Comments on: There Are No Difficulty Levels

By: John B

John B — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:15:35 +0000

Totally agree. I did much the same thing with newspapers in Mandarin when I was learning — I started by scanning headlines trying to make out words, then whole headlines started to make sense, then the stories, etc. Each day when I got off the train I threw the paper in a recycle bin and started anew the next day.

Worked like a charm.

By: Khalid

Khalid — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:36:33 +0000

I don’t know that we’re so far apart. If a book is painful to go through, by all means put it down - I would simply put it in the category of uninteresting as opposed to too hard.

I find it useful to segregate material in terms of enjoyable/not-enjoyable versus easy/difficult.

There is material out there that is “difficult” but still enjoyable. And there is material that is “easy”, but boring. Exploring topics that interest you, regardless of difficulty, will help you find more of the enjoyable material.

The advice out there to cap your consumption of Japanese based on difficulty is tantamount to saying immersion is a bad thing.

But more than that, I think there is a sense of wonderment that we lose as we move from childhood to adulthood. The ability to enjoy the little things.

As adults, we turn play into study and work. When we were children, every bit of understanding excited us. But as adults, we take those bits of understanding in stride and think, “Finally! If only I’d kept up my studies I’d have been here months ago…”

That sense of wonderment is extremely valuable when reading “difficult” material (or any material if you’re just starting out) because wonderment is directly related to your ability to enjoy something new.

Grab new stuff like a little kid and find what piques your interest. Who cares if it’s a manga, novel, newspaper or a thesis - approach it with wonderment and curiosity and if you enjoy it, keep it. If not, drop it like a bad habit.

By: WC

WC — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:29:45 +0000

I agree for the most part, but saying ‘don’t put a book down because it’s hard, put it down because it’s not interesting’… If the pain is greater than the pleasure, they should put the book down and find something else. You have to look at the whole equation.

It wasn’t long ago that even the easiest manga was torture for me. Yotsuba& is an interesting manga… Even what tiny bit I understood… But it was such torture getting through it that I don’t want to pick it up again. And it made me look at other mangas the same way.

Now when I pick it up, I can read a -lot- more and it’s not nearly as frustrating, but the taint of the prior pain is still there.

My tip: Don’t force yourself. If you don’t feel like doing something that’s supposed to be fun, don’t do it! That includes reading, watching TV, anything. It may take you longer, but you won’t burn out and you’ll like the endpoint a lot better.