#when i try to practice in japanese. well im very limited in my verbs and grammar

[orcelito]

One of the funniest things about learning both Spanish and Japanese is that. When I'm rambling to myself in one or the other (as I tend to do, living alone as I do. It's good practice), I sometimes end up unintentionally mixing up "y" and "と(to)". Like they both mean "and", and they just have the same Feelings to me as words. So sometimes I'm speaking in Spanish and catch myself throwing a と in there by accident. Less frequently done with Japanese just bc I am nowhere near as fluent in that as I am in Spanish (and thus less able to just Ramble in it like I can with Spanish), but the spirit is there I think.

Idk I think it's something with the vowels. Spanish and Japanese just have very similar sounding vowels. Makes it real nice to be learning either of them, bc they have pretty similar mouth-feels. Not Entirely the same, especially not once u add consonants in there, but for the basic 5 vowels? A Spanish a is a あ, e is a え, i is a い, o is a お, and u is a う

And I just think that's very refreshing. I really do enjoy learning both these languages, even if sometimes my talking to myself ends up being some hilarious conglomerate of Spanish, Japanese, and English. It's just me talking, so it's fine to get a little silly with it, I think

[tl-notes]

Gabriel Dropout Episode 4 Notes

These guidebooks (しおり shiori) are primarily associated with school trips, such as field trips (at all ages) or those overnight trips middle and high school students do. However, they’re sometimes made for personal (or work) group vacations as well, often by whoever’s in charge of organizing the event. It will generally contain a schedule and various other bits of useful/relevant information about the trip, basically a glorified pamphlet or printout. It’s also common to give them a title, as seen here, to kind of represent the trip.

All that said, you gotta be pretty fired up about the trip to actually go out of your way to make these things yourself, so there’s definitely an element of “aww, she’s so excited” intended here.

The 思ひ出 (omoide, memories) in the title is usually written 思い出; in modern Japanese ひ is the hiragana for hi, and い is for i, but in classical Japanese it wasn’t quite so clear-cut. In “normal” usage nowadays it would pretty much always be い, but you can use the ひ for stuff like this to make it more emotional/old-fashioned. For example, it’s used in the Japanese title for the Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ).

The phrase she uses in the Japanese is “charisma demon” (well, akuma 悪魔). “Charisma” as a loan word when paired with a noun like that basically means charismatic + star power; someone who’s so good at being whatever [noun] is they’ve gotten some level of acclaim for it. An example would be a “charisma beautician,” someone who’s highly skilled and has some fame for working on celebrities or something.

It’s not very commonly used with professions that would generally require charisma and lead to stardom by default, like an actor or something.

When using it to refer to yourself, it’s like proclaiming yourself a star; not exactly the best of manners even when true.

It’s not shown in the typeset subs, but she actually misspells the word (i.e. writes the wrong kanji, 行 instead of 業; both can be pronounced gyou) and has to cross it out and rewrite.

The original line here is “do bananas count as snacks?” (バナナはおやつに含まれますか？). This is in reference to a rule on school field trips that you can only bring (usually) 300 yen worth of snacks. Schools typically enforce this rule to keep kids from bringing a bunch of junk food or whatever and spoiling their lunch by eating it on the bus/train, and also to maintain a sense of equality among students with different home environments.

The banana question is an oyakusoku question somebody always asks when the teacher is explaining the trip. Nowadays, it’s generally a thing asked as a joke about trying to find a way around the snack cap. However, back in the 50s/60s it was a serious question.

Prior to that, bananas were fairly hard to come by in Japan and largely considered a bit of a luxury food, but by the 60s they were becoming somewhat more accessible to the average person (but still maintained their status as a fancy treat). Since school trips are kind of a rare and special event, it wasn’t uncommon for parents to want to send something special (i.e. a banana) for the kid to eat on it. So you’d always have at least one kid who would ask whether that banana would be included as part of their snack limit, or part of their lunch (which generally you’d bring from home).

That might make more sense if you consider that Japanese lunch boxes tend to be pretty thin and tightly packed to begin with. Even if the parent intended the banana to be part of the lunch as sort of a dessert (as fruits tend to be thought of), it wouldn’t fit in the lunch box and would have to be carried separately—like the snacks.

Vignette, of course, anticipated the question coming up and included it in the guide booklet.

She doesn’t actually use baby-talk here, but she does use the –ageru grammar point. Ageru means (several things but in this case) to give something. By attaching it to the end of another verb it becomes you doing that verb for somebody, with a nuance of doing it as a favor for them—which, depending on context, can be pretty condescending.

Satania uses that sort of language a lot when in Future-Ruler-of-Hell mode.

Specifically she says playing in the sand, not a general “out of the water.” Doesn’t really matter, but it foreshadows how serious she is about building that sandcastle later.

