Week 4 ドラえもん ・ Doraemon 🤖 (ABBC)

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Week 4 4 Jan 2025
Start Page 25
End Page 38
Chapters ゴロアワセトウ and 木こりのいずみ
Last week Week 3
Next week Week 5
Home Thread Here

Page numbers are the ones printed on the bottom of the pages. These may differ from the numbering in digital versions.

Last panel: end of next episode. (Read 2 episodes)

:mag_right: Vocabulary

Vocabulary spreadsheet

Characters

Japanese English role photo
ドラえもん Doraemon main character - a robot-like cat from the future sent by Nobita’s great-great-grandfather
野比 のび太・ のび のびた Nobita Nobi main character

:speech_balloon: Discussion Guidelines

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

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Posting Advice
  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

:rocket: Discussion questions

What do you think about this week’s invention from the future?

:fire: Participation

Will you be reading along with us this week?
  • I’m reading along
  • I’m still reading but haven’t reached this point yet
  • I’ve already read previously but I’m here for the discussion
  • I’m reading this after the book club has finished
  • I’ve stopped reading this book
0 voters
3 Likes

Some translations and notes!

ゴロアワセトウ (The Flashlight of Surprises)

Page 1

WAA

I hate spiders!

It’s like a competition to be the most surprised (? I had a hard time with this one: これほど驚いてくれると、張り合いがあるね)

It was worth the trouble getting it out of the rain.

Who should we surprise next?

It’s fun to scare (people)

Shizu-chan then (next)

Shizu-chan will get scared!

Let’s go help her!

Page 2

Shizu-chan, danger!

Eee, a spider? Scary!

You don’t have to be upset. Doraemon is on it (? ついてる)

ゴロアワセトウ (The anime lists this as “The Flashlight of Surprises”)

Before opening the lid of the box, shine this light and it will be OK.

Shizu-chaan! We want to show you this cool thing!

Open it and take a look! Well, hurry up!

(shine)

Page 3

(I really hope this works!)

The “spider” became a “cloud”!

You saved me.

An interesting opportunity…

It turned into something that was the same word for a different thing.

Let me do it too!

Me first!

I wonder what I should pick…

Same word, different things…

There!

“Flowers” become “noses”!

I hate it.

Page 4

“Rain” becomes “candy”!

Hey, it stopped.

I would’ve liked it to rain more.

If this is all there is, that’s fine.

I thought something was weird, they’re using that thing.

Let’s take it.

You can do other things with it too.

I wonder if there’s any milk.

I think there is.

This seems like it will work.

Page 5

Press the reverse button, “Upside-down word,” to change it.

“Milk” becomes…“walnut”.

Wow, interesting!

This time I’ll do it!

“Grass” becomes…”fence”.

Interesting!

I’ll do it!

Stop it (Wait a minute?). There’s no chickens in the fence.

I’ll put it back to normal.

Just push the button back and shine the light on it again.

Here they come!

Page 6

Now that I have it, I guess I’ll try it.

What?!

“Teeth” became “leaves”!

Spider aaa!!

木こりのいずみ (The woodcutter’s well)

Page 1

My glove is tattered.

Nobita’s is shining.

That’s because taking care of it matters to me.

That’s a lie!

Blehh it’s because you never catch the ball!

You shouldn’t have it. Jaian, it’s better for you to have it.

Well, let’s trade.

The glove is more useful to you.

Doraemooonn!

Nobitaaaa!

Page 2

Papa ate my dorayaki!

Sorry, I didn’t know.

You should ask next time.

This dorayaki is fine.

That’s it! I can fix it.

木こりのいずみ (The woodcutter’s well)

What is that?

There’s a story called “The honest woodcutter”

A woodcutter threw his ax in the spring.

Page 3

Aa! A goddess!

Did you throw in this gold ax, or this silver ax?

“No, I threw in an iron ax” the woodcutter responded.

He received a threefold reward for his honesty, the story says.

I’ll throw the half-eaten dorayaki in.

The goddess robot will throw it back out.

Was what you threw in, this large dorayaki?

If you lie here, you won’t get aaanything.

No, no, it was a half-eaten dorayaki.

Page 4

You are an honest person. You will receive the large dorayaki.

Yay!

She wouldn’t give back the half-eaten one.

This time it was a little different from the story.

Then we can exchange this!

Mhmm.

Was what you threw in, this shining glove?

No, more tattered!

I will give you the shining one.

Well, let’s go to Shizu-chan’s place.

Page 5

Whatever you throw in is exchanged(? transformed?)

This is now too small and I can’t wear it.

Was this what you threw in? No, much smaller.

I received this amazing thing!

Wow, what an incredible spring!

Gimme that!

There’s a mountain of things I want.

Wa, how greedy!

Page 6

Heaavy…

Is this it?

No, dirtier!

As a reward for your honesty, I will give you this clean Jaian.

What did you do?

Help me!!

