I'm curious as to what people found the most useful when moving over to reading native Japanese material. What resources, ways of thinking, or interactions did you have that seemed to help you "get" written Japanese?
Helped the MOST? Learning some kanji. It’s hard when you read an unknown word and see 救急車
It’s easier when you see
æ•‘ – Salvation 急 – Hurry 車 – Vehicle
Ambulance
冷蔵庫?
冷 – cold 蔵 – Storage 庫 – Warehouse
Refrigerator
Japanese is the opposite of English. In English unknown words offer pronunciation and you have to search for meaning. In japanese you can get meaning before pronunciation.
1. Enjoyment (the most important over everything else) 2. Grammar studies and references 3. Time, effort, and passion (and a dictionary)
For me as a semi beginner, any book that has furigana on the kanji’s. Helps read faster and the more you see that kanji, the more you’ll remember what it say with out furigana. Unless it has a different meaning in a different sentence.
The way complex sentences are built with relative clauses, attributive forms and suspensive / conditional forms.
Practice.
Aside from Anki and just reading a lot what helped the most so far was probably just asking chat gpt 4 to break down the grammar of the sentences I didn’t understand. I probably learned all my grammar through chat gpt lmao
Satori Reader is a good bridge to native material.
I’ve been enjoying bilingual readers. I don’t necessarily use them so much for the translations, but rather they’ve been curated for (lower) intermediate learners really well, in my experience. The authors/editors are generally able to pick some really approachable stuff that manages to be both enjoyable and informative.
– Having a good foundation of basic grammar – Reading something interesting to me
Jpdb.io and their curated decks that let you learn by frequency within a single book. This way I can achieve 90% comprehension with only 50% of unique vocabulary (because I’ll learn the words used 20 times before those used once).
Though I started with movie decks, since they are smaller and more manageable. Only moved on to books after I had a base of a few thousand words.
Also, reading books I’m actually interested in instead of those aimed at learners.
Also some apps that simplify lookups – YomiNinja, Jidoujisho.
Satori Reader. Yes it costs money, but their voice acting, word by word definitions with the exact definition for that usage of the word, grammar discussion, and sentence translations. And there are graded difficulties so you have content for absolute beginner all the way to a nice entry level to native content. It transformed me from someone who had memorized a lot of words to being able to read non-trivial Japanese sentences. Once I finished all of the content, picking up a light novel was a gentle transition.
The number one thing you can do is stop trying to understand each word and phrase and focus on understanding the sentence or paragraph.
This seems super counterintuitive, but if you are word for word translating, you will both not enjoy the process and not really properly parse a sentence in a natural way. Instead, you’re building a translation layer.
The way I view sentences is that you can lack 1/3 things and still be fine in understanding the whole sentence. These things are vocab/kanji, grammar points, and contextual meaning. If you don’t know the grammar points but you know the vocab and the context, you can piece together the grammar meaning. If youre aware of the kanji and the grammar points but the sentence is introducing a lot of new contextual meaning (exposition) then you can generally figure it out if you sit with it a bit.
But the moment you don’t know 2/3, you probably are not understanding the sentence. This is where looking things up is the most powerful.
Making the dictionary/kanji lookup process seemless. I still avoid paper due to this and reaching N1 level
Quicker can lookup a word or unknown kanji, the better I can flow while immersing
This is a pretty wide topic with many different types of tools so I had to do lots of trial and error before figuring out a good flow. Also depends on what type of media you’d be consuming and on what type of device and on what app, etc.
Yomichan.Â
Gotta say cure dolly. I literally gave up Japanese a few years ago since I can’t understand and memorize grammar points on the textbook. Now having watched a dozen of episodes of Cure dolly’s lesson, I have to say that’s really a game-changing course, the grammar system she created is far more understandable and reasonable than any textbook I’ve read
Years of practice
Satori reader is a good gateway – it’s designed for learners, but the stories are natural and graded by difficulty. My reading (and speaking, listening and general comprehension) has improved so much while using it.
