what are “graded readers”?
currently level 14 and everyday I look at nhk easy news and with yomichan on firefox I try to understand the article with the words I dont know yet the meaning I use the shift key
what are “graded readers”?
currently level 14 and everyday I look at nhk easy news and with yomichan on firefox I try to understand the article with the words I dont know yet the meaning I use the shift key
If you mean the work load on the brain, I personally find that as I pile on more work and ramp up the pace, it actually gets easier. If you mean the daily time investment, yes multiple SRS platforms in addition to grammar and immersion materials can be a lot if you’re running every one of those engines at max speed. (However learning WK items somewhere else before you’ve unlocked them doesn’t actually add work. Each item that you already know before unlocking should require less than 90 seconds of time spent on its lessons and reviews to burn.)
Think about your end-goal for Japanese. Whether it’s just comprehending media, basic fluency, or truly advanced proficiency, there’s a certain body of knowledge that exists which you must learn in order to achieve that goal. There’s no shortcut to it. More knowledge learned each day = that end-goal being reached sooner. Not every hour of study = an hour of learning though. If you get bored or exhausted after 2 hours for example then further studying is useless. It’s all about determining how quickly you want to reach your goals, and how much time you’re able and willing to spend each day.
But at the same time, you want to leave time for immersion and not just be on SRS all day. So it’s a delicate balance.
Hope I don’t get judged for this but what exactly is immersion?
immersion is when you surround yourself with the stuff you’re learning. so that you’re not just studying japanese, but also watching stuff, listening to stuff, reading stuff, all in japanese.
that leads to learning through exposure: you just pick up things as you go along. and it also helps you reinforce the things you learned while actively studying
Oh no judgement, I should have explained a bit more. Consume real Japanese content. Preferably something that interests you, because this is going to be very slow going at first. For example if you like anime, pick an anime and find a way to watch it with Japanese subtitles (I won’t go into how to get Japanese subtitles because often this isn’t entirely legal in English-speaking countries). Or if you like video games, find a Japanese video game on steam. If you’re a reader, get a Japanese manga or book. Whatever appeals to you.
Next find a Japanese-English dictionary app that you like, along with an SRS program where you can add custom items. If you’re not sure where to start, there’s a free app developed by a WaniKani member called HouHou that is both a dictionary and an SRS platform. You can find it on google.
Next, go through your native material and look up words that you’re not sure of. It will help to have some grammar knowledge for this part to help pick out the individual words, but you may be able to do without it. If it seems like a very common word, add it to your SRS program. If it’s very thematically important in your native material, you can add it as well so that you will remember it when you come across it next time. Try to focus on words more than on learning kanji, since you’re already on WaniKani. Remember to clear your SRS reviews once a day, but try to spend most of your study time on immersion. If you keep this up you will start to build a core vocabulary of common words, but more importantly you will start to understand how real text is used and what the various expressions mean.
Cure Dolly has a series on immersion if you want to know more. Remember that this will be slow and painful at the beginning but it is the only way to learn real Japanese. Platforms like WaniKani only take you so far.
Thanks a ton! This really helped me understand wayy better! Can’t wait to get started
I’m really sorry for the late reply but I’ve been really really busy.
Graded readers are basically books specially designed to learn a foreign language. They have different levels of vocabulary, say grade 1 would have extremely easy vocabulary, grade 2 slightly difficult than 1, grade 3 a bit more difficult than 2 and so on. They also use basic grammar and increase the difficulty by levels.
@evandcs to elaborate on what @anon65165570 said, here are some samples from Tadoku graded readers:
Level 0:
Level 1:
I don’t have samples for level 4, but hope this makes it a bit clearer.
After learning basic grammar, when can one start Lvl 0 graded readers? Is it at level 10 of WaniKani?
Purely because WaniKani doesn’t teach vocabulary in the order of importance I’d say you can start immediately. The Tadoku graded readers (the ones I sent screenshots from) are pricey, but if you don’t have any previous experience learning Japanese I can imagine they’re well worth it.
As for grammar you’d need to know you can check out their site: にほんご よむよむ文庫 Japanese Graded Readers – レベルについて – アスク出版 日本語教材
Level 0 readers for example expect you to know the following grammar:
present form, past form, interrogative, ~たい, etc.
※ です and ます endings in the main.
For more resources or if you have more questions regarding graded readers in general you should check out this thread Graded Readers and Parallel Texts "Book Club"
I had already studied Japanese before I started WaniKani, so my advice might not be as helpful as that of some of the folks in the Graded Readers thread who started their Japanese journey with WaniKani.
All the best!
Righto! Thanks for the help
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