The interesting part here is, if you can find something with Japanese subtitles you can use it as a way to read things beyond your ability as well. I am currently working through an unabridged Audible version of a book I also bought the e-Book for and while there are things I don’t understand, having it spoken while I read actually seems to be helping with retention. For me.
So I may try the Japanese subs on a Japanese show as well, which might give me practicing this way a higher frequency than the Audible/e-Book method I am using now…
Hahaha wow, thanks for asking for my opinion @sergiop
Well I don’t think I can add much to what all the others said, but I’ll give it a try.
I think if I were the one wondering about how to read, I would try to answer the two questions
Why do I read?
If I decide to do a translation, what purpose should it serve?
For #1, one can read intensively, looking up everything and “studying” the text, or for fun, not looking up too much as long as the gist gets across. Also, that would influence the choice of reading material. For fun, it can be anything, but for studies, I think a well-written book with a good choice of words and grammar might be more beneficial. My style is more on the intensive side, i.e. I look up every word I come across, but I don’t study sentences as such, and I only add interesting words to my Anki deck.
For #2, I only translate stuff if I want to double-check with somebody else whether I got the correct understanding. At that time, I really don’t care about the quality of the translation. Sometimes the result is even a mix of German (my native tongue) and English (the language of the Japanese textbooks and vocab decks I worked with so far). When I translate something on the forums for somebody who asked a question, I usually deliberately decide to stick with the Japanese structure as much as possible, translating chunk-by-chunk, without giving a beautiful sentence in the end (as I personally don’t see the value in it). But that’s just me For somebody who wants to become a translator, practicing actual translations is of course an important part. But in my mind translator skills come after fluency has been reached, so I would probably first focus on being able to swiftly read a book in a very good reading speed before even attempting to acquire translator skills.
Naturally I need to plug this. The book is outstanding and the forum discussions have been as well. Catching up would be fun and at your level you could certainly do it if you had a bit of time, but even if you don’t catch up I know that I personally am watching the threads from all previous weeks, as are several other club members. You’d have no issues getting answers to questions or just finding good discussion partners.
I’m gonna try to catch up as quickly as I can. But it’d be kinda hard since I have final exams next week until February 9th. But perhaps I can catch up after that.
