reading notes, すーちゃん

すーちゃん～５

 

The 5th story of すーちゃん goes from p. 32 to 38. Looks like we will finally be introduced to manager Nakata! (see p.17)

A photo of the cover of the book すーちゃん by author Miri Masuda

Reading Notes

  • 発注・はっちゅう　placing an order

Suchan is thinking that two colleagues are “saboting” their work because they are discussing and laughing together. I like this word “サボる”, it means “to be idle”, “to sabotage by slowness”, it is also used to say “to skip school”. I would not consider that discussing or laughing at work is sabotage, but I guess France and Japan are very different when it comes to attitude at work.

  • 岩井・いわい　name
  • かべ・壁 I think it is used here to say that their is a “barrier” between regular employee and the other girls (who are doing バイト)
  • 森本・もりもと name
  • ひっかかる・ひっかかる　to be caught in. I knew the word to say for example “to be caught in traffic”, but here it surely means “to be caught in the act”, meaning she doesn’t want her colleague to know she has a crush on manager Nakata.
  • のらりくらり evasive, non-commital
  • すりぬける・すり抜ける to slip through

Then Suchan says: “本当のあたしなど職場にはいらない” p.34 I am not sure, but I think it means that she can’t be really herself at work, because she doesn’t want to open her heart to her colleagues. But I don’t understand “いらない”, it can’t be “to be” which would have make sense but is not grammatically possible. “To need” would be possible but would not make sense. I guess it is “入る”, to go in, to set in?

  • 仮・かり　fictitious, assumed (in opposition with 本物・ほんもの

ある日のすーちゃん

  • 攻略・こうりゃく　capture, walkthrough, advice

I find this last scene very funny.

Expressions worth remembering

p.35 “マジで疲れた”

About

I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to read mystery novels and play video games in these languages.

Learning languages has always been one of my favourite hobbies, but I’m not a social person, I don’t like to meet new people and make friends, this is just not me. I keep hearing that languages are meant for communication, that we have to actively use them, talk to people, etc. and for a long time, I thought I was weird to learn languages just for me, just to enjoy media, culture and entertainment in a foreign language, with absolutely zero interest in communicating with natives.

Now I don’t really care what people think, and this blog helped me a lot to stop doubting myself and just do what I enjoy doing.