Your point about double negatives is misguided too since it was perfectly acceptable to use them until 19th English and American grammarians decided what was and wasn’t “standard” English based almost entirely on their own preferences for form. The same with “ain’t,” which was in fact a fairly common and accepted word, even among noble classes but came into disuse after the grammarians began accociating it with the lower classes.

At least from a linguistic point of view, lanugage rules aren’t about was people should say, but what people do say. Prescriptive vs. descriptive.

For instance, for 雰囲気、would you say the “correct” ふんいき、or ふいんき, what most people actually say?

I think Kahlid’s point is that levels can be very limiting for some people (you only have to look at school to see that) and that the best way to improve is to have fun reading the kind of stuff you want to be reading, regardless of whether you can or not. Chess-novices don’t say “Oh i can’t watch the grandmasters play until I’ve reached their level” and actors don’t go “I can’t go watch a professional show until I am one.” It sounds stupid.

Yet it’s acceptable to say that kind of thing when learning a second language in a country where that language is not spoken. You gotta enjoy every little thing you can do, and learn everything you can from what you can’t.

Eh, I don’t know about that. I think language is kind of like jazz…once you have the rules ingrained in yourself, you can break them and still sound good and natural.

Of course, formal writing is a different matter (like classical music?).

And of course there are levels!

The same applies to dealing with difficult material. We think to ourselves, “Don’t focus on what you don’t understand.”, and in thinking that what do we do? Focus on what we don’t understand!

As such, what you don’t understand can only overshadow you if you focus on it. If a 2 year old boy were to focus on everything around him that he doesn’t understand he would be forever frustrated. Instead most two year-olds walk around wide eyed with wonderment at every little bit of understanding that jumps out at them.

To determine if a book is worth continuing regardless of difficulty level, I would only ask, “Do you enjoy what you understand?”. If not, find a different book. If so, even if you only recognize one phrase every two pages, have fun with it.

It’s a positive feedback loop - If you can learn to enjoy whatever understanding comes your way, you’ll always be on the lookout for more. If you let what you don’t understand frustrate you, the Japanese journey becomes a journey to less frustration instead of to more understanding.

I still say there are no reading levels, only what you enjoy and what you don’t, what interests you and what doesn’t.

Really what this is about is not letting other people should on you, finding what pulls you into Japanese and running with it.

Case in point, I read a Japanese econ blog that is completely above my head. Reading a typical sentence involves skipping 80% of the words because I don’t know them, can’t figure them out or use kanji and/or grammar I have no clue about. But none of that matters. I dig through it and figure out the topic, the book he’s talking about or the world event he’s discussing. And figuring that little bit out is fun - and it’s a huge improvement

However it’s true that a lot can be learned if you stop focusing on what you don’t understand. I realize now that I used to try too hard.

When reading a manga, I used to look up every unknown words in the dictionary, spend a few hours doing that to understand only about 50% of a dozen pages. Then I would never continue again because it wasn’t fun (and I didn’t even learn much in the process).

Now I’m reading one without using the dictionary at all while reading. I understand maybe 20% but I’m enjoying it and the weird thing is that I’m learning a lot more that way.

So choose something you’re really interested in reading but is not too difficult, if you have already seen the anime or read a translated version it’s even better, that way you’ll be able to enjoy the story even if you don’t understand enough.

Yes, but if what you don’t understand overshadows what you do, the enjoyment just isn’t there.

I would -love- to be able to read Japanese, and I’m working very hard to get there. But when I pick up the easiest manga I can find (Yotsuba&) and can’t read even a sentence without a dictionary, it’s no fun! There is NOTHING I can read!

I’m past that point now, but I get the same problem with other books. I would love to read some of my favorite mangas in the original Japanese (Scryed!) but they’re above me and no amount of ‘I want to!’ makes it fun at that level.

There -are- levels. You don’t -have- to obey them, but ignoring them doesn’t suddenly allow fun to happen.

I read somewhere else that you should be reading just above your level. At or below and you only get review, but jut above and you get new stuff mixed with enough you already know to get the gist.

I totally agree with the spirit of the article: Don’t let labels control you! I just don’t agree with the exact message.