時をかける少女: Week 7 Discussion (Chapters 10 and 11)

Like たがる to assume what the other person wants, right? Yeah, I think it’s the same thing.

2 Likes

I want to add on to this. It’s easy to expect these と constructions to only happen in certain formulas, like with a ようとする or と思う or と決まる and such. But it’s actually used a lot for everything, and can kind of be thought of as “with the intent of x” or “while thinking x”
While reading the other book I was reading, this was a constant style choice of the author that I had to get pretty used to.
So と is marking what the 努力 is for.

I was just trying to skim my book for other examples but it’s not easy for me to skim Japanese : o

5 Likes

To add (in case it wasn’t clear), it’s がり here because it’s 連用形, which has shown up a lot already in the book.

3 Likes

Ahaha, excellent!

Oooh, I see, thank you. I also didn’t get that にらみつけ was 睨みつける, which didn’t help, but I haven’t had much exposure to (or at least don’t notice :grin:) that grammatical structure.

That adds a lot to my understanding, thank you! And sorry in advance for when I inevitably forget and have to ask again next week…

Ah, the old Jisho-fu… I’m also still getting tripped up on occasion by not recognising verb stems in the middle of sentences like that, despite it happening in pretty much every other sentence in this book.

Gotcha. Thank you!

2 Likes

Aye, to expand on this, while in English it’s perfectly fine to say “Bob likes turtles”, in Japanese it would be odd to say ボブは亀がすき - you’re not Bob, how on Earth would you know what Bob likes? To say something about the mental state of others, you must use ~がる - ボブは亀がすきがる Bob is showing signs that he likes turtles.

Of course, you could also use と思う (I think that…) or と言った (he told me that…) or そう (it seems that) and so forth.

6 Likes

Yeah, that’s the same usage essentially.

:woman_facepalming:

3 Likes

I thing, you thing, he/she/it things, we thing, you thing, they thing

sorry :joy:

4 Likes

Okay I need to let my brain stop melting a little before posting any questions from chapter 11, but I just had to let some thoughts out on this chapter even though I know everyone else has read further.

My reaction was more like WTF??! They just saw a horrific traffic accident, with people covered in blood dragging themselves around on the floor, which they were basically involved in if not hurt by, and they just… carry on to school?! Surely if nothing else the police would like, want witnesses or something? My brain was so boggled it took a while to catch up and process the following story.

Also, regarding being suspicious of people: I’m actually not that suspicious of the teacher. He seems like a secret total paranormal nut, and it’s more like he’s thrilled to finally have a case in front of him. I mean, he knew, off-hand, the exact date on which that disappearance happened in the States. Guy is obsessed. Then again, he was very blasé about her collapse.

6 Likes

Me too, actually. I don’t want to really spend time complaining about the book, but that was one of a few things that threw me out of the story for a bit. If nothing else, they should have been excused from school for the rest of the day.

2 Likes

you’re not xD

3 Likes

No, totally. It made the crash feel like just another plot point that needed to be covered before moving on.

Anyway, I am still enjoying the book overall ^^ and it is a kid’s book, so some swiftness is to be expected :wink:

2 Likes

Cheeky double post to get in my questions for chapter 11. This chapter seemed especially infuriating for lack of kanji :grin:


Page 65

君たちが、そんな手のこんだじょうだんでぼくをからかうとは思えないし、よしやま君の身のうえに起こったことがほんとうだということは、いまのきみたちの顔色を見ればわかるさ。

  1. What does 手のこんだじょうだん mean? I’d guess something like practical joke but I can’t find anything on Jisho.

  2. Why 身のうえに? Why not just 身?


Page 66

ぼくはまだこのできごとが、自分の目の前で起こっていながら信じることができないんです。

^ Gorou’s little speech. I get that the meaning is “until this incident happened in front of my eyes, I wasn’t able to believe”, but I’m a bit confused by what the いながら bit is doing in the middle.


Page 67

和夫も五郎も、先生の調子にのまれてかたずをのんで聞いていた。

  1. What does のまれてかたず mean?!

  2. Is のんで聞いていた something akin to “they drank up his every word” in English?


Page 68

またアメリカの南東の海岸の沖のわりあいせまい範囲の空中で。。。

Slightly confused by the description of the location. Does わりあい go with せまい, and if so does this roughly translate to “a comparatively narrow range of sky”?

And does 海岸の沖 refer to the sea off the (south-east) coast? I was initially confused because I thought it was referring to both the coast and the open sea, but that didn’t make sense grammatically (nor with the subsequent parts of the sentence).

。。。これなどは、タイム・リープで、遠い未来か、あるいは遠い過去へいってしまったんじゃないかといわれているんだ。

Just not sure what’s going on at the end of this sentence - I’m basically lost after へいってしまった.


Thanks as always!

@sigolino I’m starting to think you have a panic notification for when I post in the reading threads :joy: :purple_heart:

4 Likes

First

7 Likes

HOW I searched てのこんだ I sweaaaaaar :sob:

Anyway thank you ^^

6 Likes

手が込む: complicated, convoluted. Then が becomes の (to modify 冗談) and 込む goes to the past 込んだ, as sometimes happens.

I’m not sure, but 身の上 maybe is more formal or has an additional nuance.

身の上: その人にかかわること。また、その人の境遇。

ながら can also be used to mean something close to “despite”. I guess this can also happen with “while” in English, so maybe you can make the connection. Meaning is somewhat different from what you guessed,

I would say it’s closer to something like I still can’t believe this, even though it happened right in front of me.

Example with “while” from Cambridge Dictionary:

While I accept that he’s not perfect in many respects, I do actually like the man.

The whole sentence is better divided in three parts: 先生の調子にのまれる (in て form) + 固唾をのむ (also in て form) + 聞いていた.
In the first part, 調子にのまれる, I guess you could use the “mood” meaning of 調子, and のまれる meaning “being engulfed, being overwhelmed” so that it means the boys were “taken by the teacher’s enthusiasm, or mood, or whatever”.
The second part has a jisho entry all on it’s own, it’s an expression: 固唾をのむ.
The third part, 聞いていた, right? Nothing to add there.
Just glue everything together with て form and you’ve got it.

I would guess that’s it. Not really sure though.

(遠い未来か、あるいは遠い過去へ) 行ってしまったんじゃないか: It’s hard to translate, but this means something like didn’t they go to the distant future or distant past or something? + といわれている: “it’s being said that…” so it’s kind of a rumor that maybe they leaped.

I set up your notifications as my alarm clock, of course. I wake up whenever just to answer :joy:

Edit: just now noticed the spoiler was all messed up.

7 Likes

How dare you

I’d only managed to type about 身の上 before this went up

orz

6 Likes

tenor%20(1)

4 Likes

I believe your translations are more or less right. It’s talking about the area of open sea off the southeast coast of America, which I took to mean the Bermuda Triangle.

6 Likes

Why you gotta know them geographies just to read a stupid Chinese book? :cry:

3 Likes

Well I did have to look it up to double check, but I’m pretty sure.

3 Likes