And so I passed the highest level of Japanese Language Proficiency Test, N1. What’s next?
I decided that I was done with my Japanese grammar and kanji books! I told myself, I am fluent enough in Japanese, so I will talk, read, write, and learn in Japanese!
Since I am living in Japan, communicating in Japanese happens naturally. So, my real problem was how to find ease in reading and writing in Japanese. Also, my ultimate goal is to be able to learn something in Japanese, making Japanese as my second language and my lifetime interest!
Let’s Read and Learn in Japanese!
Japan has great resources for learning. There are many great book stores, even ones that sell used books or antique books! Municipalities have good Local libraries, and they are also well connected to each other. If your local library doesn’t have the books you want, you can ask them to borrow them from the the neighboring libraries. Most university libraries are also open for public. I applied to one nearby, although of course there are some limitations, I find it very useful! Especially on finding books about certain topics with depth; those you can’t find at local libraries!
Newspapers are still being delivered every morning and evening too. We are subscribing to Nippon Keizai Shinbun, and I love their saturday edition. My favorit is its learning corners for parents, Japanese business manner, consultation on daily lives, and the best is its book reviews. I found some otaku writers there, few of them became my favorit.
Not to mention the internet! It is full of websites and personal blogs to help you find so much information in detail. Overall, Japanese love to learn and they are so meticulous in documenting their learning! They make good list, with good pictures, or interesting illustrations, and they supplement them with easy to understand explanations. Well, “easy to understand” still depends on your Japanese level somehow, but they are trying hard on their part so we should too!
Steps to Reading for Pleasure in Japanese
Here’s how my reading in Japanese journey goes on:
1. Start with bilingual books
I fell in love with Japanese books as soon as I came to Japan. They have those tiny books, called bunko lining up so neatly in bookshelves of bookstores or libraries. They also have cute cloth bookcovers for each size with its matching cute bookmarkers.
The compact size makes them easy to carry wherever you go. I always have one put in my handbag. At home, I put one on my small shelf in the lavatory, hidden between my toilet paper supply or laid one on my wooden toilet paper dispenser cover. I found series of bilingual books on Japanese history and literature in that cute bunko size. It felt so uplifted reading them as if I was reading a real bunko book!
2.Read articles about your hobbies
In my case, I read recipe books! I also use Japanese online recipe website. I don’t have to worry about not knowing few words on the ingredients or the cooking steps, it has pictures! In fact, I learn more new words this way than checking on the dictionary!
I started with recipes for daily homecooking and it went on to baking, bread making, pickling and so on. I use the same approach on gardening, sewing, crafting, pottery making, and now I am reading books about writing. When you are reading about something you are passionate with, even in a foreign language, your curiosity will make you keep going.
3. Read story books for school children
This go well while you are learning your kyouiku kanji.
Story books for Japanese school children are usually graded so that reader only finds the kanjis they have already learned. So for example, when you have learned your second grade kanji, you will find reading story books for second grader give you the right level of new vocabularies to learn.
If there are kanji you haven’t learned yet, you will find them with their furigana (small hiragana text written above or at the side of the kanji, as a reading aid). Not to mention, the stories also give you clues about Japanese school children daily lives, at school and at home.
I still read this type of book even until now. My daughter (now a high-schooler)brings home books she borrowed from her school library and I find the books delightful. I can sense idealization of the characters and plots, but up to the right dose. If you find them rather dull, you can always get teen’s books from the bookstores richer in themes and styles.
4. Read books about topics of your expertise
Once you are confident with your jouyou kanji, you can enjoy reading books of your choice! The problem is that you may find specialized terms (called yougo) hard to understand. You may look up your dictionary as usual, but you will find it disturbing to keep checking them most of the time.
Jouyou Kanji
The jōyō kanji is the guide to kanji characters and their readings, announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Current jōyō kanji are those on a list of 2,136 characters issued in 2010.
Yougo
is abbreviation of senmonyougo 専門用語 meaning technical terminology.
Reading books about topics of your interest will free you from that hassle. You will already have the knowledge, and if you find new terms you don’t understand, you can guess the meanings (almost always correctly everytime!) from the context already.
Since I studied accounting and economics, I read books on these topics. I also challenged myself to take competency exam on Japanese bookkeeping qualification called boki. I completely learned on my own, and passed the second level Japanese bookkeeping competency with perfect scores!
Hope you find these steps helpful. Tell me about your own reading tips in the comment section below!
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