Nostalgic cartoon episode summaries! And it's even better if you've seen the episode countless times before.
Dexter's Laboratory: http://loucartoon.gozaru.jp/dexter/index.html
Powerpuff Girls: http://homepage3.nifty.com/mindy/column/ppgdvd01.html

To search for more shows, entering "[Show title]+解説" may be a good way to go about it. Or replace 解説 with あらすじ／粗筋 。

The episodes usually have titles translated into Japanese (well, a lot of the time they can be pretty different but it gets the same idea across). I think they make for some really good SRS items since they're usually a short, interesting one-liner.

As a sidenote for those who are interested, I found some Powerpuff Girls segments in Japanese on youtube:

Also, I would like to ask everyone what they do for interesting reading material. When you want to get some reading practice in, where do you usually wind up?

RPGs.

Nuriko Wrote:Also, I would like to ask everyone what they do for interesting reading material. When you want to get some reading practice in, where do you usually wind up?

I dunno, how does anybody find something good to read? Usually I'll read the description for a book, and if it sounds interesting I'll start reading. There's always 2ch for recommendations on things.

Nuriko Wrote:Also, I would like to ask everyone what they do for interesting reading material. When you want to get some reading practice in, where do you usually wind up?

At the public library ... a raft of Japanese books, at all levels.

onafarm Wrote:At the public library ... a raft of Japanese books, at all levels.

Lucky you.

zodiac Wrote:

onafarm Wrote:At the public library ... a raft of Japanese books, at all levels.

Lucky you.

。。。でしょうー！あーあ、うちの図書館はそれほどないや

I just tell my girlfriend to go to the nearest book-off and pick up a few books and send to me.

I never thought finding Japanese reading material was hard - Japanese stuff/people are all over the internet. Other than sites/blogs/comments, there are raw mangas everywhere if you are so inclined. If you want books there is http://www.aozora.gr.jp/

Jarvik7 Wrote:I never thought finding Japanese reading material was hard - Japanese stuff/people are all over the internet.

That depends on your current Japanese level. If it's not that high, finding something that you'll be able to enjoy anyway and be motivated to read is not easy.

Personally I mostly read manga series that I have either already read translated or seen in anime version. That way I don't get lost when I'm unable to follow the story. Off course, there is the downside that it's not as motivating as reading something completely new.

Also just today, I've ordered more children's books from amazon.co.jp. I've ordered the Japanese version of The Magic Tree House series. (You can 立ち読み extracts of all the books here). I have used some books of that series for learning German before and they are great for beginners. Also I ordered another series of kids novels called 魔法昆虫使いドミター・レオ .

The problem when looking at the amazon.co.jp catalog is that most books don't have a readable extract like most books on amazon.com now have. So it's hard to get an idea of the difficulty of the book and ordering from Japan is expensive. Fortunately I found some extracts on the publisher's site and was able to see that while slightly more difficult they should also be mostly OK for me (or at least they will be in a few months).

I guess not everybody likes to read kids stuff but personally I enjoy it in any language, so it's not just about finding easy reading material but it's a nice excuse to read more of that.

Codexus Wrote:That depends on your current Japanese level. If it's not that high, finding something that you'll be able to enjoy anyway and be motivated to read is not easy.

So true. When I was first starting out, there was -nothing- my level, obviously. Eventually, I studied enough vocab to be able to read manga like Yotsuba& and understand like 2/3 of it. That was enough for me to read all 8 volumes while continue to study vocab. By the end, I was reading them swifty and understanding almost every word.

But then where to go from there? Some of the chapters in Yotsuba& were boring, and most of books of the level are boring to me, too. I tried stepping up a bit and I'm back to 50% comprehension. Ugh. That's really not enough to enjoy it -or- learn from it. So I'm still studying vocab and reading when I can force myself to deal with it.

