おめでとうございます！
That’s pretty impressive!
I personally prefer when texts use lots of kanji, cause these are faster to read somehow? I really struggle with katakana, though ^^".
3 Likes
Level 27 when I started. Level 35 by the time I finished.
Good question. Often there would be furigana which mean that I could search Jisho easily. When there was no furigana, I used three different methods:
- If it was a jukugo word, I could sometimes guess at the reading of the kanji based on the radicals it was made up of. I could then check to see if that word existed in the dictionary.
- If the kanji looked similar to one that I had learned on WaniKani before, I would check to see if it’s listed in the Visually Similar Kanji section.
- I used the Kanji Study app on my phone to select the kanji radicals and it would list all the kanji that includes all of them.
WaniKani is the only resource I use to study kanji so without it, I would have been really lost reading Harry Potter! However, I don’t think the vocab you learn through WaniKani is sufficient to tackle the book without looking up even more words than I did.
In terms of vocab, I couldn’t given you an accurate number of how many words I knew (I don’t use Anki). Because I was able to “immerse” (at least in terms of listening) from right at the start of my studies, I’ve picked up a fair amount listening to Japanese podcasts, watching "Let’s Play"s, watching animes, and reading NHK Easy News. I’ve been reading every article since May last year and by the time I started reading Harry Potter, I think I only struggled with one or two words per article?
Likewise with grammar, I’m bad at using the right grammar when speaking but never really had an issue understanding someone else. By the time I started Harry Potter, I had finished Genki 1 and 2 and started Tobira but these felt more like me reviewing grammar than learning it for the first time.
Yeah, I’d say the first spike in the graph (around the middle of chapter 1), it felt like it would take forever to finish. But I’m very stubborn when it comes to sticking to goals I’ve set so I just powered through. It helps if you tell everyone you know beforehand that you’re going to achieve X by Y date.
Oh! Is the Portugese illustrated version different? I assumed they would all be the same because the Japanese one has the same illustrations as the English one.
5 Likes
Well done Helena, I really enjoyed your blog and how you illustrated it, especially the Jakub Marian map, as language facility across the EU is something I have often wondered about.
Your post is very inspiring as I try to get back into Japanese.
I look forward to hearing more from you.
Can you let us know where you got the illustrated Harry Potter Book?
2 Likes
Its the same book, same pictures! But from the looks, it appears way cooler with kana + kanji!
1 Like
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! I got my copy from Amazon Japan. I got multiple books at a time because the cost of shipping is pretty expensive.
Thanks, perhaps consider mentioning that in your blog and also add an affiliate link. I look forward to reading more,
James
I had a look at your blog post and saw the photo of the book. It’s super nice that they add furigana! I think I would get totally lost when reading manga without it.
Well done on your extensive language research!!!
1 Like
Your post is inspiring and has interesting data. I’ve been through the first pages of a book hell swamp before and I know the feeling of the brain hurting and I know that I should just keep on going. But I’ve started a quite advanced book, 雪国 and I’ve been thinking of putting it aside for later because it gives me headaches. Your post made me decide to give it one more try 
1 Like
Not sure if you still need this but Kindle Unlimited has all Japanese HP books available as part of the subscription for ‘free’ in the UK.
4 Likes
That is quite an advanced book!
I’m glad I’ve inspired you to try it again. It is worth seeing if you can get through the first 10 pages. If you don’t make as much progress as you like and it’s still headache inducing, you can find another book. I wish you the best of luck with it! 
1 Like
Congratulations! That’s an awesome step!
My lazy butt keeps saying I’ll start a real book soon, but continues to be anxious about it and just read short stories or Satori reader fffff. 
2 Likes
I gave it a last push yesterday and I got through five more pages (it helped that there was dialogue and not Kawabata’s half page sentence pattern), so now that I finished the 1st 10% of the book, it doesn’t feel so intimidating! 
5 Likes
I enjoyed reading about your reading 
I’m thinking about what book I’d like to read when I get there. I think it’ll be Roald Dahl’s The Witches.
3 Likes
Good job. I feel like my pace of learning is very slow, but I’m sticking to it because I really want to learn Japanese.
I wonder if trying to read light novels will work for me… since I have very little interest in Harry Potter nowadays. xD
1 Like
Reading is a good way to stay motivated when learning a new language. If you haven’t already, it might be worthwhile to develop a solid foundation of kanji, vocab and grammar knowledge before getting started with light novels though. Unless you’re very patient! In any case, good luck on your Japanese learning journey - hope you stick with it. 
1 Like
Congratulations tnetennba3 on your great achievement AND on meeting your goal!!
I am still reading and listening to Harry Potter 1 in bits and pieces. Sagestruggler, maybe we can be the repeat book club.
I find this book ready to jump into ANY chapter and sort of know what’s going on AND be interested because I had read it in English (my native language) and saw the movie. It is one of the most internationally translated books (other than the Bible), so it’s a good start for any learned.
I got bored halfway through chapter 1 and skipped up to the Diagon Alley chapter to keep from losing interest.
1 Like
i’ve just ordered the philosopher’s stone. You’ve encouraged me to perservere with it
1 Like