Learn Japanese Today

I covered some of this yesterday in my review of １００万回生きたねこ , but I think its important to know how to use multiple sources outside of textbooks to improve your Japanese. Just like my article on learning Japanese from TV and movies , this article will provide you with some solid tips for reading Japanese picture books.

Use the pictures (duh):

Seems obvious, but don’t just give the pictures a passing glance. Really try to understand what’s going on and look at the emotions and physical details of the characters. Think of the picture as kind of a subtitle, a direct translation of the written word, except into a colorful drawing instead of another language. Try to look at the picture as you read down the page. When you get to the end of the page, think about what things in the picture haven’t been talked about and see how they match up to the words you don’t know. Could they contextually match up?Any words that you still don’t know should be looked up in a dictionary.

Be Careful of Kanji and Kana:

Children’s books often use very few kanji, and some none at all. It’s important that if you learn a new word in hiragana, you look up its kanji right afterward so you can connect them in your mind. Using mostly kana makes it much easier to look up words out of a children’s book, but don’t forget that most of those words have a kanji too.

Two Atama are Better than One:

Read with someone else. Struggling for meaning just from context develops a specific part of the brain that isn’t used very often outside of immersion situations, so having someone to help you is really nice. You might think about things in different ways, and figure out more stuff through teamwork. It’ll also help you remember better. This is actually a really fun thing to do with your friends when you have some time to kill, give it a try.

Read it Again!

I know it seems like I’m a big advocate of repitition, but I really try to only push for things that are fun and easy to do multiple times, like read a children’s book. Reading once you know the story makes it a lot easier to put words into place, and it really doesn’t take that long. Just try to read your favorite Japanese children’s book every month or so, or however long it takes you to forget some of it. It’s perfect for reading yourself a bedtime story.

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