What really helped me (after already getting to a certain level) was thinking “broadly understanding what’s going on in this story is enough”. I really had to force myself not to look up every word I didn’t know. As long as you understand what’s happening, just keep reading. Even if you feel like you’re missing something crucial, keep reading and it will probably be cleared up in a couple of lines. Only look up things if you get really stuck.
Just forcing myself to do it to be honest. It’s demoralizing reading at a snail’s pace but you can’t get any faster till you do that.
1. Having good foundational kanji, vocab and grammar knowledge, N4-N3 level at the least. 2. Reading easier books/articles that are around my JLPT level, N3/N2. 3. Reading on familiar topic or books already read in English. 4. Focusing on understanding the general context over each individual word and grammar pattern so as to not give up in frustration. Digital text with dictionary lookup feature aids a lot in this.
Using ChatGPT or a similar LLM has really helped me. If I’m struggling with a sentence, I can ask it to translate, and break down the grammar such that it clicks for me intuitively. It’s almost like having a native speaker sitting next to you, explaining hard sentences.
Though, don’t jump to using it too quickly though otherwise you won’t really learn to do it yourself. Try to make an attempt to understand the sentence first, and if you really can’t get it, use ChatGPT.
Other advice is find content that is i+1 (just outside your current level), or extremely interesting to you such that you’re really motivated to understand no matter how difficult. Ideally you check both boxes. And use yomitan for quick dictionary lookups.
Just reading native material I was actually interested in and were on the easier side, like slice of life manga. I think reading subs from a drama or anime also counts and there the entry barrier is even lower. My first book was a bit of a slog to get through but with each additional book I read it gets easier and easier. There is no secret ingridient, you just gotta read, read, read, and to not let the fun of reading come to a halt, you should choose wisely what you read.
Needing or wanting information that’s only available in Japanese. Wanting to read travel guides written for a Japanese audience, for example, or having an interest in art or history and wanting deeper information.
23 comments
Helped the MOST? Learning some kanji. It’s hard when you read an unknown word and see 救急車
It’s easier when you see
æ•‘ – Salvation
急 – Hurry
車 – Vehicle
Ambulance
冷蔵庫?
冷 – cold
蔵 – Storage
庫 – Warehouse
Refrigerator
Japanese is the opposite of English. In English unknown words offer pronunciation and you have to search for meaning. In japanese you can get meaning before pronunciation.
1. Enjoyment (the most important over everything else)
2. Grammar studies and references
3. Time, effort, and passion (and a dictionary)
For me as a semi beginner, any book that has furigana on the kanji’s. Helps read faster and the more you see that kanji, the more you’ll remember what it say with out furigana. Unless it has a different meaning in a different sentence.
Book clubs on wanikani : [https://community.wanikani.com/t/master-list-of-book-clubs/35283](https://community.wanikani.com/t/master-list-of-book-clubs/35283)
[ichi.moe](http://ichi.moe) to help parsing sentences.
The way complex sentences are built with relative clauses, attributive forms and suspensive / conditional forms.
Practice.
Aside from Anki and just reading a lot what helped the most so far was probably just asking chat gpt 4 to break down the grammar of the sentences I didn’t understand.
I probably learned all my grammar through chat gpt lmao
Satori Reader is a good bridge to native material.
I’ve been enjoying bilingual readers. I don’t necessarily use them so much for the translations, but rather they’ve been curated for (lower) intermediate learners really well, in my experience. The authors/editors are generally able to pick some really approachable stuff that manages to be both enjoyable and informative.
– Having a good foundation of basic grammar
– Reading something interesting to me
Jpdb.io and their curated decks that let you learn by frequency within a single book. This way I can achieve 90% comprehension with only 50% of unique vocabulary (because I’ll learn the words used 20 times before those used once).
Though I started with movie decks, since they are smaller and more manageable. Only moved on to books after I had a base of a few thousand words.
Also, reading books I’m actually interested in instead of those aimed at learners.
