Hi everyone,
I need some advice on how you use literature (manga, light novels, books etc) to learn Japanese.
Would you be so kind as to answer my poll and give some tips on using books as part of your study journey?
0 voters
I voted add each new word to SRS, because thatâs what I do, but I would only recommend that if you already have a fairly large vocabulary. Otherwise youâll quickly become overwhelmed with words.
Note that just because a word is ârareâ enough that an SRS might be needed to help it stick, doesnât mean the word is obscure / challenging IRL. It just means itâs not a word used very often in the types of books I read. For example, there are some basic animals that would be considered ârareâ that I still want to know how to say.
Thank you, I started adding every word I didnât know to my dictionary Flashcards app but it became overwhelming, 300 cards from 30 pages but thatâs because the word are all pregnancy related and I havenât studied anything like this in my learning (Iâm reading ć€ăȘç”” in case anyone is curious).
I think Iâll add the repeating words that I would use in daily life but I donât think Iâll need to say âăăȘăăźè”€ăĄăăăŻéćă§ăâ on the regular haha at least I hope not!!
For me that definitely sounds like too much to keep up with on SRS! I think your strategy of adding those words that seem particularly useful would be a good strat for now!
I really DONâT recommend adding every new word you come across. Not only is that going to slow you down majorly, youâre also going to be making an endless amount of new cards per reading session. You can make it a rule to only add words you see multiple times, or words under a certain frequency (5k/10k), or just limit how many new cards you make per day.
Anki is really useful for remembering less common words or words that you struggle with, but itâs not the only way to learn. As long as you read a lot and keep looking up the stuff you donât know, youâll improve your vocabulary.
See whatever sticks; because thatâs how I learnt English as a kid. Itâs how I am intuitively learn right now. If it sticks itâs important. Sure, I might have to read and hear it 30 times but if I hear it that many times in context it must mean itâs important and it gets stuck in my long term memory.
This is how I learn Japanese without it becoming tiresome. A longterm strategy that isnât bound to large âgoalsâ or tests.
I dislike minning. I prefer using high quality premade cards [like Bunpro, I use Jaup]. If you are doing N4 or N5- just stick to premade order.
Once youâre N3 have 1 book that you look up every word and add to a deck.
Also a manga that you arenât allowed to look ANY words up. You just have to look at the pictures and guess.
Then you do which ever one you feel like.
haha, you sound like a tadoku reader 
I never obeyed that rule, but I always try to get the meaning with context first, guess and afterwards look-up to see if my guess was correct.
Depending on which level of japanese one is at, it does or doesnât make sense to add everything you read to your reviews. But I think if you are still within your first 4000 words or something itâs more worthwhile to use premade decks with common words.
But occasionally making a deck with themed vocabs (like a pregnancy related deck) to better be able to follow a themed book can be a fun and useful change of things. In such a case I would skim the book first to gather useful vocab (thereâs probably a tool for that), then make the deck (not many vocab, but useful ones, 100 max), then learn the deck for a week or two and then read the book again.
I wish there was an in-between option for this poll.
Iâm a big fan of âadd new words to a deckâ if and only if you see it often and canât seem to remember the reading/meaning. Typically you want to read things at or slightly above your level so you hopefully donât get too many new words, but instead get a refresher of what you should already know, as well as some additional content on top.