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Reading Japanese

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Email: libraries@colorado.edu

Japanese & Korean Studies Librarian

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Adam Lisbon
Contact:
303-492-8822

Reading Japanese as a First Year Japanese Language Student

  1. Read easy books first so you won't get frustrated. Check out the list of books below to get started.
  2. Don't worry about memorizing kanji, these books include furigana (ふりがな) with all kanji so you can pronounce them.
  3. Do NOT use a dictionary.
    1. Why not? Because you will lose your "flow" while reading. Your goal is to comprehending the text as a whole, not stopping every time you encounter a new word.
  4. Skip words and even sentences you don't understand. You'll still read them, but it's okay if you aren't sure what they mean.

Are you seeing an error?

If you get an error and are unable to access a book in the please try the following:

  1. If on campus, go here and log in to the Maruzen eBook Library from this page. Then try clicking on the book below that you want to read.
  2. If off campus, log into the CU Boulder campus VPN and try to click on the book you want to read. If you still can't access the book, try step one.

Level 0 -- Recommend for Japanese 1010 students who have finished learning Hiragana and Katakana, and 1020 Japanese Students