I've been learning Japanese for a year and I have an alright vocabulary base of ~3500 words (my guess, no idea how accurate it is) and an ~N3 level understanding of grammar. I want to jump into novels (I've read a few manga volumes, but I really want to be able to mine sentences more efficiently than reading manga allows for, even if that means stumbling through a novel at a snail's pace) but I know I have some trouble with comprehending long sentences.
In these kinds of situations, when I'm really struggling to grasp a meaning of a sentence even though I know all the words in it, do you think referencing a human-created English translation of the same novel would be beneficial? Should I worry about becoming over-reliant on English? I'd love to hear some opinions from long-time learners.
by strawberry_jaaam