Starting to read: Level 0

Oh awesome! がんばりましょう, indeed :muscle:

I’ve only read one so far, but I agree on both counts: it feels absolutely ridiculous, yet seems to be worth it nonetheless.

Keep us posted with how you get on!

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I Have Also Started Reading These Books.
Books Are Easy To Read Hard To Understand without any grammar

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Good luck! :partying_face::partying_face::partying_face:

We’ll try to jump in if you have any concrete noob questions. I think @yamitenshi would be happy to jump in as well :slight_smile:

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Yes, I’d be more than happy to ramble anyone’s ears off about any grammar or vocab that confuses them! I’ll even jump down a Google rabbit hole and emerge 2 hours later with weird obscure facts about kanji and overly contrived interpretations of grammar points :smile:

For real though, absolutely, I’ll be watching this thread and answering any questions I can!

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I might join this thread as well ! :slight_smile:
Just bought a manga from the absolute begginner Book Club (Happiness) to start my first reading! I just tried some lvl 0 and lvl 1 on Tadoku and it’s actually pretty fun and interesting ( シュモーハウス for instance! :smiley: )

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@t_norrish : may I ask you a favour ?

I have been writing some sort of Level 0 Graded readers for the past 3 years or so. I have shared my site on this forum and have received good feedback [1] but mostly from advanced learners. Since the first time I posted the quality of the Japanese has improved [2] a lot and I think a beginner can now safely read my stories.

I’d be really keen to know what beginners ( the site’s target audience ) think about it.

My site is here : https://drdru.github.io/stories/intro.html

Good luck in your studies !

PS : more free graded readers have been shared in this thread : Starting to read - 'Nothing makes sense' stage

[1] POLL's lab 2022-09-29 update : I have just published a new POLL inspired Graded reader

[2] I have hired a native speakers to proofread the first 3 parts (~60 pages) . The first part (~8 pages) have in addition been checked by a Japanese teacher (also a native speaker) who is going to use it for their student.

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Book 2: どっち?
Have now tackled my second Level 0 reader :muscle: And yes, I’m completely aware of how unimpressive that actually is, but we all gotta start somewhere.

New vocab learnt:

  • 箱 (はこ) = box
  • 骨 (ほね) = bone

I’m prioritising comprehension, so again, this was read at a glacial speed :joy: But “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”.

Good luck to @Rehanmalik @Noctis92! I’ll be cheering you on from this side of the world :raised_hands:

Big ありがとうございます to @WeebPotato @yamitenshi :pray: This is why WaniKani kids are the coolest cats 'round.

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Completely off topic, not at all about japanese, but it annoys me a bit.

If in your site for the start page you give your “Start” a element the “start_link” id, and add

display: block;

to your #start_link rule, you’ll make the entire white part clickable, which is tbh what I’d expect.

I like the whole look and feel of the site, it’s quite nice and the text is clearly readable like this. Haven’t yet had the time to look into actually reading it, but will do.

? Why shouldn’t that be impressive. You are reading in a totally new script in a language with a grammar that only in the most basic way resembles anything you new before. Hardly unimpressive I would say :smiley:
Keep going, you are doing great.

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Book 2: おちゃをいれましょう

New Kanji :

  • 間 : Interval

  • 湯 : hot water

I’m with @downtimes on this one.

Don’t think of all the people who know more Japanese than you do. That’s pointless. Natives aside, all of them were at your level at one point, they’re just further along the journey, but they’ve walked the same road.

You’re learning a new language and making noticeable progress. “Not as good as someone else” doesn’t factor into that.

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I’ll make the change. Thanks for providing me with the solution :slight_smile:

Haven’t yet had the time to look into actually reading it, but will do.

If you do I’d be very keen to have some feedback.

I read up through 3-08 yesterday and I’ve found them quite entertaining. My only complaint is that when you have multiple characters with katakana names listed in a row to introduce them, their names blend together into one long Franken-name that’s difficult to read, and I end up just skipping over it. The typos also seem to increase in frequency as you go along (like いいます and います frequently getting switched around in the one that introduces how to introduce oneself, to name a big one). But other than that, I like them, and I also enjoy the chance to practice reading katakana which I definitely need

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Still fighting with the フワ and ソン distinction (especially in not so nice fonts). Don’t even know why I have problems reading the first pair though -.-… Every time one of these characters plopps up my reading speed grinds to 10% before picking up again

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Ooof yeah. ム and マ tend to trip me up as well, and シ and ツ. I feel like katakana has more characters that look similar than hiragana does. Doesn’t help either that they’re not as common so you don’t get as much practice reading them to drive 'em home as well or as quick. I’m sure we’ll both get them, though, eventually!

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シ and ツ I’ve got a mnemonic for: ツ is two people looking at a TSUnami. シ is those same two people after the tsunami blew them over and they died (because of ())

For ン and ソ or マ and ム however… I have no such help :sweat_smile: You’ll learn eventually with practice, though.

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Thank you for this very interesting feedback.

My only complaint is that when you have multiple characters with katakana names listed in a row to introduce them, their names blend together into one long Franken-name that’s difficult to read, and I end up just skipping over it.

This is indeed a good point. I need to think about it. As for the typo I think I’ll have to review part 3…

I read up through 3-08 yesterday and I’ve found them quite entertaining.

I am happy you had a good time :slight_smile:

Same hat :sweat_smile: . I noticed I also started confusing certain katakana characters recently for some reason. Maybe because I’m trying to read too fast or something.

It might seem unimpressive, but you’ve already tackled 2 readers and soon enough that number will increase. And who knows, maybe when you look back and see how many things you’ve done, you’ll be impressed too :wink:

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I worry that mnemonic might cause memory interference since it uses the same two people and tsunamis in both.

For these characters I have a mnemonic based on their perceived tilt/angle.

マ is mama’s nose as lays in bed at night looking up.
ム is the moon’s nose as it looks down at the earth.

For ツ and シ i trace like this

I haven’t been able to do this as reliably for ソ and ン though, I often rely on context to discern these sadly, especially in different fonts.

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The sh** with ソ and ン and the whole tracing is that it looks like it should be the other way around. The so “tick” is looking downwards so wth does the trace go from top to bottom. I think that is why I keep having problems with them.
With シ and ツ you could argue its the same but somehow since its two ticks you can trace the starting point of them to get the traceline, even though the ticks “point” in the wrong direction.
Idk, just easy to hate katakana I guess :expressionless:

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