I am reading 俺の彼女と幼なじみが修羅場すぎる. I picked it because I’ve watched the anime and it was fairly entertaining. It was also rated on Natively as about as difficult as the manga I’ve been reading. I figured that having some basic idea of the story would be good, since I was trying to read a light novel for the first time without the support of a book club, and having it be ballpark with the manga I’ve been reading would make it doable.
If we are being honest about how it’s going, though… Slowly. It doesn’t have furigana (which is less of an issue after WaniKani, but there are still plenty of words I don’t know and have to guess the readings of), and being a light novel, the grammar is totally different than what I’m used to with the manga comfort bubble I’ve built for myself. I’m getting used to it, though. I’ve gone from about 2 hours to get through 19 pages to half that amount of time (which is still entirely too long for me, but it is what it is for now), and I’m about 50% of the way through the book.
I’m honestly a bit relieved that the BBC has picked a light novel for the next book in March, though. That means that I can do another light novel in a group setting, and maybe get a little more used to the style with a safety net! Their pick also seems a lot easier (from the previews) than what I picked!
Ahh, neat! Not at a series I’m personally familiar with. As long as you’re getting through it, sounds like great progress to me. I’m really happy for you.
I just finished Zoo 1 myself, my first book (of short stories). There are no ratings on Natively but mine (there’s a jpdb difficulty estimate but it’s hard to know what to make of their difficulty algorithm), and I haven’t actually timed myself… but I’m pretty sure you sound faster than me for what it’s worth, haha. No doubt you’ll see more gains there soon!
I didn’t realize the BBC was doing a light novel next; that’s awesome. You know me and book clubs recently, so I’ll probably get too caught up now that I’m a little free to flit around to whatever catches my eye to read, but if time wasn’t a factor, it sure sounds nice…
I’m super glad to hear that you are getting through books yourself! What was Zoo 1 about, if you don’t mind my asking? Was there a general theme to the stories?
Yeah, I saw that there was a light novel in the running, and definitely crossed my fingers (and voted for it) that it would win. While I’m now to a point where I feel comfortable with manga, there are so many light novels I want to read, but just don’t feel like I can yet, so I want to build up that ability before trying to tackle the ones I’m really interested in. (Which isn’t to say I dislike Oreshura, just that it was lower on the list than others. ). I’d really love to be able to read Oregairu, but it’s definitely feeling a bit out of reach at the moment!
It’s by Otsuichi, generally a horror author. Not someone I had ever read before, but he came up as a guy who writes in a fairly straightforward (kinda minimal) way so I decided to try it out. A few stories stick to that closely in fairly unsettling/grotesque themes, there’s one about people being mysteriously locked up and another where a guy receives photos of a corpse in the mail daily. But some stray from that, one was even borderline sci-fi, being about a robot waking up one day, having been created to care for the guy who made it because he’s going to die soon. I thought it was pretty good, and I’ve started Zoo 2 now!
It feels like there’s sort of a diverging path for Japanese reading among learners here, which you and I have maybe gotten on the opposite ends of. I think with my time spent on Satori Reader (and now shifting to both VNs and this book) I’m getting more and more comfortable with the way easier books are written, but even in simple manga it’s not hard for me to get caught super offguard by how dropped and slangy everything is. So you hear from a lot of people here that they’re having a hard time moving from manga to books, but I recall a few saying the opposite, that books became their comfort zone, and I think that’s where I’m starting to land as well. At least, in a relative sense; it’s not like I’m great at reading books either haha.
I’m so disconnect from light novel culture; I’m gonna go look up Oregairu now haha
Aye, that’s my take too. There are quite a few times when I’ve looked something up only to go, oh, wait, I know that from WK. lol
For sure. Take some time to enjoy the fruits of all that hard work.
Once you’re ready to start again, I would highly recommend the Jalup beginner and intermediate decks. They’ve been really helpful in getting me better at J-J lookups.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that same divergence. It’s likely just reflective on what everybody starts reading more of. I’ve been pretty nervous to go out on my own, so I started light novels really late. As a result, that means that it’s outside of my comfort bubble, whereas I’ve read several manga with the book clubs, and my first self-read project was a manga, so I’m just used to the conventions there.
Ooh, it definitely sounds interesting, if not particularly my genre. I think the only horror stuff I’ve even read in English has been Stephen King, and that’s about as adventurous as I get that way.
Hahah. Oregairu is easily within my top 3 anime, and being able to read the light novel has been a major motivating factor for my learning. Bonus points: it’s often listed as one of the anime/light novels to actually have relatively natural-sounding Japanese conversations, so that’s a definite plus too!
Thank you for the recommendation! I’ve bookmarked that link, and I’ll definitely take a closer look at it when the time comes!
I was studying Chess, French, Russian, Spanish and in my second year of wanikani, Korean as well. And I thought I was pushing it hard until I read this very strigent schedule. Holy crap! I averaged 7-8 days per level at about 90% accuracy and I did reviews as they came in so a lot less alot more of the time. Now I replaced wanikani with coding. (I know I should pick up Bunpro, but I find it terribly boring. So boring…I am totally not ready to take the N2 in June).
I seem to go where my mood takes me. It’s kinda like running. When I used to run sometimes I’d feel a 10K, sometimes I’d struggle to complete a 2 mile. I’d just listen to my body and go with it.
All I know is I’m a gamer in the purest sense. Whether it’s translating text, playing chess, or debugging code, I have to be challenged.
So if you learned Japanese, one of the top five hardest languages for Americans to learn, what’s next??
Well, like I mentioned above, it wasn’t so much stringent as convenient. I found it less taxing to do the reviews throughout the day.
I also wish I had started that schedule earlier in my journey. It was something that naturally sort of formed as I found the path of least resistance. I’m admittedly somewhat lazy, so I just gravitated to what felt like the least amount of work, while still moving at what felt like an acceptable pace.
You definitely moved faster than I did! Well done!
I should be trying to do more formal grammar study myself. Pretty much all of my grammar has come from learning from immersion, in addition to Youtube series like Japanese Ammo, Cure Dolly, etc. Something like BunPro would probably not be a bad next step (once I can stomach more SRS again ).
I don’t plan on taking any JLPT or anything to that effect. This is purely a hobby for me; I don’t plan on moving to Japan anytime soon (moving countries once was difficult enough), so I dunno how much I would gain from it. Best of luck when you do it!
Not sure if the bottom question is a rhetorical one or not, but I definitely wouldn’t yet say I’ve “learned” Japanese. I’m still very much learning. Haha. What comes after I’ve reached a point where it feels like I should be doing something different is something I have yet to consider.
What was Zoo 1 about, if you don’t mind my asking? Was there a general theme to the stories?
). I’d really love to be able to read Oregairu, but it’s definitely feeling a bit out of reach at the moment!
I think the only horror stuff I’ve even read in English has been Stephen King, and that’s about as adventurous as I get that way.
