I think またまた here means “you’re kidding,” and 大きさ is size, but I couldn’t find any meaning for わぎ that makes sense… any clues?
I’m also struggling with (Jiji again): 決めたらすぐの人だから
I guess 決めたら is “if decided,” and of course だから means “because” (explaining a reason), but… what is すぐの人 here? There’s a meaning of すぐ that is honest/frank, which might fit, but I don’t see how it all hangs together.
Finally, describing the motion of the broom, the word ぷらんぷらん is used. I can’t find this anywhere. Any ideas?
Indeed, the same word occurs on the next page and for some reason, I was able to find it this time:
大騒ぎ (おおさわ), uproar/clamor/disturbance. Makes sense now.
Well, my thinking was that, particularly given the formatting of this forum with lots of whitespace between each post, and no threading of replies anyway, combining several questions into one post would be more efficient for everybody. Of course that can obviously be taken too far, so I was sort of settling into grouping my questions by page.
But hey, I’m flexible — if you think it’s easier to have just one question per post, I’m happy to switch to that.
I think またまた in this context means “again” like “A big uproar. Here we go again”.
I did some searching on combinations like 決めたら + すぐ and 決めたら here means more like “when I decided” plus すぐ meaning “soon”. So put together means “as soon as I decided”.
check this out 「たらすぐ」に関連した英語例文の一覧と使い方(2ページ目) - Weblio英語例文検索
So Jiji is saying Kiki is a “as soon as I decided” person. In other words, Jiji is saying Kiki does something as soon as she decides without thinking things through. If you look a few sentences before, you can see that Jiji is using Kiki’s own words to describe her.
Yea, I couldn’t find the definition either but since this is a mimetic word, I searched for a word which sounds close to it and found ぶらんぶらん which means “dangling”. It seems to fit the context so I’ll go with this even though I can’t say with 100% certainty that it means the exact same thing as ぷらんぷらん.
I’ve noticed several places in this story where みせる is being used as a helper verb. For example, the first line on page 27 (red book):
キキ は ほうき を ぴゅん と ふって みせました。
I interpret this as basically “Kiki swung the broom with a swoosh,” but there’s that みせました on the end. みせる means to show, so I guess that adds the implication, she swung the broom with a swoosh for somebody else (her parents in this case) to see.
The same construction has appeared in a few other places so far, and this interpretation seems to fit — it modifies the base verb just to add a nuance of showing someone.
I can’t find this in my Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, nor on the interwebs (though I may have missed it). So somebody please correct me if I’m off base!
As far as I remember they haven’t stated Jiji’s gender, but on page 22 in the red version he refers to himself as “boku”, so we can assume he is a boy =^_^=
…Finished chapter 2! It was a fun one, though a bit challenging in places.
I may need to go back and re-read, because I think there’s a flashback transition that I missed. Early in the chapter we were talking about when she flew a broom for the first time; then by the end of the chapter, she’s 13 and talking about leaving. Somewhere there must have been some cue that we were switching from flashback to present, and I missed it, which confused me.
But on the whole I think I’ve got the gist of what’s going on. The conversation between Kiki and her parents at the end was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to what happens next!
I’m making my own vocabulary list and using the shared one for verification. It may be true that it’s just you updating it at this point (thank you!), but every time I open it I can see quite a few people viewing it, so I’m sure it’s useful.
It might be that many people have fallen behind (you can see some accounts still viewing Chapter 1 tab). I myself could only start reading this week and probably won’t catch up if I want to do this properly.
Could I get a check on these sentences in Chapter 2, page 24 in the blue book? I’m not sure I’m understanding them right.
柳のほうきなら、ガラスの馬車に乗った花むこさんに見えるのにって
This is when Jiji is talking. Is he saying that he’ll get mistaken for a rain cloud if they use the other broom, but if they use Kiki’s broom…he’ll look like a white bridegroom in a glass carriage? This seems a bit silly to say, haha.
And here Kiki is talking about how she saw something good coming out of the window of a main street shop. Like the cosmos? And she will certainly look like a flower when flying, she thinks. She was talking about western style clothes earlier, is she saying she wants to buy some Cosmos-like clothing to wear so she can look like a flower? Again, this is such a weird thing to say. Especially during a conversation when you’re trying to convince your parents that you’re an adult and should be able to leave the house.
I know I said that i’d have the same amount of time over the holidays as normal to keep reading but i really haven’t, i’m about a third of the way through chapter 2, hopefully i can catch up and start reading chapter three soon
In English, Cosmos is the name of a pretty coloured flower, rather like a big daisy, with lots of long thin petals - nice style for the skirt of a girl’s dress. I would assume the name is the same in Japanese, as that would make sense here - if she had that dress, she’d look like a flower flying along on her broomstick.
This didn’t make sense until a bit later on, when Kiki tells her mother than she made the broom from willow branches which she has exposed to river water and to the sun. So I assume that in the earlier conversation, Jiji is telling Kiki that it (あれ=the broom) needs to have ample time in the sun (to dry out), or it will grow mould if Kiki sleeps with it.
The ~たがる form indicates desire, but where you use ~たい to refer to what you want to do, when you are referring to what another person seems to want to do, you use ~たがる.
e.g. 日本に行きたいです。I want to go to Japan.
彼は日本に行きたがっています。He wants to go to Japan. (You know this because he’s reading guide books on Japan).
So in this part of the story, Jiji has asked why Kiki insists on keeping (the broom) secret from her mother. Kiki explains it is because her mother will make such a fuss, and always wants to interrupt, so that the conversation becomes complicated.
I think コスモスもよう is コスモス模様 where 模様 means pattern.
My interpretation is: Kiki wants her parents to buy her a going away outfit, and she has seen something she likes, which has a pattern of Cosmos on the fabric, in the window of a shop on the main road. If she wears it while she’s flying, she thinks she will look like flowers on the breeze.
Easily missed, I think! Kiki’s sitting in the garden (1st page of Ch 2) reminiscing about when she was ten (2nd & 3rd pages of Ch 2), then she jumps up at the start of the 4th page and suggests to Jiji that they go and take a look at something while her mother is not there, at which point she is back in the present.
I went searching for this too, but only found information in Japanese (which stretched my abilities!)
It seems that ~て見せる has a couple of uses, one of which is showing an example (e.g. demonstrating how to do something) and another of which is to indicate the will and determination of the speaker.
I think that「キキはほうきをぴゅんとふってみせました。」might be an example of the second type.
Reference: JLPT文法解説：てみせる N３ | 日本語教師のN1et 話者の意志や決意を相手に表明する場合