Has anyone done this? I'm assuming someone out there has, since I know some people don't like manga. Basically, I have both, and there's some silly little stupid reasons I dislike reading manga in Japanese over reading my novel, despite the fact the light novel (Inukami) is like a bajillion times more difficult.

Silly stupid reason: To me, books have always been about pure enjoyment. I loooveee reading books. Manga, on the other hand, has always been something I pick up for quick fun, and since I can't understand it yet in Japanese (completely, and I always second-guess my translations), it's not really that fun. I don't really care too much about hunkering down and understanding it. Novels, on the other hand...intently devour it! I love even just flipping through the pages and seeing what vocab I recognize.

So. Tips/tricks from those who have done it? I'm studying vocab using a .txt file for the novel I read and using Yomichan, and I study grammar in the N-whatever order using the DOxJG because it's ridiculously interesting and awesome at the same time. I love grammar. Therefore, I'm a dork.

Also, does anyone have any good light novel/novel recommendations? I've browsed several threads on here and found a few, but I'd like to pick up a couple in-person ones when I stop off at Kinokuniya in a couple weeks.

I actually think (.txt) novels are better for begginers because it's much easier to look up words. Manga are good if you want to practice what you know, or just for fun, but if you actually want to learn, novels are the way to go. That being said though, I still suck.^^

Splatted Wrote:I actually think (.txt) novels are better for begginers because it's much easier to look up words. Manga are good if you want to practice what you know, or just for fun, but if you actually want to learn novels, are the way to go. That being said though, I still suck.^^

Me too. It's just nice to have something that keeps me going, though! I can't wait for the day I can sit down with a Japanese novel and just read right through it like I do in English.

I guess it's really true when they say study what you want to read. Taken me a long time to learn that, though.

When I started reading books I found it was easiest to read translations of books I knew well. It helps because it gives you an idea of what kind of thing the sentence should say when you come across unknown grammar and vocabulary.

I've been getting books in Japanese and their translation into English for this purpose. I am not interested in manga, although I did get a couple of the ダーリンは外国人 books. The only issue is cost, but the English translations aren't that bad in paperback.

manga is a good choice due to furigana on top of each kanji(most of them, I occasionally don't find them on some but it's the really common kanji, i.e.numbers)

@ta12121: One should also remember those manga having no furigana, I guess. Also a good practice for reading and testing oneself. "How much do I understand, without any help, such as furigana" can be easily answered by letting someone read/reading manga
Personally I must say I do not especially like Manga; stuff like "read real japanese" seems to be more appropriate and more interesting to me for some strange reason. Manga is just too 'subculture' for me, haha..

Tori-kun Wrote:@ta12121: One should also remember those manga having no furigana, I guess. Also a good practice for reading and testing oneself. "How much do I understand, without any help, such as furigana" can be easily answered by letting someone read/reading manga
Personally I must say I do not especially like Manga; stuff like "read real japanese" seems to be more appropriate and more interesting to me for some strange reason. Manga is just too 'subculture' for me, haha..

anything that is designed for natives is good for us learners. That's my take on it. We just gotta read stuff we enjoy. I wouldn't really read newspapers/textbook-style novels, although some of them interest me, so I would read it. But we just gotta read stuff that is fun and therefore is of value to us.

In my case, I have no real interest for manga, except for the scarce series I followed when I was a kid. As you, I also read novels for pure enjoyment. I waited to have a decent level of kanji knowledge before trying a novel. I chose Norwegian Wood of Murakami. Admittedly, I could have chosen an easier novel, but I also bought it in English to make it easier. My strategy was: 1) To read the Japanese version first, 2) to mark all words that I couldnt guess from context or that seem particularly tricky, 3) to read the English version and verify how much I really could understand, 4)to re-read the Japanese version, especially those words that I couldnt understand the first time and whose MEANING now I know from the English version and finally 5) to look into the dictionary for the READING of the unknown words. It is a long way but helpful, as I got used to see and read kanji even without knowing their pronunciation but only by deducing the meaning, which is very helpful if you are in a Japanese university where all classes and texts are given in Japanese, as I am. Now, I can understand many texts even if I cannot recall the pronunciation of each kanji at once.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Norwegian Wood in both languages. After that, I have tried simpler books. The suggestions depend on which genre you like but for at least, I have found the novels of ISAKA KOTARO (伊坂幸太郎) kind of amusing and easy to read.

