Hello Bunsuke! Sorry I couldn't post my remarks yesterday on time. But it seems that there was something in common in yesterday's reading and today: it is the fact that I find it easier for me to understand what people are talking about rather than describing things.
What this means is that the amount of Kanjis that I can't identify is more when the author is describing things, compared to when two characters interact with each other. And why I think about it, this makes sense because people wouldn't really use flamboyant or exquisite words when talking with other people. Whereas authors usually use figures of speech when doing a description. I wouldn't have really realized this if not for reading in a foreign language.
Yes, I love this! Hope you don't mind my two cents but I read a lot of manga, and was surprised to find how quickly I picked up non-specialist vocab - and it was mostly from dialogue! The visual cues also helped me get the tone of voice etc used in particular situations - haha it's a bit different with literature (just slightly xD), but I'm learning a whole new set of descriptive kanji here and it's really fun! Looking forward to applying what I've learned in new places~
Very true, and the more you read the more you realize that there are so many ways to describe similar things. You'll never be done learning, but it's always a rewarding experience.
I just wanted to share that I was really far behind but this community of readers motivated me to dive in and just do as much as I could. I started writing things down on paper, like Bunsuke said, and it took forever. But then a funny thing happened: my scanning speed started to pick up and somehow the pace increased. I have pages of vocabulary words and my sieve-like mind will need to go back after forgetting what I wrote, but somehow the process worked a little bit. I feel like a different reader than I did a couple days ago.
Hi Jim, thanks for sharing this. I'm really happy that the community is keeping you motivated to continue reading. Together we can do this!!
And I think the experience you describe is extremely valuable. I feel that, nowadays, the promise that learning tools make is fundamentally self-contradicting: we've made a program that automates everything so you won't have to do the work yourself. You see this in all aspects of learning: make a text digital so that you can copy paste the entire thing in Google Translate to 'get the gist' or in Jim Breen so you'll have a word list; create a function that will automatically export a text's vocabulary into Anki so you have ready-made flashcards; etc. Even though this sounds like it's helping, it's really not. In order to learn something you need to spend long amounts of focused and dedicated time with it. But often, these tools are taking that experience (looking things up, wrestling with the grammar, knowing all the kanji but still being unsure what it actually says) away from us. I completely understand the urge to jump from seeing a text for the first time to the immediate result of understanding it, but it's the process in between these intial and final stages that you need to experience in order to gain any kind of real fluency. I'm always a bit cautious when it comes to tools that pretend to be helpful when all they do is foster complacency by shortening time spent with the language. What you say it true: looking things up in a paper dictionary, writing things out by hand, keeping physical lists; these things all take mountains of energy and time. But in the end, the process of going through this is the only thing that really works. I know I sound like a strict school teacher at times, but it's because I've gone through that process while a lot of people around me opted for the shortcut options that I can confidently say what tends to work and what doesn't.
It's so great to hear that you've embraced the process - however excruciating sometimes - and noticed the effects already, after just a few days. Imagine what this will do after a month, a year, a decade. There's no rush. Just keep doing this, even if it's just a few minutes a day, give it all of you attention, and enjoy that process. This is the entire idea behind the newsletter in the first place.
Thanks again for sharing this! Looking forward to reading what you thought of the rest of the story.
Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing great with the reading! For me it´s being an awesome and challenging experience! Due to boring but unavoidable work schedules, I´m a bit off the pace. Bunsuke, is it possible to post comments (questions, etc.) on each of the threads even after the project has finished?
By the way, regarding what you asked me about my final tactic approach to the text, I think once one has gotten used to the Jisho radical search (or got an OCR) and the vocab look up can speed up, everything smoothes a bit, because you get more sense of fluency. This project has also given me, by the way, new wake-up-calls as to how contextual Japanese is. Battling with それ, それだけ and so on I think is great not only because of the need to interpret to what it is referring, but because of the fact that you can apply it to the vocab analysis in itself, not worrying too much about the exact meaning of a word but more to what it actually wants to describe in the determined context. That happened to me with 要領.
Hi Daniel! Sure, you can comment on any of the threads and keep posting your questions to them at any stage. I plan on keeping them all open for the foreseeable future.
And yes, basically you're highlighting another very important skill there: gaining fluency in dictionary usage. Once you get the hang of using digital and physical dictionaries, your life will get so much easier.
Cannot wait to see everyone's reactions to today's section (and all the other sections for people still enjoying the first half of the story)!
