My reading notes for the third story of すーちゃん　by Masuda Miri. (p19 to 24)

• 気合を入れる・きあいをいれる　means to motivate oneself, to give it one’s all. I had learnt this expression in one of my N2 books but it is the first time I encounter it.

Maichan says 行くぞ・いくぞ to herself. I thought ぞ was very rude and only used by men. Maybe it’s ok to use it when talking to yourself, especially to say 行くぞ, it certainly emphasis your resolution.

Onepiece, tome9 p202

• ～がらみ　related to…, concerning…
• 懇親会・こんしんかい friendly reunion, get-together
• 小娘・こむすめ　Young girl
• 岡村・おかむら Maichan’s family name is Okamura
• 谷田・たにた　Maichan’s chef is called Tanita… I wish I were more familiar with japanese name… so frustrating to see a name and not being able to pronounce it…
• 蒼き・あおき　name
• 異動・いどう means «change», but it certainly is a shortcut for 人事異動・じんじいどう which means staff reassignment and happens at the end of the fiscal year (end of march)
• 沢山 is たくさん…
• 喋る・しゃべる　to talk, to chat. (I should learn the kanji even for words that are usually written using kana alone…)
• 塚本・つかもと　Name
• 得する・とくする to make a profit
• 渡っていく・わたっていく I think, but I’m not sure, that it means Something like going through life.
• 甘い・あまい　just can’t mean «sweet» here… from all the other meanings of 甘い the only one that actually makes sense is «promising». Then, Maichan would be saying that being relatively pretty, it does help at work, but relying only on that to go through life wouldn’t be promising.
• 商事・しょうじ　after a firm name, it means … corporation
• 杉下・すぎした name
• 超子・ちょうこ　female given name
• ペチャペチャ　onomatopoeia for chattering
• ブス・ぶす　extremely ugly woman

As usual a very interesting story that tells a lot about human psychology in a very few words. I tend to like Maichan’s story a little more than Suchan’s ones.