So I recently discovered that 角川つばさ文庫 actually publish books aimed at younger audiences (late primary/early middle school) that has furigana with every single kanji. The entire publication includes books such as 君の名は、バケモノの子、未来のミライ etc. which I would consider proper books (albeit not difficult ones).
I’m just curious what the community thinks about studying and reading using books such as these. Is it a terrible idea?
Personally I found that studying novels tends to be quite slow and tedious due to the unreasonable amount of kanji that pops up that I have no idea how to read. I can generally understand what it means based on context and kanji knowledge, but it really slows down the reading process if I have to whip out a dictionary to find how it’s read out (and sometimes the dictionary doesn’t even tell your the right reading). e.g. I guessed 乳吞み児 was read as chinomiji but it’s actually chinomigo.
I wonder if anyone has any experience reading this way and how it has impacted their reading ability over the long term?
​
5 comments
Why would it be a terrible idea?
It’s fine, you’ll learn the readings if you read enough anyway. In terms of efficiency, I think it’s quicker to read online with a popup dictionary, but reading physicals is always nicer, so it’s just preference.
I’m sure, it will help. You’ll seen the kanji and know how to read it. If you don’t know the vocabulary, it will help you to quickly find it in a dictionary. You can only win here.
What’s there to think about?
For me, it’s a non desired feature at this point in my learning journey.
Furigana enriched text can be super helpful at the very earliest steps of studying but it becomes a drag quickly. Whenever i see text like that now, my eyes keep wandering on furigana and it’s difficult not to skip the proper readings. It’s more annoying than helpful at this point.
Of course, you have to have established a good base of kanji knowledge and be able to go some distance without interrupting for kanji reading look ups. Furthermore, texts with a lot of furigana usually target children so the overall level is usually on the easier side, meaning a lot less lookups for non beginner learners.
Still, furigana is more than welcome when met on a few scarce unusual readings in books and novels.