Great to know!! Many thanks for that too. I´m the kind of reader who likes to post all questions at the end of the so called "first reading", especially if they are not crucial for the adequate understanding of the story.
By the way, I´d also like to say that If anyone at some point felt a bit down for having too many questions (because I related to that in the past) I now feel that questions are part of the essence of poetry and literature. Get rid of the questions and/or interpretations, and literature would die.
Super short update today! Yesterday I compiled a billion questions which Bunsukeさん kindly spent time answering - I really, really appreciate it! I haven't yet had the opportunity to really comb through those replies yet, so I'm hoping to get to that today ^^"
Plans for today include the above, then hopefully reading on!
I'm finding one of the more useful annotations to make is to underline set phrases to remind me they exist when rereading - it's great to be exposed to how they appear in context.
Again, I really appreciate it what this project is doing, and it's great to see other people taking a shot at it too!
Hi Nana, you're very welcome, and thank you for your generous contributions. I find it really fulfilling to see that so many people are getting something out of this and finding it useful. Let me know if you have any more questions! Hope you have fun reading today.
Today's section was pretty intense, so much so that I was behind (I'm reading Day 4 on Day 6) but I just kept reading and now I'm caught up! So much happened! It was so painful to read about the treatment that 大沢 received from his classmates, especially the part about no one wanting to be on his team during PE class.
I feel like my reading is a lot smoother now, I'm guessing because I've gotten used to the writing style and/or there are less kanji/vocab words I am unfamiliar with.
Hope everyone is enjoying the reading practice, and thank you Bunsuke for this opportunity!
Hi ニック, great question! This is a bit hard to explain but I'll give it a shot ;)
～なりの and ～なりに are usually explained as 'in it's own way'. So for example: 僕は自分なりに頑張った means '(measured against other people's standards it might not be much but) in my own way, I did my best'.
So the best way to interpret the sentence you quoted is 'if you're going to be brought in by the police, there has to be some kind of evidence to warrant you being called in (there must be evidence that, in its own right, is sufficient for the police to bring you in)'.
Hello Bunsuke! Sorry I couldn't post my remarks yesterday on time. But it seems that there was something in common in yesterday's reading and today: it is the fact that I find it easier for me to understand what people are talking about rather than describing things.
What this means is that the amount of Kanjis that I can't identify is more when the author is describing things, compared to when two characters interact with each other. And why I think about it, this makes sense because people wouldn't really use flamboyant or exquisite words when talking with other people. Whereas authors usually use figures of speech when doing a description. I wouldn't have really realized this if not for reading in a foreign language.
As always, thanks for setting this up Bunsuke!
Yes, I love this! Hope you don't mind my two cents but I read a lot of manga, and was surprised to find how quickly I picked up non-specialist vocab - and it was mostly from dialogue! The visual cues also helped me get the tone of voice etc used in particular situations - haha it's a bit different with literature (just slightly xD), but I'm learning a whole new set of descriptive kanji here and it's really fun! Looking forward to applying what I've learned in new places~
Very true, and the more you read the more you realize that there are so many ways to describe similar things. You'll never be done learning, but it's always a rewarding experience.
I just wanted to share that I was really far behind but this community of readers motivated me to dive in and just do as much as I could. I started writing things down on paper, like Bunsuke said, and it took forever. But then a funny thing happened: my scanning speed started to pick up and somehow the pace increased. I have pages of vocabulary words and my sieve-like mind will need to go back after forgetting what I wrote, but somehow the process worked a little bit. I feel like a different reader than I did a couple days ago.
Now I need to go back and see what I missed ;)
Hi Jim, thanks for sharing this. I'm really happy that the community is keeping you motivated to continue reading. Together we can do this!!
And I think the experience you describe is extremely valuable. I feel that, nowadays, the promise that learning tools make is fundamentally self-contradicting: we've made a program that automates everything so you won't have to do the work yourself. You see this in all aspects of learning: make a text digital so that you can copy paste the entire thing in Google Translate to 'get the gist' or in Jim Breen so you'll have a word list; create a function that will automatically export a text's vocabulary into Anki so you have ready-made flashcards; etc. Even though this sounds like it's helping, it's really not. In order to learn something you need to spend long amounts of focused and dedicated time with it. But often, these tools are taking that experience (looking things up, wrestling with the grammar, knowing all the kanji but still being unsure what it actually says) away from us. I completely understand the urge to jump from seeing a text for the first time to the immediate result of understanding it, but it's the process in between these intial and final stages that you need to experience in order to gain any kind of real fluency. I'm always a bit cautious when it comes to tools that pretend to be helpful when all they do is foster complacency by shortening time spent with the language. What you say it true: looking things up in a paper dictionary, writing things out by hand, keeping physical lists; these things all take mountains of energy and time. But in the end, the process of going through this is the only thing that really works. I know I sound like a strict school teacher at times, but it's because I've gone through that process while a lot of people around me opted for the shortcut options that I can confidently say what tends to work and what doesn't.
