卿少納言

When it comes to learning Japanese, you often hear the saying: 【Don't learn Japanese from anime, no one speaks like that!】. But in fact, this saying is wrong.
First, let's take a look at why this saying exists.
Most people who say this don't know why it exists; in other words, the vast majority of them don't know what they are talking about.
This saying stems from the phenomenon that if you learn Japanese from anime, you might think that 【おい、てめぇなにやってんだ！コラァ！】 and 【ちっ、オラぁ一番強ぇんだぜ】, 【コラァ！何ブツブツ言ってんだ？打っ殺すぞ！】 are natural expressions. (If you don't understand these, you can interpret them as very rude expressions.)
In reality, this is not the case.
In fact, anime is diverse. Some anime have very natural dialogues, some have dialogues that are more masculine, and some are more feminine. For example, the dialogue in "Your Name." is more natural than in "Dragon Ball Z."
Similarly, compared to "Kill la Kill," the dialogue in "Love Live!" is more natural.
In anime like "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War," each character has a different speaking style. Some characters speak in a typical 【anime】 tone, while others speak very naturally.
Secondly, please consider: what is 【real】 Japanese?

### Why Learn Japanese from Anime
1. Abundant resources. Thanks to the sharing of netizens, even on non-niche platforms like Nyaa.si, you can download almost all anime for free.
2. Familiar themes for most learners. You've already started learning Japanese, and it's likely that anime sparked your interest in learning it. So why not use this theme to learn Japanese?
3. You can encounter a lot of character speech. This is crucial.
4. Dialogues are close to real life — this depends on which anime you watch; for example, Makoto Shinkai's films are very close to everyday life.
5. Much better than boring textbooks, because you can not only learn real Japanese but also enjoy the fun of learning Japanese.

Before officially starting extensive reading, there are two important suggestions. The first suggestion: complete an Anki deck that includes basic Japanese vocabulary (like Kaishi 1.5k), and read a systematic grammar guide (like Tae Kim or Cure Dolly). If you can master more vocabulary, extensive reading will be easier. The second suggestion: do some listening immersion exercises before extensive reading. The reason for this is twofold: it can correct your Japanese pronunciation; and it helps you better understand sentence structure while reading.

### Key Points

1. Extensive reading can indeed be quite difficult at first, but you shouldn't wait until you're "ready" to start. If you don't start, you'll never be ready.
2. It's not advisable to start extensive reading without any listening experience. If you can read Japanese fluently in your head, then you can start.
3. Don't get hung up on sentences that you can't understand even after reading them multiple times; in other words, learn to **tolerate ambiguity**. This feeling will greatly decrease as your reading volume increases.
4. If you usually don't like reading, you can try playing visual novels or reading manga; they are also very useful for developing reading skills.
6. The experience of reading your first light novel (or original book) is often very painful. But no matter how painful it is, or how long it takes, you must persevere.
7. Don't rush for results; give yourself some time and go at your own pace. You wouldn't want to push too hard and end up not wanting to read anymore.

For those who don't like reading, visual novels are a very good choice. My reading ability has greatly improved with their help. Reading visual novels is a bit like watching anime with Japanese subtitles. They are not only suitable for making [AnimeCards](https://www.animecards.site) but also serve as a form of semi-audio-visual immersive learning.

## Conclusion
"Don't worry about how few words you know." As long as you have accumulated some listening experience, completed a grammar book, or have a similar level of foundation, you can start extensive reading. The preparation work is really just that little. Don't hesitate, and don't feel like you're "not ready yet." If you don't take the first step, you'll never be ready.

Undoubtedly, reading is the most effective way to improve your Japanese level.

The first piece of advice given by experts to beginners is usually "read more," and the reason is simple: it really works.  
This article will provide you with some practical advice and discuss some confusions you may encounter during your reading process.

Whenever someone wants to try extensive reading, I always recommend the following method.

**Read the original works of the anime you like.** 

After watching the anime, or even while watching it, you can read the original novel. After watching the anime, referring to it can help you understand some details of the original work.  

Overall, this is undoubtedly a very effective reading strategy. Because by watching anime, you provide background information for the text on the pages, thus achieving effective language learning as described by the i+1 theory (Krashen's input hypothesis). Moreover, the original works of anime usually have several volumes, which is very good for those learning Japanese. Because adapting to one author's writing style is much easier than adapting to works by different authors.

### How Many Words Should I Look Up?

I'm not sure, because since I started extensive reading, I look up every unfamiliar word, and I think this method works pretty well.

Yomichan makes looking up Japanese words a breeze.

If I had to copy and paste words into other applications, or had to write them out by hand, or had to look them up in a paper dictionary, I probably wouldn't look up as many words.

But, come on, it's 2023, you have Yomichan. Experience the ease of looking up words with it.

Remember to install a word frequency dictionary (recommended JPDB), so you can know which words are high frequency. Words with a frequency below 10,000 often appear in books and anime.

