Reading practise for beginners - recommendations

[Nada-San]

There’s not much to add to the title!

I’m on level 2 now and want to start doing some reading practise by level 3-4. I read NHK easy using a Kana extension in Chrome but I’d like to pick up some Manga or anything where it would match the early levels quite well.

Thanks

[ChristopherFritz]

We have book clubs =D

Master List of Book Clubs

Introduction There are several book clubs here on the forums. Reading along with a book club can provide a great source of motivation, and there are a lot of people to help you out with questions, enabling you to tackle harder content. Many of the book clubs have community vocabulary lists, so they can be a great resource even if you’re reading after the book club has moved on. Additionally, you’re always welcome to ask questions even after a book has been finished by a book club. People are al…

The absolute beginner book club is starting a new (very simple) book in a few weeks. You can also check out discussion threads for older books we’ve read (many of which are manga). It’s a great resource for learning grammar and words (often there’s an included vocabulary list), and you can still ask questions in older book club threads and get answers.

@Nada-San

I’d like to pick up some Manga or anything where it would match the early levels quite well.

A lot of children’s book and manga have furigana, in which case your WaniKani level is irrelevant. What matters most will be how much grammar you know. Have you started learning Japanese grammar yet?

[DollyDaydream]

Just recommending something I used and liked which is graded readers. There’s a graded readers ‘book club’ thread you can check out if you’re interested.

Graded Readers and Parallel Texts "Book Club"

I want this to be a “Free for all” and open to all types of Graded Reader books. We are many who have them, but not necessarily the same ones. And this is where this differs from the Book Clubs; I want everyone to be able to ask about any and all Graded readers. They are a great resource that comes in a good variety of difficulties! Most of the stories are very short. If you ask about the beginning or middle, no spoiler tag is needed. If you ask about a plot point near the end you should proba…

Since they’re meant for foreign learners of Japanese they use controlled language and grammar so that the difficulty gradually builds as you go through the levels. They’re a good stepping stone to help ease you into reading Japanese as you can read them alongside your grammar studies to get a bit of confidence.

[Nada-San]

Thank you. I’ll definitely be joining this club

Hmm, I’m taking online Japanese group classes and we are using the ‘Japanese for busy people’ textbook.

When you say Japanese grammar, are you meaning written grammar only? Silly question but…I wondered to myself…is spoken and written Japanese the same or similar in terms of grammar? I am familiar with the building blocks of spoken Japanese and I’m sure most of it transcribes into written grammar too (?)

[Nada-San]

Thank you so much. I’ll be joining this

[seanblue]

@Nada-San

When you say Japanese grammar, are you meaning written grammar only? Silly question but…I wondered to myself…is spoken and written Japanese the same or similar in terms of grammar? I am familiar with the building blocks of spoken Japanese and I’m sure most of it transcribes into written grammar too (?)

Some things will primarily be used in written or spoken language, but they are largely the same, yeah.

To give an example where they slightly differ, in daily conversation you may use the て form to connect two verbs (or to connect to other grammatical structures). In literary writing, 連用形 is often used instead. But 連用形, while primarily used in written language, will still show up in very formal spoken situations. Just don’t use it in place of て form when talking to your friends.