Graded Readers and Parallel Texts "Book Club"

Yeah, I have a few of them physically as well =)
I just love the bundles cause they constantly add to them at no extra charge! =D
And honestly, that price is fairly low to begin with O_o

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As I had the opportunity to read the remaining Ask Tadoku, so I did that. This year I started reading novels in the intermediate book club, and I have to say, these (the lvl 4 ones) were very boring compared to those. I think I “graduated” from tadoku, but they helped me a lot to get this far.

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This thread is amazing and I’ll be coming back to it on a non work night! I started reading the pdf and so far I have been able to read everything. I’m in the n5-n4 bracket so probably could read at a level 1 on the graded readers. I really want to read the Ask graded readers but they are a bit out of my price range right now and I feel like the other books I’ve found on Amazon are aimed at n4 and a little difficult. I’m studying genki 2 now so hopefully after that some of the n4 books will be more realistic for me.

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Some places are lucky enough to have the readers available at their local public library, so do have a look if there is one nearby.

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At that stage I would highly recommend Clay and Yumi books.
They have a bit of variety, the Obaasan set should be closer to 1 I think (I have yet to read that specific one myself, but it is aimed as the more beginner one of the bunch)
And honestly find those books a lot more helpful than the Graded Readers, cause while they use more advanced language they also explain it! =D

Link: Frank and the Obaasan Volume 1-2 BUNDLE for Beginners [DIGITAL DOWNLOA
This bundle has more in it and includes the Frank and Obaasan, though you might not need it all it could still be worth it. Better value so I’ll include it: Beri- Beri- Shoshinsha for Beginners of Japanese [Digital Download]
But if money is an issue, as you mentioned, I’d say the first bundle is worth the purchase at least. Note that if(or rather WHEN) they make more books in the series you will continue to receive them by mail for free. This goes for all their bundles and part of why I love them! I’ve gotten SO many free updates!

I’ve bought all their bundles, I collect all their stuff :wink:
Getting through it all will take time though =P

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About fifty-five years later I finished volume 1 of level 4, Ask Graded Readers. Surprisingly I think my favorite was the non-fiction about the atom bomb hitting Nagasaki. Not what I expected but I just couldn’t put that one down. One story was boring until the middle/end where it picked up. Another was also interesting but I still found it easy to put down at one point. And one of the stories was super sad. More of the sad stuff, argh.

Two more Ask volumes and I will have read the whole set. I can definitely say that level 4 is overkill and it is much better to just read native material, unless someone really loves the kind of stories Ask have picked, then by all means: go for it.

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Oh I feel that way too! I have all the readers, finished some, but not all, and keep thinking “I should pick those up again” but then never do XD
I’ve started a new Reader type book. I’ve been planning on adding them to the list.
I keep finding new stuff and start reading those instead of the old, so I’m still only part way done with everything XD

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It is such an easy thing to do. It is like I started Fruits Basket in January (didn’t get very far before I got busy) instead of picking up Sailormoon again, because starting something new just seemed easier. xD

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I picked up that one too, cause there was a club for it!
I keep falling in the club trap XD
I join so many I can’t keep up, and rather than finish the past ones I join new ones XD
I’ve only recently been able to say “no, if I don’t own it, I will not join it!” :stuck_out_tongue:
…But I already owned Fruits Basket… ^^;
I was actually glad when the club decided to stop after a few volumes, as people lost interest =P

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I didn’t know that. Good to know. ^^ Well, I’m getting back into Sailormoon and finishing that first. Then I might tackle Fruits Basket again, or I’ll pick something else from my library.

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I want to finish it some day, but there are more recent stuffs I’d much rather be reading, like Boruto. So will save it for later, and read in my own pace.

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Hey y’all graded reader lovers💚

I started a survey about graded reader recommendations for a new article for tofugu.com. Tell me about your favorites and help me (& your fellow Japanese learners) out, please!

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I was slacking at the beginning of the year… but since the start of summer have been trying to read every day. trying to chop down on my pile of graded readers.

