jreaves
Member
From: Columbus, OH
Registered: 2007-02-25
Posts: 29
On another thread, a couple of people commented favorably on graded readers, specifically:
http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php?cat=344
I've completed RTK1 and have SRS'd Tae Kim's site and most of the sentences form Japanese for Everyone released by leosmith. I plan to move on to KO soon. I find the idea of using graded readers as a supplement to resources like KO interesting. It would be nice to have something I could read without using a dictionary too much (just inferring meaning from context) and without feeling the need to SRS everything. Are the readers any good though? In the past I've been dissuaded from children's materials mainly because of the long strings of incomprehensible kana (yuck!). How do these readers compare with kid's material? Has anyone seen the highest level reader, and how close is it to adult reading material?
danieldesu
Member
From: Raleigh
Registered: 2007-07-07
Posts: 247
Zarxrax,
I started off with the level 4's coming off of a ego boost from RTK, and they are actually not that difficult. In fact, I later bought the level 3's and the difficulty was about the same, but used less kanji and the stories were shorter. I think they were a great set that really cemented Japanese grammar for me, but there are definitely levels of Japanese above level 4 that the readers do not cover. EDIT: I should also say that the chart says that the level 4 covers grammar up to JLPT 2, it is in the back page of each booklet.
jreaves,
Like alyks said, the Mangajin stuff would probably be a good supplement to those readers in general, because the readers don't cover colloquial stuff. Also, there are some other "Readers" out there that I think are higher level than the ones you linked to, but I can't remember the name right now and I don't own them, but I saw them at a bookstore.
Last edited by danieldesu (2008 August 03, 5:43 pm)
Zarxrax
Member
From: North Carolina
Registered: 2008-03-24
Posts: 949
Ah, you're right, it says JLPT2.
I also like the "read real japanese" series, which uses real japanese, not simplified stuff.
Here's something else I found: http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/catalog … 16602.html It's stories written for Japanese schoolchildren who are in 6th grade (they have them for grades 1-6).
Aside from that, I would recommend picking up some manga and reading it. They make manga for everyone from young children to adults, so you should be able to find something appropriate for your level. The pictures can really help you to understand words through context, without having to resort to a dictionary.
TGWeaver
Member
From: 大阪
Registered: 2007-06-08
Posts: 99
the graded readers are quite good for two reasons: (1) the stories are entertaining, so you're not going to be bored with them; (2) all of the stories are quite famous, so you can reference them and people will understand what you're trying to say.
i read the level 3 series a while ago and found them quite good. the CDs were a good bonus... but after level 3, there wasn't much of a jump to level 4.
instead, i started reading books from the children's section of the libarary and the japanese bookstore. anything for children in 5th-6th grade (elementary school) is quite good. there are enough kanji to keep you from swimming in kana, and they always have furigana for the more difficult words.
right now i'm reading harry potter and i can't recommend it enough. the copy i have is quite common in japan. it's got furigana for 90% of the kanji, but once that kanji is introduced you don't see the furigana over it for the rest of the chapter.
my advice is this: if you're comfortable with the graded readers, start reading books ASAP. not only are they fun, but they're huge confidence boosters.
the harry potter series is well done. there's a really nice chronicles of narnia series. edward gorey has quite a few published works, and ronald dahl is becoming easier and easier to find.
basically i'm using my japanese studies as an excuse to read all the books i missed out on as a kid.
phauna
Member
From: Tokyo
Registered: 2007-12-25
Posts: 500
Website
Yes, I'm going through them, about one a day, I've finished the first levels, all fifteen, and they were really easy for me, with one year study, and having finished RTK. Level 2 is also easy so far, sometimes I know every word in the book, unless it's about some jargon loaded subject like the sushi book. I learned a lot from that sushi book.
I think graded readers are really useful but the trouble is finding them, and finding ones that really increase gradually, without some huge jump. I'm going to continue them and then try some more kids books. Actually I found a lot of cheap manga type kids books at book off for a buck each. They're great too.
wccrawford
Member
From: FL US
Registered: 2008-03-28
Posts: 1551
Shirow66 wrote:
Another thing, isn't furigana a bit annoying when you are trying to learn to read the kanji? It's like having a cheat sheet built in, and it's a bit hard to cover up.
Is this really a problem? I find I have to focus on one or the other, or I don't read it at all... At this point, that generally means I don't read the kanji and only read the furigana, and have to make a conscious point of looking at the kanji to go with it.
But the few I know how to pronounce, if I'm reading them, I find I don't even see the furigana unless I specifically look.
I'm seriously considering these graded readers now. I've been trying to read easy manga/etc, but I'm not really at that level. $33 is a little more than I want to spend on a few stories, but I'm thinking it might just be well worth it.
Zarxrax
Member
From: North Carolina
Registered: 2008-03-24
Posts: 949
As for the furigana, I do find myself just reading those instead of the kanji a lot of the time. If you put the sentences into your srs though, you can properly learn the kanji.
And as for the price, yea, they are DEFINITELY a bit pricey for what you get, but personally I think it has been worth it. It's like $6-7 per story. But if you consider that you can read the story multiple times, and you have an audio version that you can listen to, perhaps it's not such a bad deal. I actually find the listening portion very challenging, because while reading, I can take my sweet time thinking about it, but you can't do that while listening.
I'm really interested in the "10-pun de Yomeru Ohanashi" series offered by white rabbit press that I linked farther up this thread. They are cheaper, but it doesn't have any info about how long each one is. Those might be a better choice, but it would be nice to hear from someone who has tried them.
Not really a graded reader, but Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text by Giles Murray is simply brilliant.
It contains four parts of 夢十夜 by 夏目漱石 plus three short stories by 芥川龍之介 (藪の中,鼻 and 羅生門). All stories are presented in parallel text, with the original japanese version on the left, and an english translation on the right. The bottom half of all pages contains enough vocabulary to read the current page.
The stories are presented in order of difficulty. The first stories use simpler language, and the translation provided is natural. As the book progresses, Murray delves into more complex works, and starts providing more literal translations, leaving the reader to work out a more natural version.
Ah, you can also download mp3 files for the stories from the author's homepage.
It's simply one of the best books on Japanese I've read, definitely recommended.
Last edited by pazustep (2008 August 28, 10:26 am)