Here she says “umi no ie” (海の家), which literally is like “ocean house,” but actually refers to small scale restaurants on the beach that are generally only open seasonally. If you’ve seen a beach episode of an anime you’ve almost certainly seen one before.

As mentioned in an earlier episode note, the mai (舞) here is used for a verb that basically means descend with grace (舞い降りる), a la an angel descending from heaven or big fluffy snowflakes falling (it also means dance or float/hover). Ten (天) represents heaven.

西区 (Nishi-ku) is basically “western district,” which is appropriate enough, considering.

“Arara” is something people say when something bad/disappointing happens (usually when they are watching it happen to other people). “Machi” is just “town,” a common part of many place names.

Another example of oyakusoku. As soon as somebody is shown to have worn their swimsuit under their clothes, you know there will be some forgotten underwear joke coming up.

This looks like the torii at Miyajima, though there’s no bridge like that there.

Edit: It turns out this is Bentenjima, another fairly touristy place with a torii that is partially underwater during high tide.

As you can, the "-tenjima" part of the name is the same, the just swapped out the Ben for Mai. Benten, by the way, is an important goddess in Japan, and one of the seven lucky gods.

Guess what she says here?

Oyakusoku.

The little shrine on the left there is a common sight on the roadsides of Japan. The statues are generally of Jizou (or Ojizou-san/-sama as they are often called), the Japanese incarnation of a major bodhisattva. He’s a pretty cool guy who basically considers all life his responsibility and is mega kind and watches over everybody, and in Japan, especially children. There’s probably some connection between his shrines/statues being on all the roads and the fact that most kids in Japan walk to school unattended.

The red hat and bib are offerings put on them in prayer that one’s own children will grow up healthy and safe.

There’s also a famous folk tale regarding the hat. A kind old man travelled to town to try to sell five straw hats he and his wife had made, so he could buy some rice cakes for them to eat on New Year’s. Unfortunately nobody was buying though, so he left to return home. As he made his way back, he saw six Jizou statues being covered by the falling snow. Feeling bad for them, he wiped off the snow and gave the straw hats to five of the six, and his own cloth cap to the sixth. Later that night, the Jizou came to life and visited the old couple’s home, bringing with them a huge supply of rice as a gift.

There are several different versions, and this is a pretty summarized take on it, but that’s the gist.

You may be familiar with the “tadaima/okaeri“ tradition of greetings for when someone returns home. This is basically a similar deal except for when it’s a guest arriving, instead of someone who lives there: you say irasshai, they say ojama shimasu (though there are of course variant options for each).  In practice they’re just ritualized greetings, like “come on in” and “thanks for having me,” but in literal terms ojama shimasu basically means “I’m going to get in the way/cause you trouble.”

So Gabs is basically saying “I’m being a pain” repeatedly.

I saw a lot of people a little confused about this exchange, so just for clarity’s sake.

It basically boils down to:

Gaben: “Come on, surely you saw this coming.”

Vine: “Yeah, I guess I did.”

Garb: “Right? Now settle down and let me see your homework like a good girl.”

Viggo: “Wait, why are you acting like I’m the one being a child here!?”

The actual line here is “sasuga Vigne.” Sasuga is a super common word in conversational Japanese, that basically means “as expected [of someone/something].” Often it’s used as a compliment along the lines of “that’s our boy/girl!”, kind of a combination “wow you did it!” and “but we knew you would because you’re great!”

It doesn’t have to be complimentary though, it can be used in a sort of “there they go again…” way as well, or anything in between. Here, it’s basically like “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

Ironically, of all the places to squeeze an idiom or joke into the translation, this is one where it would have actually matched the Japanese.

The word she (doesn’t) use here is “naruhodo“, which is basically just “oh, I see/understand/get it.” It’s also Phoenix Wright’s Japanese name, eyy Naruhodo-kun.

What Gub says here instead is “naru~,” like she’s too lazy to finish saying the word.

This is a common(ish) way to compliment a girl’s looks, especially from one woman to another. Particularly someone who leans toward “cute” and who keeps their appearance neat (as in like, hair not wild, etc.).

Not everyone particularly enjoys it though, you can find people online asking “why do people say I look like a doll, are they calling me emotionless?” In theory though it’s purely a compliment.

The saying she uses here is “困った時はお互い様 (komatta toki wa otagai-sama).” It’s used when you’re helping out somebody in trouble and they thank you/apologize for being a burden, and basically means like “oh, you’d do the same for me” or “don’t worry about it, people gotta help each other out” (but not so informal-sounding).

A friend in need is a friend indeed, by my understanding of the phrase, is a little different. The “friend in need” part of it means a friend who is still your friend in your time of need, with the idea being “if somebody sticks with you through the hard times they must be a real friend.” So for Gabu to be using it when she’s helping out Vigneto kind of implies “yeah I’m your real friend,” which is not quite the original intent.