Just wondering how people approach reading practise?
I’m currently using Satori Reader which is pretty good and definitely a website that I’ll stick to using.
My approach is to go through each sentence, listen to it, see the translation, listen again. With new sentences I try to garner what is being written from the kanji I know. I’ll also read the grammar points issued by Satori.
But, this just feels a bit pointless. As in, I don’t feel like I’m doing enough. I’m just trying to commit to memory by reading and re-reading and honestly, it’s kinda boring.
Are there more interactive or active ways to learn through reading?
I read manga that I’ve already read in English and/ or watched the anime. That way I know what’s going on even if I don’t know what the kanji means. Naturally, I choose manga that has furigana. That way, I can read all the characters even if I don’t know the meaning. I find it annoying having to look up words so I just don’t and use context clues and my memory while reading. That way, reading is fun for me and I get practice reading in Japanese.
EDIT: Sorry, I didn’t mean to reply to your post but the thread in general but I must have pressed the wrong button and now I can’t delete it.
I tried Satori reader and while I found it extremely well made, I also thought it was boring just because the contents are not really things I care about. I would read the stories only to practice my Japanese, not because I actually wanted to read them.
So I decided to just directly read things I actually wanted to read, which for me so far is mainly videogames and some manga. I want to read novels eventually but I want to improve my reading fluency first and graphic content is just easier to handle initially.
At first I had to look up vocab and grammar for basically every sentence, but after a few hundred hours I’ve improved a lot (although there’s still a long way to go to reach anything resembling fluency).
I would add that bunpro had been a great tool to learn all the core grammar to tackle that content.
For Satori Reader, I listen to a story page by page. After listening to a page, I will then read it myself looking up the words I don’t know. As for manga, I try to buy ones that I previously watched in anime form for now which makes it easier as I can ignore the words I don’t know. For academic reading, I read the story then I go to the translation and read line by line.
When I was using Satori Reader, I was reading one new article each day, as well as the article from the day before and the article from two days ago. So I read each article for 3 times in succession. Worked pretty well for me since on day 1, I got used to the vocab and grammar and on day 2 + 3 I was able to read more immersed.
After going through several Satori Reader stories like that (while also doing Genki and later on Quartet on the side) I switched to books. Nowadays I usually read a few books at the same time and use a mix out of extensive and intensive reading, so some books I read by trying to understand every single sentence and look up words, grammar and so on and some I just read through without worrying too much about understanding everything. Sometimes I also do a mix out of these two methods, depending on how difficult the book is I do enjoy that a lot since I like reading! Now it’s also easier to read way more than back with Satori, since novels are just more interesting and engaging.
For your starting novels, I’d recommend the following things to make it easier/more engaging:
Choose something that has a book club you can read along with (can be one that already happened, you can still read through the past posts → I do that a lot!)
Choose something that has an audiobook you can listen to
Probably visual novels or games with visual novel elements.
My general take on “when to start reading” is when you have enough grammar and understanding of the Japanese sentence structure to be able to slowly edge your way into the “N+1” rule - you understand enough from context + the words you already know to be able to fill in the blanks and look-up the words you don’t know.
However, if there is a genre you like specifically and don’t mind having to literally dissect sentences at the very beginning of your reading path, that’s also okay. The issue is that this approach is not for everyone .
Another good approach, if you have Netflix or Disney+, is to set up a second profile, set it to Japanese. You should then get easier access to shows that have Japanese language and Japanese subtitles. Disney+ has most all of the Marvel movies and Star Wars stuff in Japanese with optional Japanese subtitles as well.
And then just read and look stuff up. It’s the most annoying way (for me) but also has its merits since in some ways the Satori Reader method gives you a crutch you don’t get in the real world when reading. Usually.
To be honest when my listening skills improved my reading speed picked up dramatically, to the point where you can almost guess what the sentence is before you finish it, like your native language. You can even guess the kanji based on the sentence and context.
I do enjoy that a lot since I like reading! Now it’s also easier to read way more than back with Satori, since novels are just more interesting and engaging.