しろくまカフェ: Week 6 Discussion (Chapters 11-13)

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Chapters 11-13

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Start date: April 17th
Previous Chapter: Chapters 9 and 10
Next chapter: Chapter 14

Page numbers

d341e81048b3e028df1874578c88cace5aa3ee861

Vocabulary list

You can also check the page numbers for new and old versions here. If you have an old version, chapters 24-28 are in the second volume!

Translations/Grammar Breakdown

Expand for a nested list of links covering each panel

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :panda_face:

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5 Likes

Hah. I see what you mean by the first two are quite short.

Not entirely sure what the boar means by 今年はボクの年だよ, considering that (coincidentally) this year is the year of the pig.

Out of curiosity, what does the bis version have on page 58? Original version has “Shirokuma Recipe 2”, but I seem to recall that “Shirokuma Recipe 1” wasn’t on page 4 for the bis version. Or am I misremembering?

I took it as a double meaning, like “This is MY year”, as in, “I’m going to succeed,” etc., but also that it was going to be the year of the pig. I looked it up while I was reading, and the last year of the pig was 2007. The manga started running in 2006, so this New Years could presumably be for 2007.

An interesting coincidence we happen to be reading it in the year of the pig as well.

It has “Shirokuma Recipe 1”.

3 Likes

Oh, good grief. I made a specific point of looking up when the chapter was published (it’s on the back page), but completely failed to make the connection that 2007 was twelve years ago.

How is 2007 twelve years ago? Next thing you’re going to say that the nineties were almost two decades ago…

4 Likes

lalalanotlistening

6 Likes

Page 53, bis

  • Panel 1 (title)

  • Panel 2

    • Panda: ハッピーバースデー

    • Panda: Happy birthday

    • Penguin: メリークリスマスだって

      • メリークリスマス - Merry Christmas
      • だって - you mean
    • Penguin: You mean Merry Christmas

  • Panel 3:

    • Shirokuma: にぎやかだった クリスマスが終わって
      • にぎやか - busy
      • だった - past tense of copula
      • 終わって - te-form of 終わる - to end
    • Shirokuma: It was busy. Christmas is over, and . . .
  • Panel 4:

    • Shirokuma: 来週はもうお正月
      • 来週 - next week
      • もう - already
      • お正月 - New Year’s
    • Shirokuma: next week is New Year’s already.
4 Likes

Page 54, bis

  • Panel 1

    • Shirokuma: 急いで模様替えしないといけない

      • 急いで - hurriedly, quickly, etc.
      • 模様替え - rearranging, remodeling
      • しないといけない - must do
        • しない - not do (negative form of する)
        • と - (natural conditional particle - if, when, etc.)
        • いけない - wrong, not good
    • Shirokuma: I have to rearrange things quickly

    • Shirokuma: 遽しいなー

      • 遽しい - busy, hurried, confused, flurried (alternate form of 慌ただしい)
      • な - right?
    • Shirokuma: Busy, busy (I’m not sure on this one–the word, which I haven’t encountered before, sort of seems negative, but I can’t find a lot of examples of its use, so I’m not sure exactly what he’s trying to say.)

  • Panel 2

    • Shirokuma: しまってー
      • しまって - finish, do completely to put away, to put back, to store (て-form of しまう)
    • Shirokuma: Done!
    • Shirokuma: Put these away (Thanks @Belthazar!)
  • Panel 3

    • Shirokuma: 出してー
      • 出して - take out, get out, put out (て-form of 出す)
    • Shirokuma: Put these out
  • Panel 4

    • Panda: ちわー
      • ちわー - hi (short form of こんにちは)
    • Panda: Hi
  • Panel 5

    • Shirokuma: 再利用してみた

      • 再利用してみた - tried recycling
        • 再利用 - reuse, recycle
        • して - do (て-form of する)
        • みた - tried (past form of みる, which can mean “try” when attached the て-form of a verb)
    • Shirokuma: I tried recycling

    • Shirokuma: お正月ツリー

      • お正月 - New Year
      • ツリー - tree
    • Shirokuma: New Year tree

    • Sign: 龍

    • Sign: Dragon (Hopefully someone else can tell me why this has the kanji for “dragon” on it? Possibly because it sort of vaguely looks like a Chinese dragon? Or is “dragon” related to New Year in some way?)

