How to Learn Japanese Just Reading Native Material
Japan has a rich traditional and modern culture that has a lot of appeal to people all over the world. Many Japanese learners are inspired to start learning Japanese through games, anime, and manga. If you are in this camp, wouldn’t it be great to just be able to sit around all day reading manga and learn Japanese? Just ignore all those flash cards, grammar drills, and classes or whatever else. Is this possible?
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/
You may be asking yourself. Well, It may not be the easiest way to learn but I believe it is possible. The way I went about learning Japanese was not 100% reading native material but it was a huge part of it. So, let’s find out how to learn Japanese just reading native material.
INDEX
Prerequisites to Learning Japanese by Reading
Obviously you will need to know a few things before you can dive into native material. If you meet these prerequisites then afterwards you can jump right into reading.
- Learning to Read Japanese Characters
- Understanding some Grammar
- Knowing a few Common words
1. Learning to Read Japanese Characters
Yes, you will need to know Hiragana, Katakana and some Kanji. I am sure that does not come as a surprise to anyone. So, my suggestion would be to first learn the most important 2000 or so Kanji. This can be intimidating but does not need to be.
If you make a plan and stick to it like I did, you can get through this no problem.
How will this help me read Japanese?
Another obvious question but with answers that may not be so obvious. Kanji is very systematic. Similar looking characters will often sound similar, if not exactly the same. Also, the shapes of these characters have meaning built right into them. So, even if you don’t know the character you can often guess it’s sound. Also if you don’t know the word, you can guess it’s meaning. This helps you in reading by allowing you to not have to look up words as much.
Kanji is still too daunting…
No problem, there is a specific extension I use called 10ten. This allows you to hover over words to see it’s meaning and reading.
Why you should use 10ten Japanese Reader
There are other extensions, apps and aids out there also. So, if Kanji is still giving you trouble don’t feel bad! We all go through it, and you don’t need to let it stop you from reading.
2. Understand some Grammar
I want to emphasize “some” grammar. Don’t worry about the details now. You don’t need to memorize all the correct forms of verbs or which words should be used in which context. At this point you just need enough to understand how words fit together in a sentence. Later on when you want to really dig deep into Japanese grammar, I reviewed a dictionary of grammar series which I personally recommend and use myself.
This is the best resource for learning Grammar I have found to date. But again, don’t worry about mastering it now. The goal is to just be able to just be able to read more comfortably.
3. Knowing a few Common Words
I personally learned my first set of core vocabulary from a small pocket dictionary. It did not give me the entire language but just enough words to understand a majority of what I read. Also, It did not give me any context of how to use those words. You will get that context from actually reading.
You don’t need to read the dictionary
This was 20 years ago and I had little other choice. Today, there are flashcard apps, frequency word lists, books and so on. You will need to have some common words to save you time from searching every single word when you read.
How to Choose Basic Japanese Words to Learn
You can try learning the top most frequent 2,000 from a list, or even pick specific words that will fit the content you are wanting to read. The option is up to you. Just try to pick words that you will likely see often.
I just want to start reading already
Ok, you can skip this step. You will then just need to look up every single word with Google Translate, other online dictionaries or extensions.
和英・英和 – How to Properly use Google Translate for Japanese
Again, the 10ten extension I talked about above is great for this. Or, I have some other resources on how to pick the best translators for you.
通訳 – The Best Resources – Translation for Japanese
Transition from Learner to Native Material
After you can read some Kanji, grammar, and vocabulary you are ready to take off. You can jump right into native texts. Well, it won’t be that easy at first so you may want to start reading some learner material first. After that, you can transition into native material.
Do you really need Learner Material?
The choice will depend on your preference. The closest I had to learner material when I started was one introductory textbook. That was basically included a few sample sentences through out the book. I then went into basically all native Japanese content. Why? Well, basically I didn’t have any other material. So, if I had the choice I probably would have read more learner material.
Benefits of Learner Material
Resources created for people learning Japanese are constructed in a specific way to help the reader learn. whether text books, websites, graded readers or whatever, there are two things that they do well for the learner. First, often the grammar and vocabulary is chosen to meet the level of the learner. That means that when you read you will feel more comfortable and understand more. Second, the sentences are constructed to present the topic in a sentence to help you learn. Native content will not write things to help you learn.
Why not read Learner Material?
Learner content is boring. Since it is set up to help you learn, the focus is not on providing you with interesting content. So you are stuck grudging through a lot of pointless conversations, or other content that really has no meaning. This is fine in the beginning when you are excited about learning all the aspects of the Japanese language. But, after a while you will start to feel sick of it which will make it harder to want to keep on going.
The Key is to Gradually shift to Real-Life Material
A good strategy then would be to mix up your studies by reading textbooks, websites, or whatever along with real content. When you learn something new through studying, then when you see it in real life you can understand it. Eventually, the more you learn the more you will understand. Throughout that process, you can start shifting from your learner content to real content little by little until you don’t need the learner content anymore. This may look like spending 20% of your time reading real material at first then after several months shifting to 80%. The point is to make sure that you don’t burn yourself out. It can be tiring to spend all of your time with stuff you don’t understand. So, listen to your body and decide what proportion is best for you. You want to slowly shift to more real material but not so fast that you burn out. Make sure that you are enjoying the process as much as possible.
Reading Japanese Native Material Only
Now you are past learner material and reading Japanese material that is for the native speaker. Great! There are a few things still do be aware of.
Why Native Content is Great
This gives you instant access to native Japanese and how it is actually used. You can learn vocabulary and grammar at the same time. Reading exposes you to the most frequently used words which pop-up over and over again. No need for frequency lists. Plus you see how the words are used in context. So you can learn grammar without having to read descriptions. You can read at your own pace to take the needed time to understand the text.
Things to be Aware of
It is very easy to get demotivated. In any text you read half of the total number of individual words will be words used only once in that text and of lower frequency. This means that you will be coming across words you have never seen in every sentence. So, be prepared to be confused most of the time. You can of course translate things as you go. But, having to stop and translate words will make your reading speed go down. So even a short paragraph can get exhausting quickly.
Suggestions and Expectations
Reading long texts can get overwhelming when you don’t understand a lot. You will be spending more time translating words and trying to understand how the grammar works in a sentence more than you will be reading the content in the beginning. It is important to take it slow to make sure you understand what you are reading. As you learn more you will start reading faster and can choose to skip past certain trouble areas.
Become Friends with Online translators
When reading you want to translate sentences to get a basic idea of what is being said. If you need a specific word then you can translate specific words also. Then you can check the meaning and get an idea of how that word works in the sentence.
Be ok with Ambiguity
When reading you may translate something in Google Translate and it will either still not make sense or even be wrong. If you get the basic gist of it then consider that a success. Sometime even after translating, it still won’t make sense. Be ok with that too. Over time when you learn more you will become smarter than Google and will start to get a better sense of how Japanese works.
Ignore what you don’t know
You don’t need to translate everything. You can ignore some words you don’t feel like translating or make a list and look it up later. The point especially in the beginning is to just get accustom to reading more fluently, not understanding.
If you are more interested in learning with only reading, I found a useful video on YouTube which explains this phenomenon:
