/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Hello djt

I don't really know japanese. I know the kana and a handful of basic kanji. However, I am fairly proficient at using IME, allowing me to operate as a terribly inefficient OCR device. I also know how to use online dictionaries (I prefer http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1C).). Together, these allow me to roughly translate, very slowly.

I figure that with enough time, I ought to be able to achieve better than CGrascal-tier. So I picked a short, untranslated work I liked (pic related).

>私、伊号第一九潜水艦、伊１９なの!
>It's me, the 19th submarine of the I-series: I-19, or Iku for short!
>Me: Not so hard.

>この間、鎮守府に入ったばかりの新艦娘なの<3
>Just now, a new ship girl arrived at the naval base. <3
>Me: I got this.

>ここの提督さんは新着の艦を優先的に秘書にしてくれるらしいから――
>...
>Me: Urk
>The admiral here prefers to appoint newly arrived ship girls as his secretary. (uncertain)

The following 2-3 pages consist of Iku's dream sequence, which appear to suggest Iku is imagining herself to be teitoku's secretary. Which seems to suggest that the second panel really should be
>I've only just arrived at this naval base. <3

When I realized I couldn't determine such a basic thing as whether Iku was talking about herself or not, I was thoroughly disheartened.

Basically I'm looking for advice.

P.S. Is there any rhyme or reason why ほし can convert to , but こころ won't convert to ?