Absolute Beginners Book Club // Now Reading: Granny Girl Hinata chan!

Easier said than done = Saying “grab a copy” is easy. Actually grabbing a copy is hard.

I mean, yes. Then, isn’t everything easier said than done?
You usually say that when things are especially hard, and I don’t think buying an ebook or book online is something easier said than done. :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

Well, if you live in Namibia it is…

1 Like

It might be, I’m not familiar.

I still don’t quite understand the intent behind that statement, though.

Do you want advice as to how to do it, or is it supposed to be a negative comment about the way things were phrased? I might be looking too much into it, and if you didn’t mean anything by it, (which I doubt going by your next comment), I apologize.

Otherwise, of course I don’t know how things are in Namibia, but you seem to have an internet connection and a WaniKani membership. Buying an ebook shouldn’t be that different, and it’s only around $4. If you don’t want to, or can’t for other reasons, then that’s fair, but I still think saying, “Easier said than done.” is a little reductive.

1 Like

Not any kind of complaint or real comment, just a personal note that it is easier said than done for me as I live in Namibia. My subscription here was a gift, and debit cards are hard to use for international online purchases.
But… I have a Japanese student who is going to Japan next month, so I am going to ask him to buy me some hard copies of books! Can you suggest some that will be read by the group in the next few months?

:thinking: I only have debit cards. Might’ve been lucky until now, I guess.

The next book is going to be チーズスイートホーム, but the books after that aren’t decided yet.

1 Like

It’s not about being lucky, it all depends on your bank. In my country one year ago, no bank offered buying online using depit cards and we had to get a Visa. But now the government enforced them to support it, if that didn’t happen I might be using an Anki deck instead of wanikani

I guess that makes sense. :thinking:
At least where I’m from, I think (almost) every bank is either Visa or Mastercard.

It’s still down to the bank, at least in the US. My bank debit card is a Visa, but they don’t allow international charges with it. When I buy things overseas, I have to use a credit card that does allow international charges.

Okay, so, we’ll finish Shirokuma in 2 weeks and then Chii’s gonna last for 7 weeks, so approximately in the middle of August we will start reading a new book /o/

But we need suggestions, I guess, and after that a poll, soooo I’m gonna change the title to indicate that we’re looking for new nominations:3

2 Likes

Were there some proposals not yet added to the list of proposed books in the first post? Are we still keeping in older proposals from people who may no longer be active on the forums (if there are any)?

Oh, thank you for pointing that out! I added 2 more recent ones to the main post, let me know if there’re more, my brain is a bit slow today :sweat_smile:

1 Like

I was able to read an entire post* on Facebook yesterday, so now I feel like I’m ready for this. I’m in!

*it consisted solely of someone commenting すごい on a photo :shushing_face:

12 Likes

Hello!! What is the minimum level required for this? I think I won’t join right now but I want to join for the next book! I’m eager to start reading some japanese book!

If I don’t have the minimum level…Are there another club for even more noobs here? lol

For a book with furigana (readings beside kanji), the minimum is simply being able to read ひらがな and かたかな. However, the less grammar and vocabulary you know, the more you’ll have to look up (or ask about), and the more learning you’ll have to do.

I don’t have any hard recommendations for progress, but I would recommend knowing all N5 level grammar, and having started working your way through N4. You can get this by reading through Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese (free), or using a textbook such as Genki.

For vocabulary, even if you learn the 2,000 “most common” Japanese words, you may find the comic you read has barely 50% overlap with the words you know. You’ll be learning new words regardless, but the fewer words you already know, the more you’ll be looking up. I’d say having 500 to 1,000 words memorized will put you in the position of feeling you are getting something out of reading, because you’ll see a mix of words you know and words you do not know, versus a page of unknowns.

Check out the graded readers thread. I haven’t looked it over myself, but I believe it consists of texts meant for reading by lower-grade Japanese school students. (Anyone able to confirm if I’m right or wrong?) These are texts intended for beginning Japanese learners. I think I’ve seen this recommended as pre-Absolute Beginner.

2 Likes

No, those are text aimed at beginner Japanese learner, so way easier than things aimed at natives. Even the simpler text aimed at young kids can contain N1 grammar, since natives do not care about that. On the other hand, graded readers follow the JLPT levels, which tends to match much better the skills of Japanese learners.

4 Likes

Thanks for the correction. I had a feeling my information was a bit off (for the reason you state, about how young kids may have N1 grammar in their reading material).

1 Like

I haven’t seen any recommendations yet, so I’ll add one! This is a series I’ve read recently (no longer a beginner atm) but I think it should be good for the absolute beginner thread. Lemme know if it’s not absolute-beginner level, but I think it’s definitely easier than shirokuma.

結婚しても恋してる

Summary

“Even if we’re married, I want to know more about you. I love you.” A semi-autobiographical story about the daily life of a married couple and their three children.

Availability

book: amazon
ebook: amazon | pixiv

Personal Opinion

It’s a light and sweet read.

Pros and Cons for the Book Club

Pros

  • Most of the chapters are short, making it easy to read in little batches
  • It’s a sweet comedy about family life so it should appeal to different demographics
  • furigana!
  • the first two chapters (and most of the third volume) are available for free on pixiv
  • the children talk in normal/casual Japanese (and not babytalk-Japanese)
  • I’ve already read it so I can set up the weekly threads and answer questions

Cons

  • no animals

Pictures

First Three Pages of Chapter One




Additional Pages




more on pixiv

Difficulty Poll

How much effort would you need to read this book?

  • No effort at all
  • Minimal effort
  • Just right
  • Challenging
  • Impossible, even with everyone’s help
  • I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)

0 voters

5 Likes

So cute. :sob:

2 Likes

I would like a book “book” as we have done 2 mangas in a row…

5 Likes