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Grammar Sheet
Discussion Guidelines
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Join the conversation — it’s fun!
The page numbers for ebook readers might be off by one or two. Some pages have physical page numbers on them, and you can use that to find out much off it is for you!
Participation Poll
I’m reading along
I had already finished this part before the thread was posted
Once you’re done with this week… congratulations, you finished a manga! Maybe even your first one?
Here’s your celebratory omelette with a symbol befitting your achievement:
How did it go? Did it get easier over time, or were you still struggling at the end? Or was it not as hard as you expected in general?
Also: How was the book club? Did the pace work for you, or was it too fast or too slow? Do you have any suggestions on how the book club could’ve worked better for you?
And finally, if this was your first manga you might be wondering what a good next step might be. I have some suggestions:
Join another ABBC.The next one is Card Captor Sakura, and it’s gonna start in 2 weeks. The Natively level is higher, so it’s probably gonna be harder than Tamamo no Koi - perfect as a follow-up!
Read a past ABBC pick and use the past club threads to answer your questions. For example The Wolf of the Small Forest if you want something easier, or Ruri Dragon if you want something harder. The existing threads will probably contain the answers to any questions you have already, and if not, feel free to ask them. (Also feel free to use the threads either way to comment on the story and the like. Don’t worry, people actually like it when old book club threads get new comments!)
Want a challenge? Join the BBC. In a month they’ll start reading 約束のネバーランド (The Promised Neverland). Don’t be too scared of its L27 rating: You’ll get plenty of help from the club, just like you got here.
Do you want to try something without furigana? I can really, really recommend one of my favourite mangas, ロジカとラッカセイ! It also has a book club if you have questions, and of course that comes with a vocab sheet.
I can finally stop holding my breath, I was expecting a catastrophic ending till the last panel. Glad that it wasn’t the case
It was a nice story overall, good for someone that is learning as me.
Thank you for being an amazing host! With all the detailed information in your posts and replies, the resources you shared also were helpful for me as a beginner, and for making this a fun experience.
Thank you everyone here participating, it makes the club more fun and alive!
Some answers
I couldn’t keep a regular pace with the reading so is hard for me to tell if I got better or not. At the beginning I started full of energy and was learning a lot because I was doing a lot of lookups for grammar, now I can barely gather some time and energy at night to read before bed but that’s because of life chores only.
It seemed pretty easy at the beginning, then it sometimes gets harder, specially if the vocab sheet it is not filled up, since I most of the time read on my phone is harder to make the lookups for vocab.
What did change for me was my approach to the language, I can really feel more familiarized with kanji, now I even feel uncomfortable when I see words without their respective kanjis, for example in beginner textbooks.
I also started to enjoy learning, it’s like a game for me now. I’m just lazy with sitting in a desk with a textbook but I started wanikani kanji programm, read grammar articles on tofugu, watch cure dolly videos (as hard as they are to listen).
And I am no longer affraid to native content , like manga, videos on yt, also navigating through websites.
I came across with wanikani looking ways to learn that implied more exposure since I felt just learning through a textbook wasn’t enough and I am pretty satisfied with how is it going the experience so far, and I hope to learn much more.
I will be reading around more bookclubs so I hope to see you there.
I peeped a little bit on ロジカとラッカセイ and seems pretty fun! I actually was curious to try something without furigana cause my eyes gets lazy and always goes there first and then to the kanji. It doesn’t seem difficult as for what Natively says, although it seems like a challenge nevertheless I am learning more kanji so I might give it a try in the upcoming future. I really liked the drawings!
Finished! I enjoyed it and the drawing style is super cute, which definitely helped. I read ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん just before this, and this was quite a bit more difficult. I am now torn whether I should join the Card Captor Sakura ABBC or read something else, though L20 should be fine, right?
Many thanks for organising the club and for being a splendid host! Could not have done it without the vocab sheets and the helpful comments.
Why not both? Cardcaptor Sakura is going to be a moderate step up from this one, but if you’ve finished this club, it’s a step up that you should be able to take (especially with the support of a book club). But you could also read something easy on your own time to build that skill too. You’ve already read Okami-chan, so ハビネス is the other “easiest pick” from the book club’s prior reads.
(The vocab sheets were made by the community though! I only created the document and then leaned back lazily while everybody else did the work.)
