Extensive Reading, Intensive Reading, and Everything You Need to Learn to Read Japanese

Looking to get started with reading in Japanese?

That’s great! Reading is not only a ton of fun, it’s also one of the best ways to improve your Japanese ability. A big part of making progress in Japanese comes down to simply spending time with the language, and reading is an excellent way to do that.

Read on (!) to learn about:

Why is reading a good way to learn Japanese?

Reading is one of the two main modes of immersion learning, alongside listening.

In immersion learning, students spend as much time as possible engaging with material intended for native audiences, improving their language ability, stumbling into new words and structures, and consolidating what they already know. It's like studying, but something you can have fun doing.

Reading:

And these qualities make it a perfect companion for Japanese learners of any level.

But jumping in can be daunting; how can we get started?

How to find suitable reading material for your level

First and foremost is the need to find the right reading material for you, which will vary based on your interests, goals, and your language ability.

Ideally:

Early on, it might be difficult to find things that are interesting and accessible, but as you build up towards 1,500 known words, more and more reading material will become available to you.

One way to think about the reading options for learners is like a reverse pyramid: those at the top (advanced learners) have the widest range to choose from, and those who are just starting their journey have less available that’s comprehensible to them. But fear not! No matter what level you’re at, there’s sure to be something in the Venn Diagram between comprehensible and interesting.

Luckily, finding something that matches your level is easier now than ever. You can check online databases like LearnNatively.com, where users have provided comparative difficulty gradings for a huge number of books.

There’s also sites like JPDB.io, which offer statistical information about the language used in a Japanese book, such assentence length, vocabulary rarity, and other factors.

Once you find a book, you can copy/paste its first chapter into the Migaku Clipboard. We'll check the chapter's vocabulary against a list of the words you already know, giving you more personalized data about how difficult this particular story will be for you.

But even before that, you need to decide what medium you want to read.

What are the differences between different types of reading materials?

Reading in Japanese comes in many forms, from novels, nonfiction books, manga, visual novels, light novels, and more. But not all writing is created equal.

For example, manga can be quicker to get into, because apart from having drawings to assist comprehension, most of the text is simply the dialogue of the characters. In other words, you need to be careful if you choose to read a manga about ninjas in the Edo period. (If you aren’t a ninja from the Edo period, you might not want to talk like that in real life.)

In a novel, on the other hand, everything must be communicated through text and text alone. Narration, exposition, and internal thoughts are all conveyed differently, so you’ll run into both a wider variety of grammar points and vocabulary words (and also rarer ones) than you would in a typical manga.

To give one last example—newspaper articles often have tight space requirements, meaning they will use much more concise and dense language than you’d find in manga or a novel. The plus, of course, is that they’re also very short. Generally, they’re also limited to Jōyō kanji, or roughly the 2,000 most essential ones.

On reading genre vs. realist fiction

Before we get too far along:

And we could go further with this! The key point, though, is just that a books isn't a book isn't a book. You should take a bit of time to think about what you want out of something before picking it up to read.

There's nothing wrong with genre fiction or manga—you just have to be mindful of what sort of input you're getting. The language used in a gritty sci-fi novel about a group of people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic real world is real Japanese, and it's totally valid to learn from... but as it features characters in high-stress, violent, life-or-death situations, the language being used likely won't be appropriate to transfer directly to the office or classroom.

Having said that:

Otherwise: Keeping your goal and interests in mind will help figure out what’s right for you.

Keep your story's context in mind!

Lastly, you’ll want to consider the context of a work. Yotsuba&! is a commonly-recommended manga for beginners, focused on the heartwarming adventures of a five-year-old girl’s daily life with her Dad, neighbors, and friends.

It's a classic recommendation of a first piece of "real" Japanese media for learners to dip their toes into. LearnNatively's community has graded it for being appropriate for the ~N4 level!

...But Yotsuba (the main character, a young girl) often uses the rougher, very casual language of her Dad and his friends; you’d sound quite strange if you spoke like her in real life! Using it aside, if you’re newer to Japanese, the casual speech and non-standard "child speak" might be difficult just to make sense of!

