Where should I start reading?

konnichi-wa,

I've practiced writing and I somewhat remembers most of hiragana, not moving on to Katakana till I can memorize the hiragana completely, easy way for me to know I memorized the hiragana is reading. So, I thought I should start reading the beginners' books with simple grammar concept. I've seen the list of links to reading. I remember it's like a library online, and I found it from this forum, but I can't seem to find it. Anyone know where I can find it or maybe provide the links?

Oh, also, I have written alot of notes regarding to grammar, but if you want, please point me to sites that helps with particles, in case I might've missed anything.

Thanks/arigato for the help!

At your stage, reading an overview of Japanese grammar would be useful. Wikipedia has a good article. It covers honorific language to particles, to word orders. Digesting the whole thing should take sometime, but I am sure you will like it.

Japanese grammar - Wikipedia

Okay, thank you, I'll take time reading those, and copy anything I didn't have. I'll probably print it out instead, since I'm going to be on airplane to Florida for awhile, and that means no internet for me.

If nobody know the link to the "library online" thing, maybe can someone point me to sites for basic reading, on flash, perhaps, that has a "children's story" type of stories?

It seems that you have some false expectations of how easy it will be to learn Japanese.ﾂ Just by learning one of the sets of characters and some absic grammar rules will not set you up to be able to read actual Japanese. In fact trying to do so would likely be counter productive.ﾂ I recommend finding a good textbook, and if you already have one then focusing on the texts within that. Its always possible to buy more books to supplement it if it isn't enough. I recommend a book called 'basic connections' for that purpose. Don't let this get you down though, if you work hard everyday it won't be long before you are able to challenge sites like the one below.


So it doesn't seem like I'm trying to be mean, here is a children's fairytale site.
日本のむかしばなし

If you know the romaji/grammar, it shouldn't be too hard to just look up the kana/kanji in a dictionary and read it straight up. Ofcourse, learning a new sign for every word in a sentence would fill up anyone's brain in seconds.

I know about 200 kanji and would like to start reading something.

日本のむかしばなし

seems cool
But it may be hard for me yet. For example,

とんと昔あったと。

I don't know where each word is. I can't find とんと in dictironary.
I suppose 昔 means "olden days", and "atta" is aru plain past?
Well, to be true, I would appreciate some help

I wouldn't worry about that. Youd don't really need to learn words that aren't in your dictionary yet. If anything I would just learn it as a way of starting mukasibanasi. And as such translate it as you would start fairytale. The stories will be filled with strange onomatopia and dialects, but if you don't worry to much it could be fun.


This site may be easier to read.
Japanese Stories
He spaces out the words and gives translations.
However, its not as colourful and there seem to be a few misses in the translations.

KrazyKat said:

It seems that you have some false expectations of how easy it will be to learn Japanese. Just by learning one of the sets of characters and some absic grammar rules will not set you up to be able to read actual Japanese. In fact trying to do so would likely be counter productive. I recommend finding a good textbook, and if you already have one then focusing on the texts within that. Its always possible to buy more books to supplement it if it isn't enough. I recommend a book called 'basic connections' for that purpose. Don't let this get you down though, if you work hard everyday it won't be long before you are able to challenge sites like the one below.
So it doesn't seem like I'm trying to be mean, here is a children's fairytale site.
http://www.digital-lib.nttdocomo.co.jp/kikakuten/mukashi/mukashi1/index.html

Click to expand...

Not exactly false expectation, more like first experience at learning other language. (I'm probably only deaf person who actually learns other language... so I wouldn't know what/how/where to start.) I'm very interested in having knowledge of more than 2 languages, so I can communicate easily. (Kinda like making up for my inability to hear, for multi-languages ability, you know?)
But thank you for giving me advice. I'm expecting Genki books anytime now, (today or tomorrow, even.) then I can start learning properly.

yidaki said:

If you know the romaji/grammar, it shouldn't be too hard to just look up the kana/kanji in a dictionary and read it straight up. Ofcourse, learning a new sign for every word in a sentence would fill up anyone's brain in seconds.

Click to expand...

I practiced memorizing only Hiragana, and one of random day, I went though pictures on internet. (Surfing around randomly) And I found this word in the image, in Hiragana. I knew those symbols, and it said "fuun", and I didn't know what it meant, but I looked it up... misfortune, bad luck!
(Note to KrazyKat: I thought this was best way I should learn other language... understand the alphabet, and then I can understand sentence faster, knowing each letter and check with books/notes/etc to understand the grammar concept.)
Anyway, thanks for the help! I apologize on being slow on replying, I recent returned from vacation to Florida to visit a friend on her internship.
I'd check those sites out, but I am currently out of time to read and such... (at public library ) I'll check them out tomorrow though!