I made a thread yesterday about peoples’ approach to looking things up – whether they look up everything every time or skip things depending on mood or ease of study. I saw several people reporting that they only ever read things that they can scan with a popup dictionary like yomichan, so things on the computer.
When I started studying, one of my biggest goals was to read some of the raw manga and novels I had received as gifts or purchased (physical copies) and Japanese games and novel games that I’d bought for my PS3 and DS. I used yomichan to read things that were on my computer, but half or more of my reading was not on the computer because I was largely interested in physical media I’d obtained, and planned to obtain more of.
So I was very surprised to see several people saying that the only things they ever read are on the computer, because they can use yomichan. I didn’t realize that was a thing. No physical media at all? Hm, wow.
So do you personally fall into this category of people who abandoned physical media entirely, for the ease of using scannable popup dictionaries? Or do you still use physical media as well? Very curious about how common the former is vs the latter.
17 comments
I don’t like reading on the computer so I do it as little as possible. My reading is probably a 40/40/20 split of paper/kindle/computer. That being said, reading material that’s “above your level” is definitely way easier with a popup dictionary.
I enjoy physical books and manga a lot, but I also buy ebooks because I don’t live in Japan and the shipping costs if purchasing from Japan get expensive! If I did live in Japan I would certainly purchase the physical version of something I’d like to read in 9/10 cases, though.
I would add a note that I enjoyed reading ebooks more until I reached around ~50 books and needed to look up words less while reading. The popup dictionary really is a big help when starting out (but is definitely not a must)!
All my Japanese reading is done in-browser in my computer, and has been since the beginning. I once read a couple of stickers on some hardware at an industrial site where I worked one summer, I
think that’s it as far as exceptions go. Even in-browser, I’ve more or less stopped reading raw manga as well, as web-novels scratch the same content-itch for me while also being parseable for Yomichan.
>No physical media at all?
No physical media at all. I’m pretty much completely digital in my native and second language as well. I’m on the rental market, so I hate having a lot of stuff to lug around.
Yeah, I stuck with ebooks and manga with furigana at first. After like 30-50 books I started playing games and reading physical books sometimes
I use physical books but use internet for dictionaries and such.
The closest thing to a physical dictionary I use regularly is my penmanship dictionary, in which the jōyō kanji are listed in on’yomi order.
The only physical thing I’ve ever read is the back of furikake packets and other food instructions
Nah it’s too limiting to just use popup dictionaries IMO. There’s way to much media you miss out on, it’s helpful but can be a crutch. I play games on vita and switch and read paper novels and magazines and look stuff up with an phone dictionary (Midori on iOS).
You get really fast at looking up kanji after a while. I use the hiragana swipe keyboard and write in kanji I don’t know any pronunciation of. Otherwise you can look up some other word that uses the kanji that you do know and select the kanji and see other words from there, or write in a similar looking kanji and choose from the similar kanji list. I use the finger drawing input feature a lot as it’s fast and I can practice writing a bit too.
I do 90% of reading on an e-reader, so I can use yomichan on the go 😀 For manga I’ve been using my iPad, just because the volumes are quick to finish and take up space.
However, I do have some physical manga to mix it up and a small pile of books that have no digital versions.
Well I didn’t abandon physical media because I never really used physical media to begin with. So whenever it’s possible I will read in my browser with yomichan. The next best option for me is a Kindle.
I do have physical manga and novels, but it’s mostly a collectors item or whatever you want to call it. I guess there are some more obscure novels that aren’t available digitally, but that’s actually vanishingly few.
As for actual reading, I try to read my physical stuff whenever It’s nearby, but it’s actually in storage rn anyway. So I guess I am going full digital anyway. It wouldn’t all fit in my apartment, so I guess that’s the main downside of having a collection of this stuff haha.
I read most novels digitally, but only because it’s easier than importing them and doesn’t result in me ending up with a huge pile of books again that I’ll never read a second time. I read for fun (it’s not study, it’s the reward for sticking with studying long enough to be able to read), so I’m not optimizing my dictionary lookups. But of course it’s still easier because it’s digital.
For manga I prefer physical books though, because they look nicer. I don’t like reading manga on a small screen, and I don’t want to spend my free time in front of my computer either.
I also have a bunch of learning resources physically, and a few dictionaries. Although the dictionaries are also better digitally. Or specifically, they’re better on a smartphone.
I only read physical books, there is just something special about holding a book in your hands, flipping pages, the smell, etc. Importing with Amazon Japan is surprisingly cheap (if you buy in bulk) and fast, the only downside is probably my diminishing shelf space,
I read entirely physically because I spend all day using a screen for work. I buy japanese language novels and manga from eBay UK, with occasional order from Amazon JP if there’s something I particularly want to read. I get Japanese mooks (book-magazines) a couple of times a year as a treat – I like to sit in the garden and read these with coffee before work. I also play games in Japanese on my Switch.
For dictionary look-ups, I use Takoboto on my phone. I use a hiragana swipe keyboard on my phone and the google handwriting input option for kanji that I don’t know/can’t remember the reading for. I find the physical process of looking things up helps you to remember it – as you start drawing the kanji you think ‘oh I’ve looked this up before’ and after you’ve laboriously drawn in the same kanji three or 4 times you just make yourself commit it to memory so you don’t have to do it again.
I do both.
I’m never really concerned about the speed or monotony of manual lookups because I’m not in a hurry for anything. I buy physical as a collector if I know I love it, plan to keep it and re-read someday. (I’ve also amassed a sizeable collection from the 20 years before I started learning that I’d love to finally read) Though I’m learning to be pickier about that for space and future relocation reasons. So I also do like to buy digitally sometimes. I can’t deny the usefulness of the pop-up dictionary.
I generally do Manga Physical.
Even official ebook versions like to make the furigana microscopic. For Normal words that’s fine. I probably know the Kanji, and if I don’t, I can look it up. But Fantasy or Fantasy Adjacent Manga likes to make up its own readings (Looking directly at you, Aqua/Aria), and there’s really no way of knowing what it is without the furigana or trowling Japanese Wikis.
Books I just get digital off bookwalker. I can pay like $4 for an ebook, or I can pay like $6 and massive shipping to get the physical version off Amazon. I own and have read a dozen or so physical novels, but it’s so much easier and cheaper to just use my phone. But as there is jo way I’m aware of to make Yomichan or similar work on Bookwalker’s stuff without removing the DRM and converting the files, something I cannot be assed to do, I still do it without a pop up dictionary.
I’m like 90% physical media.
My Kindle app on my phone is hooked up to my US kindle account, and I’m not changing that, so if I want to read ebooks from the Japanese kindle store, I’d have to do it on my computer, which I’m too lazy to use. As a result, I tend to just buy a physical book when I want to read something. I live in Japan, so it’s not cost prohibitive. When I read books I read extensively (no look ups) so it’s fine.
I tend to read my Kumon homework intensively. That’s only offered by physical paper worksheets, so I can’t use a pop up dictionary. I actually like it being physical though. I make notes in the margins about the meaning of new words, which I feel like helps me remember the new vocab better. It takes longer, sure, but I don’t do high volume intensive reading for exactly that reason.
The only thing I tend to use a pop up dictionary for is when I read newspaper articles, which I generally do online.