2 Weeks of Tadoku
I’d planned on writing a weekly blog about my progress in the Read More or Die contest, but that fell through. You’ll have to settle for a summary of the first two weeks instead.
I’ve got to say that it’s been made an enjoyable experience by the presence of the other participants on Twitter. You think you’re doing well and then you see the #pagecount tweets from your competitors. There’s a good feeling to be had from updating your page count at the end of a long day of reading, knowing that others will see it and be encouraged to catch up.
Everyone in the contest has read at least one page. Some have read more Japanese in the past two weeks than in their entire time as a learner. It’s good to see the community coming together and getting into the spirit of learning. I think we need a big well done for everyone who has taken part. Can we get a round of applause, please?
As for my own progress – I’m pretty pleased. I’m easily outpacing my goal of 1000 pages total. I would have liked to place first, but the top of the leaderboard is a fierce land of uberreaders. I’ll settle for reaching my own personal goal. Creating a habit of constant reading will be a good side effect, too.
As for what I’ve been reading, I’d estimate:
- 70% novels/short story books
- 20% manga
- 5% subtitled videos
- 5% websites
I think I need to broaden what I’m reading, but that’s not a big deal for me right now.
My only problem with the contest is that I won’t be able to finish it properly due to my trip to Japan. The only stuff I’ll be reading in the last three days is restaurant menus and street signs. It’s a hard life, I guess.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
東京に行く!
Yep, I’m finally going to Japan! In three weeks tomorrow I’ll be jetting off for a week in Tokyo. I’ll be seeing the sights and hopefully chatting with some genuine 日本人 along the way.
Does anyone want to volunteer to guide me while I’m there? I’ll supply food and conversation to willing helpers (and eternal gratitude, obviously).
Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments
So, Sunday (August 1st) is the start of the ‘Read More Or Die’ reading contest. It will run through August and simply requires for you to read as much Japanese as possible. It’s designed to get a group of Japanese learners into the groove of reading. The learning community that’s formed on Twitter is already very friendly and good spirited, but I hope this will strengthen and expand it. I guess there will be a nice mix of encouragement, fighting talk and friendly competition to keep spirits up over the course of the month.
I’m looking forward to it a lot. It will be the push I’ve been needing to really boost my skillz. To start on the right track, I’ll be waking up early on Sunday, brewing up lots of coffee and happily reading away all day. I’ve got a selection of reading materials that will aid my quest: a healthy mix of novels, short stories, manga and websites. I don’t have a specific total amount of pages that I want to read, but I’ll be trying my hardest to get the number as high as possible.
For more information on the rules and participants, check out the contest blog. If you’re reading this and aren’t currently involved, you’re more than welcome to take part! The hashtag we’ll be tweeting with is #tadoku, by the way.
(I’ll be keeping notes on my progress on my blog as the contest goes on. I’ll put some photos of my books up, too).
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: tadoku
To fellow followers of a certain language acquisition style, it may not come as a surprise that I haven’t really used textbooks while learning Japanese. You know the reasons why – “no one talks like that, yada yada yada”. There are a couple of exceptions to that rule – the revolutionary kanji course Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig and Tae Kim’s brilliant (and non-traditional) Complete Guide to Learning Japanese. However, most textbooks seem to peddle the older style of language learning that doesn’t really benefit the student.
But wait, I can recommend a book on Japanese that teaches in a forward thinking manner, but doesn’t try and teach the reader everything. The ambitious title of Jay Rubin’s Making Sense of Japanese
Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments
Tags: book, review
Norwegian Wood Teaser Trailer
The first teaser for the upcoming adaptation of Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, due for release in Japan this winter has slipped onto the internet. It’s a true teaser, as the clip is frustratingly short and doesn’t offer fans much to pore over. Brief character shots, an atmospheric landscape, some wistful dialogue and the sound of John Lennon’s voice are about all we get. But hey, that’s how the novel works, so it’s hitting all the right notes.
I have a feeling that the brief nature of this clip is due to the filmmakers obtaining the rights for The Beatles titular song. With the music in their possession, they could now share footage of the film with the world.
Japanese audiences will get the film in December, while international fans will have to wait a little longer.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Reading Books: Pinball, 1973
Can you remember the first book that you read in English? Probably not, right? It was probably a simple book aimed at young readers. It may have been a challenge, but looking back now, you would find it a breeze. But what if your first novel as a fresh faced kid was something waaaay above your level? Would you still one day look back and laugh about how you once found it difficult? I’m hoping so…
I’ve just finished my first Japanese language novel – Pinball, 1973 (１９７３年のピンボール) by Haruki Murakami (村上春樹). It’s a proper Japanese novel (though probably a novella, technically), written for native speakers without any of the training wheels found in lower level texts. Basically, it’s way above my level. But I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of reading my favourite author’s work in it’s original form, was I?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments
Japanese Goods in London
As good a resource as the internet is, there’s often no match for a good brick-n-mortar mom-n-pop shop. The UK has a distinct lack of shops selling Japanese products, unless one happens to live in old London town. Since starting learning Japanese, I’ve made the trip to London a few times to get me some 日本物. I’ve found there there are a few key places to check out, such as:
Japan Centre
Years ago, this was the first place that I was able to buy Pocky and look at Japanese books. This was before I’d started learning the language, when it all seemed otherwordly. It’s now moved to a larger location and expanded the range, but seems to have lost some of the charm. It always seems to be busy with Japanese and non-Japanese buying sushi and other groceries. It’s somewhat expensive, though has a nice range of food and drink. Freshly baked goods are very tasty – try the melon pan! They sell a large range of magazines, but no books or manga. The nice bookshop in the basement of the old shop disappeared in the move, though it has been reborn as the…
Japan Centre Bookshop
Now found on Brewer Street, this is a small shop that sells a few magazines, assorted books and manga, little toys, as well as (too many) English language books. Not as good as the old shop. Less range, expensive and overall a disappointing replacement for the old shop.
