This will be my first “real” Japanese book. That’s very intimidating, and I wanted to share with you the reason.
If I try to read it, and fail, it calls into question everything that I’ve been doing to learn Japanese. Not just the hours on WaniKani, but all the grammar reading and kana vocabulary flashcards and everything. I’m anxious because I don’t want to be confronted with a wall of text and say to myself, “Welp, that was wasted time.”
Thing is, I have been down this road before in other languages, and what I learned is that everything I’m afraid of will absolutely happen. I will feel, for a little while, like I haven’t learned anything.
What is untrue is the conclusion that my time is wasted. Instead, I just have to set myself some achievable goals. How many words do I recognize? How many kanji? Can I figure out what part of speech a given word is, even if I have never seen it before? Can I tell where one word ends and the next begins?
If I can do any of those, then I’ve learned something. And the minute I’ve learned something, then reading in Japanese becomes a problem I can solve. I can read 5%? Great, then I just need do the same thing I’ve already done 19 more times. It’s big, it’s intimidating, but it’s finite and quantifiable.
By the way, I can tell myself that all day long, but I’m still anxious. That’s why I’m glad to have this book club to support me. I’m going to feel stupid! Let’s all feel stupid together, and come out the other side all that much smarter for it.
You can count on me, when it comes to feeling stupid. I definitely will, but with all these helpful people around there is nothing to fear. We will figure it out and learn a lot from it.
Just wanted to say I ordered my copy from booklive so am excited to start. However a note of caution. It seems my title is only readable from a browser or booklive’s own native app which is android. Since i’m on ios looks like I’ll be using it from a browser (unless i’m mistaken). Wish i’d known that beforehand. It was super cheap so no real loss but would probably invest in a regular ebook or kindle version if I end up buying future volumes.
This is what I was afraid of and didn’t jump into the Booklive version. I tried to load the app on my Android but Google Play says the app is incompatible with my device, probably due to regional issues. I am terrible at reading from a browser, it’s too distracting for me. I understand that Honto works the same way?
@ccprince Ahhhh that’s understandable. Maybe try to look at it as a search for vocabulary/grammar points that you don’t know and would like to learn rather than an attempt to read it on the first way through? That way, the goal is no longer understanding on the first read through, but just to find the material you’ll need to study in order to understand it later.
Either way, I hope you’re able to find something that works for you!
Thank you everybody for sharing the word about the vendor-lock-in EPUB version.
I am on iOS too, so I thought I’d give Bookwalker a try. And it’s really nice! They have an iOS app (and also an Android app, it seems) which gives you a bookshelf and does automatic syncing of your purchases.
If you can get the gist of the text, keep going: it will get easier and you’ll learn something from every session. (But take breaks when your brain feels like it’s turning to mush, which will probably happen a lot at first)
If you’re really just looking at a wall of incomprehensible squiggles (which seems unlikely with this book, but I know from experience that getting past that feeling is hard, and something I have to mentally overcome every time I sit down to read around my level), there’s no shame in going back to review grammar or tackle example sentences for a while before trying again. Bookclub threads here always have people watching for new activity long after the majority have finished, so anyone is welcome to re-read difficult passages and ask questions or jump in fresh at any time.
But like others have said, you’re also going to have a lot of support, as long as you’re not afraid to ask questions. For the first volume of Yotsuba, almost every last grammatical structure came up in the thread, as did a lot of vocab. Some people went into it barely knowing what particles are and are now answering questions for others.
And the advantage of this book, from what I’ve read of it so far, is that it is a lot more straightforward than Yotsuba, while still being a lot of fun. Perfect for beginners like me!
Brilliant! And I remember that you said the estimated delivery date was between late-June and mid-July, so that is really good! (And you’re right about the quality, it’s a lovely book, isn’t it?!)
Hi all
I haven’t posted on forums at all yet (I’m more of a lurker), and I’m rather new to Japanese - but I’ve just bought the book on amazon UK and I guess I’ll now have to give it a go! Eeek!
Although I’m excited my book will eventually be in my hands, I’m also nervous because I am such a newbie at Japanese. I’m glad there will be a lot of support. I’ll probably need it!