At what level of study (years, level in a textbook, WaniKani level etc) did the switch to reading in Japanese become easy for you?
It bothers me that my first impression of my Japanese notes is like staring at old code I wrote LOL. My first instinct is what is this before I make the language shift and I start parsing out words and sentences. My eyes are always drawn to the English explanations first. I can read very, very quickly so in a split second I can read a sentence in English. I want to get faster at Japanese.
My question is when did that work to switch go away for you? Does it ever come naturally? I would love stories of your experiences. I feel like my kids who are learning to read.
Dunno if Iām quite there, though I am getting there. Certainly having more kanji and vocab under your belt helps - you need to get to the point where the connection between the scribbles on the page and the meaning is automatic.
Though, I sometimes read a paragraph, then realise that I just sounded out the words in my head without actually understanding anything of what Iād readā¦
I havenāt been giving it enough time and effort lately, but Iāve been playing through a Japanese visual novel game. Itās one that Iāve played before in English, so I can understand the general gist of the situation while I focus on reading.
Just a few weeks and levels ago, it all felt extremely slow and cumbersome. Even the stuff that I knew took me a moment to dredge up from memory. Today, in the hour that I spent on it, it went much more smoothly!
There are now kanji that I know the reading and meaning of without having to think about it. Some things justā¦ āflowā when I read it, in a way that it didnāt before. Now, that doesnāt mean to say my comprehension is great! My grammar is poor, so Iām still lost a lot, but the kanji reading is seeing improvement, at least.
Around the mid 20s here on WK, I was learning words that felt kind of vague and abstract, but Iām encountering them a lot in my playthrough! Itās only now that I really feel like a larger part of reading is being unlocked. Just a handful of levels on, I look back at the vocab notes I took for the game, and a lot of those words contain kanji I recently learned. Itās very exciting, because it feels like Iāve really gotten to the more functional part of the language, if that makes sense.
TL;DR: while I wouldnāt call it natural yet, I felt a definite difference and improvement in my reading in the 20s of WK.
Itās been becoming more natural to me with a lot of input (reading practice), as opposed to just pure studying. Studying is an important step too, but at the end of the day youāre going to get better by actually putting what youāve learned into practice. You have to stumble and feel lost, and still keep going because more and more input is whatās going to help you advance in your reading.
Iām playing through one of the Ace Attorney franchise side-games. ^^ éč»¢ę¤äŗ 2. Iām not sure if any of them were remade for the 3DS, but they are definitely DS games.
I understand this type of game isnāt for everyone, but my wife and I have been playing them together for years, and I enjoy them. Iād definitely say itās something to potentially look into, since they are originally Japenese, and you get hours worth of reading from just one game.
OH OH OHHHH I LOVE THOSE GAMES! Thatās immediately what I thought of when you said visual novel game. And I have all of them. I bet theyāre sooo much better in Japanese! You have to have an imported system though, donāt you. Dangit!
I feel itās very much like when I was a kid and I started reading. If I think really hard, I can remember those daysā¦ and though I donāt recall the struggle, Iām sure Itās pretty much the same as how reading japanese it has been so far.
I remember as a kids reading the labels of every product, all the advertising and billboards on the streetsā¦
And now Itās the same ā¦
Actually Iām doing much better than my first time, I feel that in a year and a half with japanese Iāve covered what itook me a couple of years as a kid in term of reading. Reading books aimed at å°å¦ļ¼ēā¦ itās not super easy, but the right amount of effort and fun so far ā¦
Anyway, thereās no switch of any kind. Just work constantly on readingā¦ pretty much the same way people come back for reviews hereā¦ same for readingā¦ a couple of pages every dayā¦
Itās definitely something that comes with time and experience with reading. The more you read, the more natural it will become, but it takes a long time so donāt get too frustrated with yourself. I remember the first time I tried to tackle a game in Japanese, I spent nearly 8 hours just getting through the opening story dialogue because I stopped to look up every word I didnāt know and make sure that I understood everything 100%. Thatās certainly a valid way to tackle reading, but it can be really exhausting too. Now that I have a bit more experience, Iām often able to read through the āeasyā sentences fairly smoothly, but I still find passages, paragraphs, or sentences that just leave me completely scratching my head, whether itās some grammar I havenāt studied yet, a sudden switch to more formal language, or a slew of kanji I havenāt learned all in a row. I often find that I can glean the meaning by context if Iām only missing a few words, but sometimes I just skip past it and keep going so that I can enjoy the story more. I think itās good to find a balance between looking up words and learning versus making sure you donāt get overwhelmed. You can always come back to a work later and surprise yourself with how much youāve learned since then.
