Reddit Reddit reviews Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers

We found 21 Reddit comments about Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers
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21 Reddit comments about Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers:

u/SuikaCider · 157 pointsr/languagelearning

Post Genki II Stuff

  1. Watch Shirokuma Cafe on this website. Animelon is beautiful because all of its anime have subtitles available in English, romaji (latinized Japanese), hiragana, and normal Japanese -- start with English & normal Japanese for a few episodes to get used to how people talk, then turn off English and begin ganbatte'ing (doing your best). This anime is about a panda bear working in a cafe owned by a polar bear where they make food for guests and go on various adventures. It's great because the vocabulary is almost entirely every day (minus the polar bear's obnoxious puns), and it also has a variety of accents, so you'll begin getting used to Japanese sounds. If you like dry humor, you'll even enjoy the anime. I personally laughed so hard that I cried, twice.

  2. Begin going through the N3 grammar videos from Nihongo no Mori, also feel free to check out their Dangerous Japanese (slang), and move on to N2 and N1 grammar as you feel ready. Their videos are great because they all have subtitles, they circumlocate to simpler Japanese to explain difficult words in the example sentenecs (explaining Japanese with simpler Japanese), and they have fun. These videos were personally the first "all Japanese" content that I consumed, and after I had been watching for a week or so I began with Shirokuma Cafe.

  3. Buy Read Real Japanese Contemporary Fiction and Essays. These books are great: they present 7 short stories or essays that are 100% unaltered (except for adding readings to Kanji that appear for the first time in a given article), as a native speaker would see them. That's on the right page. The left page has a running gloss into English -- it's just enough to help you understand the meanings of parts you didn't quite understand, but not so much that you'd understand what was going on by only reading it. The real gem is that the 2nd half of the book is a running grammatical dictionary, as in the author devotes like ~130 pages to explaining all of the grammar that was contained in every single article that is more advanced than ~Late Genki II stuff. These are the holy grail of Japanese learning content for me; they're literally training wheels for reading read Japanese stuff. I read each one with a notebook: I went one sentence at a time, reading every grammar explanation, and writing down any grammar that I didn't know. Sounds time consuming, but I still went through a story in 1-2 days (2-4 hours? per story on average). After finishing the book I waited 2 weeks then read it again, highlighting the sentences that I still struggled with, double checking that grammar. Then I read it again a month later, not checking the grammar, and added any sentences i still didn't explain into Anki as Clozed Deletion Card.

  4. I say again -- Read Real Japanese is training wheels to Reading Real Japanese. Written Japanese is quite different than Spoken Japanese, and this book really helps to iron out everything that might have not quite gotten through your system yet. When you finish the two books, begin looking for native books you can read on an e-reader/the computer. Just pick whatever you're interested in that has been written in the last 20 years. It's important to do it on a Kindle/computer because this enables you to highlight words to search them in the dictionary, rather than having to draw the characters out to search by hand in your phone dictionary. The Kindle is a pair of stilts that makes reading tolerable at a fluency level where it would normally be unbearable -- and I think this goes for any language, but particularly for languages like Japanese/Chinese where the primary writing system isn't necessarily phonetic.

  5. In addition to reading, listen to lots of stuff. Find something that is interesting to you -- ie, something you find entertaining enough that you're willing to slodge through the beginning phase where it's not-pleasantly-difficult -- and stick to it. I personally liked/like Taigu Channel; a Buddhist monk here in Japan takes in letters from people struggling with life problems (what is happiness? what is freedom? How can I show the people around me that I appreciate them?) and then he answers them from a Buddhist perspective. Objectively speaking I think it's super for a first listening resource because he speaks clearly, somewhat slowly, a lot of the videos have subtitles, and he's talking about everyday-life problems meaning that the vocabulary is limited to practical things. If you're interested in Buddhism, I personally find the videos to be really enlightening. This is the ultimate goal of language learning, in my opinion -- to find a way to make your target language a medium; a gateway to knowledge or entertainment that you want, which just happens to be only in your target language... meaning that just by enjoying yourself and consuming content you want to consume, you naturally improve your language.