### Reading Speed Tips

All eyes on me! I have an announcement to make... The best way to improve reading speed is to read more.

But I will still explain why reading more can improve reading speed and what reading speed actually means.

#### **Q:** If I want to improve my reading speed on Wikipedia, should I read a lot of manga?

A: No. If you want to improve your reading speed in a specific field, you need to practice specifically.

Type 1: "I've been staring at this sentence/paragraph/word/thing for a long time, and I still have no idea what it means."

Solution?

The most direct approach is to look up the words and grammar in the sentence and refer to the context (that is, the content you've read before).

But if you've already done that and still don't understand, what should you do?

The answer is simple: read more.

Although I don't want to admit it, there is indeed another way to cultivate comprehension: refer to grammar points, dictionary explanations, example sentences, HiNative, and Yahoo! Chiebukuro answers to analyze sentences. If you're willing to do this, I think it can be useful. However, reading extensively without seeking deep understanding can also improve comprehension. So, it really depends on you. Perhaps learning how to allocate time between analysis and extensive reading is also a skill worth mastering.

Type 1.5: "I have the above symptoms of anxiety when I can't understand. I really hate the feeling of not understanding; I want to understand everything. I firmly believe that analyzing sentences is important. But how much should I analyze?"

As a former member of the analysis camp, I now lean more towards extensive reading. What I want to say is that analyzing sentences you don't understand can only yield very limited understanding; while those who read extensively will have much stronger comprehension than those who only focus on how to analyze sentences.

Analyzing sentences is not a bad thing; I just think it's important to get the balance right. Because compared to overly focusing on one sentence, reading different sentences extensively is more helpful.

I once read some books three times (for example, the first to third volumes of "Dragon Maid," three times each), because I was making sentence flashcards and wanted to extract new words from them, so I repeatedly read those sentences.

I flipped through those books over and over for analysis.

What was the result? When I finished reading other books and looked back at those books I had read repeatedly, I realized that **I had missed a lot.**

Still, the point remains: "Compared to those who repeatedly analyze the same content, those who read extensively improve their comprehension ability faster."

Extensive reading means encountering a large number of different sentences in various contexts, which will help you progress quickly.

#### **Q:** I always unconsciously ignore the meanings of words while reading. What should I do?

I think every book has some sentences that aren't that important or useful, right? It's perfectly fine not to delve into those.

When encountering particularly difficult sentences, many people only understand the literal meaning but don't grasp what the author is trying to convey. In such cases, you can try reading it again. If you still don't understand, it means that the sentence exceeds your comprehension ability, so just skip it. I know I've repeated this many times, but I have to say it again: read more, and you'll see the same vocabulary in different contexts, and your ability to understand complex sentences will gradually improve.

It's normal to be distracted while reading, and it's not surprising to feel tired. Although I don't have any other suggestions to help you focus besides removing distractions, I also feel a bit tired after reading for about 20 minutes. But taking a break and then reading the content again often leads to new insights.

In conclusion, you should remember one thing:

Does the process of reading make you feel pleasant? ← This is the most important question.

Regarding 【analyzing everything】 and 【reading extensively without seeking deep understanding】, I can't give an objective conclusion about who is right or wrong. But one thing is crucial: (regardless of which method you choose) do you enjoy the process of reading? Are you interested in the content you read? Are you willing to continue reading?

Type 2: "I read for a while, and my brain becomes a mess. If I read too fast, I feel like I've learned nothing."

Sincere advice: grit your teeth and stick with it; it's okay to read slowly. Also, you can take a break. I often find that after a break, I have new understandings of the same sentences.

Type 3: "I can understand all the words and know their meanings, but I just can't visualize the scenes they describe! I don't understand what's happening! I have to analyze, but I still can't figure out what's going on. What should I do?"

I know this is difficult for you, but what you need to do is:

- <h3>Read more<h3>

Type 4: "I've been learning with some method for a while, and I've mastered some words and grammar. But when I try to read, I find I don't recognize those words at all. Reading becomes very difficult. What should I do?"

I believe you've guessed the answer.

Let me be straightforward: without extensive reading, you can't improve your reading ability. Just using Anki to memorize words without extensive reading won't help you grasp the words that require deeper understanding.

The only thing you can do is read more.

Of course, you can continue learning grammar and using Anki to memorize words; these are all useful.

But only extensive reading can truly improve your reading ability.

### I can't understand! I hardly read (my native language) books! I'm too stupid/ADHD/too young/have a bad memory, and I can't read at all!
<h2><strong>Keep it up.</strong></h2> 

Also, I didn't read much either until I realized that I just needed a good book.  

And learn to manage your time.

### Okay, but how many books should I read???

That's a silly question. Because there is no end to language learning.

But if you ask how many you need to read to reach a high level of proficiency?

I don't know the exact number, but after reading 300 novels, you should be quite proficient.

If you have seriously read 30 to 40 novels while looking up words in a monolingual dictionary, you should have a very large vocabulary, and your listening skills will also improve significantly.