When reading I have to say the word in my head before I can remember the meaning. It’s like the meaning is solely connected to the pronounciation and not the characters. I don’t need to do this for some simple words like 猫.
Is this a problem I should try to fix or will it just come naturally eventually?
6 comments
It will come the more you read and the faster your mind voice gets. Frankly, it’s a better position to start from than recalling meaning and not pronunciation. The more you can keep sound and meaning recognition to around the same pace, the better. The further you get, the more they should complement one another so you’re reading parts of phrases at a time.
Yeah it will get better for sure. 🙂
From what I’ve read, most of us did that as kids in our native/original languages and forgot over time. I’m sure you’ll improve.
I feel like rather than a problem it’s an advantage. I’m the same way and been doing it ever since I started learning Japanese and it helps me bridge the gap between spoken and written Japanese. It helps me remember my anki cards by adding some audio sample to the (back of the) card which helps my memory when I see the kanji/word again, etc.
Some people just subvocalize everything they read and it’s totally normal and natural. Don’t worry about it. I personally need to make an active effort in trying **not** to say words in my head as I read them (in any language, not just Japanese) and often my comprehension suffers a bit (although my reading speed goes up). It’s much more comfortable to “narrate” what I’m reading to myself in my head.
That’s a common problem for people who aren’t fully literate worldwide. It will go away as you study further.
For me, it has been a verbal thing or being silently verbal about it. I only came to notice because my throat always hurts from whispering or holding my voice in.
It was the same when I was non-fluent with Chinese. I HAD to spell it out to absorb the knowledge. I think it’s a good thing if that’s how you practice