Anteater:
Also, what do you guys think of writing out sentences you don’t fully understand and then analyzing bits and pieces of them. I took this approach to maximize the reading, but honestly it just made the whole process a lot more slower and I’m not sure it was actually that useful in the end because I ended up writing out over 40 pages of “analysis” for volume 1.
I don’t know what kind of “analysis” you do, but “writing out sentences you don’t fully understand” is what I sometimes do too in book clubs (unless I can just copy them, e.g. in a book or a manga processed with Mokuro). For me it’s mainly a means to get it into ichi.moe, DeepL or a forum post.
Here’s my process (from the FAQ):
Here’s how I usually read:
I read a sentence. Do I know all vocab? If not, I look it up as I’m reading by typing the words I don’t know into jisho.org (vocab) or thejadednetwork.com/sfx (sfx).
Does the sentence make sense to me? If yes, I continue with the next one.
If I almost get it, but some details I missing, I try to google for those details (e.g. if I have never seen the sentence ending よね, I will google “yone japanese grammar ”). If it that solves it, I make a bookmark of the info I found and continue with the next sentence.
If I can’t find out what the heck is up with the sentence, I transcribe it and stick it into ichi.moe , which will analyze the parts the sentence is made up of. Often that allows me to look up grammar or just solves my problems, and I continue with the next sentence.
If I still don’t know what’s going on, I put it into DeepL . If the automatic translation makes sense to me and fits in the context, I look at the Japanese sentence again and try to figure out how DeepL got there.
If I still can’t figure out the sentence, I check the weekly thread (if I’m reading with a club). Was the question already asked?
If so, I check (or wait for) the answer.
If not, or if the answers don’t help, I make a question with the sentence and my best guess of a translation.
So, in short, my order is:
Looking up words via jisho.org , thejadednetwork.com/sfx or the vocab sheet while reading.
If I have trouble: Googling for grammar or expressions if I can identify them.
If I still have trouble: Transcribing + putting the sentence into ichi.moe .
If I still have trouble: Putting it into DeepL .
If I still have trouble: Checking the thread.
if there’s no answer: My best guess at translating + asking a question.
So I try to figure out the sentence, which sometimes means having to transcribe it completely. I don’t write out the result of my next steps anywhere though, unless I’m posting in the threads.