How To Read in Japanese Tips

Happy holidays.

Do you feel in the holiday spirit yet? I always love to read during the holidays, so I’m starting to create my TBR list for this break! But I thought it’d be a good time to talk about learning to read more again in Japanese today!

At the beginning of this year I could barely read a paragraph without stopping so many times, but now I can read actual books (sort of).

So how was that possible?

Question: So how does one get from barely being able to read a few paragraphs to reading full-length books???

Truthful Answer: Patience (and LOTS of it), consistency, and dedication! (You have to work hard to learn this language)

But for those of you who want a more method-based answer:

For me, using the 新完全マスターN3 読解 (Shin Kanzen Master N3 Dokkai) or any sort of level-based reading textbook helped tremendously.

But I really believe it’s from this textbook. It really helped my reading speed and endurance so much compared to before. The passages aren’t that long, so I just read two per day. There’s just so many, that you can get a lot of practice in.

Essentially, by reading 2 per day everyday, you are training yourself to read faster and longer. You become used to seeing vocabulary related to the level, so you can re-enforce what you have already learned. I think it’s a lot less demotivating compared to a real book at first, so it’s a great stepping stone.

And after N3, you are ready to read real books! (before N3, I’d stick to reading children’s books)