This is a post for me to reflect on reading The Japanese Page’s graded reader, Frank and the Obaasan. I only started writing translations at chapter 5, but am also recording things that I found to be new here.

Ch 3

• For some reason, I haven’t heard それなら enough to come up with a translation off the top of my head… hopefully I’ll remember it now.
• I’ve heard of わ as a sentence ending particle before, but hadn’t seen it in use until now.

Ch 4

• I forgot that って was used for quoting things, so wasn’t able to translate a line easily.
• I didn’t pick up on “さっき言ったでしょう” being a polite admonishment
• I didn’t translate the subtle difference between 話せません and 話しません very well
• For some reason I forgot that かわいそう isn’t “looks cute” but is instead “poor thing”
• Today I learned the difference between saying 友よ and 友達. (友よ being the more dramatic of the two.)

Ch 5 – My Notes

• I translated ちょうど腹減った as “I just got hungry”, but the official translation was “I’m getting hungry”.
• For “食べられない友達”, I literally put in my notes, “friend-that-I-can’t-eat. (Inedible friend?)”. Turns out, “inedible friend” was the term used in the official translation!
• I didn’t know about the particle っけ (showing the speaker is trying to recall something), which made my translation of “どこからいらしたんでしたっけ？” a little… “off”. (I said “Where are you from?”, when the official translation said “Where did you say you came from?”.)

Ch 5 – My Translation

Obaasan: Frank, I’d love to introduce you to my friend.
Frank: Is that so? I just got hungry.
Obaasan: My friend isn’t food.
Frank: But, just now, you ate my friend.
Obaasan: Frank, Just now I told you. That was sushi. Sushi isn’t a friend.
Frank: I understand. Please introduce me to your friend-that-I-can’t-eat. (Inedible friend?)
Obaasan: Yamada, this is my friend, Frank.
Obaasan’s Friend: Ah, Frank. Nice to meet you.
Frank: Nice to meet you, Obaasan’s friend-that-I-can’t-eat.
Obaasan: Frank is… Where are you from? America? France?
Frank: No, that’s not right. I’m an alien. I come from Space.
Obaasan: Space….
Frank: Obaasan, Obaasan’s friend-that-I-can’t-eat, what’s wrong?

Ch 6 – My Notes

• To me, it feels like 大変ですね and similar phrases mean more in Japanese than they do in English…. and I had a brain fart and forgot the simplest translation. So while I translated it as “That’s a tricky situation”, the official translation said “That must have been tough”.
• I didn’t quite translate “どうやったら宇宙船は治りますか” correctly. I think the use of やったら threw me off.
• What I translated as “smells good” got translated officially to “smells delicious”.
• Learned meaning of “かしら”, which seems useful as after I read about it, I remembered I’ve heard it in anime a lot in the past.

Ch 6 – My Translation

Obaasan: Frank, you’re an alien!
Frank: Yes.
Obaasan: You’re not human!!
Frank: Yes.
Obaasan: Why did you come to Earth?
Frank: I hadn’t planned on coming to Earth. My spaceship got destroyed and I crash landed here.
Obaasan: Ah, I see. That’s a tricky situation.
Frank: That’s right. I want to see my family.
Obaasan: Okay! I’ll help you. What do you do to fix your ship?
Frank: Ah! It’s easy if I have a Finmuputto.
Obaasan: Finmu…. Finmububu… what’s that?
Frank: A Finmupputo is sticky and it smells good.
Obaasan: Natto is sticky, but it doesn’t smell good. I wonder what it is…
Frank: Does Earth have a Finmuputto?
Obaasan: Oh! I understand. I’ll introduce you to it.