Four questions: First, is my understanding to 帰宅部 correct? Second, how to read it? Third, "その２" here means "me too", does it? Fourth, in Japan, what is the percentage of high school students not attending any club activities? (just curious lol)
K-On! Shuffle けいおん！シャッフル 1st volume page 11.
It seems that the daily discussion does not allow pictures so I had to make it into a post. TIA!
by ShenZiling
6 comments
帰宅部 (きたくぶ) Students who are not members of any school club, a literal definition is “go-home club”.
1. You’re right, English translation is usually the go-home club, but the actual meaning is no club at all
2. It’s き•たく•ぶ, with accent on く
3. その２ means no. 2 literally, so she’s saying she’s the second member of the (non-)club
4. No idea :v
Yes. It means “not in any club,” and it has a sense of self-deprecating humor to it.
Its reading is きたくぶ. Its pitch accent is LHHL↓ in standard Japanese, where the last ↓ means there will be a mandatory drop in pitch on the following particle in a sentence.
その2ー is a humorous way of saying “me too.” Kind of like “me three!” in English but less kiddish. As for its pronunciation, “2ー” should consist of at least two moras, and the pitch accent of the word as a whole is LHHH in standard Japanese.
I have no idea what the participation rate is nowadays. It’s been a looooong time since I was a high school student…
You can upload pictures using [imgur.com](http://imgur.com) and linking it in the post for small daily posts. Just for future reference.
In addition to the other answers that already gave you the pitch accent, it might be useful to know that clubs (almost?) always have the accent on the syllable before 部 (or shifted left if that syllable is unfavorable to being accented).
To answer your question about non-participation rate, I was curious too and looked it up. An older (2017) source from MEXT (the education ministry) says about 5% for boys, 7% for girls ([chart on the 3rd page](https://www.mext.go.jp/sports/b_menu/shingi/013_index/shiryo/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2017/08/17/1386194_02.pdf)).
And according to [this article](https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/186781), the Japan Sports Agency did a poll in 2021 that showed 17% of boys and 13% of girls were not affiliated with any club activities (sport or otherwise). Another poll by Baidu (the smartphone company) showed that 帰宅部 was the top choice for teenagers who were asked which club they’d like to join the most (although I imagine there might be some selection bias there).
So yeah, there isn’t really a definitive answer, but participation seems to be on the decline, and the non-participation rate is probably somewhere between 5-15% depending on the school, etc. Would be interesting to see a breakdown by income level, private/public, urban/rural, etc.