Also some apps that simplify lookups – YomiNinja, Jidoujisho.
Satori Reader. Yes it costs money, but their voice acting, word by word definitions with the exact definition for that usage of the word, grammar discussion, and sentence translations. And there are graded difficulties so you have content for absolute beginner all the way to a nice entry level to native content. It transformed me from someone who had memorized a lot of words to being able to read non-trivial Japanese sentences. Once I finished all of the content, picking up a light novel was a gentle transition.
The number one thing you can do is stop trying to understand each word and phrase and focus on understanding the sentence or paragraph.
This seems super counterintuitive, but if you are word for word translating, you will both not enjoy the process and not really properly parse a sentence in a natural way. Instead, you’re building a translation layer.
The way I view sentences is that you can lack 1/3 things and still be fine in understanding the whole sentence. These things are vocab/kanji, grammar points, and contextual meaning. If you don’t know the grammar points but you know the vocab and the context, you can piece together the grammar meaning. If youre aware of the kanji and the grammar points but the sentence is introducing a lot of new contextual meaning (exposition) then you can generally figure it out if you sit with it a bit.
But the moment you don’t know 2/3, you probably are not understanding the sentence. This is where looking things up is the most powerful.
Making the dictionary/kanji lookup process seemless. I still avoid paper due to this and reaching N1 level
Quicker can lookup a word or unknown kanji, the better I can flow while immersing
This is a pretty wide topic with many different types of tools so I had to do lots of trial and error before figuring out a good flow. Also depends on what type of media you’d be consuming and on what type of device and on what app, etc.
Yomichan.Â
Gotta say cure dolly. I literally gave up Japanese a few years ago since I can’t understand and memorize grammar points on the textbook. Now having watched a dozen of episodes of Cure dolly’s lesson, I have to say that’s really a game-changing course, the grammar system she created is far more understandable and reasonable than any textbook I’ve read
Years of practice
Satori reader is a good gateway – it’s designed for learners, but the stories are natural and graded by difficulty. My reading (and speaking, listening and general comprehension) has improved so much while using it.
What really helped me (after already getting to a certain level) was thinking “broadly understanding what’s going on in this story is enough”. I really had to force myself not to look up every word I didn’t know. As long as you understand what’s happening, just keep reading. Even if you feel like you’re missing something crucial, keep reading and it will probably be cleared up in a couple of lines. Only look up things if you get really stuck.
Just forcing myself to do it to be honest. It’s demoralizing reading at a snail’s pace but you can’t get any faster till you do that.
1. Having good foundational kanji, vocab and grammar knowledge, N4-N3 level at the least.
2. Reading easier books/articles that are around my JLPT level, N3/N2.
3. Reading on familiar topic or books already read in English.
4. Focusing on understanding the general context over each individual word and grammar pattern so as to not give up in frustration. Digital text with dictionary lookup feature aids a lot in this.
Using ChatGPT or a similar LLM has really helped me. If I’m struggling with a sentence, I can ask it to translate, and break down the grammar such that it clicks for me intuitively. It’s almost like having a native speaker sitting next to you, explaining hard sentences.
Though, don’t jump to using it too quickly though otherwise you won’t really learn to do it yourself. Try to make an attempt to understand the sentence first, and if you really can’t get it, use ChatGPT.
Other advice is find content that is i+1 (just outside your current level), or extremely interesting to you such that you’re really motivated to understand no matter how difficult. Ideally you check both boxes. And use yomitan for quick dictionary lookups.
Just reading native material I was actually interested in and were on the easier side, like slice of life manga. I think reading subs from a drama or anime also counts and there the entry barrier is even lower. My first book was a bit of a slog to get through but with each additional book I read it gets easier and easier. There is no secret ingridient, you just gotta read, read, read, and to not let the fun of reading come to a halt, you should choose wisely what you read.
Needing or wanting information that’s only available in Japanese. Wanting to read travel guides written for a Japanese audience, for example, or having an interest in art or history and wanting deeper information.