A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar [aDoJG] 💮 Reading Club // [Currently reading the Advanced edition]

Japanese Language Book Clubs
361

I’m a bit disappointed that the club schedule for the advanced volume wasn’t set up the same format as the others, which meant it didn’t auto-populate with the book club tracker script, so I’m dragging my feet a bit over adding it because I’ll have to manually fill in the dates, but I did finally get started reading. Going to try to stay slightly more ahead of things than last time.

Oh yeah, I never posted my final thoughts on the intermediate volume!

I thought it was a really valuable experience going through it, even though a bunch of life circumstances got in the way and I had a little trouble finishing it in time. I definitely learned a lot, and there were some interesting discussions in the club threads, which made it more fun.

I was going through the Shin Kanzen Master Grammar N3 book early last year while also reading ADoIJG with this club, and I ended up dropping SKM because I felt like I was getting so much less from it than I was getting from going through ADoJG with the club.

I’d definitely already encountered most of the grammar in the intermediate volume, though I had some pretty significant weak spots, too, especially written grammar. For me, the most valuable part of the experience by far was looking for examples of each of the grammar points in my Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling fan translations, because then I had specific memories to tie them to, and sometimes I’d even end up tweaking the translations a little bit after gaining a better understanding of the grammar points.

I don’t really know how easy it would be to replicate that experience outside of my extremely unique circumstances, but I do encourage folks to try to look for examples of the grammar points in the stuff you’re reading/watching/listening to.

Also, the timing of this whole club couldn’t have worked out more perfectly for me in terms of where my own Japanese ability level is at. Taking three years to go through the volumes really feels about right, and I do feel ready for the advanced volume, just as I felt ready for the intermediate one last year, and the basic one the year before.

I’ll be almost sad to finish the advanced one, because then where will I go next in my studies?? :smiling_face_with_tear:

8 Likes
362

I wasn’t aware of that, I’ll be happy to update it :slight_smile: (well it’s a wiki so really anyone is welcome to do it)
Edit: I’ve had a look, the date format is the same, is it the column with pages missing that is a problem? I didn’t write those down, feel free to edit the wiki if you want to look them up :slight_smile:

2 Likes
363

Yeah, the way the script works is it pulls the page numbers from the table, so without page numbers, the script can’t figure out the schedule. I also use page numbers to track how far behind I am when I fall behind and to estimate how long it’ll take me to catch up, as well as estimating when one week’s workload is going to be particularly heavy or light, so it’s a useful metric for me in that regard, too.

I don’t know if I have the energy to update the table, but I suppose that’d probably be more useful than me manually inputting the stuff into my personal book club tracker script record, huh…

364

Time to start the main entries!

365

Child threads of aDoAJG should be in a subcategory, Book Clubs or otherwise Grammar ?

1 Like
366

Sorry I overlooked that message! Good point, I moved them to Grammar then.

2 Likes
367

The thread for [G-K] is now open!

3 Likes
368

For those who own an electronic version of the Advanced volume, how searchable/convenient is it?
I’m a bit hesitant to buy it only to find out it’s about as usable as a paper book (e.g. no search, no copy-paste into Anki etc).

1 Like
369

Last time I investigated this, the books are only available via their web app reader which doesn’t let you even select text. Never mind any kind of offline access.

It’s a shame because this series if any would benefit from hyperlinks and searchable text. Would be interesting to see how the data is transmitted to the browser, maybe there could be ways to create your own offline copy… but too much extra work rather than just buying the physical books.

5 Likes
370

I own a dodgy PDF version which doesn’t appear to be searchable (I don’t feel too bad about this as I also own the print copy, but travel overseas a lot so like to have a digital version).

1 Like
371

I have a yomichan version of the dictionary so somebody had definitely already done the work.

1 Like
372

It can be searched in Anki deck found somewhere. Also some website :cat_with_wry_smile:

itazuranekoanimated
I still prefer paper edition, and kinda regret having DoIJG only in Kindle (and scrapped).

1 Like
373

So many options, thank you and simias for pointers.

I was sort of hoping that I can hit ctrl+f, find, oh I don’t know, 良かろう, and quickly jump through pages of the dictionary where that word is used in example sentences, all offline and instantaneous. It’s quite sad if legal publishers don’t want to provide something as fundamental as simple search and offline access to books you buy.

The website allows to filter by the grammar pattern, which is already much faster than manually looking through the index pages. Anki deck and Yomitan dictionary files sound like they would give offline full text search, so I might have to look into those.

2 Likes
374

There is an OCRed version flouting around for all 3 volumes. Sorry if I couldn’t not be more useful.

2 Likes
375

I just finished the intermediate dictionary!

I’m already on p154 of the advanced one, but have been very slowly chipping away at the appendices to satisfy my OCD.

6 Likes
376

I’m kindof tempted to try this, but I don’t think I’ll be able to stick with it right now. I’m thinking maybe I should give it a go when I have closer to 1000 kanji and have finished going through the Cure Dolly backlog (I’ve already seen most of them, but I’m going through it and organizing each video by topic while rewatching)

I’ve been giving Goldlisting a shot lately, and if I continue to feel good about it, my plan would probably be to go through the adojg books at a pace of roughly 1 grammar point per day as in the schedule (but starting at a different time, of course), adding the example sentences to my Goldlist (hence why I’d want a decent kanji base: to make writing those less painful)

PS: I have all three volumes already

EDIT: maybe also after I’ve finished the current read some Japanese every day challenge, to get myself in the habit of sticking to such plans

4 Likes
377

I might not wait for 1000 kanji, we’ll see, but I think I’ll add the Satori Reader grammar series to my personal prerequisites

So my todo list before starting this:

  • Cure Dolly Rewatch
  • Satori Reader Grammar
  • Spring 2025 Read Every Day
  • More Kanji
1 Like