First story:
A word I liked: わざわざ - going out of one’s way to do something
Simple kanji being included already! Kanji is usually easier for me to parse, so I’ve been putting it in autocorrect to read it in kanji.
ゴロアワセトウ / 語呂合わせ等 - possible translation ‘puns etc’?
The concept is clever but I hate this invention lol

Second story:
A word I liked: 欲張り - greedy
based on Aesop! The Honest Woodcutter - Wikipedia
Some of these stories are kinda horrifying.
End of the color chapters! :frowning:

2 Likes

Here is a grammar point that will be worth learning

It’s harder to parse if you don’t know this N2 grammar point, so I thought I’d link that here right at the top

p 26 grammar help

Verb+ かいがある = worth doing

You’ll see this fairly often - normally in kana, not kanji:

甲斐がある (JLPT N2) | Bunpro

P 26 text:
きたかいがあった

Here I added kanji and parsed it:

来た かい が あった

Translation

It was worth coming

Also note that this construction can follow a verb stem, then takes がいlike the word 生きがい worth living

14 Likes

That’s interesting, I didn’t even notice the 等 (トウ) meaning for ゴロアワセトウ, I just assumed it was 灯 (トウ).

Speaking of 語呂合わせ, it’s amazing how rich the Japanese language can be with word-play (言葉遊び) with so many homonyms. There was a really interesting thread here on the forums for 川柳 (せんりゅう), or comic haiku that use clever word-play, that are fun to read for anyone interested. Since they’re so short (5-7-5 syllable pattern), they can be fun and challenging reading practice for all levels of Japanese learners.

4 Likes

It probably is 灯 (“pun lamp” makes a lot more sense, but it’s hard to know when the title is only given in kana lol). 等 was just one of the suggested autocompletes on my phone so I thought it was interesting (and Google translating it as “etc.” which is a meaning I wasn’t familiar with).

2 Likes

Can someone break down the translation of ゴロアワセトウ into “Flashlight of Surprises?” It looks like 語呂合わせ is wordplay, so I don’t know how we arrive at flashlight or surprises…

Some questions from the first two pages:

Panel 5: こわがりそうなのがいいぞ – from online resources I think it means be as scary as possible but I’m wondering about how this is broken down. I’m still getting through certain basics of grammar.

Panel 7: たすけにいこう - I’m interpreting this as 助ける (to assist) + 行こう (related to going), so roughly meaning “let’s go help them”, but I feel like there’s some grammar nuance here with いこう that I’m not understanding.

Panel 12: あびせればだいじょうぶ - I get the last part (be alright). I think the first part is 浴びせる, or to “pour on”, but I don’t understand the grammar that turns 浴びせる into 浴びせれば.

1 Like

Flashlight of surprises was the name I saw from the anime translation - I think “pun lamp” or “wordplay lamp” is more likely. I just like looking up what the ‘official’ translation of some of these inventions are.

1 Like
Questions from the first two pages

In case this is of any help:

Panel 5:
こわがりそうなのがいいぞ

I break that down as:
こわがりそうなの + がいい + ぞ

こわい (怖い - is scary/am scared) + がる (“show signs of”) + そう (look like/seem) → こわがりそう (becomes a na-adjective)

こわがりそうなの (の acting here as a pronoun) → One who looks timid/fearful/easily-spooked

こわがりそうなの + がいい + ぞ ((mostly masculine) emphasis particle)

Maybe something like → It would be good if we find one who looks easily frightened!

Panel 7:
たすけにいこう

I think you’ve got the idea already, but verb [stem] + にいく means “going somewhere for the purpose of doing [verb] (the verb which expresses the purpose of the movement)”

たすけ (masu-stem of 助ける) + にいこう (行く in plain volitional form) → let’s go help (her)

Panel 12:
あびせればだいじょうぶ

This Bunpro page explains the ば conditional and its verb/adjective conjugation (e.g. of 浴びせる).

4 Likes

I think the “pun lamp” is my favorite gadget so far.

I feel like I’m able to sort out about half of the dialogue on my own without looking things up (the illustrations definitely help a bunch) and that feels pretty good.

As for ドラえもん’s explanation (p28, panel 20): おなじことばのべつのものにかえるんだ, without kanji it’s not obvious which かえる this is (presumably 変える or 替える and I’m guessing the former). Either way I definitely get the gist of it but am not sure exactly how the sentence unpacks… it’s sort of: (it) changes/transforms to same-word different-thing, no?

1 Like

I really love how the first chapter for this week has so many wordplays!

4 Likes
ゴロアワセトウ

F for the translators here. And also jumpscare, I’m terrified of spiders :scream:

1 Like

So it’s a homophone flashlight, then you press the button and it reverses the kanji/kana. This is the most satisfying chapter for me vocabulary wise as I picked up on all the wordplay except for saku/fence which I was unfamiliar with.

I’d love more chapters with this invention! It seems like a really cute and fun way to work on vocabulary.