It's so great to hear that you've embraced the process - however excruciating sometimes - and noticed the effects already, after just a few days. Imagine what this will do after a month, a year, a decade. There's no rush. Just keep doing this, even if it's just a few minutes a day, give it all of you attention, and enjoy that process. This is the entire idea behind the newsletter in the first place.
Thanks again for sharing this! Looking forward to reading what you thought of the rest of the story.
Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing great with the reading! For me it´s being an awesome and challenging experience! Due to boring but unavoidable work schedules, I´m a bit off the pace. Bunsuke, is it possible to post comments (questions, etc.) on each of the threads even after the project has finished?
By the way, regarding what you asked me about my final tactic approach to the text, I think once one has gotten used to the Jisho radical search (or got an OCR) and the vocab look up can speed up, everything smoothes a bit, because you get more sense of fluency. This project has also given me, by the way, new wake-up-calls as to how contextual Japanese is. Battling with それ, それだけ and so on I think is great not only because of the need to interpret to what it is referring, but because of the fact that you can apply it to the vocab analysis in itself, not worrying too much about the exact meaning of a word but more to what it actually wants to describe in the determined context. That happened to me with 要領.
Let´s continue enjoying the reading!
Hi Daniel! Sure, you can comment on any of the threads and keep posting your questions to them at any stage. I plan on keeping them all open for the foreseeable future.
And yes, basically you're highlighting another very important skill there: gaining fluency in dictionary usage. Once you get the hang of using digital and physical dictionaries, your life will get so much easier.
Cannot wait to see everyone's reactions to today's section (and all the other sections for people still enjoying the first half of the story)!
Great to know!! Many thanks for that too. I´m the kind of reader who likes to post all questions at the end of the so called "first reading", especially if they are not crucial for the adequate understanding of the story.
By the way, I´d also like to say that If anyone at some point felt a bit down for having too many questions (because I related to that in the past) I now feel that questions are part of the essence of poetry and literature. Get rid of the questions and/or interpretations, and literature would die.
You're absolutely right, always keep asking questions!
Super short update today! Yesterday I compiled a billion questions which Bunsukeさん kindly spent time answering - I really, really appreciate it! I haven't yet had the opportunity to really comb through those replies yet, so I'm hoping to get to that today ^^"
Plans for today include the above, then hopefully reading on!
I'm finding one of the more useful annotations to make is to underline set phrases to remind me they exist when rereading - it's great to be exposed to how they appear in context.
Again, I really appreciate it what this project is doing, and it's great to see other people taking a shot at it too!
Hi Nana, you're very welcome, and thank you for your generous contributions. I find it really fulfilling to see that so many people are getting something out of this and finding it useful. Let me know if you have any more questions! Hope you have fun reading today.
Hi everyone!!
Today's section was pretty intense, so much so that I was behind (I'm reading Day 4 on Day 6) but I just kept reading and now I'm caught up! So much happened! It was so painful to read about the treatment that 大沢 received from his classmates, especially the part about no one wanting to be on his team during PE class.
I feel like my reading is a lot smoother now, I'm guessing because I've gotten used to the writing style and/or there are less kanji/vocab words I am unfamiliar with.
Hope everyone is enjoying the reading practice, and thank you Bunsuke for this opportunity!
Evelyn
Hi! From this section, I'm wondering about the function of なりの in 警察に呼ばれるからには呼ばれるなりの根拠があるんだろうってみんな思っちゃうんです。
Hi ニック, great question! This is a bit hard to explain but I'll give it a shot ;)
～なりの and ～なりに are usually explained as 'in it's own way'. So for example: 僕は自分なりに頑張った means '(measured against other people's standards it might not be much but) in my own way, I did my best'.
So the best way to interpret the sentence you quoted is 'if you're going to be brought in by the police, there has to be some kind of evidence to warrant you being called in (there must be evidence that, in its own right, is sufficient for the police to bring you in)'.
Hope this makes sense....