I’m an absolute beginner, like 2 weeks into LingoDeer with a tiny bit of prior knowledge. It really helps me to see/hear real life examples, so I’m attempting to read books for literal babies. I can usually get the approximation of whats written if I look up a few nouns. I know that it isn’t always accurate , and have even caught google translate being not quite right. So how do I double check if I understand something if translation apps aren’t always right? Is there one better than the rest? Just take the grammar it gives with a grain of salt?
(Don’t worry, this will not be my approach forever, and I understand picture books aren’t going to be the epitome of proper grammar. I promise! But I’m learning a bunch of new nouns and strengthening my kana reading lol)
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You should search this sub for a detailed reason why, but here’s the gist in the topic: picture books for Japanese children is still considerably difficult with issues of its own. Instead, use widely accepted textbooks and graded readers – these are intended to be more efficient for a language learner.
find the book in english and read both. i do that for novels. read a chapter in japanese, then read the same chapter in english. if i feel i missed something, i can go back to that page and paragraph and see where i misunderstood something. also allows me to check for things i totally missed, rather than just misunderstood, including inferences and moods. optionally re-read the chapter in japanese after looking up words and checking on things.