Starting to read has been by far the biggest step up in this journey.
i’d tried reading before, with graded readers and よつばと. but it was a combination between frustratingly difficult and boring. then around my level 10 or so IntrepidFox suggested a book-club for Bloom into You/やがて君になる, which i’d loved as an anime. so i set up an account on amazon.co.jp. managed to find my way through the site in japanese far enough to switch the interface to english (a milestone of its own back then). and got the kindle version (might need to get a kindle someday so i don’t have to read on the laptop).
they say to read stuff which is a little above your level. やが君 was way above my level when i started. but i wanted to read it. so i persevered. i had to look up so much stuff! but there were jokes, and drama, and tension, and a kiss! and i wanted more.
after the first volume we decided to wait until the beginning of may to continue with やが君, but i wanted to continue reading. so i grabbed a different manga (あさがおと加瀬さん/Morning Glory and Kase-san). that had had a short animated movie which i’d really enjoyed, so i was happy to read more of that. and i’ve just finished the second volume of that
it’s still excruciatingly slow. it took me about 2 hours to read 40 pages last sunday. but i get deeply immersed. i’ll be like, okay, i need to do reviews in 45 minutes, i can read a bit. next time i think of something other than reading 3 hours have passed and my reviews are piling up
what’s mostly slowing me down is looking up kanji i don’t know. i’ve definitely gotten faster since i started, both at looking up kanji, and because i’ve advanced a few levels on WK. i’ve also gotten better at recognising them outside of the WK context, and in a variety of fonts. it’s also showing me where i need to work on grammar (verb forms!). and it’s given me a new understanding of why i’m putting in all this work to learn this language: i want to be able to pick up any book at a bookstore and read it.
the bookclub for やが君 has started up again, and i got the whole series when it was on sale on amazon. so plenty to read there. and there’s a bookclub suggested for 囀る鳥は羽ばたかない, which looks like it might match my tastes, so i’ll try to read along there.
tldr: reading! it’s awesome! grab a book! have fun! get better at japanese