Comments on: Kana Reading Material Resources

By: Zyaga

Zyaga — Tue, 10 May 2011 23:03:19 +0000

What I really wish is if there was a way to apply this concept on my Android phone! xD

Thanks for sharing all those details though! I’ll be sure to check out that stuff when I get a chance. ^_^

By: e_dub_kendo

e_dub_kendo — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:57:33 +0000

the first tadoku, i'll add. These days I read pretty much whatever the hell I want, though I sometimes run up against my limitations and something is more difficult and frustrating than it is fun to read, mostly if I really want to read it, I can. Especially anything in digital format. The program GoldenDict and these dictionaries make anything with cut-and-pasteable text super easy to read. It's a bit like having RikaiChan for your entire desktop.

By: e_dub_kendo

e_dub_kendo — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:52:19 +0000

I've read Breaking into Japanese Literature and it was ok. The concept is awesome but the stories are a bit dry. Those guys had been reading far too much Edgar Alan Poe (who was actually an enormous influence on Soseki, not as sure about his direct influence on Akutagawa Ryunosuke). I still enjoyed it, but those aren't the authors i'd personally pick to read if they hadn't been in that book. Another book, similar in concept though quite different in format, that I can HEARTILY recommend is Read Real Japanese Fiction. While it seems like it would be more difficult at first because of how it's laid out (the definitions are all in the back for example) after a few pages of reading and getting used to the format I very quickly developed a method that made lookups just as quick and easy as the other book. Furthermore, these stories are all contemporary authors, most published since 2000, so the stories were just much more enjoyable to me. They range in difficulty from fairly easy to fairly difficult, but as a beginner who had only JUST finished RTK, I was able to work my way through the entire book in a couple weeks during Tadoku.

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:59:42 +0000

Great list, and some good suggestions from Joe also.

I have read Breaking into Japanese Literature and throughouly enjoyed it. The format is such that with multiple readings, and gradual exposure to new kanji, you start to assimilate new knowledge.

Some of the language is a little archaic, but then it is considered classical Japanese literature

Reading is good for you when it contains vocabulary that is just out of your reach, and you are challenged to make sense of it. You can do it without the help of a dictionary in a seperate volume with this book.

By: Zyaga

Zyaga — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:57:32 +0000

Really appreciate that list! This page will be adjusted soon to contain a few updates.

By: Zyaga

Zyaga — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:56:44 +0000

I don’t know why I happened to forget to mention that since I have Japanese Manga myself that has furigana in it.

I guess every thing else came to mind for the main fact that it’s such a “Duh” answer, but somehow I still forgot!

Within the next few days, I’m going to recompile this and I’ll add Manga and those games Joe went over.

By: David

David — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:51:41 +0000

How about just plain old furigana? It’s on most comics and some books for young adults. It makes things pretty easy to read.

By: Joe Munro

Joe Munro — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:46:35 +0000

Hey! Great post! I’d like to just add to a bit with a small list of games on the Nintendo DS that may be great for foreigners not yet ready to tackle a great amount of kanji, so here it is:

1. Pokemon. I’m not sure this goes for all the Pokemon games (it most likely does), but Pokemon Platinum is all hiragana. While you probably won’t understand what’s going on unless you already know the words used, it is great to constantly be forced to practice pronunciation. When I was getting used to hiragana and katakana (all Pokemon names are in katakana!) I used to force myself to read out all the dialog before progressing. I think as long as this isn’t too boring for you it could be a great help.

2. Dora Gana ~ Doraemon Hiragana Study for Nintendo DS. This was actually made for Japanese children to learn their hiragana and katakana. It’s a very famous kid-friendly Japanese cartoon with lots of minigames. It’s pretty neat and definitely worth a try.

3. Mario (including Kart) and Kirby (and probably some other Nintendo fellows too! Okay, now you’re cheating. You just wanted to take a break from studying, didn’t you? Come on now, there’s barely any language in these games! What is here, however, is very simple (mostly katakana) and good for a beginner when they don’t want to do anything too hardcore.

4.Puyo Puyo 7. This has a few kanji but they are rare and should be pretty easy. It is a game that doesn’t involve a lot of dialog during gameplay; it’s all in between ‘battles’ and it isn’t really necessary to understand it (from what I’ve seen).

5. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. While this may be difficult because sometimes you need to understand the language to understand the problem or puzzle, it is pretty cool for upper beginners. It does have kanji in it, but it has a special feature where you can press down on the kanji you don’t know to see the pronunciation. Plus, Zelda is a ton of fun even in English.

Well, that’s all for now, folks. I hope this comment comes in handy for someone .

By: JapanSoc

JapanSoc — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:37 +0000

Kana Reading Material Resources…

I was asked earlier this week on twitter if I knew of any Kana reading material resources. The question was in reference to materials such as books, magazines, websites, etc that are written in Kana, rather than lots of Kanji, so that beginners like my…