  • Panel 6

    • Shirokuma: 資源を大切にしてる

      • 資源 - resources
      • を - (direct object marker)
      • 大切に - carefully, with caution, etc.
      • してる - doing (shortened ている-form of する)
    • Shirokuma: I used my resources carefully

    • Shirokuma: ナイスアイデア!

    • Shirokuma: Good thinking!

    • Panda: ツリー片付けるのが面倒だったんでしょ

      • ツリー - tree
      • 片付ける - to tidy up, to put in order, etc.
      • の - (nominalizing particle)
      • が - (subject marker)
      • 面倒 - trouble
      • だった - was (copula/declarative, past form of だ)
      • ん - (explanatory)
      • でしょ - it seems, I think, I guess, etc. (short form of でしょう)
    • Panda: Arranging the tree must have been hard

  • Afterword

    • Penguin Cupcake: きっとこのまま春まで飾る
      • きっと - surely, undoubtedly, most likely, etc.
      • この - this
      • まま - as it is, state, condition
      • 春 - spring
      • まで - until
      • 飾る - decorate
    • Penguin Cupcake: Surely it will be decorated like this until spring
2 Likes

This one’s definition 3 - to put away; to put back; to keep; to store

Honestly have no idea on this one. Perhaps he’s re-using his decorations from the year 2000?

1 Like

Ah, I hadn’t even considered that! Though it seems that they use 辰 as the kanji for the Zodiac dragon in Japan? That doesn’t exclude the possibility of that being the reason it’s there, but does explain why nothing about the Zodiac came up when I searched up 龍.

Page 55

  • Panel 1

    • Shirokuma: 二年参りにきました

      • 二年参り - New Year’s shrine visit (going to a shrine on New Year’s Eve and staying until New Year’s Day)
      • に - (target/indirect object maker)
      • きました - came (past polite form of くる)
    • Shirokuma: We came for our New Year’s shrine visit

    • Panda: 今年もおいしい竹が食べられますようにー

      • 今年 - this year
      • も - also
      • おいしい - good tasting
      • 竹 - bamboo
      • が - (subject marker)
      • 食べられます - able to eat (polite potential form of 食べる)
      • ようにー - (hoping/wishing for)
    • Panda: I hope I can eat delicious bamboo again this year

    • Background character: おめでとうございます

      • おめでとうございます - congratulations (but probably “Happy New Year” in this context)
    • Background character: Happy New Year

  • Panel 2

    • Shirokuma: 帰って甘酒飲もうか

      • 帰って - return home (て-form of 変える)
      • 甘酒 - amazake
      • 飲もう - let’s drink (volitional form of 飲む)
      • か - (question marker, rhetorical here, I think)
    • Shirokuma: Let’s go home and have some amazake, shall we?

    • Panda: わーい

    • Panda: Yay!

  • Panel 4

    • Panda: うしろからハイヒールの靴音がするよね?

      • うしろ - behind, back
      • から - from
      • ハイヒール - high heels
      • の - (possessive/modifier particle)
      • 靴音 - footsteps, walking sound
      • が - (subject marker)
      • する - do
      • よ - (assertive emphasis)
      • ね - right?, isn’t it?, etc.
    • Panda: Sounds like high heels behind us, huh?

    • Shirokuma: うん

    • Shirokuma: Yeah

  • Panel 5

    • Panda: 走り出したみたい

      • 走り出した - started to run (past form of 走り出す)
      • みたい - seems like
    • Panda: Seems like they started to run

    • Shirokuma: 急いでるのかー

      • 急いでる - hurrying (shortened ている-form of 急ぐ)
      • の - (explanatory)
      • か - (question particle, rhetorical here, I think)
    • Shirokuma: They’re in a hurry, huh?

  • Panel 6

    • Panda: ものすごく早くない!?

      • もの - really, truly
      • すごく - terrible, amazing, great, etc.
      • 早くない - not fast (negative form of 早い)
    • Panda: Aren’t they going awfully fast!?

    • Panda: なんかコワイー

      • なんか - something
      • コワイ - scary (怖い, in katakana for style)
    • Panda: It’s scary

edit: Just a warning, at the current rate, there’s no way we’ll be getting all these pages done before next week’s thread. I won’t be able to much/any Japanese stuff over the weekend, with the holiday, and there’s still 14 pages to go.

4 Likes

Page 56

  • Panel 1

    • Sound effect: カカカッ カッカッカッ

    • Annotation: 4本分↗

    • Annotation: 4 legs’ worth (of taps) (? I’m not sure what 分 means here…)

  • Panel 2

    • Boar: 今年はボクの年だよ! ヨロシクネ!
      • 今年 - this year
      • は - topic marker
      • ボク - I
      • の - possessive particle
      • 年 - year
      • だ - copula (casual form)
      • よ - sentence-ending particle indicating certainty, emphasis, etc.
      • よろしく - something like “please treat me well”
      • ね - sentence-ending particle indicating request for confirmation, etc.
    • Boar: This is my year! Please treat me well
  • Panel 3

    • Shirokuma: いらっしゃい

    • Shirokuma: Welcome (to my shop)

    • Penguin: なんか鏡餅っぽい・・・

      • なんか - things like…
      • 鏡餅 - New Year’s decoration of stacked rice cakes
      • っぽい - -like, -ish
    • Penguin: There’s some kind of kagami-mochi-thing… (with なんか and -っぽい, I’m thinking this comment has a derisive sort of tone to it, although from the picture I can’t really see anything wrong with the decoration…) Somehow looks kind of kagamimochi-like… (could be speaking of Panda’s figure. credit to @Belthazar)

  • Panel 4

    • Penguin: 新年もしろくまカフェでまったり♡

      • 新年 - New Year’s
      • も - also; (or emphasis)
      • で - location particle
      • まったり - laid-back (lifestyle); comfortable
    • Penguin: Even New Year’s is laid-back at Shirokuma Cafe :heart:

    • Panda: んー 竹大盛りとコーヒーかなー

      • んー - mmhmm (shortened form of うん - yeah)
      • 竹 - bamboo
      • 大盛り - large serving
      • と - and (exhaustive listing)
      • コーヒー - coffee
      • かなー - I wonder
    • Panda: mmhmm…I suppose I’ll have coffee and a big serving of bamboo…

  • Panel 5

    • Penguin: パンダくんいつも同じのじゃない!

      • いつも - always
      • 同じ - same
      • の - (nominalizing particle) it, the one
      • じゃない - negative (is not)
    • Penguin: Not the usual!

    • Penguin: お正月くらい新メニューに挑戦しようよ

      • お正月 - New Year’s
      • くらい - at least
      • 新メニュー - new menu
      • に - (target particle)
      • 挑戦しよう - volitional form of 挑戦する - to challenge, to dare
      • よ - sentence-ending particle expressing emphasis
    • Penguin: C’mon, I dare you to try something new, just for New Year’s

    • Penguin: カフェラテとかカプチーノとかいろいろあるでしょ!

      • カフェラテ - cafe latte
      • とか - etc.
      • カプチーノ - cappuchino
      • いろいろ - various
      • ある - to exist
      • でしょ - right?; don’t you agree?
    • Penguin: There’s so many things, like cafe latte, cappuchino . . .

    • Panda: えー よくわかんないんだもん

      • えー - grrr; gah; Must I?​
      • よく - well
      • わかんない - colloquial version of わからない (negative form of わかる - to understand)
      • ん - (explanatory tone)
      • だ - copula
      • もん - (particle indicating reason, excuse, or dissatisfaction)
    • Panda: Really? But, I don’t even know what those are!

I did this quickly, so there might be errors.

Personally, I’d be fine with moving Chapter 13 to next week’s readings, but allowing discussion ahead of time if people end up getting there early. Or, keeping it with this week’s but not feeling like we have to do translations, just ask if you have questions about something…

4 Likes

Oh geez, I somehow forgot that Chapter 13 is another long one.

“Four legs’ worth”. This is 分 as “serving, share”.

Suddenly thinking he’s making a contrast between Panda-san’s appearance from the back and the kagamimochi. Didn’t even notice that until just now.

3 Likes

haha, I bet you’re right! I totally didn’t see that before!

This, plus everything else, definitely makes Penguin my favorite character so far :grinning:

2 Likes

Page 57

  • Panel 1

    • Shirokuma: 注文決まった?
      • 注文 - order
      • 決まった - have decided (past form of 決まる)
    • Shirokuma: Have you decided on your order?
  • Panel 2

    • Panda: じゃあね

    • Panda: Well… (じゃあね is a way to say “goodbye”, but obviously that doesn’t make sense here. I think it’s just a combination of an ordinary じゃあ/じゃ and the ね particle for emphasis)

    • Panda: このキャラメル・・・

      • この - this
      • キャラメル - caramel
    • Panda: This caramel…

  • Panel 3

    • Panda: マ・・・ マ・・・ マキ・・・
    • Panda: Ma-ma-macchi
  • Panel 4

    • Shirokuma: 巻きずし?
    • Shirokuma: Maki sushi? (This is what I typically hear 巻きずし called in English, but could also say “rolled sushi” or just “makizushi”, I suppose.)
  • Panel 5

    • Shirokuma: マキャベリ?
    • Shirokuma: Machiavelli?
  • Panel 6

    • Shirokuma: 巻きスカート?
      • 巻き - roll
      • スカート - skirt
    • Shirokuma: Rolled skirt?
  • Panel 7

    • Shirokuma: キャラメルマキアートね

      • キャラメル - caramel
      • マキアート - macchiato
      • ね - right?, isn’t it?, etc.
    • Shirokuma: Caramel macchiato, right?

    • Panda: たぶん・・・

    • Panda: Probably…

    • Penguin: コーヒーでいいんじゃない?

      • コーヒー - coffee
      • で - (context particle)
      • いい - good
      • ん - (explanatory)
      • じゃない - is not
    • Penguin: Coffee is fine, isn’t it? (I don’t understand the で particle here, so my translation is probably incorrect.)

    • Penguin: ???かったヨ

    • Penguin: ??? (I couldn’t figure out the kanji on this one at all)

  • Afterword

    • Bear Cupcake: 新メニュー挑戦したのに・・・!!
      • 新 - new
      • メニュー - menu
      • 挑戦 - challenge, dare, try
      • した - did (past form of する)
      • のに - although
    • Bear Cupcake: Even though a new menu is a challenge…!

This is going to be the translate full translation I do, I think. After some discussion in the home thread, I sort of think doing full translations is killing all other discussion of the book. I’d rather go back to how things were the first week, with lots of people asking and answering questions, even if it was a little more chaotic, versus the current threads where it’s just a handful of people posting full translations and corrections to those translation, and almost no one else participating at all.

That’s not to say other people can’t do full translations if they want to (not that I would have the authority to say that to begin with), but this is the last one from me. I wanted to do this one to close out the chapter, since we’d already started on it.

2 Likes

I feel like this is ~てもいい without the も, but either way, your translation is fine.

悪かった = my bad (for trying to change you)

I kinda feel the advantage to full translations is that mean you focus in detail on the grammar - I do tend to intuit the meaning of a sentence sometimes without actually looking at it carefully. I also feel like the discussion is dying because people haven’t been keeping up with the readings, rather than because of the full translations.

3 Likes

What if we those who wanted to do a full translation just hid it under a details tag? Then it would be easy to skip over, but people who wanted to read it still could. Also, if you had any questions while doing the translation, you could put it outside the details so that everyone would see it.

2 Likes

I’m going to try something a little different. I’m going to look a little at the grammar and kanji appearing in chapter 13. (I’m skipping over the recipe page, so if anyone has any questions or comments on that, be sure to write.)

As per Saruko’s suggestion, I’m hiding it behind a detail click.

Page 59 (bis) grammar and kanji

Chapter 13 begins on page 59 in the bis version.

パンダ:「今日は動物園のバイトです」

This sentence is pretty much the most basic Japanese sentence. This is probably the form I learned first in Japanese class back in high school way back when. Anyone who’s made it this far into reading this book is probably very familiar with it, but I’ll break it down here.

The basic sentence pattern is XはYです. It is used to identify or describe X as being Y.

In this case, きょう (today) is being identified as 動物園のバイト (zoo’s part-time job). This is in contrast to prior days, when パンダ did not work at the zoo. (If パンダ worked at the zoo yesterday, the line would read 「今日も」, meaning “today as well”.)

Because there is no action taking place, there is no verb in the sentence. Instead, です is used, which is similar to saying “to be” or “is” in English. In more casual speech, だ is used in place of です.

Within this sentence is the particle の. This is used to have one noun modify another noun. In this case, 動物園 modifies バイト. Although パンダ has (to my knowledge) only one バイト, if he had multiple jobs, の would be used to make it clear which バイト he had 今日.

The kanji 動物園 is a combination of 動物 (animal) and 園 (park). 動物 further breaks down into 動 (move, motion) and 物 (thing), because–after all–what are animals if not things that move? Apparently, you already know this if you’ve reached level 16 in WaniKani (which I’m far from, being a mere level 6 hatchling, far too young to be a ninja, eat pizza, and shout “cowabunga”.)

Continuing down the page, a group of school girls call パンダ over.

パンダ:「…なんでしょうか?」

なん is a shortened form of なに. When でしょう is followed by the question-marking か, and is spoken with a rising intonation (questioning), でしょうか softens the question. In this case, パンダ isn’t saying, “What do you want?” but rather a softer “What is it?”

4 Likes

Here’s page 60. I won’t have time to do this with every page, but let me know if you think this is useful, or is hindering to discussion. And if you see anything I’ve explained poorly or improperly, do let me know!

Page 60 (bis) grammar, vocabulary, and kanji

The メガネっこ (glasses-wearing girl) explains the gift she and her friends have handed to パンダ、「今日はバレンタインデーだよー」

This is the same sentence pattern as seen at the start of page 59: XはYです. However, the メガネっこ uses the more casual だ. She also uses よ, which adds exclamation (similar to how か is used for a question). She’s not just stating that 今日 is バレンタインデー, but she’s exclaiming it.

パンダ is surprised that they are giving him such a gift. 「えっ くれるの!?」

The word くれる is used when the speaker is the recipient of something. パンダ is speaking, and he has received a gift. There’s more to the usage of くれる, but it’s easier for me to remember this specific usage than to try to think of all the details.

The particle の at the end of the sentence here is similar to か, only softer. The sentence is spoken with rising intonation, and is a question.

One of the girls asks to take a 写真. Everyone who’s reached level 16 in WaniKani (read: not me!) will recognize this one. The first half, 写, appears on level four. If you cannot tell from context, 写真 means “photograph”.

The verb 撮る is used for the action of taking a photograph or recording (such as audio or video). It appears in WaniKani for those dedicated enough to have reached level 30 (absolutely not me yet!)

Here, 撮る is conjugated into what’s known as its “causative” form. The term comes from this conjugation being to cause an action, but it can also mean to let (allow) an action be performed. The メガネっこ isn’t saying, “I’m taking a picture,” she’s saying, “Let me take a picture.”

To conjugate 撮る into the causative, take the stem of its negative (撮らない => 撮ら), and append せる. This results in 撮らせる, meaning “cause to take (a photograph)” or, in this case, “allow to take (a photograph)”.

The verb has one an additional conjugation, ending in て. You can make a polite command by conjugating a verb into its て form and adding ください. In more casual speech, you simply leave the ください off.

「前に見てください」 = “Please look ahead.”
「前に見て」 = “Look ahead.”

(Edit: I accidentally had を where it should have been に in these example sentences.)

撮らせる is conjugated into 撮らせて to complete the meaning of, “Let me take a picture.”

