I can’t pick just one option because it feels entirely dependent on someone’s goals and interest.
Say for example someone who’s mostly learning Japanese because they have a huge interest in sake. Then it wouldn’t make sense to tell them to read broadly; it would be better to focus a lot on the topic of sake.
But what if someone’s goal is related to reading broadly of Japanese literature. What if they want to understand the culture better? Then reading widely is precisely what they will need to do.
So saying that one is better than the other is impossible. It depends on your goals. It is a bit like saying that reading novels is better because the language is more complex and deep, while the person you told it to is only interested in reading manga.
We all have different goals, so take different approaches. And then it is also about interest.
If you look at me as an example, I will finish the last couple of Ask graded readers level 4 I have. But it isn’t because I necessarily think they will help me with Japanese, nor do I find most of the stories interesting. Part of my motivation is just: I own them. But they also touch on subjects and themes I don’t normally read. Also, I find that a lot of them are famous short stories or from famous authors, so there is value in reading that because it might enrich my reading in the future (since other works might reference them).
But I won’t get through them very quick because as I said, not very well suited to my taste. On the other hand, I just picked Sailormoon back up again and I happily read more pages after my update yesterday just because it is fun. I also have some other things I’m thinking of when I want to try read.
While those last two graded readers are like: well, I’ll get to them when I get to them, but I will read them.
That time frame is just an approximation based on my assumption and associations (as a Scandinavian) that June and July are the summer months of the year
Speaking of time frame, I kind of regret adding one at all, as it could make people new to this thread less inclined to join because they might think “ah, they started already, too late for me to join”, and really, I think it is not about when you start to read, but the habit of doing it regularly that is important
This thread was started mostly just as a place where I could keep track of my reading progress, and thought it’d be fun if other people wanted to do the same for themselves too. Meaning, that time frame is mainly for my own personal convenience
June is a summer month? That’s interesting. In England, August is seen as the peak summer period, with July and September kind of being run off summertime.
Haha, yeah. I consider August to be a summer month too, but I was thinking it’s going to get busy for me around that time and I will probably stop updating every day, so I limited it to the end of July Though, I can imagine this thread will keep going as far as into September if people want to keep posting, I’m not going to stop anyone just because I’m inactive ^^
After covid calms down, my husband and I will be moving To England for his work. We’ll be there for a couple of years. I know things will be different compared to the USA’s Midwest and Tokyo… but man does your summer sound short! Gonna soak up the long summer here while I still can (as it’s my favorite time of year)
The last couple summers have been surprisingly long though.
Most of the year, it is the same old weather (that is, overcast and occasionally rainy).
Winters aren’t all that great either. I grew up in the north midlands so we had snow most winters. However, I now live on the south coast and it very rare to get any snow at all most winters.
Yeah, weather isn’t why you would move to England; you move here to talk about it
In Scotland summer is just generally “the week or so in the year when it’s not constantly raining”…and it’s actually been lovely here for the last week and a bit so I guess it’s summer!
はーとふる彼氏 is honestly really funny. I’m reading the 短冊 they wrote and one of them is in French and just says like “it’s impossible this isn’t French”. I’ve definitely had to look up a ton of kanji and the sentences are wildly long but the humor’s keeping me going tonight.
edit: game also drove me to google if pigeons can swim and no! no they cannot!!!
Read more Yotsuba the past few days. Chapter 45 yesterday and chapter 46 today. There’s two more chapters in this volume left, goes by so fast. I also wonder if I could read more per day. Like for now I just want to read consistently roughly the same amount to get used to reading, but yotsuba is also a lot of fun so I tend to read ahead a bit.
Chapter 45
It’s a cute and wholesome chapter. Recurring theme in yotsuba. I like how the title is how yotsuba pronounced patissier. No wonder I had question marks about it.
A new odd character introducing herself in an odd way, I like it. I do find it comes across more clearly in Japanese, but it’s also been a long time since I read it in English so idk what my thoughts where back then about it.
The way it ends is just way too funny and dramatic.
Chapter 46
I think this another contender for one of my favorite chapters. Yotsuba going to the convenience store feels like some kind of adventure. A lot of amazing panels and poor dad for not getting his spicy ramen.
Didn’t read yesterday since I ended up going to bed early. These 530 am meetings are a killer. Also the bookwalker app continues to frustrate me, which finally prompted me to get 銭天堂3 and コンビニ人間 on kindle. Accidently read the first few pages of コンビニ and enjoyed it, but I promised myself to finish the book I’m reading first so I might put in some extra time this weekend and just finish it.
Almost done with my year long wk backlog as well. 200 items to go! That should free up some time.
A few more pages of Sailor Moon volume 3 read (kanzenban version btw). I don’t try for full comprehension on this manga and I’m glad for that because whenever the bad guys speak there are so many words that I don’t know. A bit too many to really make it worth it to me to look up.
So had a few pages were I didn’t understand as much, but I’ve also noticed mostly what the bad guys are saying in detail isn’t so important. The gist is good enough.
