When I first saw a preview of this book, I thought it may be too high of a level for me to read alongside also reading 一週間フレンズ in the beginner book club, but 結婚しても恋してる feels to me like it’s a good fit for absolute beginner. (Hopefully the difficulty doesn’t suddenly spike!)
I was almost able to fully read the whole “Tweet” message (lacking ふりがな), until I reached 嬉しい which I absolutely was unable to remember and had to look up. I know the vocabulary word (うれしい), and I know the basic meaning of the kanji, but I wasn’t able to think of the word upon seeing the kanji. (I kept thinking of 喜ぶ, which I knew was the wrong direction.) After this, maybe I’ll be able to remember 嬉しい next time I see it? (High hopes…)
I just wanted to say here, since this is a new club starting, for anyone just starting out on reading, the first thing you read is very likely to feel nearly impossible, whether it’s “absolute beginner” material or not. That’s completely normal, so don’t give up if it feels that way!
One of the major reasons for this club is to help everyone make it through that first big hurdle. And believe me, it will always be a big hurdle, no matter how much you study, until you actually sit down and start reading–so don’t feel discouraged. It will get easier week by week, especially if you spend the time to learn about the parts you don’t understand–and one of the best ways to do that is to ask questions in the book club threads.
Don’t feel embarrassed, etc. to ask any and all questions. If you have a question about something, almost definitely there’s someone else who doesn’t understand it but who isn’t asking about it, so your questions will also help other readers in addition to helping yourself improve!
I’m actually having more difficulty with the all kana panels than the ones with kanji. I’m going to translate what I can of the fifth panel of the “7th” page (the first page of chapter 1), but there are parts I am unsure about.
…すぐつくだろ - I hope the lights come back on soon
じっとして いよう - stand motionless (is he telling himself to keep still)?
I read this as “(The lights) will probably turn back on soon.”The word “hope” isn’t in the Japanese here =) Edit: I just noticed that “I hope” can be a translation for だろ. I feel the nuance is different than “I hope the lights will turn back on”, but maybe someone else can say more on that.
“I’ll stand still.” Note the volitional conjugation, meaning “will do”.
Since the lights are off but should be back on soon, he’s keeping still (to not bump into anyone or anything). At least, that’s my take based on the situation.
2 tips for absolute beginners that I wish I’d picked up sooner: 1) Check out the vocab list, it doesn’t just save looking things up in the dictionary but can be really helpful when the word is conjugated in a way you’re not familiar with; 2) Have a look at the website ichi.moe where you can put in a whole sentence and it will attempt to break it down for you. This is really helpful when you can’t parse a sentence!
I don’t think our manga lends itself to line by line translation like the other ABBC book club book that started today, but I’ll try and post some translations of the first few pages to help people getting started for the first time (although there will probably be some mistakes…!):
Page 1
その出会いはある日の職場の飲み会でのこと
That meeting happened one day at a workplace get-together.
Has anyone ever been to a nomikai? When I learned the word on Wanikani I thought it just meant getting together to get drunk. Page 1 prompted me to read the wikipedia article and it’s clearly so much more! I’m intrigued by the clapping in unison to finish off the evening!
Cool start. It definitely felt to me that I was watching an anime ep and for some reason, I decided to stop at min 5 and wait 1 week to watch more
Best tip for this is: learn the vocab. All of it is pretty much common and it will make the reading so much smother. Grammar is N4 tops. Know N5 and do some search and you’ll still do great.
Maybe finally こっそり will stop being a leech to me Also, loved learning the word 写メ
I just started reading (well, ugh deciphering might be the better word :D) and I noticed the vocab list stops at page 11. Is there any easy way too look up kanji I don’t know? Preferably without having to know the stroke order.
Google translate app works great for me. You just draw it on the screen and copy the kanji. Jisho website has something similar but doesn’t work so well on a phone.
Or if you recognise one of the radicals you can look up the radical on wanikani and then see which kanji it’s in. I use the Tsurukame app for Wanikani so this way I can look up kanji offline (if they are in Wanikani).
I just gave it a try with the Google app, but it doesn’t wait for me to finish drawing the kanji, it always treats whatever I had already drawn as a single word due to the pause happening when I look at the kanji again. Taking a photo does seem to be working quite well, though.
No Tsurukame app for me on Android, but I usually have internet anyway so I can easily look up by radicals.
Oh, I can relate! I can’t finish a manga page without searching or confirming word meanings at my mobile dictionary although since I had a bit of practice with writing, I can guess stroke orders of some kanji to actually search for them using my phone.
If you really have no way to look up for the kanji, you can ask for help here. Just take a picture of the dialogue or something and then post it here so we can decipher together??
Jisho also has a “look up kanji by radical” function. On mobile, tap on the Radicals button on the bottom right corner of the browser, and select the radicals that show up in the kanji. It will give you a list of all the kanji with the radicals you have selected.
Also, loved learning the word 写メ 
although since I had a bit of practice with writing, I can guess stroke orders of some kanji to actually search for them using my phone.