  6. Check out Flowverlapping, find some music you like, and work at it to help you (a) learn the sounds of Japanese, (b) work into a more natural sounding rhythm/intonation, and (c) to (hopefully) get something of a feel for Japanese's two pitch accents. This is basically not necessary for being understood, but will definitely help you to sound more pleasant on the ears, and figured I might as well leave the link just in case you happen to be interested in pronunciation. Since it can be difficult to break into music in a new language, I'll also leave a few songs that I like in different genres. Yonedzu Kenshi-AiNekutai (indie), Mucc-Heide (visual kei), King Giddra-Bullet of Truth(uhh, hard? rap), Kohh-Don't Care If I'm Broke(uhh, soft? rap), Perfume-Flash(J-pop),Urashima Tarou - Voice of the Sea(makes me think of Japan) Kobasolo - Far, Far away (a playlist of soft music I gathered). Music is important to me, personally -- so if you enjoy music, I hope there's something you like here somewhere.
u/dzhen3115 · 15 pointsr/languagelearning

> Also of course the language I'm most interested in is literally the most difficult one categorised, lol; looks like you're currently studying it (Japanese), how have you found it so far?

So it took me about 2 years to get to N3 in Japanese, entirely self-studying, and I've been studying it for about 2 and a half years now. I honestly don't find it too bad. Obviously learning all of the kanji takes time. I've chosen to learn them as I go along rather than memorise them all at the start and I know and can write about 600 but I can probably recognise and read ~800. The grammar is very different from English but it's difficult in a different way to some other languages. When I studied Russian that was difficult because you're trying to internalise all these case endings and perfective and imperfective forms of verbs and it just felt like a slog to me, whereas in Japanese most grammatical constructions are simple to construct, no complex conjugation rules or anything, but there are a lot of subtleties to meanings and usages that take time to really get familiar with.

I am a big fan of textbooks, so I did Genki I, then Genki II, then studied for N4 using textbook specifically geared for that, then Tobira, then textbooks specifically for N3. Now I'm using a combination of Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course (KKLC) for Kanji, Authentic Japanese: Progressing From Intermediate to Advanced, various materials that I'm reading (some native like manga, online news and a high school history textbook, and some geared for learners like this, this and NHK Easy News) and various stuff I'm watching/listening to.

Obviously the ability to actually speak is what gets neglected the most in self-study. I was pretty religiously having Skype lessons through iTalki for a while and that helped enormously but I have let that slip a bit. I went to Japan shortly after passing N4 and I was really surprised with how well I was able to communicate. My partner is a wheelchair user so we did have to communicate with Japanese people way more than the average tourist and it all went really smoothly.

What I'd say about Japanese is less that it's super super hard, but more that it's going to take a long time, especially if you don't already know how language-learning works best for you. If it's something you want to do, you probably can, but you have to know that it is a marathon, not a sprint. Going in, my idea was that if I'm not competent in Japanese until a decade into studying, that was OK. It was a long-term hobby I was taking up.

> How long did it take you to get to B2 in French?

That's a more complicated story. Technically I started studying French in 2006 but that was some really terrible teaching in a UK secondary school and I didn't put much effort in and dropped it after the first year with very little ability. I started seriously studying French at school in 2009 when I did a GCSE in it in one year (they're usually 2 years but they teach very little). I'd say I was a solid A1 after that. Then I did an A Level over 2 years finishing in 2012. After that I'd say I was probably a solid B1 or a weak B2. Then I was at university for 4 years and completely dropped all language study. After that my reading was probably at a B1 level but everything else had suffered a lot from lack of use. Then in 2016 I picked it back up again, got it back up to standard (it came back really quickly) and passed the actual B2 exam in December 2016. I've been intending to take C1 for ages and I'm fairly confident I'd pass it right now, but at this point I think I'll hold out for C2 which I'm debating taking later in the year. So I expect I was at B2 after 3 serious years in the British schooling system. I actually passed B2 after that plus 4 years of nothing plus about 6 months of self-study. It can be done way quicker than that if you self-study from the start though.

