I had pretty much the same goal (heavy focus on reading), but pure immersion (AJATT etc.) and L-R didn't appeal to me, so here's an alternative. I used these methods in parallel in order to get started with "real reading" asap:
- For kanji: RTK1 (5th edition without supplement; the new kanji in the 6th edition aren't worth your time in this phase), reviewing with anki and utilizing story ideas from this site. Create a schedule and try to stick with it, but don't overdo it (reviews will crush you sooner or later if you learn too much new ones) and adjust when necessary. Keep in mind that it's okay to do RTK over a longer period if you're covering other areas of Japanese at the same time. If you want to scrap some more kanji in order to get to the finish line faster you can try this selection (has some other nice features as well). RTK1 is by far not enough for reading real Japanese, but there's plenty of time to gradually learn more once a solid base is in place. Oh, by the way, before even thinking about kanji, start with kana right now if you haven't already and practice every day. It's important to get comfortable with them as soon as possible. Avoid romaji as much as you reasonably can.
- For grammar: Japanese The Manga Way, supplemented by Tae Kim and/or Imabi for when you need explanations from another angle. Looking back, A Dictionary Of Basic Japanese Grammar would probably have been very useful too. You can get the Dictionary (and tons of native reading material as well) pretty cheap at honto.jp, they ship internationally.
- For vocab: Core 2k to build a basic vocabulary to get started, and when the time is right, (gradually or suddenly) switch to SRSing vocab/sentences based on what you actually encounter when reading.
- For reference and quick review: NihonShock Cheat Sheet Pack and a list of common onomatopoeia (I think NihonShock made one recently, sold separately from the cheatsheets).
- For practice: spend some time finding reading material with a good balance between difficulty (though keep in mind that as a beginner there's no such thing as native materials that 'match' your level, everything will be hard, but you can aim to get as close as possible) and enjoyment. Sometimes one of these factors can compensate the other in either direction. Try reading often and as much as you can but take care not to be discouraged by the overwhelming amount of things you don't understand. Use technology (examples: smartphone dictionary, KanjiTomo OCR for manga scans, Rikaichan for websites) to aid your reading comprehension.
One more thing, this has already been said thousand of times but it can't be stressed enough: consistency, time investment and dedication are the keys to success.
vecciora wrote:
** Sorry for my poor English. Just for this, I took a long time because I need to read references while writing.
If you're not very comfortable with reading English that would be a bit of a handicap, since pretty much all great dictionaries, grammar explanations, references and other resources are in English. It's still perfectly doable, but you'll probably have to be a bit more patient and dedicate some of your time and effort to dealing with the English in your study. It will take longer but your English will probably improve considerably as well, which would be an awesome bonus.
Last edited by Savii (2013 July 11, 7:45 am)
