(2016-06-01, 12:59 am)gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:

(2016-05-24, 11:01 am)rich_f Wrote: But what I have figured out from my own experience is that reading LNs or WNs doesn't help me with N1 very much. It helps my Japanese, and it's entertaining, but aside from some limited vocab help, it doesn't really help me with N1 as much as reading a stack of writing by old men yelling "Get off my lawn!" would. :\

I've been using that book I mentioned on page 1 for some help with that. The essays are more enjoyable than shasetsu.ps.land.to's stuff, and overall the content has a very N1 feel to it.

I have a subscription to 日経 now and have been reading that for "fun" every day. I guess I have a weird definition of what I find entertaining.

However, I've also found that it's helped my Japanese to up the level of the novels I'm reading. At some point, you outgrow the material you started with, and it's time to look for something more challenging. I've been reading 池井戸潤 lately, and between the complicated subject matter (Ikeido seems to specialize in stories of salarymen caught up in massive financial swindles) and the specialized vocab, it feels like a nice stretch for me. Yeah, I *could* read a fifth 東野圭吾 novel (and I very well might at some point), but I know that's not going to give me the same mental workout.

(2016-06-01, 9:07 am)rich_f Wrote: For me, I get plenty of doom and gloom from the daily stuff, so when I read, I want to read fluff. Probably because I was a lit major in college, I burned out on the heavy stuff. RL is plenty.

(2016-06-02, 6:36 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: I was wondering how you guys feel about the effectiveness of NHK easy news and the like for those past the N3 vocabulary threshold and done with an N3 level textbook like Tobira.

A lot of people praise it, but I feel the grammar is perhaps a little too simplistic to push someone forward once they've seem most N3 grammar points. The vocabulary seems closer to N3 and every now and then I find an interesting word that I didn't know, but they oversimplify things sometimes by writing the hiragana equivalent of words commonly written in kanji, which can be more confusing than helpful imo (esp. if you've finished RTK).

So is there any point in reading NHK easy news at this level? Despite the fact that I still need exposure to N3 vocabulary, I'm not sure it'd be worth it. Aside from reading whatever you enjoy, is there a more reliable, solid next step? I've been thinking regular NHK news, but I'm not so sure about that since the gap in vocabulary seems to be a little too big to help one absorb N3 vocabulary efficiently. In fact, I think that might be true even when it comes to N2 vocabulary. Maybe TED talks? They do have transcripts.

(2016-06-04, 5:49 pm)FlameseeK Wrote: I'm not exactly expecting a positive answer, but would you guys happen to have any tips to speed up the ability to immediately recognize numbers and dates when you hear them?