> Do you have time for other hobbies?

Language learning is definitely my primary hobby, but I do really enjoy it and it's not like I come home from work every day and do nothing else. I'm not a big gamer but when something comes out that catches my fancy I'll play it. I live with my partner so I spend time with him every day just watching TV and movies, spending time together, going out at the weekends etc. I cook every day and occasionally dedicate a whole day to cooking something special or baking. I do a lot of coding (which is also my job, but I do my own personal projects for fun). I read a lot. I am going back to university to get another Master's next year so that will definitely test out my time management.

For me, I think the best thing is to think of language study as a lifestyle change. If you want to get strong and fit, you make the change to go to the gym every day or 4 times a week or whatever, and if you keep on track and don't miss days too often, you'll eventually get there. And then once you're where you want to be, you keep going to maintain it. That's how I see language learning. It's something you'll have to find time for and incorporate into your lifestyle.

Phew, sorry about that essay.

u/uberscheisse · 10 pointsr/LearnJapanese

There's a book series that really helped me called Read Real Japanese.

The format of the books is - right side page, tateyomi Japanese passage. Left side page, English explanation of hard grammar, expressions and colloqual/idiomatic elements of each passage.

u/[deleted] · 8 pointsr/anime

I accidentally spent an hour and a half writing this. Excuse the length, it got a bit out of hand.

First of all take formal lessons. Doesn't matter where or how, learning is considerably easier through assistance and interactions with people. Anyone can learn to read moon runes but a teacher can help with conversation and pronunciation especially which is the most important aspect. I started with weekly out of school classes and for a year I had a family friend tutor who would help me weekly and I can't emphasise how helpful learning through a teacher is.

My total class time was a little unorthodox with 5 years of extra studies in England during secondary school followed by 3 years of Japanese in Australia during high school. The rest has been self studies of kanji and overall reading and listening. I'll go through everything.

Second is to get the Japanese writing system down; hiragana and katakana. Kanji is also important and an absolute must if you plan to read light novels, manga and especially visual novels. My personal preference for a digital kanji dictionary is Japanese which comes with useful features like a touch screen writing kanji search, stroke order for kanji writing, JLPT kanji learning and sorting and most importantly sentence usage examples.

Visual novels are rough because they have sometimes have the unique blend of every day kanji and words before throwing terms like large hadron particle collider and anti gravity particles, (I'm looking at you Aokana.) My personal method for learning kanji has been to get a book and manually create my own list in Anki.

Third is books. Again, the standards you'll find are Japanese for Busy People and the Genki series. I live in Australia, mind, resources may be different in other countries. Other helpful texts down the line include: Read Real Japanese, 日本語擬態語辞典 (A Japanese Onomatopoeia Book, though I'm sure Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia would work just as well) and the last one I'll mention below.

The Japanese Shonen JUMP is an exceptionally useful source if you're able to get a hold of it. Weekly, reasonably prices, recyclable books with pictures to deduce words from context, furigana to help with kanji and a decent art resource if you like drawing. I get a cop of JUMP weekly from Kinokuniya in Sydney if anyone from NSW happens to read this.

Fourth, use the internet! Don't use the net as your primary resource, text books exist and are pricey for a reason. However, there's a ton of great side content online that you can use. One alternative to JUMP is
Pocket Shonen Magazine with all sorts of manga in Japanese that provides the lastest chapters for free. It's also home to the rather unique read Nagatoro-san.

You also have options like Japanese podcasts, (I like
Anime Cafe Latte), Visual Novels with Japanese subs as well such as Little Busters English Edition and Go Go Nippon!* and Japanese news websites.

