I wanted to ask, how much effort do you guys put into your reading when youāre on a timed schedule like in a book club? For instance, do you look up things if you get the gist of a sentence but donāt understand every part? Or do you just move past it if you donāt know how it works, even though the meaning wasnāt lost on you? Etc. Just curious on how you guys handle it.
Also do you change up your behavior based on the bookās difficulty?
Usually if itās a completely foreign word Iāll look it up immediately. Having an ebook means itās easy to just push a button and search. But if I recognize the kanji, and the meaning I guessed makes sense in the context, Iāll usually move on and make a mental note of it, and if itās a word that appears often Iāll look it up eventually.
Iāll usually mostly look up things if whatās happening isnāt making sense or if I see them a lot of times. If I can guess a wordās meaning decently enough from the Kanji in it or context Iāll usually just let it be. If neither of those applies , Iāll do what I feel like (which most of the time just is to keep reading, especially if itās just a word and not, say, how a sentence works or something like that)
And yes, if itās an easy book Iāll probably barely look up anything because I can understand anyway, but if itās a harder one I make sure to learn at least a couple new words each week so it gradually gets a little bit easier
Since I have a kindle, I have a habit of looking up a fair number of words, both double checking somewhat known words and unknown words - since itās so easy to do so. Sometimes I have to leave a sentence with only getting the gist. I try not to get caught up on understanding a sentence for too long, since it just increases my reading time. If I donāt understand it at all, I tend to ask someone else ie. my Japanese tutor.
When Iām not buried under 800 reviews on floflo, I use it as a quick look up for words I donāt know, and make sure to add them to my lessons. If that doesnāt allow me to keep up with the pace (because it gives too many lessons per week), Iād adjust the frequency. If the word doesnāt show up at the frequency I have, Iāll do as others have said: mostly ignore it, except if I really donāt understand the sentence.
Right now, I canāt find the strength to do my reviewsā¦ since basically last February, the last time I had 0 reviews I think? So itās just basic ignore words or look up if they are bs like é½é½¬ (from ę°äøēćć)
It seems like a lot of people are using ebooks here which makes me happy. Physical tomes are cool but when it comes to foreign language study, you really lose out using them.
Personally Iām a bit of a perfectionist (ironic, because my Japanese is not even close to perfect) and at this point I get kind of upset if thereās multiple words in a sentence that I donāt know. It seems like I need to chill out a little and be fine with not understanding everything because it honestly makes my reading experience suck a little, especially when it comes to harder books. Plus it means that I donāt get enough reading practice in since I spend a lot of time researching/SRSing.
Iāll try chilling out a little and hopefully thatāll help me keep up with the book club. Iām already falling behind a little.
Have you tried the sudden death mode? Or whatever you want to call it.
Oh, I havenāt yet. I meant to try though.
As soon as I get some actual Internet connection instead of having to use messenger birds to carry data packets back and forth to the nearest telegram relay.
I donāt really see what Iām missing out on by using a physical book. The ebook dictionaries canāt even handle conjugation, so they are basically useless for everything except nouns.
Honestly, in this day and age when you buy a physical book you should get a digital copy for free or heavily discounted. Iād love a digital copy for when Iām out, but Iām not paying (nearly) twice as much for two copies, and I like physical books too much to go all digital.
At least they both follow their phonetic components.
Thereās a lot of nouns, man. Also the fact that instead of putting the book down and looking up something on a dictionary/google, you can just switch windows. Plus, if youāre new you can copy + paste kanji you donāt know instead of radical searching. My first two novels were physical and, personally, I would just never do it again.
Huehuehue thatās what youād think. But instead publishers are realizing that they can just charge more and more for ebooks despite them having 0 production costs. Nishio Ishinās newest book, for example.
To be honest if you live in Japan, physical copies can often be a better deal because they have such a strong used book market
+1 on the ebook thing. I really love my in-book jp to jp dictionary.
Also, as far as detail of reading, I go for comprehension. If grammar or words are preventing comprehension, I research, if not I just rely on context and mass exposure to eventually clear up the finer details that I am missing. Seems to be working pretty decently so far for my goals at least.
I need to get back to flofloing though since knowing a lot of vocab is key to this planā¦
I donāt know about other ebook readers/apps, but with Kindle I can highlight a conjugation and 9/10 times itāll recognise it and display the dictionary form and its meaning.
You could be right. The base dictionary isnāt that extensive compared with other dictionaries out there. I purchased one that uses JMDICT, which jisho and rikaki-kun uses, for only a few dollars. Hereās the link, if you want to have a look: Japanese English Dictionary eBook : McCarthy, Thomas: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store
Even though the link is on Australia Amazon, it should be available in the others too. Otherwise, there is a free version out there that you can download off-site. I can dig it up if needed.
Wouldnāt I have to buy it on Amazon Japan? My kindle has to be set to use my Amazon Japan account to read ebooks from there.
If this is legal feel free to share so I can try it out. If not Iāll just decide if itās worth purchasing. (I assume not, but figured Iād double check.)
What kind of Kindle do you have? One of the reviews says it doesnāt let you pick this as a default dictionary on the Kindle Fire (which is what I have) but I donāt know if that matters (and the review is 3 years old).
I was just looking up a few of the dictionaries on Amazon and they all are saying that these will not work on Kindle fire or androidā¦ āThis due to a limitation Amazon has in the Kindle software for computers, android devices, Windows phones and Kindle Fire.ā Apparently, they only work on Paperwhite, Oasis, Kindle touch, and Kindle for iOS. Amazon is working on the Kindle software to fix the problem, but no idea when itāll be available.