That’s not to say there aren’t characters in the book who do speak in a more “normal” way, or that there aren’t plenty of things to learn from Yotsuba&!—just that it doesn't consist purely of stuff you can copy from the page and paste into real-life scenarios.

Basically:

A few strategies to help you get the most out of your reading

Now it’s time to actually read. You’ve got your cup of coffee, nestled yourself into a cozy armchair, and cracked open the front cover, but—oh no!—what are all these kanji? The horror! Do you really know any Japanese at all?

(I think everybody feels like that the first time they try reading something in Japanese.)

Getting into a text (AKA first page syndrome)

The hardest part of reading anything is the opening. Tofugu’s Koichi wrote about this once, calling it “first page syndrome,” though the "this feels impossible" feeling can last for the first 10%-20% of the book.

The beginning of a book is so difficult because it’s where:

With that in mind, don’t give up!

I always try to remind myself that the first pages will be the hardest, and let the book teach me how it needs to be read. Don’t be afraid to take some additional time with the early sentences, even if the book as a whole seems like it should be a good fit for your abilities. Really understanding the opening of a book will help you not only understand the language, but also the plot, characters, and setting going forward.

Once you get through the opening of a book, and become familiar with its style and language, the rest will become much easier.

Try re-reading!

One tip for approaching the beginning is through re-reading the opening section. Take it page by page: Try to read a page, set it aside for a couple of hours, and come back to the same page again.

Often, what I found excruciating the first time would be a breeze on second glance. That first read can act like building a scaffolding, helping you situate different characters, moments, and phrases—even if you felt like you understood nothing.

You can take this a step further by having your first few Japanese books be Japanese translations of things you’ve already read in English. As you already know what will happen, you can focus entirely on making sense of the language.

Sticking with a series for a while

Luckily, once you’re into a work, and are ready to move onto the second or third book in a series, you likely won’t need to repeat this “re-reading” stage.

So if you’ve found something you like that’s part of a series, consider reading the rest next—or, once you’ve found an author you like, explore other things they’ve written!

Balancing extensive and intensive reading

Just like all writing is not considered equal, neither is all reading!

In general, we can group reading into two categories: extensive and intensive. Both are useful strategies, but function slightly differently, and accomplish different goals.

Both types of reading are useful, but they serve different purposes:

Early on, pretty much everything will feel like an intensive reading exercise. As your level improves, and you spend more time reading, more things will become things you can read for enjoyment.

Beyond just the difficulty of the work you’re reading, think about your intent with studying. Any good study plan will incorporate both methods, but generally it’s better to focus most of your efforts on extensive reading: remember, quantity is king!

Additionally, the same work can serve as both types of practice, depending on your mood and other factors. If the work is at or just above your level, you can usually move past unfamiliar words and grammar points and try to decipher with context; and if you’re feeling really fired up or seeing a word or grammar structure repeatedly, you can switch modes to intensive and decide to take a deeper dive.

Make sure you’re not focused solely on one or the other!

Practice reading, not translating

This is a small point, but remember the goal is reading, not translating. Translating is a wonderful skill, but it’s not an extension of reading—it’s another thing entirely. Strive to understand a sentence as it is, not as you’d represent it in your native language.

It’s great to dive deeper, and check your understanding by consulting a native speaker from time to time, but trying to put sentences into your native language is less fruitful. If you think you’ve got it, trust that you do and move on.

Ask for help breaking down sentences you don’t understand from teachers, friends, or online communities

What if you come across a sentence that simply has you stumped? Or if there’s a character that says something unexpected, or just can’t tell what’s going on? This is a great cue to ask for help.

Finding a native speaker to ask can be invaluable in these situations, whether they’re a teacher, a Japanese friend, or someone else you know.

But what if you don’t have someone like this to ask? There are a wealth of communities of other language learners who can help, like those in:

How sentence mining lets you extract learning opportunities from any book

‘Gee, this sounds easy and fun!’ you say. ‘Am I really learning anything?’

Yes, you are!

But there’s another method you can use to make sure what you’re learning sticks: sentence mining.

Sentence mining helps reinforce new words and grammar points you’re seeing in context, making them much more likely to stick in your memory, ready for you whenever it comes up next. It’s a powerful technique that makes language acquisition easier than ever.