Additionally once you get better at reading and writing you can lurk on Japanese forums, YouTube pages and Nico Nico if you want casual chats with fans. When I played through Persona 5, it was nice to talk to other Japanese players in the early days of release and discuss it. It was also helpful that players created a walkthrough website for P5 and various move and frame data for Dissidia which were helpful. Again there are many ways you can learn and utilise Japanese so never underestimate when, where or how you can use the language.

Fifth is Japanese Media. Anime, manga, animation, live action films, books, music, podcasts, anything! Constant and consistent exposure to the language is an incredibly useful method to get down pronunciation and fluency. Anime and manga won't help with casual conversation but will keep the language fresh in your mind and help with pronunciation. An example of difference between representation of pronunciation can be shown in the Chihayafuru live action films, (which are very good!) Kansai certainly has its own quirks that isn't present in your bog standard Tokyo dialect, but the more realistic live action take on kansai, compared to the sporadic and higher pitched anime take is a shocking juxtaposition.

This is getting very long so I'll just through out two YouTuber I haven't put in the text above and a few small useful FAQs I see around.

Abroad in Japan presented by Chris Board is a very fun and insightful series of videos looking into places in Japan off the beaten path. He also has a podcast.

That Japanese Man Yuta interviews various people in Japan about various topics. The interviews are generally subbed and are great for hearing natural speech patterns and word choices.

Q: Do I need to know a lot of Japanese when I go to Japan? A: Not if you're travelling around Tokyo. Anywhere outside train transport and the city is a lot harder to navigate when reading signs. This has been improving over recent years. Tokyo locals can manage a little English but you'll have a far easier time if you know the language.

When I went near Kobe for a Haruhi anime pilgrimage there was a distinct lack of any English whatsoever outside of the train station. Nobody spoke English and all communication was Japanese. You also get to hear some amusing side comments from people in the Japanese if you look foreign enough.

Q: How vital is learning Japanese for games nowadays considering the increasing speed and frequency of translations? A: Recently games I've played or want to play in Japanese such as Persona 5, Gintama Rumble and Girls und Panzer have had English subs in their Asia edition on sites such as Play Asia. Better yet is that some of these games get same date releases. However, sometimes translations can be wonky depending on who was contracted for the translation such as the infamously awful Sword Art Hollow Fragment translation.

Some games like Ao no Kiseki and Zero no Kiseki are only now receiving translations despite being popular games. Did you know there's a PS3 visual novel about using a smartphone to read girls' current emotions? I didn't until my little sister brought it back from Japan for $10 from my favourite store Trader, (it's not that good.) Even larger titles such as Summer Pockets are also left in the wind as to whether or not it'll be translated officially or by fans reasonably soon. There are also an exorbitant amount of games that don't get official or fan translations.

Q: Do I have to become a sub elitist because I know Japanese? A: Nope, contrary to popular belief you can still enjoy dubs but you may find you appreciate the subtext in Japanese that isn't heard in English more often. Playing Square Enix games can be especially frustrating in sub when you realise just how much text can be abridged, (you may actually prefer this in some games however.)

Q: Is there a 2,000 word essay you're avoiding writing? A: Yes and that concludes this post.

Hope this helps, hit me up if there's anything else you want to ask.

u/click_808 · 5 pointsr/jlpt

I passed N2 last year. Copying my comment from the last time I saw this question.

> 1) The 新完全マスター I recognized a few things on the test that I had picked up from these books. They've also been highly recommended by basically all my Japanese teachers, and everybody I know who has taken the test. In my opinion they are as close to accurately reflecting the test as you can get.
2) This Japanese app, which is simply called "Japanese." (App Store, Google Play). This app has been incredible for me. It's free, offline, very comprehensive, and allows you to make vocab lists and gives you the option to study them in order or through SRS (Spaced Repetition System). I used it together with the 新完全マスター books. At the beginning of each chapter of 漢字, 文法, or 語彙, I'd scan for any word I wasn't familiar with, and create a vocab list of them. Then I'd use the app's SRS function to familiarize myself with all the words from the chapter. Once I'd completed it, I'd tackle the chapter, rinse, and repeat. This method was very effective for me.
3) Japanese news podcasts. This one features commentary and some back and forth between the announcers, and this one is just straight up news. Both are updated daily. I know these aren't made for the N2, but for me, I listen to them whenever I go out for walks, or am commuting somewhere. I find myself surprised, and a little satisfied, that words I have recently studied seem to pop up, and that feeling really helps to motivate me to continue to study.
4) I didn't use this quite as much, but I've seen this YouTube series posted here before. I think it's helpful for a lot of people, so I'm including it here

