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+--- Thread: Reading towards the N2 (/thread-13663.html)
Reading towards the N2 - Hinsudesu - 2016-03-28
Hi
I`m planning to take this N2 this summer and from April and onwards I will focus a lot on bringing up my reading skills. So I`m looking for advice on what to read and would be happy if anybody could offer advice!
I`m thinking that I should try to get both some fiction and non-fiction, do both intensive and extensive reading and most importantly: Find some way to do steady progression in difficulty. This is really key I think. So maybe a better way to phrase what I`m looking for would be "how to get better at reading in 3 months in the most efficient way"?
So not just "what's suitable for this level or the next" but more "how to move between levels".As for my level, last summer I took the N3 with a comfortable score and since then I have finished Core6K and Nayr`s core decks and gone through most of the N2 grammar points in the Kanzen Master book. But I haven`t really done much to push my reading ability further and naturally I`ll have to do so in the coming months.
On the forum I`ve often seen Banana Yoshimoto`s Kitchen suggested, but I`m in doubt on whether reading a full novel will become too one sided with the relatively limited amount of time there is until the test. Personally I`m not too much into fantasy and action manga/anime/games, but in the spirit of sharing with the forum, such suggestions would be great too!
RE: Reading towards the N2 - Bokusenou - 2016-03-28
The thing which drastically upped my reading skills was finding books which were hard to put down. For a while I thought I was a slow reader in Japanese. Turns out I just needed to find something which interested me. What kinds of things are you interested in? Most of the reading I did while preparing for N2 involved キノの旅 novels & lifehacker.jp articles.
RE: Reading towards the N2 - Hinsudesu - 2016-03-28
(2016-03-28, 11:37 pm)Bokusenou Wrote: The thing which drastically upped my reading skills was finding books which were hard to put down. For a while I thought I was a slow reader in Japanese. Turns out I just needed to find something which interested me. What kinds of things are you interested in? Most of the reading I did while preparing for N2 involved キノの旅 novels & lifehacker.jp articles.
I think that`s actually a very good point!
I like politics, social sciences, news etc. And comedy and drama. Recently I read this one on my commute (probably lower N3): なぜ？どうして？社会のお話 http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4052034473 and even though it`s targeted towards children it`s still enjoyable in it`s own right. Previously I`ve also enjoyed reading NHK News easy and watching Shirokuma Café (maybe time to pick up the mange....)
RE: Reading towards the N2 - RawrPk - 2016-03-29
(2016-03-28, 11:52 pm)Hinsudesu Wrote: I think that`s actually a very good point!
I'm not aiming for N2 this year but for N3 (congrats btw) but I'm currently reading Shirokuma Cafe and it's really good! I mainly do extensive reading with it as for me I can figure out the gist of what is going on without trying to refer to a 辞書. I do go back and do small intensive reading on past pages a few days later for clarification. So I say go for it! If I can read the manga, I'm sure you definitely can, especialy since you understand much more than I do!
RE: Reading towards the N2 - Zgarbas - 2016-03-29
For the record, when I passed the n2 I had only read a few NHK east articles + their serious equivalents, and one light novel. I was about where you are now, fresh out of core6k. You can do this!
If you want to enhance your reading speed then you should go for news articles or novels/light novels. Reading light novels that have been faithfully adapted into anime is a great starting point since you already know the plot and are free to focus on the reading exercise (I did this with kino no tabi, an excellent book/anime). Kitchen is also an amazing novel to start with; I still remember being in awe of the fact that I didn't have to look up a single word in it. Banana Yoshimoto writes in a very simple and plain style that soothes your heart (but don't expect any action). Murakami Ryuu is also pretty easy to read (Haruki too).
Games are too slow for enhancing reading speed, imho. Same for manga; the images distract you from the text (I read manga slower than I read academic books), and very little of what you see in manga will be on the test (or in real life). The articles that are usually featured in the JLPT reading section are essays and editorials, so you might want to read those as well. here's a website that posts the editorial of the day in some of the major Japanese newspapers (though I prefer 毎日新聞, but you can see how newspapers talk about the same issue from a different political standpoint with this website).
RE: Reading towards the N2 - yukamina - 2016-03-30
Here's some non-fiction you can read that's not the news:
https://chokochoko.wordpress.com/the-great-library/ -- the articles don't seem to be working right now
This is a Japanese site with lots of article on different subjects--maybe you can look for a subject you're interested in and read about it? This link is to an article about reading kanji
http://allabout.co.jp/gm/gc/436846/
RE: Reading towards the N2 - RawrPk - 2016-03-30
(2016-03-30, 10:54 am)yukamina Wrote: Here's some non-fiction you can read that's not the news:
https://chokochoko.wordpress.com/the-great-library/ -- the articles don't seem to be working right now
Seems like the articles not working may be a permanent thing
Quote:FEBRUARY 4, 2016
Dear readers,
It has been a long, loooong time since I’ve made another blog post as I have been doing a lot of other things in life which didn’t allow me to work on Chokochoko. As much as I like Chokochoko and the little slice of home it has become for me and most importantly, you, the readers, I feel like it’s time to move on.
Chokochoko as it is now, will be closing. To all you readers, THANK YOU!
https://chokochoko.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/chokochoko-is-closing/
Though there is a new site in progress. I wonder if anyone saved all the articles before it went down?
RE: Reading towards the N2 - scooter1 - 2016-03-30
Checkout the wayback machine
RE: Reading towards the N2 - RawrPk - 2016-03-30
Thank you! I had to google what wayback machine was but it worked!
RE: Reading towards the N2 - r3ftch - 2016-03-30
I think i've downloaded all the articles. I can upload them somewhere if it's allowed
RE: Reading towards the N2 - Zgarbas - 2016-03-30
It's a free online resource whose domain has expired, right? Go for it.
RE: Reading towards the N2 - r3ftch - 2016-03-30
I have zipped all the articles from chokochoko that i downloaded 1 month ago and here is the link:
https://mega.nz/#!Yg831Y6I!wpBzBmfVpc63LCrr8FnYKdvHZH1MFcRcYpRh7l8Rwm4
RE: Reading towards the N2 - EratiK - 2016-03-31
@Zgarbas
Getting a 503 error for shasetsu land, shame.
@r3ftch
Thanks for the articles, it's appreciated.
RE: Reading towards the N2 - anotherjohn - 2016-03-31
EratiK Wrote:Getting a 503 error for shasetsu land, shame.Same here, though it's possible to get around it by using google translate as a proxy.
RE: Reading towards the N2 - zdo_vision - 2016-04-01
Thanks for the idea, I had the same problem.
RE: Reading towards the N2 - Zgarbas - 2016-04-01
That's weird; it works fine for me =/
RE: Reading towards the N2 - EratiK - 2016-04-01
(2016-03-31, 2:59 pm)anotherjohn Wrote:EratiK Wrote:Getting a 503 error for shasetsu land, shame.Same here, though it's possible to get around it by using google translate as a proxy.
Nice, thank you.