Jisho is a popular online Japanese-English dictionary.
ichi.moe is a tool for parsing out sentences. You can type/paste in a whole sentence and it will try and break the sentence down into its individual parts.
Deepl will translate a sentence from Japanese to English. It’s obviously not going to be right all the time, so if you want to check your translation it’s normally better to ask in the thread.
Characters
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.
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.
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).
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”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
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!
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I’m still reading but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’ve already read this part but I’m here for the discussion
I’m not doing a sentence by sentence translation as others, sooo just my impression of the chapter:
I found the first few paragraphs pretty tough when they were describing the house because there were sooooo many words I didn’t know. So at first I thought this will be a tough story… I stopped for a bit and skimmed over the vocab sheet and then tried again and that made it much more manageable. So thank you for the vocab sheet
When it got to the parts where people are talking I felt way more comfortable though and could just continue reading. Even if I probably missed stuff here and there, it didn’t feel like I was missing major parts of the story.
To be honest, it’s been quite a while (I didn’t touch much Japanese for multiple years and am only getting back into it now) so I really had to rack my brains to answer that question
I think I kinda tried reading a little for a while but always gave up very early because I found looking up stuff so bothersome. I read some graded readers but definitely struggled getting into native material. So I didn’t really start reading that early and I’d say my reading ability was actually lacking behind other areas.
For various reasons my listening was actually going way better (If I had to list the reasons: first, ages ago when I was still a super beginner at Japanese I stayed in Japan for a bit and while I sadly couldn’t use it THAT much language wise it definitely boosted my ability to ignore stuff I don’t know and try to tune into the stuff I do know - and second: I used to listen to some anime I already knew just on repeat, even stripped the audio of some to make it easier to listen to in the background - that definitely solidified some stuff as well). Anyway I think this experience of “just tuning out stuff I don’t know” kinda helped. Eventually I guess I gave up on understanding everything for reading as well and just got started So if I’m really motivated AND it’s easy enough for me to do (e.g. when I’m reading on my pc) I MIGHT look stuff up. But honestly a lot of the time I’m just ignoring what I don’t get. I might read a sentence twice and if I still don’t get it I’ll probably just move on Very rarely I realize a little bit later that something did seem important and I’ll go back and look up some words or patterns after all, but most of the time it doesn’t actually matter that much and I don’t bother.
I think the first “not just learners material” book I finished was actually a different book in the 10分でよめる[…] series Then another one of those. I think there were some stories I didn’t really get at all, but others that worked out alright. Then I tried some manga but struggled and started looking into book series aimed at ~10 year olds because that seemed roughly alright kanji-wise and I wanted to read some longer stories. (I read a few books (I think 3 or 4) of 黒魔女さんが通る！！) I dipped my toes into some other stuff but haven’t really finished anything notable there. And after a couple of these stories we roughly enter the time frame of my multiple year long break
So fast forward to now, apparently I retained enough of my abilities that I can mostly go through these stories tadoku-style without struggling too~ much, though as I said, the vocabulary list definitely helped. I’m most definitely missing a lot of nuance though but I’m fine with that🤷♀️
Personally I don’t fuss over every little piece of grammar while reading. Once I understand the sentence, I allow myself to go to the next. This way I start recognising grammer, verbforms and particles.
For example, I am both reading this book and playing through Yokai Watch in Japanese currently. That way I get plenty of exposure to written Japanese.
The first time I read native Japanese material was the past ABBC 小さな森のオオカミちゃん。I had only studied through Genki lesson 6. It was super hard and used to take an hour to get through one page.
My strategy was to try and understand based on the grammar I knew, and then read the book club threads. I didn’t try to understand brand new grammar right away, because there was too much to take in at once, but just kept up my grammar studies at the same time. After that, each new chapter in Genki was like a new piece of the puzzle making a new aspect of the language clear.
I’d say if you’re struggling a lot, try to keep reading and understanding based on the grammar you know, and don’t worry about memorizing all new grammar right away. At the same time, keep up grammar study, and you’ll be able to see the new grammar you study right away since you’re reading.
Also, Satori Reader is another awesome resource that I used to get started reading. It’s a paid graded reader site that has built in grammar explanations and vocabulary definitions.
