Sometimes I wouldn't mind less of the exception.
(Imagine three whole pages of this in every panel every few chapters.)
Speaking of pronunciation, for anyone who isn’t used to the general pronunciation of Japanese sounds (vowel sounds especially), I recommend watching Japanese shows each day until you have a feel for it.
It doesn’t have to be watching an hour show each day. It can be as little as watching a five-minute video on YouTube. Repeated exposure (even if it’s different Japanese material each time) will build up pattern recognition of the sounds, especially if you start noticing words you already know.
It won’t be enough to know the difference between the pronunciation of 雨 and 飴 when seen on paper. Still, I personally feel it’s vital to the reading experience to have a mental approximation of the pronunciation.
Back before I read this series, I had trouble remembering the title until I learned where the titular character’s name comes from:
四つ + 葉 = よつば = four leaves (such as four-leaf clover)
(The と in 「よつばと！」 is “and”, meaning “Yotsuba and!” If I remember right, chapter titles in the series are always 「よつばと_____」)
The only way to cheat in a book club is if you get nothing out of it, in which case you would be cheating yourself.
The first time I tried to read a manga in Japanese, I didn’t make it past the first page or two.
I gave up and stopped trying.
I focused on non-Japanese things for a long time after that.
It wasn’t in a book club, but I definitely cheated myself by not continuing.
In my defense, I had no idea what I needed to do to be able to continue.
I had no one guiding me, pushing me in the right direction, and telling me what not to waste time on.
It’s probably no wonder why I like the WaniKani book clubs so much.
When reading in one’s native language, it’s easy to read without understanding everything because you can infer meanings from context.
When starting out in a foreign language, especially one as different from Western languages as Japanese is, this is a lot more difficult to do.
For anyone who wants to try (for any given reason, whether because they want to avoid being overwhelmed with new material, or are not good at looking up unknown things, or don’t have a lot of time for it), I feel 「ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん」 will be a good manga for it.
Utilizing the book club threads should be enough to pick and choose what information to absorb from week to week. If you miss out on understanding grammar talked about one week, it’s also fine to ask about it when it comes up another week.
This also works on a larger scale.
After reading a whole first manga volume, many participants find that if they flip back to the beginning, it’s much easier to understand.
Even if it’s only 10% comprehension, if it was initially 1% comprehension, that’s a giant leap.
The most significant requirement to achieve this will be learning grammar along the way, which is always easier if you’ve been learning some in advance.
And if you look at those and wonder, "What is even the difference here?", I found a useful image online.
(Source.)
If there’s a mostly-populated vocabulary spreadsheet (which I hope to get together today), would that help, or would switching between the manga and a Google Sheets document not work out? (Factors include smartphone processing power, memory, and screen size. I know some smartphones allow for split-screen between two applications/windows.)
Would that ten minutes include both reading the material and the discussion?
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