After a bit of conversation in my article about my recent study methods I thought it would be good to get into more detail about the books I’ve been reading! Besides some manga, I’ve been reading books intended for Japanese children. There are a few problems I’ve found reading these compared to graded readers that are intended for beginners to the language. For instance, while children might not have a sophisticated vocabulary like an adult, they still have a large pool of vocab to pull from. Never the less children’s books are obviously going to be a challenge to read, they are going to be easier than adult fiction, and thus can be a nice stepping stone for those of us who want to get to that stage one day. Amazon.co.jp ウィジェット

齋藤孝のイッキによめる！名作選（3年生）

This is the first book I attempted to read. It is a collection of short stories. It really is quite good, I feel, in that the amount of kanji is recognisable at least for someone in the upper beginner stage – not too much kanji but not so little that it is painful to read. Everything has furigana in any case. And some words have a little definition under them as well which is very helpful. There are a few pictures through the book, and at the end of every little story is three quick questions which test comprehension of the story. Over all I think this is a great book, just not right for me. The more I think about it the more I think it is just ill suited to me – I just didn’t realise it at the time which is why it frustrated me. But when I think about it, I had the same “Is that all? Am I missing something?” feeling I get when I read short stories in English. Although – it is important also to point out that I was missing things. A co-worker had me translate a line into English, which I did, and I was right, but he then explained some nuances that I missed. I think I’ll continue to miss nuances of course until my Japanese becomes more sophisticated. Never the less, I think this also shows that even if you get the basic story line, with these books you can have room to grow with them, perhaps discovering new things every time you read them. So yes, I recommend these books to you if you think you’ll like the short stories. After all, my problem isn’t with these books, I think they are fantastic, but rather the realisation that short stories and I don’t really gel in any language. Get this book from Amazon or scroll up a bit to check out the carousel of more books in the series, all the different grade levels.    

10分で読めるお話 This is the next set of books I bought. So far I’ve only read through this grade one book. It was a bit more satisfying in that I understood much more without having to consult the dictionary as much. These are smaller stories than from the other book (although I don’t have the grade 3 one to compare with the grade 3 one I own, so perhaps they are comparable)… There are more pictures in these ones too, and have some poetry which I actually really enjoyed! The stories do get progressively longer and harder too which is nice. Thumbs are enthusiastically up for these ones as well. Amazon.co.jp ウィジェット   Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.  

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Reading Manga For Japanese Language Learning Going Gung-ho – November 2009 Some Awesome Websites Remembering to Remember the Kanji Let’s Enjoy English!

Where did the time go? It’s been over a month since I last posted, and I’ll tell you where I’ve been. Right here on the computer! Since the 19th of October 2009, I’ve spent 89 hours studying Japanese. Some of you may know nanowrimo – an event which takes part in November where you attempt to write 50,000 words in a month. My goal of November was something similar, I wanted to see if I could attempt to study for 100 hours during November. The outcome is I’ll probably just be a little short of 70 hours, but I’m pretty happy with that! Next month I’m aiming for 80 hours – it might be a bit harder because it’s the holiday season but we’ll see how I go! What follows is a long breakdown of what I’ve been up to during November! Listening My listening category includes watching tv/movies as well as other education specific audio. My main source was watching tv, I only include it when I am actively listening and not when I’m multi tasking or have background noise. I think when I have a larger vocabulary I will do more level specific listening to try and improve my listening skills. One TV show I do recommend to beginners is “My Girl” staring Aiba Masaki – the dialogue for the most part is spoken very slowly and simply as the main character is a young girl. Yeah, it’s a bit… but it’s easy study material! There is one more day left in November, but it’s not like I’m going to drastically increase my study hours… With that in mind, in November I watched/listened to about 15 hours of Japanese. December’s goal: 20 hours.   Reading Breakdown:

Grade 3 (primary school) short story book Grade 1 and 2 (primary school) short story book Manga Novel for 10-11 year old girls

