Getting started with reading

Japanese
#1

Relatively new to Bunpro, and definitely new to the forums - so please forgive me if this is a duplicative question. But I’m hoping someone can give me a suggestion or two!

I’m just now reaching the point where I’d like to start reading something a bit beyond the graded tadoku readers and the super-basic kids stuff - through most of Genki 1/N5 grammar and vocabulary, so ready to stretch out a bit.

However, I’m having a real problem reading vertically. I don’t know why. It’s a real mental block. I can handle super basic reading horizontally, but as soon as I try to read vertically (and right to left) it’s so much harder for me to even just recognize where the words begin and end. At a time when reading is tough enough as it is because of my limited vocabulary and grammar, the mechanics of the text presentation present another roadblock,

Problem is, though, most reading material that’s suitable for beginners is presented vertically.

So my dilemma is this: should I try to overcome two things at once (the new language and the vertical text), or should I try to seek out beginner level stuff presented horizontally? And if the latter, anyone have any suggestions?

#2

Personally, I’d say it’s better to just bite the bullet and get used to the vertical text. When I was at your point, I started reading easier manga (Chi’s Sweet Home, shojo stuff) and that helped since there’s less text in general, which I feel works as a good stopgap between that and full-on pages of text in a novel or what have you.

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#3

I think it can depend on what your goal is as a lot of media, such as online news articles are laid out in the western style. However, if you goal is to read novels, you’ll need to get used to the top to bottom style.

I highly recommend the graded readers that Bunpro created as you can switch the views and you can highlight the grammar that has come up in each new section.

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#4

If you’re working with an epub file, you can use an app like this one to turn them horizontal. Added bonus of language-based browser extensions working.

#5

Kanji damage really helped me start reading shonen manga.

I got ピッコマ app on my phone, I mostly read paper I buy in Japan tho.

2 websites to try reading horizontally https://note.com/ https://gourmet.watch.impress.co.jp/

Most phone games are available in Japanese.

#6

Thanks for all the responses, everyone. As for goals, I want to work towards both being able to eventually read top-to-bottom and to generally develop my facility with Japanese. I just want to include reading as part of my immersion (along with video and a lot of podcasts), and the unfamiliar text structure has just made that harder. I’ll look at the Bunpro graded readers and the website recommended above, and I’ll give Chi’s Sweet Home a try as well.

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#7

Similar thoughts to @Reporterdem’s suggestion about “biting the bullet”: the best way to learn to read vertically is to read vertically. I am not a teacher or researcher, so please take this with a grain of salt, but I had a lot of breakthroughs in my reading because I read without worrying about the actual content or comprehension. I actually picked up a Japanese bible (again, content is not important here) and just read a bit every day. I now prefer the vertical style, haha.

It is quite rewarding to start reading that way, and the practice of reading speed and pronunciation will do more for your language development than you realize. Even if you do not understand, you are hearing (assuming you are reading out loud) and picking up speed.

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