Hey everyone,
I have just started reading short standalone stories on 小説を読もう to practice reading while I am preparing for the upcoming JLPT N3 exam in July.
As part of my exam prep, I have also tracked down words in the story that are of a JLPT N3 word list that I have found on the internet. You can find them at the bottom of this post.
Reproducing my blog post here in case it is helpful for anyone who wants to do so (no link to my blog as I am not self-advertising here).
I plan to go through a few more stories to continue my reading practice. If this was helpful for you, please let me know! Cheers.
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Notes for 妹の字
「妹の字」is the first novel in this series that I am using to practice reading. The title sounds simple (my sister’s words / writing), but as with most Japanese literature, it is filled with ways to describe a feeling / scene with sometimes simple words.
This novel is about the meaning of “words” from the departed when they are written by someone else, particularly someone who offers a service to do so.
My level is currently JLPT N3, so I have primarily captured words that are at the JLPT N3 level here for reference. If you are keen on the word list from N2 and N1 in this novel, let me know and I will spend some time to write them up.
I really like this novel as my first Syosetsu reading experience. It’s definitely challenging to read novels at the JLPT N3 level, but that immense satisfaction that comes with finishing one makes it worth it.
Disclaimer: I did consult with my own Japanese teacher on the novel to verify if my understanding of the novel is correct, since there are nuances that were not immediately obvious to me on the first read.
Two Notable Sentences (Spoiler Alert!)
There are a few sentences that I have found to be either complicated or hard to understand at my level. Here are two:
「横線が少しだけ右へ泳ぐ癖や…」: This describes the way that a particular word is written, with how a line goes towards the right but not perfectly straight. Took me a while to grasp what the author was trying to say. And this is from the second paragraph of the novel!
「死んだ人が最初に遺すものがあるとすれば、人生訓ではなく、生活の続きだ。」: This is the kind of sentence that Japanese novels are known for. It talks about how the departed doesn’t actually leave us with “life lessons”, but about how life “continues”.
The N3 Word list can be found here: https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ZLBf5/1/
by icyisamu