It’s a step up, but what’s the worst that could happen? If you’re feeling really apprehensive, you could try reading with the free Bookwalker preview for the first few weeks.
I didn’t read it as a beginner, but for me ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん seems like the ideal first native manga. Quoting from my review on Natively:
Full furigana, simple words and grammar, no casual language, no baby talk, and only one (rarely appearing) character that has speaking style that is a little bit harder - this is my recommendation for a first manga. There’s a WK book club too if you have any questions!
So while it’s not your first manga anymore, you can use it to get reading practice (and hopefully feel good about understanding things without having to try to hard). It doesn’t really have an overarching plot, but it’s pretty cute!
What do you mean it doesn’t have a story? xD There are three tomes out there.
It was the manga that I wanted to read first, because it seemed simple, before I was invited to join here. I’m doubting wether to read it or not. The thing is while I understand higher level things (natively levels) there are aslo various thing I don’t know within a page let’s say. So I was thinking that being more simple it could help me to learn the things I don’t know and look for them, because in other mangas there are so many things like that, that I would end up tired to look for all of them @_@ I was doubting because of the drawings too… in the front page looks really nice, but in the sample it seemed more lika a stiff drawing… Happened to me the opposite with Rojika and Rakkasei
It’s slice of life. Cute things happen. Characters interact with each other. Each chapter tells a story, but there isn’t really an overarching plot or anything.
So if you’re looking for something cute and easy to read, look no further. If you’re looking for a good story, look elsewhere.
It’s nice to learn, but there isn’t much of a story going on, it’s slice of life. Good for practising, though. I only read the first one, not sure about the second volume.
And that’s the end of the final week. But how could I let the club end without providing a WK member’s favourite pasttime? That’s right, I’m talking about POLLS! Don’t worry, there’s enough for everyone:
I’m finally done with 玉藻の恋 ! This was my first manga, I feel accomplished now
Like the others said, thank you so much for managing this book club! Having a structure really helps, and even though I fell behind at the end, I felt compelled to catch up because of the deadlines.
The vocab sheet is a game changer. I have a few paper mangas and books in Japanese at home but I never committed to them because I lack vocabulary, and looking for words takes time and then I lose focus… With the book club, even when the vocab sheet is empty, you know that filling it up will be helpful to others so it’s motivating to keep going!!
In terms of level, I feel like I definitely struggled, but that’s why it’s important to read. I believe I can understand the global meaning of everything in 90% of what I read, but there’s a lot of details I don’t understand. Looking for those details is what took me the most time. It’s a mixed bag between grammar that I have learned but not practiced enough, and grammar I don’t know yet.
I think it’s important to realize how you want to approach a book club. It’s like watching a movie: you can just relax and get carried with the flow or try to analyze the plot, the color coding, the music… (film analysis classes trauma, anyone else? )
For the next book, I’ll definitely read it (I read it when I was little, and happened to watch the anime not too long ago), but I think this time I’ll lean towards “just understanding what’s said is enough”. And I’ll rely on the questions in the forum to learn more grammar ^^
Fall is often a period of the year where I’m busy, so it’s good to set myself up to success :b
I’m very interested into reading past ABBC books now, I really love the way the book club threads are done.
In terms of pacing, I think it’s great. I wish it was less pages if I’m over analyzing grammar, but I could easily take more pages if I don’t. So I think it’s a nice compromise in size.
Finished! I started late but really enjoyed this and the vocab sheet was a fantastic resource.
This was definitely above my Japanese level but the simple story and art that made it easier to figure out the context was encouraging along the way. Although I absolutely had to look up a ton and that’s okay. I really enjoyed the story (the roomba bit is probably my favourite part).
I am probably going to hold off on starting Card Captor Sakura and will try Wolf of the Small Forest next. I’m taking the N5 in December and I think focusing on workbooks and drills is more of what I need right now rather than a challenging read. It’ll be nice to read something easier while I’m prepping for the exam as a fun break then come back to challenge myself after the test.
Thanks again, I had a great time. Definitely going to join Natively too and start logging things!
but that’s because of life chores only.
I am learning more kanji so I might give it a try in the upcoming future. I really liked the drawings!
I read ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん just before this, and this was quite a bit more difficult. I am now torn whether I should join the Card Captor Sakura ABBC or read something else, though L20 should be fine, right?
POLLS
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