Greetings, everyone who likes learning Japanese.
Last October I’ve joined the Japanese Language group courses, and right now I can say my Japanese is better than it was in the very beginning 😀
But, sadly, I have some problems with my per N5 level. One of them is listening – it is hard to recognise similar words and remember, what do they mean. The second is my reading.
If I know words, and they are written by Kanji with furigana – I manage to read +/- fast – just comfortable speed. But if it is unknown yet words, or if they are just all written by hiragana/katakana – damn, I am reading like a 2-year child. I read in syllables, making mistakes and so on. I feel embarrassed, despite the fact my sensei trying to convince me it is okay at my level.
I am trying to read aloud – I use an app “Easy Japanese” with some current world news, but it is hard; I don’t like the format of the news; and grammatically it is way too high for my level. Can you recommend me something? Maybe, some easy(N5/N4) stuff, with furigana upper kanji, with +/- similar vocabulary? And, it is pretty important, with English translation. Thanks!
9 comments
Best way to get better at reading is by reading.
Are you using a textbook? How far along are you? I feel like sites like NHK Web Easy are better for N4-ish, so after Genki 2.
Graded readers usually will have a series of stories or books from very simple to more moderate difficulty. The language may be a little unnatural (simplifying things to make it easier, etc.) but it’s good practice.
If you want to focus on real books, try picture books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) and books for young children (something like Where the Wild Things Are). They’ll use simple grammar and repetitive words with supporting pictures. Basically things aimed at 1st and 2nd graders.
Everybody has these problems in the beginning. You get better by practice, just keep reading.
You can only make it more comfortable with specialized readers like Satori, LingQ, LLWT etc. These readers show you information (translation, pronunciation, normal form for verbs) when touching/clicking a word. Some of them can display furigana in hiragana or romaji for all words with kanji. And play a speech synthesis version of the word.
And they color words based on how good you know the word. That can be very motivating if less and less words are colored (no color = you know the word really well).
That makes reading much less painful. But in the end you‘ll have to read for a lot of hours to get better.
Also keep in mind that these reader are not perfect. They sometimes don‘t recognize grammatical structures correctly and if you have multiple pronunciation for a word, they can‘t always pick the right one (家 is one example that is often wrong).
As others have already pointed out, a reading skill develops best through reading regularly.
For N5 there are some amazing graded readers, eg. by [tadoku](https://tadoku.org/japanese/free-books/) or [yomuJP](https://yomujp.com/n5/). They only use limited vocabulary, so you won’t feel overwhelmed and can concentrate on understanding new words and grammar through context.
My personal recommendations would be:
* [なにを のみますか？](https://tadoku.org/japanese/book/6447/#bd-look-inside)
* [しろい？くろい？](https://tadoku.org/japanese/book/4982/#bd-look-inside)
* [パン](https://yomujp.com/%e3%83%91%e3%83%b3%ef%bc%88%e3%81%b1%e3%82%93%ef%bc%89/)
* [にほんの おもしろい カフェ](https://tadokuunri.com/2021/09/11/%e3%81%ab%e3%81%bb%e3%82%93%e3%81%ae%e3%81%8a%e3%82%82%e3%81%97%e3%82%8d%e3%81%84%e3%82%ab%e3%83%95%e3%82%a7/)
* [and here are some more](http://dokushoclub.com/category/book-review/n5-book-recommendation/)
A very honest advice, don’t try to chew more than you actually can.
You’re still N5 it’s nornal to read like that when you’re at that level. Just as a 7yo won’t read like a profesional orator you won’t read fast and recognizing words at first sight as an N5 student.
The only thing you can do is practice day and night. Don’t try to think to much about the sound of the mora just focus on recognize them at first sight just like you do with latin alphabet.
Practice reading kids stories whiche are mostly written in hiragana
I only read 4 books so far (almost…5…) but here is my route:
Genki 1 -> Genki 2 -> a few graded readers -> read books in Japanese
I needed to ask a lot of questions on the question thread, and I needed to use the dictionary a lot (and I mean, a LOT) but it’s do-able
first book I read was 魔女の宅急便, you can check that out if you want
Read, read, read, read, read, then read some more.
Read a lot, the more you read, the faster it goes.
At N5 theres not much you can read beyond Graded Readers and textbook examples though, stick with those. Once you get to N4, and especially N3, things really start opening up.
Manabi Reader app has an N5 reading section
Crystal Hunters manga Japanese version is the easiest manga you will ever read as it’s made for teaches Japanese to Japanese learners.
If this is still relevant for you, there is a Minna no Nihongo reading topic textbook and a short novel that goes with the main text book.
[Minna no Nihongo 25 reading topics](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nihongo-Shokyude-Yomeru-Topic25-Shkyu1/dp/4883196895)
[Mr Millar novel](https://www.amazon.co.uk/小説-ミラーさん-みんなの日本語初級シリーズ/dp/4883197557/ref=sr_1_5?crid=37OD85P2XRZPY&keywords=minna+no+nihongo+novel&qid=1658670682&sprefix=minna+nonihongo+novel%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-5)
The reading topics textbook has a variety of articles and reading tasks with questions and answers. I found it useful for helping improve my reading and I’ve used it for reviewing a few times as well after I completed it.
The novel I found was difficult to begin with (I started to read it about half way through the main textbook) but it got easier as I progressed through the textbook. Ive also used it for reading extensively and intensively and re-read it a few times to help with reading practice and understanding. It uses the grammar and Vocabulary from the textbook but also has a few additional unfamiliar grammar and vocabulary (possibly from the blue textbook set) yet I still find it’s good for helping to give context to the dialogue from the textbook as well as help you reading and becoming used to the grammar and vocabulary you’re learning.
There is also a [listening task textbook](https://www.amazon.co.uk/みんなの日本語初級I-第2版-聴解タスク25/dp/4883197573/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1THN7564OMS5Z&keywords=MINNA+NO+NIHONGO+SHOKYU+%281%29+%5B2ND+ED.%5D+CHOKAI+TASK+25&qid=1658672650&sprefix=minna+no+nihongo+shokyu+1+2nd+ed.+chokai+task+25%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1) as well for the red set and then when you progress to the next textbook, there are the same books to go with that set including a new novel that picks up from where the first one leaves off.