HomeLearn JapaneseI’m nowhere near that level yet but speaking of long-term goals: To those who are already on a level that they can read books in Japanese. What were some of your first books that you’ve read entirely in Japanese?
I’m nowhere near that level yet but speaking of long-term goals: To those who are already on a level that they can read books in Japanese. What were some of your first books that you’ve read entirely in Japanese?
I was at ~6-8 months into studying and finished genki 1+2 and knew ~2k words. And my first was Harry Potter
I would recommend you search for a good first book through learnnatively.com.
I think I started trying to read novels pretty late. But that’s because I was reading Manga. The first book I tried was 魔女の宅急便 (majo no takkyuubin/Kiki’s delivery service). The first book I completed was a Junior Bunko (books for younger readers, with full furigana) adaptation of 声の形 (koe no katachi/a silent voice).
I read yotsuba (not a book but a manga) after about 6 months. Pictures make it way easier to understand things. I think I was more willing to sorta-kinda understand when the adults were talking. Yotsuba and the other kids are easier to understand.
After that I transitioned to books.
Later I read kiki’s delivery service after about (hmm) 11 months or so.
I read other books more quickly after that.
Now on my 7th book in Japanese. やった
I’m in between N2 and N3 after almost 4 years of studying and didn’t start reading until recently. The first book I read is called ナナメの夕暮れ after that I read 日向坂46ストーリー, サクラダリセット and 僕の人生には事件が起きない
I am one chapter away from finishing the first volume of 盾の勇者の成り上がり(The rising of the shield hero), which is maybe another three hours of reading, so for the purposes of answering this question, I’ll call that close enough. That said, I’ve also read a decent chunk of (the first volume of) GJ部, so I’ve read over one books worth of Japanese in total.
It’s not really possible for me to estimate how long I studied Japanese for before reading my first book. In terms of years, I started studying Japanese nearly 10 years before starting the book. However there were many years long breaks in that period of time. I had restarted my studies during COVID, and when I started reading 盾の勇者の成り上がり had taken college classes that went through Genki II (roughly it’s been a weird journey).
I probably had around 2000 words of passive vocabulary (give or take a few hundred) (including being able to read them when written in kanji) when I started.
Ultimately I started reading the book about one year and two months ago, although I took some breaks in that time, and I read about a fifth of the book in the last two weeks alone. It was pretty slow going when I started and my reading speed has gone up massively in the intervening time due to all the reading (of shield hero, GJ部, Pokemon Sword, and random articles) as well as other kanji and vocabulary study.
Edit: for what it’s worth, I do not recommend Shield Hero. It’s not particularly easy as a first book, and it’s not a particularly good story either. I picked it because I had access to it and because I’d watched the first season of the anime a while ago, so I vaguely knew the plot.
On the other hand, I can wholeheartedly recommend GJ部. The language is much easier and it’s pretty funny. I’m reading it with a friend, so we’ve been going through it slowly when we have time, but otherwise I’d probably have focused on reading that instead.
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I was at ~6-8 months into studying and finished genki 1+2 and knew ~2k words. And my first was Harry Potter
I would recommend you search for a good first book through learnnatively.com.
I think I started trying to read novels pretty late. But that’s because I was reading Manga. The first book I tried was 魔女の宅急便 (majo no takkyuubin/Kiki’s delivery service). The first book I completed was a Junior Bunko (books for younger readers, with full furigana) adaptation of 声の形 (koe no katachi/a silent voice).
I’ve only started inbetween N3 and N2, but given what I know now, I could’ve stared earlier. If you are inbetween beginner and intermediate, have a look at [graded readers](https://dokushoclub.com/2022/02/12/graded-readers/) and [100% furigana books](https://dokushoclub.com/2022/05/15/books-with-furigana/).
[Natively](https://learnnatively.com/) was already mentioned and I second that, there’s a similar [discussion of first ever books](https://forums.learnnatively.com/t/what-were-your-first-novels-and-or-alternatively-manga/886) in their forums, too!
I read yotsuba (not a book but a manga) after about 6 months. Pictures make it way easier to understand things. I think I was more willing to sorta-kinda understand when the adults were talking. Yotsuba and the other kids are easier to understand.
After that I transitioned to books.
Later I read kiki’s delivery service after about (hmm) 11 months or so.
I read other books more quickly after that.
Now on my 7th book in Japanese. やった
I’m in between N2 and N3 after almost 4 years of studying and didn’t start reading until recently. The first book I read is called ナナメの夕暮れ after that I read 日向坂46ストーリー, サクラダリセット and 僕の人生には事件が起きない
I am one chapter away from finishing the first volume of 盾の勇者の成り上がり(The rising of the shield hero), which is maybe another three hours of reading, so for the purposes of answering this question, I’ll call that close enough. That said, I’ve also read a decent chunk of (the first volume of) GJ部, so I’ve read over one books worth of Japanese in total.
It’s not really possible for me to estimate how long I studied Japanese for before reading my first book. In terms of years, I started studying Japanese nearly 10 years before starting the book. However there were many years long breaks in that period of time. I had restarted my studies during COVID, and when I started reading 盾の勇者の成り上がり had taken college classes that went through Genki II (roughly it’s been a weird journey).
I probably had around 2000 words of passive vocabulary (give or take a few hundred) (including being able to read them when written in kanji) when I started.
Ultimately I started reading the book about one year and two months ago, although I took some breaks in that time, and I read about a fifth of the book in the last two weeks alone. It was pretty slow going when I started and my reading speed has gone up massively in the intervening time due to all the reading (of shield hero, GJ部, Pokemon Sword, and random articles) as well as other kanji and vocabulary study.
Edit: for what it’s worth, I do not recommend Shield Hero. It’s not particularly easy as a first book, and it’s not a particularly good story either. I picked it because I had access to it and because I’d watched the first season of the anime a while ago, so I vaguely knew the plot.
On the other hand, I can wholeheartedly recommend GJ部. The language is much easier and it’s pretty funny. I’m reading it with a friend, so we’ve been going through it slowly when we have time, but otherwise I’d probably have focused on reading that instead.