Hope this helps you.

The trick is to find reading material at your level that you can enjoy reading.

For me, that was manga Yotsuba. All the other mangas I found were WAY too hard, and novels were harder.

I even bought some graded readers and "10 minute stories" for kids of grades 1-6. They were so freaking boring that I couldn't force myself to continue reading them, even though they were my level.

Easy books are usually for kids, and kids' books suck. Yotsuba is okay for kids, but I don't think it was written for kids. And that makes a huge difference.

@wccrawford Im actually reading Yotsuba now and find myself really enjoying it. It might have been due to your recommendation as well. Im about a quarter of the way throught the series and have alrready started thinking about what series to get into next. Any suggestions? Something light, causal, everyday kinda ish.

My level is still pretty low, but I think it's more vocabulary-wise than grammar wise. I like manga, but I'm used to them being "easy reads" and having to struggle through them annoys me, as childish as it sounds.

I go through every day and learn 25 (increase it by five every two weeks) new vocab from the novel I'm reading. On my off time, I browse manga (reading what I can and looking at the pictures), I play Pokemon Black (in Japanese), and do other random stuff (oh, and study grammar hardcore). I plan to pick up Kino no Tabi when I go to Kinokuniya next, also, since people have recommended that one as a simpler one.

I know it's difficult, I know it'd be better for me to go back to my "level". But when my "level" burns me out and is booooring as hell, I'll say f-it and go up to something I struggle to understand but what gives me the "drive/passion" to actually work on it. Course, that doesn't mean I'll give up all English...not until I've gotten my favorite English books in Japanese, anyways. I love novels. I love reading. ...so I'll work on what I love.

Quote:so I'll work on what I love.

Best way to go.

bertoni Wrote:

Quote:so I'll work on what I love.

Best way to go.

fun triumphs all

read whatever you like innit

there is a ton of different kinds of manga tho so I wouldn't completely discount them unless you've tried a lot.

Do what you love. I think I started with あのときの王子くん, which is fairly easy (especially once you get into the dialog), likely to be familiar, is an acclaimed classic about what's truly important in life, and is possibly even better in the Japanese translation than the English one.

Search あのときの王子くん　ふぁんた時間 for a three part audiobook
あのときの王子くん　青空文庫 for the e-book

もちろん、無料でございます。是非お読みください。

Pick up Moshidora!

I feel like we're at the same level, although you're probably ahead of me. You might enjoy it. There's a manga out, an anime coming out soon, and a movie coming out in June... so I guess, if you can't understand the novel, you can potentially get 3 other sources to help you understand it. =)

You can also try reading magazines if those are available in your area.

@dusmar84: Have you read Azumanga Daioh? It's Azuma Kiyohiko's previous work. It's geekier than Yotsubato though.

caivano Wrote:read whatever you like innit

there is a ton of different kinds of manga tho so I wouldn't completely discount them unless you've tried a lot.

I own a bunch of different stuff. Mostly shoujou, because that's what I prefer. I do plan to read them, but it seems like (incredibly ironically) that novels are a better "first step" for me. So silly. xD

@Kainzero - nah, you're waaaaaaay ahead of me. I just like jumping in at the deep end, as someone else pointed out, plus I didn't do RTK because it doesn't work for me (or I feel it doesn't, anyways). I'm about a fourth of the way through DOBJG (I love grammar. I know, I'm weird.) and my vocab is only about 1000 words or so. I can't output at all, but I'm not bothered by it.