I’ve gotten to the point where I can read and comprehend so much more than I ever could before so I’ve been pushing myself to read more material I used to ignore because it was too difficult. It’s still hard but I’m able to actually make it through which still feels rewarding. I enjoy reading so much in English I really want to do the same for Japanese but it’s so draining… I wouldn’t be frustrated if it didn’t make me feel so tired afterwards. I wanna understand everything so bad but looking up even just one word halfway through every 2-4 sentences is frustrating. Not to mention just comprehending the grammar adds to the mental exertion.
When will I be able to enjoy reading it can be so hard to even with my favorite genres/subjects. 😞
If you have any advice I would appreciate it greatly 💗
by AbsAndAssAppreciator
13 comments
Just keep at it, it sounds like you’re probably around 1500-2000 hours of reading away from being at a near native level.
The good news is it’ll get more enjoyable as you continue to read. I look up around 3-5 words a page and have been enjoying light novels lately. I’ve started reading using yomichan so look ups are immediate and I don’t need to break my flow.
Do you read on your computer/phone? Using Yomichan gives instant word definitions
Well it’s been nearly 20 years for me and I’m about there.
NO, NO, COME BACK! I KID!!
There’s a seven year hiatus in there… but that’s not the point.
I’d have gotten here sooner if I had but the bullet and looked up everything I didn’t know in native media instead of app hopping, trying to build up vocab so my reading could be immediately seamless.
It took me about 6 months from the time I bit the bullet to orient to native Japanese media. It’s now 4 years later and some things I can read through without looking things up. Not that I know what every word means, but usually there’s enough that I do understand that I can pick up the unknowns from context.
The lookup stage is a slow. It’s slow and miserable at first and that stops a lot of people, myself included, from doing it. But it’s an important stage and it can go past pretty quick.
I had 7 years of traditional study on board by that point though… that was over a decade ago though. That was a different time with different tools, it doesn’t necessarily take that long anymore.
A couple of years… and it can be longer or shorter depending on your actions. And you may not find out what action does which until after it’s too late.
But keep at it. 4 years ago I didn’t think I’d ever be able to read or intake native Japanese anything.
And 6 months later I could.
Give Wanikani Bookclub a try. You get vocabulary lists which you can download through Google Sheets. That alone saves you a lot of time and frustration. When you find a title you’re interested in, check on Learn Natively for the difficulty level. You can also track your reading progress there. The first couple of books are the toughest to get through. Hang in there.
Not directly answering the question, because there’s no universal answer to these kinds of “how many hours does it take until I can do X” questions, but I think the key to making it less painful is having a short feedback look between not knowing a word to knowing it (for example, I use Yomitan on my desktop browser, and Takoboto on my Android phone).
A long time man. Even post-N1 reading serious literature or nonfiction writing you should anticipate not knowing a few words per page.
Incredibly long. Many years.
Like others said, it takes a very long time to hit that point.
I’ve recently hit 1100 hours and 56 light novels read over the past 10 months and for easier series or genres I can breeze through with feeling like I didn’t miss much, but I still think I need another 500-1000 hours to reach that point for harder material or genres I haven’t touched.
Obviously it heavily depends on what you’re reading. If you only read fantasy novels, then when you try out sci-fi for example, you’ll most likely need a bit of time to pick up the vocab used in that genre. Or going from reading light novels to the news, there’s a big difference so that would also be a struggle.
Just keep reading and everything will get easier.
Varies
I hit the point where I could pick up any random fiction novel and read it for fun somewhere in the 1500-2000 hours of study range. For me, this was a little over a year of full time study, but full time study was *full time study* and not realistic for most people. If you study a much more attainable 2 hours a day, maybe 2.5 years?
This does not mean I never had to look up a word, just the point where looking stuff up was infrequent enough that I could genuinely just read because I wanted to, and not for study purposes.
I understand 99.99% of English words I see on social media, and I think that’s enough. However, I probably only understand 95 or so % of words I see in books, but this is also enough to roughly understand what the book is talking about. This is because people on social media rarely use uncommon words, no matter the language. So to understand 95% of social media, it won’t take long. However, it will take you a bit to understand 95% of native level books and such.
You can also install Yomitan (or chan, or whatever, based on your browser) to quickly add words to your Anki deck. Setting it up is so useful, and it will speed up the tedious process of adding cards to Anki very much. However, I think this only works on a browser, so you’ll probably have to do some digging to find out how to use Yomitan with PDFs. Just read and add words you don’t know. Then, when you think you know all words in a book or something, read it again.
It depends on the content, but I think it takes ages to fully understand it, especially things like the atmosphere, jokes/memes/puns, and intentions.
I have some friends who have studied or majored in Japanese for a long time and still live in Japan, but they’ve had a hard time fully understanding certain things.
For example, a phrase like 人気シビルドンのぼり was mentioned in a Pokémon game. To understand this fun phrase, you need to know that シビルドン (Eelektross) looks like an eel, and you also need to be familiar with the Japanese idiom うなぎのぼり (which means “rapidly increasing”). So, the original sentence can be interpreted as 人気うなぎのぼり (becoming rapidly more popular). Even to understand this simple pun, you have to be familiar with several different things.
This isn’t unique to Japanese; it happens in every language. To understand something fully, you also need to know the cultural background. I also need to ask my friends about the references and intentions when I see content in English.
Have you ever met a Japanese person in your country who fully understands the content in your language? Probably not, right?
Depends on the level of the texts you read.
There will be a time where there are things which you can pretty much understand everything of, and things you can understand almost nothing of.
It occurs to me that one’s taste in fiction might also very well contribute to how pleasant the journey is. People who find slice of life fiction enjoyable definitely have an advantage in not burning out I feel.