Wow! Laziness is hard work! As you know, I’ve been tweaking with ways both to create and display Dick and Jane more efficiently…mostly creation really. Anyway, here’s Dick and Jane in the new, shorter format. And now the text is vertical, for added Japanese realness! The excitement is killer, so try to keep your knickers dry while you enjoy this new episode.
Where’s the English? Right here! Here’s the commentary for this Episode.
第 十一 話 や で (PL2)
だい じゅう・いち わ や で
Ordinal-prefix 11 Episode [is] [emphasis]
It’s the 11th Episode, man!
■OK, this really probably shouldn’t be in a “beginner” text, but what the heck, who cares — we want to do cool stuff, right? やで is 関西弁 (Kansai dialect) for だぜ or だぞ. Kansai’s is the biggest “non-standard” dialect of Japanese; it is real Japanese and you will hear it a lot, so you might as well get used to it now. Of course, the Japanese you usually read will be 関東 Kantou/Tokyo “standard” Japanese.
■Why did I put this there? Because it’s cool. It’s something a Japanese author might do. It gives it a funny feel. It’s
■In this case 話 is pronounced わ, not はなし
前回
ぜん・かい
Previous time
Previously
私 は 子供 です (PL3)
わたし は(わ) こ・ども です
I as-for children is
I’m more into children, myself
よし 出発 (PL2)
よし しゅっ・ぱつ
Right, departure
Right, off we go!
■よし is a word said when the speaker has come to a decision on something and/or is about to take action. Mr. Brown’s is a very common situation in which to use よし.
■Note that 出発 (しゅっぱつ) is not しゅつはつ. 出, in kanji combinations is usually read by its on-yomi, so “しゅつ”, and 発 is read “はつ”. When you mash something that ends in -つwith something else that starts with a consonant, there’s a high probability of getting a doubled consonant, hence しゅっぱつ instead of しゅつはつ. Other examples are 出血 (しゅっけつ) and 出品(しゅっぴん).
■More often than not, よし comes out sounding like よっし (yosssshh)
嫌 だ (PL2)
いや だ
Disagreable is
Nooooooooooo
■嫌だ may also be written やだ or やーだ. This is informal, like writing “come on” as “c’mon”.
これ は 危ない (PL2)
此れ は(わ) あぶない
This as-for dangerous is
We’re in deep dooh-dooh
今回
こん・かい
This time
御 二人 (PL3-4)
お ふたり
Honorable two-people
The two of you…
何処 から 来ました か (PL3)
どこ から きました か
Where from came [question]
Where are you from?
■来る(くる)
ん だ よ お前 (PL1-2)
ん だ よ おまえ
What is [emphasis] you
‘The heck is wrong with you??
■ん is short for 何(なん)
■お前=御前
■お前 can carry a lot of condescension with it, so don’t go using it. Don’t talk like Jane at all, not until you’re sure who you’re with/where you stand socially and what you’re doing linguistically with the Japanese language. Understand Jane, imitate Dick.
だって 接客 です もの (PL3)
だって せっきゃく です もの
Because receiving/welcoming-guests is thing/matter
I’m receiving guests
■だって△△△ですもの or だって△△△だもの is a colloquial (i.e. used in speech rather than writing) sentence pattern used to justify one’s actions. It’s most often used by females, so it’s potentially out of character for a male, but not out of character for Dick.
接客 じゃね~ よ 馬鹿 (PL1-2)
せっきゃく じゃねー よ ばーか
Receiving/welcoming-guests is-not [emphasis] idiot
Don’t “I’m receiving guests” me, you egit.
■じゃねえ/じゃねー etc. is a slangy version of じゃない(じゃ無い). In slangy Japanese, a lot of things that sound like -あい or -おいbecome ええ. It can be a bit “gangsta” or at least thuggish in the impression it gives, so don’t go out and use it (like I used to), but you will see and hear it a LOT, so you need to know what’s up.
■In situations like this, 馬鹿(ばか) will be often be stretched out so it sounds like ばーか
noun-noun non-agreement <- not real term but for my purpose effective
デ:お二人
どこから来ましたか?
ジェ:んだよ、お前 <-herein lies the problem
you're talking to 2 people why is your "you" not お前ら?
(手足で)
お直しなさって、次回編集なさって 御願い致します!