I actually thought the story was so fun, I just read it all the way through, haha. I have one question about the very last sentence, just to check if I understood the meaning of it.
Is it correct that the very last sentence basically says that the child, who lived in the house in the past, loved the doll so much that they were always together, like siblings?
About this series of books specifically, does anyone know how the grammar in the 2nd grade books is compared to this one? What about the other levels? Is it just the kanji used that get more plentiful, or does the grammar difficulty rise as well? Something like 10分で読める伝記 2年生 for example, which I know the ABBC has read a few years ago.
Hmmm, I actually haven’t read any of the other １０分で読める books before.
I just checked the sample for the 2nd grade biographies book and it looks like maybe it has a bit longer sentences and fewer illustrations, but overall similar grammar. So the 2nd grader books should be a perfectly fine step up. Actually, it might even be a bit easier to read because it includes more kanji which makes word borders easier to see.
The vocab sheet is a life saver. I’m very short on vocab, and this is the first time I’ve really followed the book club. I’m using this as a way to absorb some writing, and without the vocab sheet I would be looking up most of the words individually.
Hi, everyone! This is my first Book Club, and even though it’s a tough read I’m really enjoying it. Thanks very much for the vocab sheet, that is such a huge help for me. I’m finding that I’m not recognizing words I actually should know because I’m so used to seeing the kanji! And the spacing in some sentences is really throwing me off.
So far, I think this story was my favorite! But I do have a few questions about my understanding, if someone is willing to check my translations. I’m not confident in my interpretation of the grammar. Hopefully these won’t have typos…
Page 50
(おねえちゃん！）大ごえでさけぼうとしましたが、こえが出ません。
I tried to loudly shout “older sister!” but no voice came out.
I’d have to check the story again but I think the ‘same name of Mai’ is referring to the name that the doll was calling out, as opposed to the name of the narrator. In your translation it sounds a bit like Mai is the narrator’s name but if you understood the meaning it doesn’t matter.
Looks like you understood the gist of all of this so I’ll just point out a few extra specific things:
The で here I think is referring to means, like by means of x, so for a more precise/literal translation I’d say something like ‘According to a story I heard later’
And then そう here is like ‘it seems,’ for hearsay.
So, “According to a story I heard later, it seems a girl with that same name of ‘Mai’ lived here before”
Nice job! It seems like you understood this pretty well, do you have any questions about specific grammar points?
Thank you! Actually, I see now I was confused and did think that meant the narrator’s name! The inclusion of おなじ convinced me it was identical to the narrator. Tricky! But I understand now with your translation. I get a little lost in the longer sentences, so while I can usually get the general idea the first time I read, I read it again to try and get a more complete understanding.
Actually now I’m looking at the story again and I think it’s both. I was remembering the doll calling out マイちゃん which is on page 50, but then the narrator’s sister wakes her up on page 51 saying 「マイ、おきなよ」
This series of books is not aimed at learners of Japanese as a foreign language, but rather at Japanese speaking children. They have an (intuitive) knowledge of grammar and vocabulary that you as a learner of Japanese do not have. If the stories in this book are read to Japanese children I suppose that they will understand almost all of it (except the rare words that are explained by the notices in the margin).
Welcome to Week 6 of 10分でよめるこわいはなし ・ 10 minute Scary Stories 
Resources and vocabulary
Discussion Guidelines
Participation
So at first I thought this will be a tough story… I stopped for a bit and skimmed over the vocab sheet and then tried again and that made it much more manageable. So thank you for the vocab sheet 
So if I’m really motivated AND it’s easy enough for me to do (e.g. when I’m reading on my pc) I MIGHT look stuff up. But honestly a lot of the time I’m just ignoring what I don’t get. I might read a sentence twice and if I still don’t get it I’ll probably just move on 
Then another one of those. I think there were some stories I didn’t really get at all, but others that worked out alright. Then I tried some manga but struggled and started looking into book series aimed at ~10 year olds because that seemed roughly alright kanji-wise and I wanted to read some longer stories. (I read a few books (I think 3 or 4) of 黒魔女さんが通る！！) I dipped my toes into some other stuff but haven’t really finished anything notable there. And after a couple of these stories we roughly enter the time frame of my multiple year long break 
I’m going to get started on week 7’s sheet soon.