I just want to share my accomplishment. Today I read the first chapter of Yotsubato! entirely in Japanese and I’m so happy that I got a good understanding of what was being said.
I wasn’t without problems tho, when Fuuka and the dad were talking I had a really hard time and I barely understood a thing, I’m probably going to read the chapter later in english for a bigger comprehension.
But overall I had a blast reading it and I’m probably going to(try to) read the next chapter as soon as I finish this post!
17 comments
You may find this page very helpful, it has a link somewhere to a complete list of all vocabulary in spreadsheet and Anki format:
[https://community.wanikani.com/t/よつばと!vol-1-discussion-thread-beginners-book-club/19926](https://community.wanikani.com/t/よつばと!vol-1-discussion-thread-beginners-book-club/19926)
One of the most challenging things in Yotsuba is the colloquial language, the day-to-day Japanese that is ignored by textbooks. The above helps a lot with that. Happy reading!
That is the same sense of achievement I got – first, native material! Keep going, rely on wanikani’s forum as suggested above sometimes, while other times just enjoy reading the manga – getting better at it is exhilarating! I’m now on volume 10 and simply love it! Got SO much better thanks to Yotsuba ✌️
Nice. It’s a hilarious manga, and just keeps getting easier and easier the more of it you read. Took me forever to finish the first volume (and especially the first chapter when they moved in) and then not very long for the second, third, etc.
Amazing work! All language learning really boils down to is a series of these kinda small victories.
Bilingual Manga has a bunch of the early よつばと!chapters if you wanna keep reading. Definitely make a note to revisit that first chapter further into your studies, I bet you’ll be amazed at how much easier you can parse the stuff you found tough first time through.
I feel so happy on your regards, good luck!
Congrats! Is this a commonly used “beginner friendly” manga?
I read Yotsuba myself as my practice, I am on volume 3 now and it’s gotten easier. I buy them physically from jp Amazon.
If you are reading the real manga, it’s good practice for some varying fonts! You will also notice how some kanji is omitted from Yostubas dialog Vs adults. I presume it’s to help show her more “childlike” speech.
BIG W TODAY , it’s not a small victory ITS SO BIG
>I wasn’t without problems tho, when Fuuka and the dad were talking I had a really hard time and I barely understood a thing, I’m probably going to read the chapter later in english for a bigger comprehension.
Who cares how perfectly you read it?
You looked at Japanese text, and understood it! That is an amazing and rare accomplishment. Imagine going back in time and amazing past you with it.
There’s always hill left to climb, but don’t hesitate to look back and see how far you have come!
This is a huge accomplishment, great job!
Make sure you check out Foxumon’s “classes” on Yotsuba on YouTube. Great for learning to read. Her later ones are more polished and it’s probably better to start with vol 2. https://youtube.com/c/foxumon
There used to be a site called “Bilingual Manga” where you could read Yotsuba and switch seamlessly between Japanese and English, but it’s been down for months.
I wonder if [archive.org](http://web.archive.org/web/20210410185151/https://bilingualmanga.com/manga/yotsubato/chapter-1/5-1) has it archived… >_>
Since you are practically begging for one, here: 🍪
That is basically how it goes with Yotsubato. There are whole chapters where she will be running around with Ena or someone and understanding it will be a breeze, then you’ll get Jumbo and Koiwai-san having a totally incomprehensible conversation. It’s pretty funny when you realize that these conversations are probably also unintelligible for Yotsuba. Kind of puts you in her shoes when you’re only catching snippets and trying to cobble together an understanding of what they might mean.
where did you get access to the manga?
!remindme 1 day
Sounds odd but maybe re read the chapter in kanji a few more time also, before progressing. Repetition.