And I put this in the vocab sheet too, but since I certainly hear the pokemon one more wanted to call out that pika pika is the onomatopoeia for something glimmering or lighting up

3 Likes

No questions on Page 28! :tada:

Page 29 questions
  • もう、やんじゃった. I took this to mean 病む (fall ill) + じゃった (do completely). That… didn’t make sense to me. DeepL suggested “I’ve given up completely”. Any pointers?
  • もっと、ふればいいのに. I thought it was 降る, to beam down? As in “beam it around some more”?
  • これだけあればいいじゃない. I took this to mean “with only this, it’s good, isn’t it?” IDK?
  • 変だと思ったら、あんなもの使っていたんだ . I’m guessing on the kanji here. Roughly “I think this is strange.” I don’t know what たら is here, to mean “if/when”? Then, “that sort of stuff we could use”, maybe?
  • できるんだよ. I would’ve thought 出来る but I don’t think it conjugates to 出来るん? I didn’t see the んだ in the inflections in Jisho.
1 Like

I’m also a beginner, so take this with a grain of salt.

Pg 29 guesses

1: I’m not sure, but I think this comes from the verb 止む (やむ, to stop) conjugated in the て + しまう contraction (in the case of む ending, becomes んじゃった) which gives the nuance of regret. So, I would translate it as “too bad it (the candy rain) stopped already.”
2: I was also thinking this comes from 降る which is used to mean it’s raining (雨が降っている), so I was translating this as “it would be good if it rained (candy) more.”
3. That’s what I translated it as. Meaning that even if only this much fell, it’s fine.
4. Kanji is what I was thinking. I was also confused by the meaning. Intuitively, I was translating it as “Isn’t it strange when they were using that kind of thing?” or maybe “Strange (things happen) when they use that thing.” But I can’t get that to fit the grammar, so I’m probably off.
5. This is the “explanatory” form. Which as it says, gives the nuance of explaining something. See here: んだ: Japanese Explanatory Form (んです/のだ/のです)

Someone with more experience can come and correct us both.

3 Likes

And now, for my questions.

Chapter 3 was fun! I knew most of the puns with the exception of walnut and fence. Some of these stories have pretty dark endings when you think about it.
I struggled with chapter 3 a bit, while chapter 4 felt easier for me. I have a few questions from each.

Chapter 3

Page 27, panel 10. What is ついてる here? Is it saying “because Doraemon is here with us?”

Page 27, panel 12, あびせれば seems to come from 浴びせる which is to pour on. In this, pour on light = shine the light on?

Page 27, panel 14, what is the ごらん? Some form of casual ください?

Pg 31, panel 45, that makes me feel uncomfortable…

Chapter 4

Pg 33, panel 5, what is そりや?

pg. 36, panel 26, what is そこんとこ? From the context I’m guessing it means “This (case) and that”

Page 38, also horrible. Where did this guy come from? Is he a real person or a robot? If he’s a real person, they can’t just get rid of him. So many questions…

Thank you!

1 Like
ごらん

I just looked this one up! Here is the grammar point:

てごらん (JLPT N3) | Bunpro

3 Likes
Chapter 3

てごらん has already been mentioned, and the rest of your assumptions are correct.
Actually, ~てごらん being somewhat similar to ~てください is also correct, it’s just that it’s usually more formal/honorific and not casual.

Chapter 4

そりゃ is a contraction of それは (that’s)

そこんとこ appears to be shortened from そこのところ, while ところ here takes the meaning of “part” or “aspect”. So “That part is a bit different from the tale”.

4 Likes

Love when a word I just learned on WK shows up in my reading! (正直 in this case)

3 Likes
ゴロアワセトウ translation

Just to come back to this, this shows what a challenge translation is. In Japanese, “pun lamp” makes sense to turn a spider into a cloud, but since that doesn’t make a very good pun in English, That’s why they went with “lamp of surprises” as otherwise you’d have to come up with a few good puns across languages - even if it’s possible, I guess we’re seeing a good trick that saves translators time and the end result still makes “sense”

p 28 reply

変える would be more common for the “transform” meaning.

Unpacking this to English, you can go exactly back to front: it transforms かえる to に a different thing べつのもの of の the same word (pronunciation) おなじこたば. Does that help?

@Hikiking your explanations on p29 were great! I ran out of time to answer the confusion on #4 but I’ll come back to that one

2 Likes

Okay, I finally read and worked through the two chapters! I was a bit busy the last few days. Here are a couple questions :slight_smile:

ゴロアワセトウ

Page 30 panel 40
にわ中、さくだらけじゃない。

I thought this was the adult (parent of the girl?) saying something about how the yard is riddled with/covered with fences, why is why she tells them to stop in the sentence before this. But why the じゃない?

木こりのいずみ

Page 33 panel 6
グローブもやくに立てばよろこぶさ。

Is he saying something like, “the glove is also pleased to be in this position/role” as he is stealing Nobita’s glove?

Thank you!

Edit: His friends are bullies :sweat_smile: I really like the second invention, but I love how they showed how easily it could get messed up haha

2 Likes