After a bit of searching around, it seems 11/22 is “good couple day” (not sure if there’s an official name for it in English) because if you read the date as “ichi ichi futatsu futatsu” then shorten it to just the first syllables, it comes out as いいふふ, which sounds very similar to 良い夫婦.
それでも - nonetheless
いかに - in what way
周囲へ - to the surroundings
の - possessive particle
迷惑を - trouble + object particle
少なくて - a little (in connective form)
できる - able to do
か - question particle
考え - think (stem form)
続ける - to continue
こと - thing
が - topic particle
大事 - important
なん - explanatory tone (?)
だ - copula
と思う - I think
Nonetheless, I think it is important to think about how to continue being able to do little trouble to surroundings.
Or,
Nonetheless, I think it is important to think about how to go around while causing as little trouble as possible to those around me.
自分 - oneself
から - from
素直に - obediently/meekly (could also be “honestly”)
謝った - apologised
という - says
話を - story + object market
妻子 - wife and children
持ち - having
の - possessive
同僚 - co-worker
ふたり - two people
から - from
も - also
聞いている - I am hearing
Apart from me, I also hear from a couple of coworkers who have wife and kids, their stories that they meekly apologised.
Coworker: あんな風に言われたら謝るしかないよな。
あんな風に - in that way
言われたら - if that is said (passive conditional)
謝る - to apologise
しかない - there is nothing but
よな - sentence ending particles
Roughly - There’s no option other than to apologise when she talks like that.
I can understand Shingo feels this way but he must be on thin ice at home having these thoughts printed in a manga!!
Shingo has a “loose face” - does this mean he’s happy, relaxed, gormless??
実家に着いてみんなでロールケーキを食べる幸せのきっかけはなんでもいい
自家 - own実家 - one’s parents’ home
に - to
着いて - arriving
みんなで - all together
ロールケーキ - Swiss roll
を - object marker
食べる - eating
幸せの - happiness + possessive particle
きっかけ - chance; start; cue; excuse; motive; impetus; occasion
は - topic marker
なんでもいい - it doesn’t matter what
Struggling to put this one together - something like “no matter what, you can find happiness coming home to one’s parents’ home and eating Swiss roll together”?
According to jisho ゆるむ can mean “to become softer” when used for a facial expressions (meaning #4), but given the image in the manga, it seems he’s just very relaxed and grinning…
I’m not particularly confident, but my interpretation is “Getting home, eating a roll cake with everyone; any occasion to be happy is good”
I think you have a typo in the first character here. Rather than 自家, it is 実家. But thanks so much - again - for your wonderful sentence breakdown here Micki. You’re a star!
Reading as fast as I can here (the new book starts this time next week) but getting tripped up here and there… any help much appreciated!
Page 95
気をつけて - take care
いて - ??? No idea - can someone please help me with this??
も - even
迷惑 - bother
は - topic particle
かかって - is this the て-form of 掛かる…?
しまう - unfortunately
もの - thing
だ - copula
けど - but
“but unfortunately, even with care, [you] cause bother”
Page 96
#双子育児あるある
＃bringing up twins あるある #bringing up twins - it happens
I guess in English we’d just stick “bringing up twins” on the hashtag and leave it at that?
Page 98
Here’s one I can hopefully help others out with (though no one has asked about it! The only chance I get to answer questions is to answer questions no one has asked! lol!)
ケンカするほど
The full phrase is 喧嘩するほど仲がいい
“The more [you] argue, the better the relationship is”
And there I need to take a break. Can’t believe Shingo can’t get a pushchair up a curb (on page 95). I could do that and I’m double his age with a bad back and arthritis! Blimey!
All looks good to me! Thanks for sharing your translations! I read this いて as the te-form of いる. It then translates like you have it - “even though being careful”
Nice one! Not heard this one before.
Did your Japanese wife teach you that one? Wait… we are in book club not relationships club, you don’t have to answer that one…
I actually learnt about the chapter title from a student. It was my first ever time to do something like that. In all my time as an English teacher - well over 20 years - I’ve never asked a student for help with my own learning before, yesterday was the first ever time! It was after class time and my student asked me what I was reading and I showed her and asked about the chapter title. I think that I’ve been a bit silly in letting my sense of professionalism get in the way of getting help when I can. After all, if it is after class time, then it is not a problem. My students are all adults and when I ask for help, we are speaking English anyway so it’s good for them too.
As for arguing with the missus, I can honestly say that we pretty much never do! That’s not because of some kind of perfect relationship or anything and it’s most certainly not down to me; it’s because she is such an angel!
Although I’m sure I had a few things I should have marked to look up, the only item I marked while doing this week’s reading was the use of 産 on page 93(?):
Why 産? Why not 生? There’s the obvious reason to use 生 over 産 (because I know 生 and had never seen 産 before). But clearly my eventual reading of the comic never occurred to the author. Or maybe it did, but he had a much greater reason to favor 産. Perhaps to help push me toward reaching higher levels in WaniKani? Hm…
I did a web search for “生まれる vs 産まれる” and found a Hi-Native Q&A on it. The responder gave example sentences (which I’ve added English for here):
So, 産まれる is more of a biological birth, and 生まれる is more of a conceptual birth.
Page 102
What am I missing about the word 運ぶ here?
Shingo isn’t carrying three people (as per title) is he?
And how about this sentence…
起こさないようにベッドまで運ぶ
起こさない - to not wake up
ように - in order to
ベッド - bed
まで - until
運ぶ - carry
I’m definitely missing something here.
Page 103
What is アンタ…? It looks like a name, but I can’t see whose. I thought perhaps it was a form of あなた, but that would be at all right in that context. Any ideas?