Reading is a skill that I really want to improve. One of my goals of learning Japanese is to be able to understand Japanese books in their native language easily. This month I did more purchasing of books that actual reading. It’s actually a bit strange, but out of all the different types of study activities I do, I find reading the most tireing. It may be the times of day that I read – usually on the bus on the way home from work or in bed before I go to sleep, but I always find after a page I need to close my eyes and go to sleep. This is frustrating!! But I am hoping with time it wont be so taxing on my brain or I will find time to read at different times and I will see a difference. I started out with a reader for grade 3 (primary school) Japanese children. It is actually a pretty good book for learners because it is full of short stories, all kanji have furigana and at the end of the short stories is a short little quiz on the content of the story to see if everything was understood. There are also little dictionary type meanings under some words that must be knew/unknown to most 3rd graders which was helpful! My method of going through this was to first look up any unknown words and write them down in pencil next to the word. The words in the book are big and have large spaces between the lines, so it was perfect for this. The problem is that my vocab knowledge is so low that it was hard to infer anything and had to look up a lot of words. And I found the first story a bit unsatisfying. My problem is, I think, that I don’t like short stories in English, I like getting to know the Characters and going on a journey with them… So perhaps I shouldn’t expect to like them in Japanese either… Still, I felt my first foray into reading Japanese literature a bit of a failure, I went and bought some books that are full of short stories for grades one and two (at the time I was thinking my main problem was vocab and perhaps something very simple would fill me with a sense of accomplishment). So far I’ve read a couple of short stories from the grade one book, and I have to say it does make me feel good when I can read through something and understand maybe 70% of it. I can infer meaning from the pictures and sometimes there may be a sentence I don’t undertand but it doesn’t bother me. I haven’t felt the need to use a dictionary yet even if I don’t fully understand something. There is also a cute poem in the grade one book that I liked. But yes, over all the stories are… a little strange and a bit confusing because I guess they are meant for young children – it’s satisfying in that I can read but what I’m reading isn’t satisfying, I hope that makes sense! Manga. I have been reading a book for young teen girls, a high school relationships manga. Your everyday sort of stuff, nothing remarkable about the story line. I bought this book at the wonderful Book Off when I first got to Japan and started it then but didn’t get far. This time it was nice to open the book and understand more than what I did then. I am improving!! Yay I haven’t finished it yet (reading is slow!) and again, I think I’m getting too old for the school girl stuff, I want to move onto something more my age – damn I feel old sometimes! The problem with moving on is vocab/kanji with a lack of furigana etc. So again with the yay for reading but the story isn’t grabing me type stuff. Yeah, if I was at the stage I am now half a year ago I would have been over joyed but it’s a case of the grass is always greener – but I guess in a way it is motivating me to keep going. Next: Today I bought some books that as far as I can tell are for girls about 10-12 years old. I’m expecting them to be tough. However, I feel like I’ll be more satisfied with them. Sure, they are still for young girls, but they are fantasy stories about (I hope!) strong female characters – these are my favourite type stories to read in English so I’m hoping that they will be more staisfying. So far I read the prologue of one, it was really easy! It was the main character introducing herself (introductions are about the only thing I’m good at in Japanese!) and about her history. I did it infront of the computer to quickly look up a couple of words in the dictionary (no writing down) but for the most part it was exciting that I was reading a “real” book. We’ll see how I go as I get into the story line more. I’m sure I’ll be complaining about it at the end of next month. It’ll either be too hard to read or the story line is too simplistic or something!!! November Hours Reading: 5 hours December Goal: To finish a book!       Grammar I’ve been using:

Kanzen Master JPLT 3 Grammar book JET program language course – intermediate level review book for beginners/JLPT 3 level

