Nikkei

They say a good sign of fluency is being able to read a newspaper in a foreign language. This might be more true in a language where reading doesn't require the acquirement of thousands of unique characters, but it's still a nice benchmark to use for your Japanese.

I must admit - when I was living in Japan, I didn't read Japanese newspapers. They were available where I worked, but they were just too much for my feeble comprehension level. These days I still don't read the papers so much, but I do read online articles now and then. That's a lot easier due to the magic of cut and paste plus the availability of online dictionaries. 

There is one section of one paper that frequently grabs my attention, however. Here at my office, we get a daily edition of the Nikkei (that is the Nihon Keizai Shinbun; 日本経済新聞). A lot of the articles are still beyond me, though I can generally understand what they're talking about. Every Saturday, however, there's a section called プラス1 (Plus 1), which usually contains tidbits about pop culture, food, fashion, etc. There are also often survey results, like the little piece I'm about to talk about.

I was looking at an old paper from October of 2014 and saw this neat little piece about requests spouses have for their partners. The article starts off by saying that it can be difficult to ask some things of one's spouse, but understanding what's in each other's heart can help to build a stronger relationship. Heh, perhaps.

With that in mind, a research arm of NTT conducted a survey asking married respondents what changes they would ask their spouses to make. The results are interesting, though perhaps some not so surprising. Let's have a look.

Direction (方向)

I've been doing a lot of soul-searching. Well, I guess that's nothing new; I tend to think a lot. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm seriously considering Japanese to English translation as a possibility. Realistically, though, I know I'm a long way off from being able to translate professionally. That's why I've decided to hunker down and rededicate myself to studying. 

I've resubscribed to TV Japan and am making a serious effort to watch (though I don't watch a ton of TV these days). I've been taking a weekly class at the Japan America Society of Washington DC, and I'm reading a lot more Japanese than I used to - online newspaper articles (often heavily aided by Rikaikun), essays, and manga. When I went to New York last month, I picked up an essay/manga book by Saori Oguri, the author of the ダーリンはは外国人 (My Darling is a Foreigner) comics. And then the J-library near where I work decided to shut down, so they were giving away most of their books. I picked up these five manga called 結婚しよう (Let's Get Married). I'm pretty sure the intended readers for the Let's Get Married books are young women, but so far it's an interesting story and it's still good for picking up vocabulary and kanji. 

A real man isn't ashamed of reading this kind of stuff.

The other day I just finished both the Oguri book and the first Let's Get Married comic; took about a month of reading both intermittently (mostly on the train). I'm feeling good about my progress, but still a long way to go...

I've been thinking, if I had known I'd want to pursue translation, I would have been better off spending another couple years in Japan on the JET Program and beefing up my Japanese skills. There're a lot of things I'd do differently given the chance, I guess. But I've mentioned that before, haven't I?

The plan could change, but for now I'm going to keep studying and looking for a better job. And if nothing better comes up by this fall, perhaps I'll reapply to JET, for a CIR position. I'm not sure how good my chances would be of being accepted a second time, and for a more competitive position, but I've got nothing to lose.

翻訳者になるって、長い道だと思う。日本に居残ったら、恋愛も仕事も精神もマシかもしれない。でも今やしょうがないな。ひたすら勉強しないと。で、また日本に行って働くチャンスもあるかも。ね。

Now I've gotta find some more books to read.

Buyin' some books

Studying a language is ideally a fluid kind of process. Of course there are plateaus, peaks and valleys, but it can be difficult to measure your progress. One of the more rewarding metrics is your reading ability. Often this will climb gradually, so it can be difficult to notice your improvement. Then one day you're reading comics and books.

It's only in the past few months that I've started to undertake books with no furigana (little characters above kanji that tell you their reading). I think that's a landmark, that I can get by and understand most of what's being said without looking anything up. Still, at this point I have to be careful to choose books with topics that aren't beyond me. No astrophysics just quite yet.

Here are a couple books I picked up at the airports on the way home that I think are a reasonable representation of where I'm at.

This first, 「死ぬかと思った」(I Thought I Would Die) is a collection of short, embarrassing stories. To give you an idea, the first story is called 母とソープランドに入る (I go into a Soapland with my mother).

The second one, called 大阪ルール (Rules of Osaka) is from a series that lays down kind of inside jokes and funny qualities about the people and places from a particular region or city in Japan. It's kind of like a "You know you're from (insert place) if you (insert behavior)" kind of thing.

If you're studying or have studied Japanese, what is your experience with reading? Are there any particular books that you recommend or would warn against? I've heard good things about the native Murakami Haruki but haven't given it a go yet...

Let's enjoy Japanese: Getting a read

My inspiration for this post came from reading Daniel's entry about his self-study reading list. This isn't the first time I've written about reading and how important an element of study it is, but I just can't emphasize it enough. While I'm not (yet?) able to read as much or as well as Daniel, and I have been slacking with the second volume of Harry Potter, I do continue to read in Japanese, be it even just a little, just about every day.

If you can find the good ones, blogs are an excellent way to study a language. Depending on the theme of the blog and the author, they can provide opportunities to learn a wide variety of vocabulary and expressions, many of which you probably would never see in a textbook. The casual voice and format that have become the norm for blogs make them valuable resources for study.

The only caveat is that the freedom of the blog format can be a double-edged sword. You may experience words and phrases that are difficult to understand or may not be able to find in a dictionary. You also may come across a fair amount of blatantly incorrect words or grammar patterns. If you regularly read blogs in English, you know that even the best online writers make mistakes from time to time. Blogs in Japanese (or any other language) are no different. So while you don't have to be skeptical of everything you read, it may behoove you to proceed with caution.

Every now and then I'll do a search and find some interesting J-blogs, but here are three that I read either regularly or at least every now and then:

いちごいちえ - Yoshie's blog, from which I've learned (or at least been exposed to) a wide variety of words that I had never seen or heard before. I think this is partly due to the fact that her tone fluctuates between casual and polite, so there's a good bit of keigo in the mix.

なぞなぞKING - NazoNazo King. I occasionally borrow riddles from this website, as it has quite a bit. Sometimes I'll come across a joke I don't understand, but most of them are simple enough and at least a little amusing.

アメリカの猫ママ一家のﾌﾞﾛｸﾞ - 猫ママ's blog. This one belongs to a Japanese woman who is currently living in America and raising a family. Interesting to see the flip side - a Japanese expat living in America.

As you read and begin to comprehend more and more over time (without the use of Rikaichan), you'll become more and more comfortable with Japanese, and navigating Japanese websites will also become easier. I find this a quite rewarding and tangible way of getting a basic feel for one's progress.

Do you know of or follow any Japanese blogs? If so, please share them in the comments!


言語の勉強は、ﾌﾞﾛｸﾞはとても良い資料ですよ。テーマやライターによって違うけどいろんな単語とか表現を習えるね。特にスラングとか、日常の言葉を読めるんです。ﾌﾞﾛｸﾞはよくカジュアルで書かれたので、教科書の内容と比べるとぜんぜん違うね。

でもそれは両刃の剣だな。ﾌﾞﾛｸﾞは時々間違いか正しくない言葉や文保あるから気をつけたほうが良いです。

僕は、上の三つのﾌﾞﾛｸﾞの読者です。おすすめの日本語のﾌﾞﾛｸﾞあったら、教えてください!