I intentionally used terrible grammar in the post title because I don't want people to get hung up on one or two words.

At the moment I'm still going through RTK, but I know more kanji than I've studied, just through life in Japan and communicating in Japanese with friends.

My girlfriend, with all the best intentions in the world, is trying to encourage me to start reading more. She wants to go to a bookshop together and pick out some childrens books or maybe childish manga or something and to start reading it.

This holds 0 appeal to me.

I don't really enjoy reading childish things, and even less so if I'm going to be stumbling over kanji or vocab every word bubble (I might be exaggerating).

While I can understand that this could be a learning aid, I just imagine it would be annoying more than anything. I would much rather enjoy putting my focus into studying kanji, then spending time learning how to read kanji and learning vocab, and THEN start reading.

Am I strange for thinking this way? I read other stuff, play DS games in Japanese, etc. Lots of messaging with friends just in Japanese and mixi and the like.

But I'm in the place where reading vagabond is tooooooooo time consuming, but reading something I don't care about is just more effort than it's worth. I care enough about emails to check the stuff I don't know, and that seems to be fine.

Thoughts?!

Just find some good manga instead, there are manga for all ages and for all interests.

As long as you play DS games in Japanese though, I think you're doing okay exposurewise.

Do you like shoujo manga? There are some great ones out there and they are much easier to understand.

But seriously, what's holding you back in Vagabond? Kanji? Vocabulary?

If it is kanji, just hold your horses while you go through RTK. If it is vocabulary, the single best way to make it larger is to read what you want to read.

Most shounen manga is really easy to read.

As long as you're meeting the goals you set for yourself regarding various components of the language, and continue to experiment and discard what doesn't work, don't sweat it!

If you dislike childish books then start by reading math, physics, science, and similar subjects. The sciences are actually really easy to read, as they use a pretty limited number of vocabulary (especially after finishing RTK).

You don't know till you give it a try

I just recently decided to start reading more, totally ignoring whether or not it was above my level.

I picked up the 小説 of ゼロの使い魔 and I'm having a blast. Sometimes, if I just feel like light reading, I'll skip over words I don't know (or kanji pronunciations), because usually I'll understand the meaning of the kanji or at least the sentence as a whole instead. If I'm feeling in more of a study mood I'll pick up the dictionary and look up what I don't know. Either way, I either learn some new words (through looking up or context) and reinforce old stuff, as well as drill grammar and syntax.

Just read, don't get hung up on what you don't know.

Give childish stuff a chance, some of it is pretty interesting. I used to read 昔話 books I picked up from Bookoff. It is must-read stuff imo since it forms the mutual cultural background of Japanese people. Culture (real culture, not pop) is just as important as words to know a language.

Crayon Shinchan is also very childish and very funny.

Recommend that you finish RTK first. That way you have all the kanji to start attaching the readings to. keep the faith and dodge your girlfriend/friends requests. but if you're going to start I recently picked these books up:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Breaking-into-Ja...790&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Real-Japane...821&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Real-Japane...821&sr=8-2

I especially recommend the first one - the stories are outright classics. They are all proper grown up stories and essays with translations and really good dictionaries (as well as mp3s). Not cheap (the first one is the best value) but i'm getting a lot of mileage out of them.

j.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Give childish stuff a chance, some of it is pretty interesting. I used to read 昔話 books I picked up from Bookoff. It is must-read stuff imo since it forms the mutual cultural background of Japanese people. Culture (real culture, not pop) is just as important as words to know a language.

Crayon Shinchan is also very childish and very funny.

Do what he says. The kiddy stuff will get you far fast as it's simpler and often employs repetition.

http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/catalog/...16456.html


Japanese graded readers sounds like it might be up your alley. There are about 5 levels (0-4), with about 3 volumes per level. Each volume is a collection of 5 mini-books that cover a wide range of topics. There are traditional Japanese folk stories, kid like stories, fact/history guides (such as a book that details the origins of Sushi, how to eat it, and the different types), etc. The great thing about it is that each level is written to stay within a defined vocabulary/grammar constructs loosely based on JLPT levels. This makes it very i+1 like in nature as every book gets just a tiny bit harder, with a few more words, and a few more grammar constructs, while constantly repeating the ones you've already learned. Oh and to top it off it includes a CD so you can follow along with a native speaker if you feel so inclined.

I own 2 volumes and loved them and have just ordered the full set for the next two levels. The only downside is price but since it seems you live in Japan I'm sure you could find them for much cheaper.

I was at about 100 in KO2001 and half way through UBJG when I started reading manga (20th Century Boys). It was beyond my "level", but what I could understand made the entire process enjoyable. Did not use a dictionary at all, just read for enjoyment.

So long as you don't consider it studying, start now. If you're running to a dictionary all the time, it becomes a study method in which case you should incorporate Anki in some way. In that case, limit your time per day.

It may also be that as you study, you find your leisure time more enjoyable, encouraging you to study more. A very useful form of re-enforcement.

activeaero Wrote:http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/images/P/cover_400w.jpg

http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/catalog/...16456.html


Japanese graded readers sounds like it might be up your alley. There are about 5 levels (0-4), with about 3 volumes per level. Each volume is a collection of 5 mini-books that cover a wide range of topics. There are traditional Japanese folk stories, kid like stories, fact/history guides (such as a book that details the origins of Sushi, how to eat it, and the different types), etc. The great thing about it is that each level is written to stay within a defined vocabulary/grammar constructs loosely based on JLPT levels. This makes it very i+1 like in nature as every book gets just a tiny bit harder, with a few more words, and a few more grammar constructs, while constantly repeating the ones you've already learned. Oh and to top it off it includes a CD so you can follow along with a native speaker if you feel so inclined.

I own 2 volumes and loved them and have just ordered the full set for the next two levels. The only downside is price but since it seems you live in Japan I'm sure you could find them for much cheaper.

I read one of these when I was in a kinokuniya store, the only thing that was annoying about it was the price yeah. But these books are awesome. After my first semester in Japanese I could understand most of the content there, I really want to buy this set someday.

The レベル別 book looks great, almost buyable... $28 dollars though...

I noticed that the stories aren't worded the same way the authors wrote them (not sure if that's a good or bad thing). As dorky as it sounds, I listen to 鼻 every night before I go to sleep so when I listened to the sample, I noticed a big difference. "これは鼻？”って。 　Maybe it's a good thing for people who just want to get straight to the story. Akutagawa gets more into details than how the other version of hana sounds so far. Also, reading it in Akutagawa's words might have people (including myself) wondering if some of these words are really commonly used or not. For example, if I used something like 渇仰 in an email to a friend, how strange would they think of it.

Akutagawa uses a lot of alternate kanji too. For example, instead of 回復 he'll use 恢復。
Does anyone know if this is mainly particular of the 20th century and before?