Japanese Books to Translate

5 comments

1. If you’re trying to translate *per se* to learn as a beginner, I suggest that you reconsider as [translation is a completely different set of skill being required](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/c2lkoy/translation_difficulties/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf).

2. Kuma kuma kuma bear is imo the easiest novel while still being an actual mass market book (ie not a graded reader or specifically aimed at kids)

3. first book I read was 魔女の宅急便

   if that’s too much look for “graded readers” on this sub there are a few which are legally free

4. As suggested by u/iah772, if you want to learn Japanese you don’t need to translate, and translating will tend to slow you down. Reading books is fine but the aim is to understand the material you are reading. You don’t need to translate into your native language just to prove you’ve understood it.

   There are two approaches that work best for me:

   1) Write out the text in Japanese

   2) Read aloud the text in Japanese

   It’s not even necessary to undersand 100% of the content 100% of the time.

5. Find a book that was translated into English. Read it in Japanese and translate it, and then check the translation. This really work well with Manga.

   Note: translating 1:1 is usually discouraged in translation as the job of a translator is to also think of the cultural differences. A big one is onigiri, you can translate it as rice ball but what is that to an American? A ball of rice?