would roughly translate to “It you fall down, you can’t go past the floor”. It has a meaning similar to “It can’t get worse than this” and I found it hilarious in this setting 
On to week 4!
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Nice Portuguese expression 
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