I’ve been spending my time learning/reviewing JLPT level 3 grammar, using Kanzen Master JLPT 3 grammar guide. This is a good book, mostly all in Japanese with a little bit of english to explain the grammar point. I would have to say with JLPT level grammar, about 90% I already “knew” – knew in that I had encountered it before. A lot of it, however, still isn’t firmly in my head, like giving and recieving (I don’t know why I have trouble with this!), passive and causatives. Also transitive and intransitives. Much work to be done! There were a small amount of points I hadn’t learnt before but I think these ones will be quite simple to master. Over all I do recommend Kanzen Master JLPT 3. I have no intention of studying the JLPT at this stage, but I like the way everything has been grouped into like forms, there are example sentences that are going to be at my level and there are quizes to check if you understood. Now, some of the quizes are easy in that “Oh, I just learnt that this grammar point you need the verb to be in the “te” form, so I’ll just choose the only option that is in the “te” form, even if I have no idea what the sentence means.” – I haven’t tried the exercises yet futher in the book so I’m not sure if they get harder than this. My method of study sofar has been just to copy out the “formula” and then to copy a couple of the example sentences. It hasn’t done much to stick I don’t think, so now and into december I plan on paying a bit more attention into and really nailing down those passive etc forms. I’m hoping to have really got a solid foundation by the end of December – enough to move onto JLPT 2 level, even if I haven’t completely mastered them. I do have a concern that with the JLPT 2 level, because I am (I imagine) not familiar with the grammar that it will be harder for me to actually understand what the grammar points are trying to address only through example sentences. I am planning on buying Kanzen Master level 2 so I guess I’ll see if it’ll be enough or if I need to supliment it somehow. I have also been “studying” haha with the JET course. Now, a lot of bad things have been said about the course, and I believe last year they redid it alll. I think it’s not so bad really… but it isn’t really what I want to do with studying, if that makes sense, I would rather prioritise and do other things. Also the first book has been easy in that I am familiar with most of the grammar covered. So what I did is I wrote out all the grammar points and an example sentence, like what I did with Kanzen Master. Then I did the review exercises near the end of the book, compared it to the answers. I did fairly well, so I just went ahead and open book test style did the test. I still have to send it in, but I am satified that the JET course gets me studying and doesn’t seem so bad. I’m scared about the Dec book though – the dreaded transitive and intransitive verbs! Last but not least, I’ve been doing this quiz book that tests kanji, vocab and grammar for JLPT 3. I did it back in Sept/Oct and scored fairly well. I picked it up again a week ago to see if I’ve improved. Happily I have improved. This time around I’m going to focus afterwards on the things I fail to see if I can really nail my short commings.

November: 15 hours of study December goals: Finish Kanzen Master JLPT 3.   Kanji/Vocab Yeah… Smart.fm has turned a bit to shit in my opinion, but I actually finally started using it. They have been upgrading a lot which has been frustraiting (it usually goes down for maintenence when I want to study) and I don’t use the new study program at all, but I have been spending every night studying vocab at smart.fm. Vocab is a huge weakness for me, so I want to make a mass effort to really get my vocab up there. My goal of November was to study 1000 words, and right now I’m just short of 1500 – I’m hoping to reach that magical number tomorrow. Already I can notice the difference through reading my manga. There are shortcomings to smart.fm but I am enjoying (for the most part!) using the “iknow” interface. Once I master some lists I plan on upping my listening skills and doing the dication – I did a couple already but I think I’ll get the most benifit from that and the brain speed aspects of smart.fm once I have “mastered” the lists.

November: 31 hours, (hopefully!) 1500 words December goal: to get up to 3500 words studied (+2000 words)   Writing I get a lot of “writing” practise mainly through copying out my grammar books, but in this case writing corrosponds to when I physically create my own writing. I was planing on writing at 8lang regularly, but then I decided not to. I am going to save focusing on output (writing and speaking) when I am a bit futher into my studies. That being said, the small entries that I’ve done at 8Lang have been most helpful and I think it really is a fantastic resource. In the future I hope to keep a daily type log there. November: half an hour Decebmer goal: I don’t really plan to focus on this in December.   What’s Missing? One noticible aspect missing from my log is speaking. For one, I think it would be hard to measure speaking unless I was to get up and say a monologue of some kind… At any case, right now I don’t feel confident in my speaking. Sure I can give one word responses and I can ask questions at stores if I think about it first, but I am not up to the level where I can have a conversation with people. I may add this to my spreadsheet at a later date, but for now I am not so worried about speaking and have no intention of measuring it in an “hours” format. At any rate, as my vocab and listening skills increase, I have found I have been more confident to speak, in particular to my students, and that has been satisfying/enough of a measurement for me. I can feel I’m inproving and that’s the main thing! If you can think of something else I’m missing from my studies, feel free to leave a comment! Also if you have any questions or comments on my methods I’d love to hear them from you. I feel like, right now, I’ve never been so determined to get good at Japanese, and I feel like I’ve never gone this gung-ho at studying. Let’s hope I can keep up the momentum! (but still find the time to post… eep!)