One thing I hadn’t mentioned last time is reading. My boss got me this book recently, which I think would have further improved my score had I incorporated it into my study before the test. It has short stories and essays from some of Japan’s most famous authors. All kanji has furigana, and as you look at the book you have Japanese on the right page with English definitions or colloquial explanations on the right. It also comes with a cd on which a professional voice actor reads the stories at native speed, which can further help with listening. I’ve heard people say “furigana won’t help you learn kanji,” but I’d say this book is not for kanji practice. It’s for reading practice, which is another important part of the test. You can practice kanji separately, using items 1 and 2 in this comment. be sure to read the “How to use this book” bit at the beginning so you can understand how to take full advantage of it.

Also just wanna say: Fuck anybody who laughs at you for expressing your ambitions. You sound like you’re committed to working hard to achieve your goal. If you do, even if you fail, I’m sure you’ll have improved your ability a great deal, and that’s the most important thing. Don’t let others tell you that the finish line is too far away, Just keep moving in the same direction and you’ll get to where you’ll want to be.

Other make sure you get lots of quality sleep for at least a few days leading up to the test. Stay hydrated, but don’t drink too much beforehand. It’s a long test, and you don’t want to be thinking about how much you want to piss while you’re taking it. Eat a good breakfast that won’t give you gas. Bring extra pencils and a high-quality eraser. Dress comfortably, knowing that even if the weather is hot, the test room air conditioning could make the room chilly. Bring a snack in case you get hungry between the kanji/vocab/grammar/reading portion and the listening portion. Stay relaxed, and understand that regardless of the outcome, you’ve worked hard to get to where you are, which is something you deserve to be proud of.

Good luck!

u/NoRefund17 · 5 pointsr/LearnJapanese

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Japanese-Diversity-Lifestyles-Conversations/dp/030010958X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162331&sr=8-2&keywords=living+japanese

I think that is an amazing recourse. Natural, REAL conversations with people of all ages and topics. Its really good for getting exposure you can learn from easily to native speaking that isn't "dramatized" or too over the top like most anime and Japanese TV acting in general.


LingQ.com (is also a great recourse. and its free if you don't use the in site word marking tools)

https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-1&keywords=read+real+japanese

https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-2&keywords=read+real+japanese

https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568364156/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-3&keywords=read+real+japanese

the last three are good for written japanese, which is more polished and different than real "spoken" japanese (like any language). But they all 3 come with audio, grammar and vocab explanations and are an amazing recourse IMO.

u/aardvarkinspace · 4 pointsr/LearnJapanese

trying not to repeat from earlier mentions (sorry if I do)... some good authors already mentioned!
Yoko Ogawa
Hiromi Kawakami
Ryu Murakami
Mitsuyo Kakuta

Since you are learning you may also want to check out Read Real Japanese

u/peepops · 4 pointsr/Team_Japanese

Currently I have

  • KKLC for Kanji
  • Core 6k for vocab
  • Finishing Tobira for grammar
  • Let's Shadow Japanese for listening/speaking
  • Nihongo no mori N3 grammar videos for grammar (but mostly listening)
  • HelloTalk for chatting and iTalki lessons here and there

    Considering starting:

  • Let's Read Real Japanese
  • Various youtubers
u/Madiigascar · 3 pointsr/LearnJapanese

I don't know the one you're thinking of, but I'm reading this right now, and I really enjoy it. It's a little compilation of short stories. It also has useful translations if you're having a hard time reading.

