I just curious as to when i should start reading Japanese books and other materials. I have been studying Japanese almost for a year. I am trying the sentence method.(putting sentences in anki and using them to learn new vocab) I have tried to ready some news articles and kotaku in Japanese but it did not go so well. So would it be better to wait a couple months to start reading material.

I just took the N4 level of the JLPT. I just finally found the time to begin reading, and I already wish I had started sooner.

You'd probably get better advice if you explained more than just how long you've studied. What do you know in terms of grammar? What Japanese learning tools, textbooks or online sources have you used? Etc.

It would help to know more about your level and your grammar knowledge, but:

-News articles can be hard because they rely on a great deal of background knowledge and often the style is quite dense.

-Things that can be easier: informal essays, manga, light contemporary fiction. They can also be harder, too.

-Why not start with a text that has glosses on the words and grammar explanations? I really like the "Read Real Japanese" books; there's one for fiction and one for nonfiction.

Did you finish RTK1 yet?
If not, I'd finish RTK1 before jumping into reading native material.

Start now. I had really bad Japanese when I started reading (It's still pretty bad). Every sentence was a struggle and I often didn't understand it no matter how hard I tried. I read tiny bits now and again other several months and didn't really feel it did much, but when I suddenly decided to read a whole book (Zero no tsukaima) I buckled down and finished it in a week. I found that my Japanese had improved a lot by the end. It's now my primary study method, and I'm always really pleased with the progress I make when I do a lot of reading.

I prefer to focus on the content of what I'm reading, rather than on the Japanese and how much I'm learning. If you find you can't understand a sentence, don't worry just move on. I don't know why, but I find that if I read more, these dificult sentences just seem to magically dissapear.

I would start reading all the posts of this blog from the Japanese teacher Minako Okamoto

http://nihongodaybyday.blogspot.com/

今日。今。この第二。読んで！

If you're looking to read non-fiction, which I suppose you are if you went for the newspapers, then try picking a topic here:
http://kids.goo.ne.jp/shirabemono/index.html

(You can check out the rest of kids goo too, but the shirabemono page has nice overview articles that aren't too challenging.)

If you're interested in manga, get some that you're interested in any time now and start trying to read them. If you're interested in reading literature, I might suggest starting with 'light novels' first.

This book helped me greatly with being able to comprehend fiction:
http://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese...906&sr=8-2

I haven't gotten the non-fiction companion volume yet, but I probably should...
Anyway, if you were going straight for the newspaper maybe you want the non-fiction volume first. In any case, it's basically a book of real material with notes in English to explain how to read it - words and phrases are translated and commented on, but it's not fully translated for you. A great bridge to reading real material.

Quote:今日。今。この第二。読んで！

That took me a moment to get. I think you meant この秒 or perhaps better この瞬間, or my current favorite, 一刻も早く読んでください

(In case that's not clear, 第二 is 'second' as in 'first, second, third', not as in 'seconds and minutes'.)

kak9699 Wrote:今日。今。この第二。読んで！

これ。＋１

What I do is I have a book called understanding basic Japanese grammar and i put sentences that I do not understand in a SRS.

@usis35
there is no way that I can read that at the stage I am at rite now. I have not finished RTK yet but I wanted to start learning words and grammar anyways because just doing RTK I was not very motivated. But since I have been learning grammar it has increase my motivated. I will finish RTK when i go on xmas break.But i just started learning like 車,家,犬 etc. Some my japanese is very basic. I am using the grammar book Understanding basic Japanese grammar. and Tai kim.

To be honest, you really sound like you need a good year or so more study before you begin reading.

Reading is really helpful, but it can also be very very boring if your level is not very high. It can be more demotivating than motivating if you try to do it too much when it's still too difficult.

So, my advice is to buy some simple reading things--maybe some kids novels or easy manga, and try reading them periodically. You'll probably find pretty soon that they are too difficult to hold your attention. When you feel like that, go back to your regular studies and come back in a few months to try again. Eventually you'll find that you're at a level where you can get some enjoyment out of them. You'll also notice how much your studies have helped.

the simplest things i found to read when i started out were akb48 blogs. they're fairly straightforward and easy to follow, moreso if you actually follow the group. i feel like the subject matter is what determines the difficulty of the grammar/vocab, not the age group. and when it's simple stuff like "i went shopping" "i hung out with blah blah, she was very nice when we did this" "thanks for watching our performance yesterday" etc.

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:(In case that's not clear, 第二 is 'second' as in 'first, second, third', not as in 'seconds and minutes'.)

i read the second post in this thread over and over trying to figure out what it meant until you posted that.

Splatted Wrote:when I suddenly decided to read a whole book (Zero no tsukaima)

I looked this up and it looks really interesting! Did you read the light novel or the manga? Where did you buy it?

http://chokochoko.wordpress.com/the-grea...ner-level/
my japanese friend sent me a link to this website that has beginner japanese. I think my might put words i dont know into my srs what do u guys think

TheSlyPig Wrote:

Splatted Wrote:when I suddenly decided to read a whole book (Zero no tsukaima)

I looked this up and it looks really interesting! Did you read the light novel or the manga? Where did you buy it?

I read the light novel. Search the forum for "a totally innocent thread on books" to achieve nothing.

jordan3311 Wrote:http://chokochoko.wordpress.com/the-grea...ner-level/
my japanese friend sent me a link to this website that has beginner japanese. I think my might put words i dont know into my srs what do u guys think

I read that site for a while. If you want to read things that are written in a similar style it's probably quite good, but if you're more interested in fiction, you're probably better finding an easy light novel or manga. If your Japanese is very basic it might idea to start there anyway. I recommend you try reading a bunch of different things. You need to find the right balance of interest and ease to suit yourself. Feel free to switch between a variety of things.

@Splatted
what are some other beginner tools u used?

I just used Rikaichan, but you can also find a translation here. I didn't use it so I've no idea how accurate it is though. (Edit: I didn't use it because I didn't know about it, not because I think it's a bad idea to rely on a translation.)