Reading comprehension… Is there anything else I could be doing?

12 comments

1. R u learning grammer or not

2. That’s not WRONG per se, but it feels like you are maybe only attacking the language from one angel.

   Are you using a textbook or other method to learn grammar? Usually it will involve output as well as input. There is a concept in language learning (HEAVILY ignored in this community) that the more ways you are exposed to the language the faster you learn it. Of the 4 primary skills (reading/writing/speaking/listening), if you only focus on reading its gonna slow you down.

   Either way, my advice is to take some time to focus on grammar in a systematic way. NHK easy is gonna expose you to grammar way above your level, which is fine, but spending some time focusing on the basics really sounds needed right now. 

3. Use graded readers. Tadoku has some good ones.

   Tango N5 anki deck is also pretty good.

   For grammar you can try Tae Kim or Cure Dolly, it sounds you might need some grammar help.

4. I mean, at the very beginning, you can’t expect yourself to have your “Japanese brain” fully developed. I’m upper N5 level, getting ready to take the test and for a sentence like 学校に行きます、I’m at a point where I can read that and not need to translate it it my head meanwhile for a N4 sentence such as 雨が降ったら、行きません、I need to think for a minute about the たら grammar concept and the nuance it holds (it’s saying “if it rains, I won’t go” but with たら, it implies once the action occurs so it has the implications that rain is expected today and your saying if it rains you won’t go but if it doesn’t than you possibly will go). It’ll just take time and exposure to develop your “Japanese brain” but start off very simple when you see a cat, be like それは猫です just small little everyday things. Before a meal, say いただきます, when washing your hands, in your head be like 手を洗っています and little by little, you’ll start to not need to translate into English in your head. Also if your struggling reading at a decent pace, than just practice reading without translating. When I first learned Hiragana, I looked up Hiragana reading practice and just read without caring about the translation but only cared about reading the characters right.

5. Your reading process isn’t wrong. In fact, this is the very process of intensive immersion. Though, it is probably going to be easier to immerse at a later level, that shouldn’t stop you from immersing now if you’d like to. I’d recommend using a predefined set of tools like jisho, bunpro AS A GRAMMAR REFERENCE (the SRS is ass and SRS isn’t good for grammar) and then just read more. 

6. I see this a lot from people who get frustrated when they open with the fact they’re new to the language. I guess I don’t understand but what are the expectations here? Don’t you expect yourself to struggle when you’re new at something? We’re talking learning a language, an endeavor that requires thousands of hours of effort, study, work, and love. Even at 8 months that’s still just a fraction of people who have been learning for 10+ years or more.

7. That sounds about right to me. When I’m reading something that’s above my level, I often need to repeat the sentence multiple times and break it into chunks to see how it fits together. It’s just the level of the thing I’m deconstructing moves from single words and particles to whole phrases or multiple sentences.

   One thing that might help is reading something easier, with the goal of just getting a high quantity of exposure. The more you see patterns the less you need to consciously think about them. Like if you see the ending ~したくなかった or ~させていただきます a million times then you don’t need to stop and deconstruct it into parts, or even think about it in English. That’s actually what “tadoku” means, 多読 is reading as much as you can at your current level without stopping to look things up. The graded readers are just named after the concept.

   Alternatively, re-reading is also something I think is valuable. Find an article you’ve already read and then read it again. It should be easier and smoother once you don’t need to look anything up, and it reinforces the patterns and meaning.

8. >I’m currently trying to read NHK News Easy every day

   Very good.

   >but I’m getting a bit frustrated. I feel like I first have to read each sentence to “sound it out”, then try to grasp each individual word, then focusing on each particle to see the function each word has in the sentence, then translate it step by step and only then try to make sense of it as a whole.

   I mean, yeah. That’s what you have to do.

   The more you do it, the easier it gets.

   Over time, you learn enough vocabulary, get used to the grammar enough, and then you can do it more quickly and easily.

   It takes a long time.

   You should add in mining vocabulary into SRS.

9. Since you’re already using todaii news to read a good move would be to listen to an article then read it through aiming to understand it all.
   Once you understand the article listen again and try to read along.
   I usually read along in my head and focus more on the flow and just let that little bell in my head ring each time I pass a recognized word, just staying relaxed and not getting caught up on again understanding everything.
   Then if I want to later I can read it again at my own pace later I can but usually I find the above is enough and the only reason I might go back is to put new words into Anki at the end so as not to disrupt my focus as I read.
   Anyway hope that helps.

10. Reading has no time sensitivity to it. Your brain will never prioritize comprehension speed if all you do is read.

    There are 2 things you can do that will help. Both are important skills so you should find a time to do both.

    1) Go hard on listening practice. Ideally with Japanese subtitles attached and ideally watching episodes all the way through without stopping. This will force you to become much faster at processing the language. (Listening fluency)

    2) Read content that is very easy for you and challenge yourself to see how fast you can read it. Track your characters / minute and try to beat it. This is one way to trick your brain into prioritizing speed when reading . (reading fluency)

11. That’s pretty normal. Mostly all reading you do at the start is going to be intensive reading, you’ll be treating each sentence like a puzzle. I remember taking 10-15 minutes to get past 2 panels in a manga when I started. Just by reading more and getting more comfortable with the language in general, this process will eventually speed up. I often feel like practing my listening also helps my reading and vice versa, outside of that I have no advice but to just immerse more outside of your normal learning routine.

    What I do recommend is to at one point drop trying to translate sentences alltogether and focus on understanding it as is. While translating in your head is very useful when starting out, you don’t want it to become a persistent habit once you get to an intermediate/advanced stage of learning. It’ll slow you down. You can even try doing it the next time with words and only translate particles/unknown words.

12. I daily read few stories on yomuyomu app. I had read NHK easy japanese, but I get bored. I heard satori reader is good too, but I use yomuyomu for now