Thanks
Wow, definitely read a lot more native stuff than I have since most of mine is just short stories for learners or graded readers so far.
Roughly what jlpt grammar level are you? And are the books you read a chapter or two of only stopped because you’re not finding them interesting or is it because you’re nor fully understanding what you’re reading without lots of looking up (or something else)?
Just curious as I’ve been doing pretty well with the short stories even if I’m only reading learner stuff, it’s not been along side a translation most of the time. I’ve tried manga but there’s only a few I want to read and I can’t read stuff thats not interesting for me to read.
I’ve not started reading native level content yet but will do first with Read Real Japanese before moving onto light novels and short stories in native Japanese (as part of my self-study routine alongside MNN textbooks).
I’m planning to take the JLPT N2 this year, but really haven’t mastered all the grammar, so I’d say a “strong N3”?
For DAYS 1 出会い I again watched the anime first, but the book isn’t a shot-for-shot with the anime so I actually like it a lot. After the first chapter or so I’m only looking up about 5-10 words per page so it’s pretty readable, too.
For 悪ノ物語 I liked the start, but it’s obviously aimed at a grade-school audience so after a point the story started feeling a bit childish. Will likely pick it up again when I finish Days book 1, but it just wasn’t interesting enough for now.
For ポケットモンスター キミにきめた! the first part at least is shot-for-shot with the original anime (Ash / サトシ oversleeps, only pokemon left is Pikachu, etc. etc.), so while I LOVE Pokemon it was a bit boring and since I still have to look up a bunch of words (and some of them are Pokemon-specific terms) it’s slow going. However, someone recently introduced me to PokéJisho which at least makes the “Pokemon word” lookup a little easier. I’ll likely give this another go when I have a bit more reading under my belt and am able to get through it faster.
If you’re okay starting with manga, I would say if you want to challenge yourself with some more difficult ones, maybe buy the first volume in English as well and then you can always check that for comprehension as you go. I did that a lot with Skip Beat! early on and it really helped me.
I’ve a few manga, (Naruto, Legend of Zelda, tales of Vesperia, Dragon’s eye) to read which I’ve either read in English before, or watched the anime or played the game of so could try those and see how I get on as I go through them. I’ve also never seen the Pokémon anime from the start so thinking of picking up that from those you listed as well.
I read couple of graded reader for a month or two I think than I started with よつばと！because it’s the most famous beginner manga out there. It is a bit overhelming in the beginning, since I wasn’t used to do so many look ups, but with time it became easier. What I generally do I search all words that I don’t know on jisho. If I understood the general idea of the panel I would move on, but if I didn’t understand at all and it seemd important I would throw it on deepl.com, and then try to understand the grammar. Sometimes I would search the grammar point on bunpro (but that is more rare).
After I started reading mangas, I never stopped. I try take a glance at the first chapter on the sample from amazon to see if I can more or less get it, and check the level on natively (if it is already there). There are some easy mangas that don’t have furigana, which might be discoraging, but after you get over the hurdle of having to draw them on an app like kanji look up, you should be good to go.
If you don’t want to have to draw kanjis, I’d recommend よつばと、はなにあらし and 好きな子めがねを忘れた.
I’ve not read any of those but I know of よつばと. I haven’t read it because it didn’t appeal to me but I know it’s highly recommended for beginners and supposed to be pretty good.
I’ve got DeepL app on my phone which has been pretty good when trying to figure out grammar or such. Only downfall is you can’t draw kanji in it so I sometimes need to draw it in a separate app then copy and paste it.
Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll check the others out and see how it goes.
Edogawa Ranpo’s 怪人二十面相 (the children version), because it was marked by a WaniKani level check as a beginner book. I personally would not recommend it for a beginner as it has too much kana and onomatopoeia.
Not graded readers, but I went through many manga volumes for over half a year before I decided to “graduate” and aim for light novels and later easier novels.
At the beginning it was very hard due to not knowing enough kanji readings without the help of furigana and it’s still intimidating when it comes to more adult material.