In fact, I just watched a raw anime and understood about 1/4 of it... I halfway enjoyed it, but I'd have enjoyed it so much more with subs. -sigh-

As for reading material on the net... That's -great- for high-level speakers... But for anyone who still can't read most words without furigana, it's pretty useless.

wccrawford,
Keep working at it. I experience what you are talking about all the time, and each time I think back to what I was not able to comprehend several months back, I am amazed at how much progress I have made. Sometimes you just have to have the courage to jump in to some material and try to start enjoying it, then before you know it, you will understand it. I guarantee that if there is one manga that you can completely understand, then there is another out there that will peak your interest that is just above your level. I just finished watching an entire drama without subs (this is a step up from what I was doing, which was watching with Japanese subs). At first I was so scared to even try, but as I got into it, I realized I was just watching the drama and enjoying it, and just like you said with Yotsuba, by then end I wasn't even trying and I could understand most of it.

wccrawford Wrote:

Codexus Wrote:That depends on your current Japanese level. If it's not that high, finding something that you'll be able to enjoy anyway and be motivated to read is not easy.

So true. When I was first starting out, there was -nothing- my level, obviously. Eventually, I studied enough vocab to be able to read manga like Yotsuba& and understand like 2/3 of it. That was enough for me to read all 8 volumes while continue to study vocab. By the end, I was reading them swifty and understanding almost every word.

But then where to go from there?

I know exactly what you're talking about, it's VERY hard to find good resources for your level. Some people seem to have no care in the world for such things, especially people like mentat, if I remember correctly he has said that he used to listen to newspodcasts etc without understanding any of it, yet still did it. I think Alyks did something similar and tons of other people at this site. I'm very jelous and wish I could also find joy in reading stuff beyond my level, unfortunately I can't

I guess there are two roads you can take:
1. Go with the manga and easy books even though you think they are kinda boring. It might be boring but at least you understand most of it so you probably learn a ton and eventually you'll be ready for more advanced stuff.
2. Force the 50% comprehension book down anyway. It will be boring and slow the first few chapters but after that, you should have learned the most common words for that book and it should get easier.

I've personally just recently found a couple of novels I find to be just perfect for me, about 80-90% comprehension. Challenging while still throughly fun to read.

I also watch London Hearts regularly even though it's way beyond my level. I understand enough to know what each episode is about and I even pick up jokes time and time again, but it's definitely below 50% comprehension for individual sentences. Since it has a lot of japanese subbing going on though, I find it to be a good study tool anyway... and once you've seen a couple of episodes, you kinda get to know the various comedians etc which gives a huge boost to the motivation to watch the episodes.

What does understanding 50% mean?

Does that mean you know 50% of all the words? 50% of the vocabulary (each unique word counted only once)?

Does that mean you understand perfectly 50% of the sentences? Or maybe that's just a general feeling that you understand 50% of what's going on in the story.

From what I have seen people mean completely different things when they say they understand xx%. One person may claim to understand 80% while another with better comprehension will only say he understands 20%.

It's so subjective that it's completely impossible to compare.

Codexus Wrote:What does understanding 50% mean?

Does that mean you know 50% of all the words? 50% of the vocabulary (each unique word counted only once)?

Does that mean you understand perfectly 50% of the sentences? Or maybe that's just a general feeling that you understand 50% of what's going on in the story.

From what I have seen people mean completely different things when they say they understand xx%. One person may claim to understand 80% while another with better comprehension will only say he understands 20%.

It's so subjective that it's completely impossible to compare.

Heh, very good point ^^ I see quite often that people consider themselves good enough to understand 50%+ just because it's an anime or TV show where they can see expressions etc.

Personally, I go with some sort of feeling I guess. I say that if I read a complicated academic paper in English, I still understand 100%. That doesn't mean I can define every single word used but there's no way I'll ever wonder what a sentence or even a part of a sentence means. At 80-90%, I'd say I understand enough to understand what is going on in any situation, on any page in a book etc, but I might not always be sure what a sentence means. Not that I don't understand anything in the sentence, just that I might not feel I got a good grasp of what was implied by it.

So really, when I claim I understand 20% of something, I mean I understand quite a lot. I'm personally not measuring my understanding of individual words or sentences but on how easily I can follow what's going on in the book. I'm WAY harsher when it comes to anime, movies and dramas etc because I don't count anything I realized because of expressions, tone of voice and well.. anything that one understands because of the actual medium.

Has anybody ever watched a Scottish movie? With their stupid accents, I can't make out a word they say. But it's still English, and I still get the gist of what's going on. Which is really all I'm looking for when I watch Japanese, the gist of things.

That's it.
Focus on the good parts. Don't let the bad parts spoil your fun. If you focus on the parts you can understand and forget the rest, you'll always be getting material of "your level".