Adanami Shobo
On the same street as the Japan Centre Bookshop is Adanami Shobo – an inconspicuous looking used bookshop found inside an old laundrette (still has the old sign up too!). Inside, you’ll find a huge range of used novels, manga and films stocked up to the ceiling. They’re the cheapest you’ll find in London, and cheaper than other places too. Most books are wrapped, so you can’t peek inside, though this does lead to better condition books. Large bundles of manga are available, so you can obtain the whole story at once (for a price). They stock a small amount of magazines, usually from several months ago (though much cheaper than a new magazine at one of the other shops). Dubbed versions of films are cheap compared to buying online. I very highly recommend this shop.
JP-Books in Mitsukoshi
Found in the basement of the Mitsukoshi department store (which is conveniently next to the Japan Centre) is the sweet JP-Books. It’s got lots of books, magazines and manga. They had pretty much every Murakami novel and short story collection, which I was pleased by. The biggest downside is the price, which is reasonable for smaller books and extortionate for larger ones. Each volume of 1Q84 costs around £30, and the DVD of Ponyo cost over £50! The average book costs less than the RRP of a paperback in Waterstones though, so it’s not too bad.
–
There are also some smaller shops and restaurants dotted about, where you can get some food or sweets. They’re a little cheaper than Japan Centre too, which is a plus.
Of course, you can always buy online. The main sticking point is finding somewhere that offers reasonable shipping fees. An even better method would be a ‘book exchange’ with a Japanese native. I’ll look in to both.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
A Message From The Past
This time last year I used the website FutureMe to send a delayed email, that would arrive exactly a year later and give me a message about my situation at that time. Here’s the message that I sent:
Dear FutureMe,
As of April 21st 2009, you are learning Japanese. You’ve been learning since February 2009 and have the grasp of hiragana and katakana, but little understanding of kanji.
You listen to Japanese podcasts before going to sleep and try to watch a lot of Japanese language shows.
If you’re not still studying Japanese when I get this email, then please start again.
If you are still studying, then keep it up!
Write another email when you get this
I don’t think I’ve let past-me down. There was a brief stretch where Japanese eluded me, but in the bigger picture I’m doing well. Continue reading ‘A Message From The Past’
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
A Peek At My Sentence Picking
In this post, I’m going to let you look behind the curtain and see how I currently gather new words and sentences.
You’ll need any old Japanese book, podcast, song or video. The key is to just read or listen, and make a note of any words that jump out at you.
Here’s an example using my current tome – Yoru no Kumozaru (夜のくもざる) by Haruki Murakami (村上春樹). It’s a collection of 2/3/4 page ‘flash fiction’ stories by my favourite author. It’s still above my level, but some stories are easily accessible.
A story I'm working through. It's about a jazz record store.
So, I just read. Read through and understand as much as I can. Then, I read through again and highlight words and grammar that I don’t understand, as well as little phrases that I do understand. There’s no actual need to mark the parts that I understand, but it’s nice to visually mark my progress.
Continue reading ‘A Peek At My Sentence Picking’
Filed under: Uncategorized | 10 Comments
Tags: murakami, sentence mining
Kanji: Square One
こんにちは！
About a month after finishing RTK, I did something stupid. I stopped reviewing the kanji and they started disappearing from being both recalled and recognised. They had become a chore, and it wasn’t helping that I was half-heartedly reviewing them. I was allowing little mistakes to slip through, which led to bigger mistakes when recalling them. Then it moved to not writing down the kanji when recalling them. Not long after this came my Japanese learning ‘break’, where most of my kanji knowledge disappeared. I feel that getting lax with kanji and taking a break from learning is one of my worst decisions in recent memory, and I’ve paid for it by losing several months worth of hardcore kanji effort.
But now, I’m back in the full swing of learning. I still know many of kanji, but only through recognition. By breaking down characters in to compounds, I can generally recall the meaning after some straining. But that’s really not a good way to get things done. It takes the groove out of reading manga. I’ll be reading parts that I already know, then hit an unfamiliar kanji and grind to a halt. There had to be a way to fix this rut…
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments