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I’ve been slacking too, and Kanae asking actually triggered me to pick them back up again =P
I did restart though, since it’s been so long. But gotten through a good bit already, soon back to where I was and can start on the ones I haven’t read before =P

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I see you did the same thing as me. Restarting from scratch.

I have a question. what is considered real reading? For graded readers, I just read without a dictionary. But for manga that’s hard to do because of the many new vocabs poping up.

I recently ‘Read’ through a ten-volume manga series using kanjitomo to look up the unknown words and after finishing a page or two I would look at an English translated version to see if I understood correctly.

Is this considered reading or just looking up words in a dictionary and looking at pictures.

I have a feeling I am not really reading, so I went back to start reading the pile of graded readers that I have not finished or gotten to.

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Rather than “real” reading, I think it’s more helpful to think about it in terms extensive vs intensive reading.

Extensive is where you read without a dictionary - like you’ve been doing for the graded readers - and just read as much as possible, not getting too caught up in in the nitty gritty. Advantages to extensive reading is that it helps expose you to a lot of native material and helps build reading speed. When there is only a handful of vocab you don’t know, you can also usually infer the meaning from context, which helps build vocabulary. In order to become fluent with any language, it is really important to get massive exposure to a language. Extensive readings helps you reach that.

The catch, however, is that for extensive reading to be at its most effective, the material has to be just a slight step above your level (the famous “n +1”). This is really hard when you are still at the beginner and lower intermediary stages of language learning! Graded readers are designed to help fit that role, but once you graduate from those, it can be hard to find native material that provide that perfect amount of difficulty until you reach a higher level.

Intensive is where you slow down, look everything up and make sure that you understand everything. This is valuable because it allows you to tackle more difficult material, learning new grammar and vocabulary along the way. It also means that you go back to easier stuff, it will feel like a breeze in comparison! I have found that a lot of my “breakthroughs” in reading Japanese have come from intensive reading.

I remember the first week of reading コンビニ人間 I though I’d never get through. But after working through it line by line with a dictionary, and reading through other peoples breakdowns of difficult sections, my ability to read long compound sentences with modifiers sky-rocketed. I still needed to look up a lot of vocab (probably 10-15 words per page) but sentence structure was just no longer an issue by the end.

The downside is that if you only ever do intensive reading, you won’t be getting the repetitions necessary to really absorb sentence patterns and structures as well as building a more varied vocabulary.

I think both approaches are valuable for the reasons I outlined above. In the beginning stages, you might do more intensive reading, and as you get better, probably switch to more extensive reading.

One thing I will sometimes do with manga is mix up both approaches, where I will first read through a chapter without looking anything up. You might be surprised how much you can understand! And then after that, I will do a second pass where I do an intensive read through.

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Any reading is good reading! :wink:
I go for exposure myself, reading is a way to test what I have learned and something I do for fun.
So I am “Team Extensive Reading” :wink:

I have done the more intensive look up method a few times, but it slows me down to a point where I lose interest, so it isn’t for me. When I join book clubs I try to read what everyone else share of breakdowns though, so have learned a lot through others.

I also do the dual read a lot. Combine with English. When I first started I did bubble by bubble. First Japanese, then English, then Japanese again to see if I could actually pick out the words. Later switched to whole page, then whole chapter. And now I sometimes only barely skim the English to see if I missed anything, without going back a second time.

No matter the method though, any reading that gives you joy is a good reading. If you push yourself where you no longer find any enjoyment it is less likely to be beneficial. I find it is better to read a little bit every day than a lot somedays for the same reason.

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Thanks so much for this resource.

I just started with this and I am already confused. Why is the kanji for blue and green the same. Why, Japan, why?

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It isn’t that the kanji is the same, it’s that the delineation of what is ‘blue’ and what is ‘green’ is a little different. In Japanese, living things are often described as being ‘blue’, so blue apples, blue trees, and blue traffic signal means go.

Blue あお 青
Green みどり 緑

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Im not exactly sure what みて this is meaning?
Since the name of this chapter is くちべに paired with the illistration my best guess is 廻る to go around. But that doesnt seem quite right. Can someone confirm or correct me?

The second line Im guessing means “(I’m) waiting a little.”

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