「写真撮らせてね」

The final ね is a casual exclamation. Like か and よ and the sentence-ending の, it doesn’t really translate into English. However, if I were going to translate this sentence, I might go with, “Hey, let me take a picture!”

As the girls leave, one tells パンダ to がんばって with his バイト. This is がんばる (or 頑張る if you’ve reached WaniKani level 25) in its て form as a command. “Keep it up at your part-time job, okay?” (Here I translated the sentence-ending ね as “okay” rather than “hey”.)

Have you ever encountered a kanji and found it has a reading you never learned? That was me the other morning as I tried to figure 下ぶくれ out.

Apparently there are few words using 下 pronounced as しも. For example, 川下 is かわしも (downstream). But most instances of 下 as しも that I’m able to find are in surnames. I can just see myself encountering a 下田さん, and calling him かだ or げだ. Maybe I could even star in a Japanese light novel called, “My lack of knowing kanji readings most commonly used in surnames is interfering with my ability to refer to people correctly”.

By the way, 下ぶくれ can also be written as 下膨れ. For anyone long-term enough to reach WaniKani level 52, the term 膨れる appears, meaning “to swell”. But in this case, 下膨れ means “round-faced” or “bulging at the bottom”. (The girls are admiring パンダさん’s cute round face, right? They couldn’t be commenting on his belly, right?)

Following that is 体型, referring to one’s physique, or body shape. It combines 体 meaning body (WaniKani level 5) and 型 meaning model (level 24). But the vocabulary word doesn’t appear in WaniKani, so maybe we don’t need to worry about learning it :wink:

The girl’s sentence is, 「この下ぶくれ体型がかわいいんだよねー」

The んだ is short for のだ (or more politely, のです). This inclusion of の can be used emotively when the speaker and listener share a common interest. It has different meanings in other usages, but here the girls are sharing a love of the rounded face (or belly?) of pandas.

7 Likes

I’m about to head out of town for the day, but wanted to write a bit about the next page, and made my way through the first two panels.

Page 61, panels one and two, grammar, vocabulary, kanji

Our バイトパンダさん joins the 常勤パンダさん. 常勤, meaning “full-time employement”, comes in at level 34 in WaniKani. (For a level 6 hatchling such as myself, reaching level 34 feels like it would be a full-time job.)

By the way, whenever I see 常勤 in this comic, the furigana reading on top looks like じようきん. It’s actually じょうきん with a small よ. Whenever I see a よ following じ, I assume it’s a small ょ. I don’t know if it’s ever not, but sometimes the font sizing looks like it isn’t.

バイトパンダさん (our intrepid part-timer) begins with, 「常勤パンダさん聞いてー」 The kanji 聞 (hear) comes in at level 10, along with its vocabulary counterpart, 聞く (to listen). The て form is used again as a polite command. “Full-time Panda, listen (to this).”

「今日 女子高生にチョコもらったのバレンタインの!」

Typing じょし to get 女子 was easy enough, but I had a hard time converting こうせい into 高生. Apparently this is not common usage, shrinking 高校生 down to 高生.

女子 is a level 2 vocabulary in WaniKani (one of the seemingly hundred or so that translate to “girl”). 高校 comes in at level 7, and 高校生 is level 9. Knowing 高校生 makes 高生 easy enough to figure out.

This time around, the verb もらった is used to refer to バイトパンダさん’s receipt of the バレンタインのチョコ. This is the past-tense conjugation of もらう.

Previously, くれる was used when パンダさん received a gift. However, the giver (the girls) were there at the time. Here, the girls are not with パンダさん and パンダさん. Because they (the giver) are not part of the group having the conversation, もらう is used (“Some girls もらった chocolate to me.” “I もらった chocolate from some girls”)

If the girls tagged along and were our パンダさんたち (our Panda-sans), they would be part of the group, and I believe くれる could be used (“These girls くれった chocolate to me.”)

Giver is in group/conversation: くれる. Giver is not in group/conversation: もらう. This is my basic understanding, but if anyone sees any flaws or issues, please let me know!

Edit: Also worth noting, when using もらう, the giver is marked with に. Re-read パンダさん’s line, and you’ll notice 「女子高生に」.

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