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March was an OK month in regards to my Japanese progress. Some of the activities I did include:

An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese I have gone through chapter three of this but still need to do more review. Reading Manga I have read through two and a half volumes of manga. I finished the first four chapters of Hana Kimi and decided that was a “book” when it wasn’t the extended version From there I read a story called (from memory, it is packed now, more on that later…) “Love, Love..” I think I’m about 5 pages from finishing it but had to put it down. I was a bit over the main girl character crying all the time. Now I’m a chapter and a bit into “pichi pichi pitch” subtitled “Mermaid Melody”. Very cute, for a young audience so it is fairly easy to read.

For the most part study has been disrupted by the fact that I’m moving in a week. So posts may be a bit sporatic until everything is settled down again. Many reasons for moving but the main one is our lease is up so I have to! I’m looking forward to be over packing/unpacking/cleaning etc and settling down into study again! Yes, looking forward to study! That often happens when something is there stopping you from doing so.   Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.  

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At the moment I’m tackling Hanazakari no Kimitachi e - the manga. While I was in Japan I bought home.. ahem 75 manga. Yes, it was heavy. You can check out a crappy phone photo here. All this manga goodness was thanks to the wonders and delights that is Book Off. It may just be the most wonderful place in the whole world. It sells second hand books at an awesome price. Just don’t go there on Lady’s day and expect to come out empty handed… Never the less, looking at my wall of manga, I thought I better get started on it properly or else I all the exercise I got carrying the things around Japan would have been for nothing. I have flicked through a few, “read” a few as well, but apart from some frustration, little has been gained. I really need to sit down and “study” these books without trying to make it into too much of a chore. So I’ve decided to tackle Hana Kimi first. The Good Hana Kimi is a wise choice. I’ve read it before, although in translated English. It was also a billion years ago, so I can’t quite remember the little plot points. Of course, also, I’ve watched the TV series. So I know the basic outline of the story which will definitely help. It’s also a story that I enjoy, which will help a lot! I think that learning to read this will be exciting as I get to finally read it in it’s native language. The book is 99% of the time better than the movie/tv show! The Bad Today, when I got up to where Nakatsu is introduced I remembered that in the manga he has an Osakan dialect. Which, I guess, will be good in helping me learn the Osakan dialect, but will also be very tricky! We’ll see how I go… The length is another bad thing. I got the new super awesome deluxe edition which has three or four books in the one. So while manga are usually short, sweet, and to the point, this one is a whopping 368 pages. I might not come out the other side (if I make it through at all) alive! Another bad thing is all the casual language. Yes, I know my だ from my です, but I guess I’m talking about more colloquial language that I can’t find in my dictionary. It’s something that will hopefully become easier as I learn through context - from lots of encounters both in manga and in other sources - but the first time I encounter them is always a bit baffling. I do like to read aloud though, and sometimes through reading aloud I realise I do know the word from having heard it in dramas. The Method The method is rather simple. I am confident that I will have encountered most grammar points before, so I am hopeful that I will be able to work out most sentences. What I will need to do is learn to recognise new kanji and to learn new words. I am literally just going through this with a pencil and a dictionary. I am reading through, and when I don’t know a word I will look it up and pencil in an English translation near the Japanese word. Some times I need to look up almost every word in ever bubble. Other times I only have one word a page. I am hoping as I go through more and more I’ll have to rely on the dictionary less and less. But for now I don’t know enough words to gain the meaning most times through context. I have no plans to add any of this to an SRS program or study it in any other form but to just read read read. I hope I don’t get too bored with it, but if I do, I will no doubt move onto something else and you’ll be able to read about it here! But for now, I am just going through and reading. After I have done a section I go back and read it with excitement. I am breaking down complex sentences, translating it into English to make some meaning from it. I know from past experience so far that the more exposure I have, suddenly I can just read things and understand it in Japanese. I am hoping this too will get easier the more I do! I have noticed already, only a few pages into it, that words I didn’t know before are being repeated, so it is already acting like a natural SRS program in some sense. I am making no effort to memorize or learn the new words/kanji. I am just reading, checking an English translation, and moving on. I hope to learn them through exposure, both here in this manga and in other contexts. In the future, if I read through and realise I don’t need my note there any more for a particular word, I will erase my pencil scribbles. I can always look it up again if I forget (kind of like failing a card in SRS!). This is my study method at the moment and it is a lot of fun

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