Kasei Hakase
Doctor Märs

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i considered myself to be at an early-intermediate level in japanese studies--until i came to japan. though i suspected i would probably be have over-estimated my abilities, and i had heard plenty of common wisdom about how studying grammar and college-level japanese courses like the ones i had been in weren't ideal ways of actually learning japanese/languages in general. but i didn't truly realize just how little my study of intermediate grammar points would help me comprehend daily life in japan.

as many of the people reading a list like this will probably already know, linguists such as Stephen Krashen (pronounced: 言語学の神様) and Beniko Mason have insisted that SELF-SELECTED READING (or FREE VOLUNTARY READING) is key in the process of second-language aquisition. in (overly) simple terms, they believe that language acquisition begins with input (e.g. reading & listening), and that output, grammatical knowledge, and communicative competence come after an abundance of 'comprehensible' input. but as the qualifier 'free voluntary' suggests, Krashen, Mason and their cohort believe that input must be compelling to the learner--engaging and comprehensible (enough) to keep them interested and driven to keep going.

most of us language learners here on MAL probably have a lot in common when it comes to what we find to be 'compelling' input material/content. i honestly have my doubts about whether it is specifically reading that plays this massive role that Krashen and Mason suggest--i tend to work under the assumption that subtitled video, spotify's lyric function etc. have just as much to offer to language learners. im convinced that its most important that we find activities we enjoy and are likely to make routines of, and keep ideas like those of Krashen and Mason in the back of our minds as we choose from whatever activities our natural inclinations lead us toward. ergo: if you like reading hentai raw, in the name of haruhi-sama i implore you to read hentai raw!!

here are recommendations of manga i've found in raw form through one channel or another, which have seemed pretty easy to read, and which use furigana for almost every single kanji (at least, in whatever edition i happened to be reading--i think this sometimes varies with alternate editions of a series). this way you can immerse yourself in kanji without being bogged down in trying to guess the pronunciation of a word, and can instead read it and understand through context.

i'll order this by MAL popularity, for lack of a better idea.

as always, i would LOVE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THIS LIST! just dm me! and please take any and all information i share with an appropriate of salt--this is all more-or-less armchair linguistics/language learning, and i am by NO means fluent in japanese! lol.

also, while i won't put direct pirate links in the comments for each entry, feel free to message me if you want help procuring anything here, and i'll do my best!

OTHER RESOURCES:

for discovering content based on japanese language level:
https://learnnatively.com/

https://jpdb.io/prebuilt_decks


SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

https://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/pac5.pdf

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4C7ADDDF7F10A600160D0505D99D0E85/S2058631019000126a.pdf/free_voluntary_reading_and_comprehensible_input.pdf


( AJATT / all japanese all the time / language learning / japanese language / matt vs japan / polyglot / self-study / JLPT / steven krashen / anki / jpdb / immersion / self-selected reading / second-language acquisition / free voluntary reading / comprehensible input / nihongo / 日本語 / 勉強 / 自習 )