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I have been learning japanese for 6 months now and thought that I would have a stab at buying a Japanese comic book to try and read/ translate but I'm struggling! There are many different words that are included in the comic that do not appear in the dictionary or in my Google searches. One example is:

じいちやん - grandfather
エサ
とつてくる

These last two words I have no idea about. I've spent my entire lunch break on just these two. Any help on what they mean and how to better look up words like this?

Thanks

James Willcox
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  • What dictionary doesn't have エサ? Also, it's とって, not とつて – ssb Dec 10 '14 at 02:28
  • Similarly, it's じいちゃん, not ちやん – ssb Dec 10 '14 at 02:33
  • This was the result I was getting when I typed it into the dictionary: http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B5&eng=&dict=edict ahhh I guess those lower case ones make more sense now. In the comic book they didn't really change the size of the characters so it made it harder – James Willcox Dec 10 '14 at 02:35
  • The problem with looking on jisho like that is it only finds katakana versions. http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E3%81%88%E3%81%95&eng=&dict=edict You might try using the beta version of jisho instead. – ssb Dec 10 '14 at 03:01
  • Cool thanks for that, still so many things to learn! – James Willcox Dec 10 '14 at 03:39
  • The one salvagable question I can find here is why エサ is written in katakana, already answered here: [Why "dame" is written as katakana (ダメ) in manga?](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/15102/3275) – blutorange Dec 10 '14 at 07:57

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Have a look at the resources : Resources for learning Japanese a number of online dictionaries are listed.

If you look for example at Jisho, both your examples are listed. I have seen some people dislike Edict-based dictionaries so please keep an open mind and try other things.

  • 爺{じい}ちゃん

    • Grandfather (may be used after name as honorific).Familiar language, See also 祖父{}さん, usu. 祖父ちゃん
    • Male senior-citizen (may be used after name as honorific).usu. 爺ちゃん

  • 餌｛えさ｝ Noun

    • (animal) feed; fodder.
    • Bait; lure; enticement.

  • 取{と}って来｛く｝る

    • Kuru verb - special class,To fetch; to go and get. Other form 取ってくる 【とってくる】

For the last one, the confusion arose from the fact that you mistook っ　(small つ used for doubling consonants) for つ. I honestly think that reading anything after only 6 months of Japanese will be really hard, but good luck and I hope this helps !

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