Edit: autocorrect error.

u/soku1 · 3 pointsr/LearnJapanese

There's three great books out there that I can think of off the top of my head.

[Read Real Japanese: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292)

and

[Read Real Japanese Essays: Contemporary Writings by Popular Authors] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148)

and

[Breaking into Japanese literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568364156)

PS: if you are "fresh out of Genki 2" level, I'd say these books may be fairly advanced for you, but to each their own. Some people don't mind. There are english translations after all.

u/TigersMilkTea · 2 pointsr/LearnJapanese

This doesn't answer your question regarding Murakami, but if you're interested in contemporary writers as well then maybe check out this book? I just bought it last week and it's actually really cool because of how thorough it is.

The book's got the original prose on one page, a line by line translation on the opposite page, a J-E dictionary of every word in every story in the back and a section for culture/grammar notes sorted by story as well.

It also comes with readings by a native speaker. I've been slowly working through 川上弘美's 神様 and it's been a lot of fun so far. Highly recommend it for anyone who's completed Genki 1+2 and some Tobira like myself.

u/goofballl · 2 pointsr/LearnJapanese

You could try something like books that have Japanese on one side and English on the other. I found those sorts of texts pretty helpful. And because it's literature it might be more interesting to you than manga.

Another option is to get a text online, so that when you run across an unknown word it's just a mouseover away with rikaichan/kun.

u/DRIzakaya · 2 pointsr/japanlife

These might be too difficult still for you, but it is something I tried to do when I was actually trying to study. I am just too lazy for it, but maybe these kind of books would help: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292

Just wanted to make sure you saw this because I didn't reply to your OP: u/Lakaturbo

u/Korvar · 2 pointsr/LearnJapanese

I have the Momotaro book, and also Read Real Japanese - Fiction which would be a little more advanced. Comes with translations, grammatical notes, and a dictionary of the words used.

u/Belgand · 2 pointsr/LearnJapanese

Not like this, no. Still, you can put in the work, build your own, and share it with others if you're feeling generous.

The closest example would be to get some of the Japanese readers out there like "Read Real Japanese", "Breaking Into Japanese Literature", and "Exploring Japanese Literature". These are aimed at people still learning so they're chosen to be notable, but still easy to read. More relevantly they typically have vocabulary at the bottom of each page to help you. Admittedly, there are other features present (full parallel text in English, Japanese audio for each, etc.), but that's why they're specifically sold as teaching tools.

u/MasterHiggGround · 2 pointsr/LearnJapanese

While I personally do not know any, as I am a beginner (for like, 4 or six years due to my lack of studying :D )
u/overactive-bladder had shown me some.



u/eetsumkaus · 2 pointsr/LearnJapanese

The Read Real Japanese series might be a good bridge into native material. The particular editions I linked have furigana and English translations on opposing pages. It should be intelligible if you've finished Tobira. Shounen and Shoujo manga should also be a good next step.

Honestly I'm surprised you got as far as Tobira without going outside of a textbook. You should be able to digest some native material by now.

u/sirius1 · 1 pointr/LearnJapanese

Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers 1 Free CD Included https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1568365292/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Iu4PDb241E1RH

u/WAHNFRIEDEN · 1 pointr/LearnJapanese

This book and the other one in the pair (essays rather than fiction) feature Banana Yoshitomo and Murakami shorts: https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292

u/overactive-bladder · 1 pointr/LearnJapanese

there are many graded readers out there with exactly what you're describing though.

u/Pennwisedom · 1 pointr/LearnJapanese

Anyone ever read the "Read Real Japanese" books?

http://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292 Fiction

http://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148 Essays

I was looking at them in the bookstore, and they seem to have interesting authors. But I couldn't tell if it is really any help in learning, or if it is something you need to be pretty advanced to get anything out of.