Today I read a whole chapter for the first time! I decided to read the first volume of ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う。(manga) without looking any words up when I read it the first time. Since I’m watching the anime as well I could still pick up the main plots of the story, even though I could not understand most words. The second time I go through the volume, I will go through every sentence and write down the words I don’t know and learn them by using Anki. The third time (and onwards) I will try to read the text and hope I understand everything and then I move on to the next volume.
So far this method is working great for me. I learnt 味噌汁 is miso soup based on the furigana and knowing the kanji for soup (汁)! I also learnt that 美味しい is tasty through the furigana ^^
I hope I can at least read another chapter this weekend. Just reading through it without having to look up all the words is really helping my reading pace for hiragana and certain words made of kanji that I came across a lot, such as 女子高生.
Today I’ve found novelgame.jp where you can play short VNs in browser.(There is also downloadable version of games)
人ひとりを救うチカラ is like danganronpa reversed: you decide who lives and endings come with a twist.
Yes, it’s a short manga about Flan trying to befriend Marisa.
aaaaand today was one of those “omg reading Japanese is so hard” days. Read the next chapter of ボ−イズ and while last chapter it felt like I was getting almost everything and just having fun, this chapter felt like a slog and there was a whole dialogue where I was really foggy on what was going on. As I was getting near the end of the chapter I could really feel myself getting mentally exhausted by trying to understand. It’s frustrating! This is definitely the thing that I’m reading at the moment that I find hardest, and I’d thought earlier that it probably made sense to stick to one chapter a week because of this. But it’s also probably the thing I’m reading that I’m most invested in and that makes me want to read it every day! But maybe Friday night after a stressful work week is the time for something easier haha…
June 11 Set a new personal record. Getting up early proved to be a good decision
・Read 100 pages of SAO 7. page 30 → 130. I’m pleasantly surprised to say the least
I think part of the reason it went slow the previous two days is because I had totally forgotten how much N2/N1 grammar there are in the SAO books. And tons of vocab unknown to me. But getting used to that and not looking up every single word I don’t know, I’m doing some nice progress. Definitely not my “deep-read” book, meaning I’m going for speed and won’t add the words I don’t know to SRS them. That would take too long and I’m going to encounter those words again sooner or later anyway. I can’t remember everything, but I’m still learning a lot :3
All the advanced grammar is making me wonder how I much I actually understood from SAO 1, which was the second book I completed (after Hyouka) Feels weird to compare SAO 1 and 7 - I spent 3-4 months on the first, and at this rate I’ll finish 7 in less than a week. That feels pretty wild xD
・Read 5% of Honzuki 5. 10% ->15%
・Read 12 pages of Urara Meirochou 2. page 33 → 44. The lack of furigana in this manga is making look-ups very slow, and there’s lots of unusual kanji being used whose readings I don’t know. (Also because it’s a 4koma manga, those seem to take forever to complete for some reason.)
Even particles are occasionally written with kanji
迄
@Naphthalene I think I’ve found my 多岐 strategy xD I can’t focus on just one series, so at this point I’m intentionally reading several different books/manga at the same time so I can switch between them for a change of pace.
Started reading 蜘蛛ですが、なにか？5
Getting used to the style. The language seems quite conversational, very unlike 氷菓 that flaunted literary language sprinkled with traditional proverbs natives themselves would have to look up.
Overall it seems far more pleasant to read. And the fact that I’m into the story also helps
Well today I only read 3 pages in 30 minutes but I was taking my time. I feel I’ll be reading it much faster soon.
11.6.
Today I read some more if リセロ 17, finishing up chapter 2. Loving all the pictures, as always. Lots of drama, too.
On a completely bookclub-unrelated note, I also read a couple pages of 使ってはいけない日本語 (I’m always surprised a new how smooth a real that it. When I’m not reading it my brain convinces itself that it’s dry and boring. I mean the author seems very conservative and proper and we probably wouldn’t get along… But the explanations are always short and too the point and pointed, and I like that.) And the last chapter of 世界一周とんでもグルメ, completing the book. It’s actually by the author of 銭天堂, which I probably chose the wrong kanji for. I understand why people liked it so much now.
I thought I’d read a bit more before bed, but… that’s just really not happening.
June 10 Update
I meant to update this yesterday but just managing to read took all my energy. I finished one chapter of Naruto and it took about an hour with keeping track of new vocab. Nothing too challenging.
June 11 Update
I powered through the remaining 5 chapters of volume 2 (of Naruto) today in like 3 hours. There were a couple of sentences that I struggled with especially when Kakashi and Sakura got to explaining complicated concepts, but otherwise it was a smooth read. I only looked up words I absolutely could not gather from context and had fun with the action scenes in between.
And, just like that, another volume done.
Where I am (New England) it was 95 F for 5 out of the last 7 days, so June is definitely summer, and it usually lasts until end of August or mid-September, depending on the year. End of September through early November is usually fall and the weather has cooled down significantly.
