Hello, I started reading things that interest me in japanese ~2 weeks ago. (mostly news articles and some other things)

I noticed how my reading speed increased extremely.

But I have a problem. Some article are very easy to read but in many articles there are some parts where I struggle. I have to read these parts a lot of times to understand them. (though sometimes I don't even understand it good after reading it tons of times)

Is there anything I could do against this? Would learning grammar help? Or should I just keep reading?
(as for now I only did Genki 1 & 2 but I picked many grammr points here and there up)

I would suggest at least running through and N3, N2, and N1 grammar book(Sou Matome is good for quick understanding). Running through those increased my compression dramatically. I can't use them, mind you, but I understand them when I see them.

Quote:(though sometimes I don't even understand it good after reading it tons of times)

This is the point where you should consider posting in the "What's this word/phrase?" thread. That's what it's for.

Through the act of trying to figure out grammar, you'll eventually figure it all out. Flipping through grammar resources can speed up the process, though.

I think you should do a bit more studying. Since you finished Genki I and II, graduate to the Tobira text book. It has some good and interesting reading passages along with grammar points. Then go through the Kanzen Master N2 and N1 workbooks. From my own experience I didn't dive heavily into native materials until after I finished those.

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Quote:Hello, I started reading things that interest me in japanese ~2 weeks ago. (mostly news articles and some other things)

It might not be the most interesting source of news, but you wouldn't need N2+ grammar for NHK News Easy I never did Genki 2, but I doubt you would need much more than that.

At this stage I made heavy use of the Kanzen N2/N1 books (and still am using them for study and reference). I'd pass over parts you don't understand for now, but bookmark them for later. When you have time, go back and try and break it down. What grammar didn't you understand? What unknown vocab words did you hit? Study it as best as you can. Then, some months later, go back and see if your comprehension has increased. It can be a real boost to your studies when you go back to something that you understood vaguely a few months before, and you realize that your comprehension has increased dramatically.

The Kanzen 文法 books have glossaries that make it easy to look up a new grammatical construct. You can use them for both study and on the spot reference.

If you get really stuck, post a question here, or ask a Japanese teacher to explain it to you. You can also work with a teacher on iTalki to help you understand harder material. I like to bring articles I want to read to my teachers; they have me read the article out loud, help me understand any tricky grammar I can't grok, and then ask me detailed questions about what I've read.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:...you go back to something that you understood vaguely a few months before, and you realize that your comprehension has increased dramatically.

This.

Also, I've found that googling parts of the phrase you are having a tough time with and whatever pops up might give more hints about what the grammar is about.

I second Kanzen Master N2+N1 above. After drilling those 400 grammar points in Anki that kind of comprehension problem is mostly solved. Once every so often something comes up that I have to read twice, but it doesn't really impede my reading at all. There's no way around complex sentence structures except more reading, but as you are reading a lot you'll get good at it very quickly. A lot of times unknown vocab will also screw you over but there are well known ways of solving that too.

Thank you for your advices.
I think I'll go through some more grammar books and hope that it will help me.