That said, there’s some key points to keep in mind.

For one, it’s called sentence mining because you’re looking for gold—not every single sentence you come across is worth making a flashcard out of / presents a good opportunity to learn something.

Only mine a sentence if:

These rules are guidelines, not things written in stone. If the work you’re reading has some specific vocabulary or grammar that keeps coming up, you might be better served making a "sub-optimal" flashcard rather than reaching for a dictionary every five pages because you keep forgetting that specific word.

Review what you’ve studied

Here you are, reading something in Japanese, and finding a bunch of new vocabulary and grammar in the wild; don’t let it go to waste! Make sure you review the things you’ve learned, so you can continue to build your vocabulary and grammar, improve your language abilities, and allow you to read even more material.

One of the best ways to do this is through a Spaced-Repetition Software, or SRS.

We have a blog post that explores SRS in detail, but, generally speaking, an SRS is a system that periodically nudges you to review material you’re studying. You’ll be asked to review information less often as your knowledge of it improves until, eventually, you just know it. Migaku has an excellent option built in, minimizing the time needed for setup so you can maximize the time spent engaging with Japanese.

This goes hand in hand with sentence mining:

Using spaced-repetition enhanced flashcards allows you to learn things a lot easier than just studying on your own: they help take the guesswork out of when to review certain materials, and make studying more efficient by minimizing the amount of time you need to spend reviewing. We highly recommend you use one of these systems alongside your practice; that’s why it’s built-in to Migaku!

Some bonus tips on how to read in Japanese

Finally, here are a few bonus tips to get the most out of your reading—or just to mix your reading practice up a bit:

1. Combine reading and listening

See if there’s an audiobook version of whatever you’re reading. Combining reading with listening to an audiobook at the same time lets you practice two aspects of Japanese simultaneously. It also helps intuitively teach not just pitch accent and native pronunciation, but the general flow of Japanese sentences.

Migaku actually has the ability to turn any text into an audiobook—just insert text into the Migaku Clipboard, click play, and we'll use high-quality TTS (text-to-speech) software to narrate your book to you.

2. Read aloud!

Similarly, try to read aloud from time to time. Where should the pauses and stresses in a sentence be? How do the words flow into one another, and what’s the intonation over the course of a sentence? Doing this after listening to an audiobook will help get the voice actor's voice in your head. Even if that’s you don't have an audiobook available, trying on your own can still be great practice.

3. Practice predictive reading

Another strategy you can try is called predictive reading. When you finish a chapter, section, or even just a scene, think about what happened, and guess what might happen next. This will encourage you to look at a book overall, improving your reading comprehension, and think about where a plot is going. Then you can see what actually happens—and if you were right!

4. Imagine a character’s voice

This one’s a little out there, but once you’re decently into a story, try and think about how a character’s voice is unique. Can you imagine the character in other scenarios? How do they sound in conversation? Are they casual or formal? Do they tend to use any specific words or phrases?

Doing this will help you analyze the speaking styles of not only different characters, but different people in general. Japanese is a language with a lot of different registers, gendered speech, words specific to certain situations, and other complexities, so learning to recognize this in an easier setting like through characters is a good strategy to being able to apply it overall.

5. Explain plot points to your friends (in Japanese, of course!)

After reading something, either discuss or imagine explaining the plot to your friends. Similar to predictive reading, this can help improve your reading comprehension, and having to summarize something in Japanese can teach you different ways of conveying the same thing; a super important skill.

(We mentioned it earlier, but LangCorrect is an awesome free service where you can write short posts in Japanese and get feedback from native speakers.)

Just one last question: What's your first book in Japanese going to be?

You’ve done it, you’ve read a book—or are going to—and learned a ton of new vocabulary and grammar along the way. Congratulations! This is a huge step for any Japanese learner, and should serve as a bedrock of your study routine for years to come.

What’s next?

Reading is a lifelong pursuit, just like learning Japanese; but it will be there every step of the way. You can read books wherever you are, at any age, whether anybody is there or not.

Plus, there are no ads.

Anyway, if you take away one thing from this article, remember:

Happy reading!