Thanks
I didn’t think to look for stuff via Wanikani level. My Wanikani level is lower than my Kanji knowledge because of how I’ve learned kanji as I’ve been studying. Would certainly help with recognition and extensive reading if I know most of the kanji in what I’m reading.
Did you find the switch from manga to light novels had a steep learning curve or did you find it to be a natural progression?
Not knowing kanji and certain vocabulary have definitely been a hurdle for me when trying to read but flashcards etc don’t seem to work for me. Did you use SRS systems for vocabulary or did you just learn as you read by looking stuff up as you go?
I just dove into it, trying to read the JP, then checking the English translation. Pretty sure I’d been reading stuff on Satori Reader at that point, but nothing advanced. My first full book was 不登校の幼馴染が学校に行く条件は、毎日俺とキスすることだった | L27 and next was SAO 25 ソードアート・オンライン25 ユナイタル・リングIV | L33 … Actually I probably I read Crystal Hunters manga before those… Those are designed for learners, and I’d highly recommend.
They were both hard, and I had to look things up non-stop, but I also really enjoyed both stories, so I kept going. I think finding something that you enjoy is essential.
After those, I dabbled in a few others, but chilled and started reading more on Satori Reader, which was really the perfect bridge. I still read stuff on there, and recently have been reading various manga (Akatsuki no Yona, Ruri Dragon, Flying Witch), which are closer to my reading level. I still check what I’m reading against the English… But less than I did a month or two ago (I spend like all my free time reading).
I’ve used jpdb on and off for those, but ultimately I get bored of flashcards and would rather just learn the words via reading & seeing them a million times.
I’ve found jpdb fairly helpful for learning new vocab, specific to the thing I’m reading or watching. Plus you can see percentage of vocab/kanji you know. Also, I’ve learned a lot of vocab & kanji via music fwiw
Thanks
I’ve tried jpdb but flashcards don’t seem to help me, I acquire far more through reading than I do through SRS flashcards.
I have completed a fair number of graded readers and guided short stories but trying to take the next step just seems way above my tolerance levels for ambiguity. Wasn’t sure if this was normal or if I’m doing something wrong. Guessing I might just need to dive in and wade through it. I have got Crystal Hunters so could try those.
Did you read any easier books/ articles while wading through the difficult stuff? Or did you just power through it?
角川つばさ文庫 and 講談社青い鳥文庫 (and similar 子供向け labels) come in different difficulties. I would very much recommend those as a starting point. The こぐまのクーク (series) | L19 is very easy, for example. orange (series) | L22 was also on the easy side, since it’s set in highschool and consists of large portions of conversations.
There is such a broad range of difficulties even in books for adults. I started with very simple, short stuff. This is aimed at adults, for example, but very easy. ももこのよりぬき絵日記 (series) | L27 It doesn’t always have to be a Level 44 book.
(There is also always the option of reading along with the audiobook. )
That makes sense, I think my problem is that even with the stuff at lower levels (lower than 20 because even early 20s I’m struggling with at times) it mostly seems geared towards things I have very little interest in or it’s geared more towards childrens stories that I find sap my motivation to read. I’m also limited on what I can get due to finances and my delivery costs or not being able to get accessible digital content. I have a fair number of books (mostly second hand collected over the years), they just all seem to be way above my level.
I have a load of audiobooks too but reading while listening is a struggle for me as I can’t focus on both at the same time but may be able to understand both separately (depending on content and how fast it’s spoken).
The issue seems to be my vocabulary level and kanji recognition level but using standard systems for learning those doesn’t help me (I’ve been trying to learn japanese for way longer by flashcards and srs than I’ve currently been studying from textbooks and I only managed to pick up a handful of words until I started going through MNN and dropped the srs systems).
Sounds like it’s either power through stuff I’m interested in at high levels or power through the motivation lag at lower levels to get where I want to be. Or keep reviewing stuff and slowly going through the textbooks and news articles till I’ve got enough vocabulary to start understanding properly at my level. It’s still progress even if it’s slow progress though
My opinion: Learning kanji and vocab without context does not work. I.e. SRS is useless if it’s isolated from context.
