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+--- Thread: Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. (/thread-11427.html)
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - learningkanji - 2014-01-23
What are you supposed to do when reading? I've tried it out before but I come across so many words I don't know and I'm not sure what I should do with them.
Do I outright ignore them and move on? If so, how do I know what I'm reading and how do I learn them?
Do I look up the meaning and/or pronounciation and move on?
Do I do the above and then add the word and/or sentence to Anki?
What did you do when you first started reading Japanese novels, sites, etc?
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - PotbellyPig - 2014-01-23
If you are reading from a website or a text file, you can use rikaisama or yomichan (text file only), to allow you to easily mouse over words to get the definition and then in a click add them along with the corresponding sentence to an anki deck. This eases the pain of looking up words and adding them to anki.
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - mc962 - 2014-01-23
What did you do in elementary school when you came across unknown words in books? Personally I would just skip it even though my teachers said to look them up in the dictionary. I read so much that I learned them eventually without trying.
That being said, I of course knew a lot about the language I was reading. If you find that you are looking up a large portion of the words then maybe you might want to make flashcards for them and SRS until they stick. I've found that having a bigger pool of vocabulary to draw from makes things a lot smoother and more fun, whether it is reading or listening.
This is coming from someone who hasnt quite progressed to a big reading phase in Japanese yet, just going off childhood experiences for advice.
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - socrat - 2014-01-23
3 techniques depending on your mood or if you get too bored with one way.
Atleast that's what I did/do.
1. Read intensively.
Read one page looking up every word you don't know and writing it down.
Repeat several times.
The next day start from the beginning (page 1) again but add another page doing the same thing.
2. Read extensively (works if there are only a few words you don't know per page).
Read for the story ignoring any words you don't know. Once you get into the groove of the story time will fly by.
3. Read intensively with limits.
Limit yourself to 1 minute per page and look up just a few words per page, but then keep going. By the time you make it thru the novel you will have learned quite a few and it will be easier the next time.
Also, don't be afraid to re-read the same book if it's not too boring several times over again.
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - Aikynaro - 2014-01-23
For novels, I think don't try reading them too early, but don't wait too long either. Acquire some that are easy and when you think you can read them with good comprehension, give it a go.
It's up to you what you do. I don't look up anything and very rarely feel the need to. When I first started reading I looked up things a lot, but it made reading a painful activity - very much study and not fun. So I'd say get your level up to where you can read novels (chapter books?) aimed at lower primary school students and work up from there.
The word ブランコ came up in the book I finished last night. The first few times I didn't pay it much attention (okay, there's something in the park ... dunno what that is, but okay). Later the characters were sitting on it (ah, okay ... what is this thing?). Then it was mentioned to have a chain (hmm ... a chain-fence or something?). Then they started swinging on it and it clicked.
Then a few pages later there was a picture of them sitting on swings, so that neatly confirmed everything.
If something's important in the story and you understand the context, you'll pick it up, or at least end up with some idea (it's found in parks and you sit on it, for instance). The more you read the more likely you are to hit upon that word again and you can fill out the detail from there. It's just reading - if you read a lot in English you probably go through the same process regularly anyway.
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - rokudo - 2014-01-23
make it a habit to read at least 1 page a day - nhk easy is a good place to start. start using rikaisama so you can easily look up any unknown words.
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - Babyrat - 2014-01-24
This is a copy and paste from another topic which may be useful to you: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=10826
I advice if you try this method to have days where you don't do it and take it easy, for example not looking up words or reading through old texts.
I have quite a systematic approach to studying manga, but does require you to own the physical copies (and not mind scribbling all over them).
I have 3 stages to studying manga:
Preliminary stage:
I boot up my computer, get the raw manga (for kanjitomo) and translated version up on screen and start up kanjitomo (for manga without furigana).
Stage 1: Word hunting.
I open up the physical copy of the manga and start reading. When I come across a word I don't know, I grab a pencil and write a number next to the word (for reference), I then look up the word using kanjitomo and rikaisama, and find a blank space on the page to write the number, furigana and meaning in a condensed format. I carry this on until I feel I have enough new words for the day.
Stage 2: Mining
Boot up anki and start adding all the new words you have come across, I use example sentences from the manga when I can, but If I find the sentence has too many words I am not used to or it is too colloquial, then I grab a example sentence from http://tangorin.com/ . If you can add a picture of the sentence in the manga then go for it, but I find it a bit of a pain and takes up too much time.
stage 3: re read!
Now I can step away from the computer and actually enjoy life. When ever I feel like reading I pick up a manga that I have been referencing, and read through it. Any words I don't recognize I just look at the border and read the definition I wrote down. When I feel I know a word well enough I rub out the translation (this bit is important). Slowly and surely you will have many annotated mangas in your collection that you can soon read without any crutches.
Rinse and repeat.
Problems I have had:
Some manga have so many words I don't know that I run out of spaces to write the definitions. If this happens I leave the word and add it when I have learnt another word enough to rub it out.
Getting sick of the manga. This method has you reading the manga over and over again, I have two ways to get past this:
1)I have quite a big manga collection so I switch to a different manga each day. This also has the advantage of having a large annotated library, so you can pick any book for stage 3 to read that day to fit your mood.
2) I also only pick manga that I know I love and will never get sick of (bit obvious this one)
And thats it!
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - s0apgun - 2014-01-24
Use kanjitomo or rikai chan on the computer. Look ups from paper are bound to be slow.
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - learningkanji - 2014-01-24
Good advice thanks. I feel like maybe I should do core 2k/6k for a bit longer before I really get into reading. I also would need to find good novels for beginners.
Trying to find a good method for reading and getting into a groove. - gaiaslastlaugh - 2014-01-24
learningkanji Wrote:Good advice thanks. I feel like maybe I should do core 2k/6k for a bit longer before I really get into reading. I also would need to find good novels for beginners.I'd personally recommend sticking to online articles for a while as well, and building out a deck after 2/6k based on your online readings. As other posters have noted, it's dirt simple using Rikaisama to save unknown words to an export file and read them into Anki, Skritter, or similar programs. As your vocab increases, you can test out reading easy novels (lots of suggestions elsewhere on this site), and see how it goes. If you feel like you're looking up too many words, or not understanding things, you can drop back to assisted reading online for a while. Just my two cents.