I also sometimes do this reading my native language (English) and the languages that I translate for a living itās ok to lose focus, as long as you realise and gently bring yourself back to the task at hand or if itās become a real struggle to focus, itās a sign (for me anyway) that itās time for a break - I have a stretch, or make a cup of tea, etc, and then return to the text a few minutes later with fresher eyes, rather than just trying to relentlessly cram the words into my brain.
If you want a game that has Japanese option on a non Japanese 3ds then you can check out Bravely Second or Bravely Default, I remember changing to Japanese when I played it. Canāt remember if it was just the narration or the text as wellā¦ I need to find the card Iāll check it out for ya.
Iāve been learning Kanji for about 13 months now and one of my go to sources for Japanese text only are songs lyrics. It really helps with speeding up my reading, since the pace of singing is faster than speaking.
I donāt know whether itās your first time learning a second language or a different character writing system language, but as someone who is bilingual and had to learn 4 different writing systems and 6 languages, I can assure you that the more you engage with a language in a practical way, the sooner it becomes more natural to you.
I did it with my second language through programming, music, art history, web designā¦ so if you have a hobby that you can shift to Japanese, give it a shot.
I have similar gripes with learning materials - all the English around itā¦ and the fact that it is usually not that relatable.
Itās much easier to remember and recognize terms youāre already passionate about.
It depends on the source material.
Reading manga became natural around N3, which was about 4 years in for me.
I alternated, over the years, between times of mostly studying and mostly consuming content (manga and video games in my case). Upon completing the N3 level course I was part of at the time, there was a sudden shift from āit still takes some concious effort to readā to āI donāt even realize what language Iām reading anymoreā. That lead to a massive year-long binge of manga
I also read my first Japanese book at the time (ē£ć®å„č ), but that felt crazy painful at the time. I didnāt pick up a novel again until much later, around the time I was about to attempt the N1. The shift had already mostly happened at the time.
I couldnāt imagine that being the first novel I read. It would have made my head
@ReJi00 Iām definitely not at the point yet where it feels easy, but Iāll give you my view anyway. The most important thing to remember is that everything about learning Japanese is a spectrum. Sometimes I have to read a sentence over and over again just to grasp what it means (and sometimes I still canāt after all that). Other times, I can read a couple paragraphs with barely taking a break to think and I understand everything that I read. And often I will encounter those two situations in short succession.
In some ways youāre worse off than your kids. At least your kids have been fully immersed in your native language for years.
There are plenty of VNs that I can read, but its by no means natural, and some that I can read and are natural. Other peoplesā experiences may differ, but ime how natural something is at this point in my studies basically depends on how much of the vocabulary I know. Some things fit in smoothly with the vocab I know, some things donāt. This is why I am so fond of floflo which basically makes sure that vocab isnāt an issue in whatever youāre reading. Ive gotten a lot faster too, but the speeding up definitely takes time. Just think of how long it took you to read english when you were little and get to your current speed.
As for the actual time portion, which I forgot to answer, it was a while after I got level 60 and I would say I had been studying for 1.75 years or so. But the 1.75 years doesnt even get into how much time I spend per day, which is definitely a lot by many peoplesā standards.
Well, it did, which is also why I gave up on books for a while.
That being said, I was reading the ākidā edition (forgot the name, the blue one, éć鳄 something?) so it had illustrations and furigana at least.
Answer: youāre asking the wrong question. Donāt think of it in terms of reading in Japanese becoming easy. Think of it in terms of your native language. Are there certain things that would be difficult to understand when you read them? Think about high level math or science books, or dense philosophy, or even a blog about an obscure video game that youāve never played before. Even as a native, these topics might be hard for you to understand. Japanese is the same way, youāre just more aware of how little you understand. Rather than worrying about reading Japanese being easy (because it will never always be easy, just like your native language), instead, focus on certain topics of interest. Read those topics a lot and eventually youāll learn all the keywords. Then, reading on those topics will become easy. Then move on to the next topic. Generally, I recommend getting a hold of some books written for Japanese pre-K children. Theyāll have very simple vocabulary and grammar. Read as many as you can until that becomes easy. After that, start reading books intended for elementary age children (if you can get them ranked by grade, all the better). Again, once it starts to become easy, level up again. Keep it up and eventually youāll be reading at a high school level, then a college level, and so on.
éč»¢ę¤äŗ 2. Iām not sure if any of them were remade for the 3DS, but they are definitely DS games.
ā¦
itās ok to lose focus, as long as you realise and gently bring yourself back to the task at hand 
or if itās become a real struggle to focus, itās a sign (for me anyway) that itās time for a break - I have a stretch, or make a cup of tea, etc, and then return to the text a few minutes later with fresher eyes, rather than just trying to relentlessly cram the words into my brain.