I read a lot of the more difficult stuff as epub with yomichan support. Kindle Unlimited and Bookwalker’s 読み放題 have a lot to offer and usually the first month is free (or so). And KU often has 99 Yen deals. In fact, there is one going on right now.
Yeah, that’s definitely what I found so stopped using those and now learn stuff as I’m using it through the textbooks and stuff I’m reading but it is especially slow going (that could just be me though because I’m still learning how best I learn things).
Not sure if Yomichan is available to me on iOS, I don’t have access to a pc, laptop or android tablet. I do have access to kindle (have a UK amazon account) but can’t get a japanese amazon account as I can’t verify it to register it (I don’t have a vpn I can change and I don’t have access to a japanese card or address). Most of the easier Japanese books I’ve come across on kindle though have all been images instead of type so you can’t search for word meanings/ readings. The more difficult ones, I’m looking up most of the words making it very slow going.
Bookwalker I’m not so sure off, have an account but I’ve no idea how to navigate it or access any of the content so far except to try to mark books I want to get or have got.
It might just be too early for me and I’m trying to bite off more than I can chew.
I have asked for recommendations previously from several forums (and thats where most of my books are all from), they’re just all way higher than my current level or they’re things I have no interest in reading
I do appreciate the suggestions though. Might try again to see if I can find a way to access and set up a Japanese Amazon account if I can. And see if there’s any way to get yomichan on iOS.
you will need to convert the kindle book to epub, but that’s fairly easy to do. (amazon doesn’t like it, but it’s not illegal as long as you don’t share the ebook.) bookwalker is more difficult in that regard.
also, one more thing I forgot: a lot of light novels started as webnovels and are often times still available on those sites. That’s a completely free and legal resource as well.
Thanks I’ll check out the websites for previous light novels (not sure I can convert the ebooks without access to a pc/laptop but will keep that in mind for future too).
The entirety of 異世界の名探偵 (series) | L32 vol 1 for example is here. @Naphthalene taught me that many light novels are published there ahead of being brought on by a publisher. I don’t read many light novels but there’s doubtless a list out there of more accessible ones on syosetu and the like
There’s also カクヨム that belongs to Kadokawa. Also syosetu has a sister website for more err spicy stuff that would require an R18 tag, such as TL novels.
There’s at least one BL publisher that has their own website as well, but only the first chapter is free to read You are usually better off reading the free preview on Bookwalker/Booklive. I mean, not that I care, of course.
To be honest, I stopped using WaniKani at some point due to diminishing returns (too many 1:1 translations) and judging books by WaniKani level is overall not an accurate metric, because a book can use 75% of 常用 kanji, but be chalk-full of difficult vocabulary. That being said, knowing you can read most of the kanji in the book is a good starting point.
Initially it was a steeper learning curve than I anticipated, partially due to the average length of a light novel and the required vocabulary . It still feels more achievable for me to read a manga volume (takes usually 1-2 hours) than a couple of pages of a light novel. However, some novels like コンビニ人間 and 闇の守人 are to me easier than the entry level light novels like 君の名は.
I created an Anki deck I would fill up with vocab. For a long while (over a year) it was a massive pain due to the number of words daily I had to put in there, but nowadays it’s more manageable. I also cut down on reviews per day to a 100.
I don’t really use anki anymore, but if you read on a tablet or pc, there are ways to make adding stuff to anki really efficient. I basically just had to click a button when looking something up in yomichan and it would add the vocab and its translation together with the sentence I found the vocab in as a new card. (There are even ways of adding pictures and pronunciations automatically, but I never used those.)
You are usually better off reading the free preview on Bookwalker/Booklive. I mean, not that I care, of course.
. It still feels more achievable for me to read a manga volume (takes usually 1-2 hours) than a couple of pages of a light novel. However, some novels like コンビニ人間 and 闇の守人 are to me easier than the entry level light novels like 君の名は.