It is like a jigsaw. In the beginning you have only a few pieces and only after some time you get to see the full picture. The are the steps:

1) Search for a piece along the edges of what you have already built;
2) When you find it, put it in its place;
3) Go to step one.

mentat_kgs Wrote:That's it.
Focus on the good parts. Don't let the bad parts spoil your fun. If you focus on the parts you can understand and forget the rest, you'll always be getting material of "your level".

The question is whether you'll understand the bad parts just by watching lots. I'm feeling really skeptical of the non-studying portion of the AJATT method.

There is also the question if you'll understand the bad parts if you study. I'm skeptical about the study portion of the classroom method.

Oh come on, guys! Passive learning works great when your brain is being stimulated by active learning and you have lots of new things to listen/watch for. Active learning is much more efficient when the things you learn are being reinforced by passive learning.

It's like the chicken and the egg. Arguing which ones comes first is just a waste of time.

yukamina Wrote:

mentat_kgs Wrote:That's it.
Focus on the good parts. Don't let the bad parts spoil your fun. If you focus on the parts you can understand and forget the rest, you'll always be getting material of "your level".

The question is whether you'll understand the bad parts just by watching lots.

Definitely not. But watching the bad parts will make learning stuff from those bad parts easier later. It's easier to learn a word you have been exposed to a lot, regardless whether you understood it or not.

Tobberoth Wrote:

yukamina Wrote:

mentat_kgs Wrote:That's it.
Focus on the good parts. Don't let the bad parts spoil your fun. If you focus on the parts you can understand and forget the rest, you'll always be getting material of "your level".

The question is whether you'll understand the bad parts just by watching lots.

Definitely not. But watching the bad parts will make learning stuff from those bad parts easier later. It's easier to learn a word you have been exposed to a lot, regardless whether you understood it or not.

Yeah, I get that. That works if you can clearly identify a word, and then hear it over and over. But a lot of the time, it's just a blur. If I don't even know what sounds came out of their mouths, I'm not going to even know if they say the same thing again.

With reading it's easier, because you can see everything right there before your eyes. But there are always words that I won't know the reading of unless I look them up, and words I can't figure out through context.

Listening and reading a lot is important, but I think you should study the new stuff you're being exposed to too. Even if it's only a little...

yukamina Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:

yukamina Wrote:The question is whether you'll understand the bad parts just by watching lots.

Definitely not. But watching the bad parts will make learning stuff from those bad parts easier later. It's easier to learn a word you have been exposed to a lot, regardless whether you understood it or not.

Yeah, I get that. That works if you can clearly identify a word, and then hear it over and over. But a lot of the time, it's just a blur. If I don't even know what sounds came out of their mouths, I'm not going to even know if they say the same thing again.

Well yes, but first of all it's quite easy to hear what they are saying in a lot of situations if you're good enough at the kind of Japanese they are talking. I'm not accustomed to news-style Japanese at all so when I listen to a newscast or something, I have to listen to it over and over to make most of it out.

With something like London Hearts though, I've seen so many episodes now that it's really not all that hard to hear what they are saying, I just don't know the words yet.

yukamina Wrote:Yeah, I get that. That works if you can clearly identify a word, and then hear it over and over. But a lot of the time, it's just a blur. If I don't even know what sounds came out of their mouths, I'm not going to even know if they say the same thing again.

Some of these things just take a lot of time and effort. At any instant there is probably one thing that your brain would be MOST receptive to learning, but since no one can ever predict or know what that one thing is, you kind of just have to keep feeding yourself stuff until you get lucky and you encounter that word at the right time, the right place, and the right state of mind. If you stay in the right place (environment) for a long time, then it is just a matter of getting that right moment when you are ready to learn.

I'll learn it faster if I just look it up. Then I'll notice it right away when I hear/see it again, which will make the input more meaningful.

The point is that you don't want to notice things actively while listening.
You want it all passive.
You want to understand without any active effort.

This simply requires hours and hours of practice. If you think that only a few hours/weep will do, you are fooling yourself.

It is like if your mind has a little hole that only lets 1ml of knowledge/second to flow inside. You must keep the water tank full all the time, so the little hole will always be well fed.

Active study is like using a fire hose to fill this hole in a short time. It doesn't work as well.