Hi all,
Four years ago or so I started a project that teaches Japanese without relying on translation. It introduces new words using emojis or illustrations and the uses them in some simple stories that I think of as genuinely enjoyable. Words are repeated very often so that the stories act as a natural SRS. The more one reads the more complex it all becomes.
It starts [here]( https://drdru.github.io/stories/intro.html ) and the list of stories is [here]( https://drdru.github.io/stories.html ).
As the title says, it has now reached 100 pages and introduces the reader to about 500 words. It is a big milestone for me so I’ve decided to share it again on this sub to celebrate this release.
When I started I thought this would fill a gap in the resources available to Japanese learners. It turns out it never really took off. I personally think it’s a really cool resource to have and wish this existed when I was a beginner. I am going to take a break from this project for some time to be able to focus on my other projects that aim to provide high quality content to learners who can read NHK Easy News and just enter the intermediate plateau (~N4+) :
– [The Tile World Chronicles]( https://drdru.github.io/twc.html ) : a set of pixel art illustrated FF6 inspired stories
– [AinoloniA: Return to Parascythe]( https://tapas.io/episode/2768428 ) : a comic book taking place in a post apocalytic world It comes with a Kanji guide [here]( https://drdru.github.io/return_to_parascythe/kanji_guide.html ) (the creator and I will make an ‘official anouncement’ about this project in the coming weeks, there are still a few things we want to do before).
I hope some of this will help you improve your Japanese while having a good time. I strongly believe that with enough Graded Readers Japanese learning would be a solved problem.
🙂
3 comments
This is so useful! You’re incredible. 🙂
Thank you so much. This is amazing
[A native speaker proofread this](https://drdru.github.io/stories/intro.html)? Uhh… idk about that. You sure that was a native speaker? Sounding weird in order to simplify a sentence is one thing, but the issues I saw from the three stories I picked at random *make the sentences mean something else, or on the verge of what I’d consider ungrammatical.*
– ロンドン の 地下鉄では ヘッドホン で 音楽を 聞く
→Using では would make it sound like that’s the rule/norm, not describing what is going on. Unless using headphones is in fact the norm and it’s weird not to?
– 「虎の目がある」 どの歌手が歌う？
→If this is referring to the [Eye of the Tiger](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AA%E3%83%96%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC), you should be careful about translating proper nouns. If it’s referring to [Roar](https://recochoku.jp/song/S21911233/), well, same idea. Always look up proper nouns.
– コンサートに走ろう！
→This gives me the vibes of google translate 10 year ago.