Renshuu.org - Study Japanese Online

Last year I started reading the Harry Potter series in Japanese (picked up 賢者の石 (Philosopher's Stone) for 105円 at Bookoff) and just finished reading 炎のゴブレット (Goblet of Fire).

Anyone else reading the series? How do you find it?

I find my reading speed and vocabulary have really improved.
It took my about three months to finish 賢者の石 (as well as studying for N2) and I had to look up lots of vocab. But now I can finish a book/volume in about a month (with less looking up of words). Sometimes I find a grammar structure I'm not too familiar with, but can look it up easily enough and it sticks because I've read it in context and sometimes it is used over and over by the same characters.

I never read the books in English, and only saw the first 2 movies. But I'm really enjoying Harry Potter now.

After I finish reading the book I watch the DVD with Japanese dubs (again picked up for a few hundred yen each at Bookoff). I can understand almost 100% of what I hear because I'm familiar with the vocabulary and I already know pretty much what they are going to talk about in the scene.

This week I'm going to start 不死鳥の騎士団. My mission for this year is to finish all the books.  

I personally am not a fan of the Harry Potter series, but I do think that's a fabulous way of studying Japanese! I went with books I know *really* well in English - a couple fantasy series by Tamora Pierce (the Liones Rampant quartet, the Trickster books [which is a duo in English but a quartet in Japanese   ] and the Circle of Magic quartet). Unfortunately only those books - less than half of all that she's written - have been translated, but even with only those it was great practice - I knew the plot well enough to know what's going on even if I didn't understand every word, and looking up words didn't detract too much from the flow of the story either. Another bonus was that I got several of my students hooked on the books, and now they want to learn English more so they can read the ones that aren't in Japanese!

This makes me wonder how much of a nightmare it would be to try reading the Wheel of Time in Japanese. I'm currently re-reading it through in English, and simply getting to book 5 has been a mission unto itself. When you have a busy life, trying to find time to read is a daunting task (I've actually listened to more in the car to and from work than I've read -- definitely a good use of time management). I'm not nearly at the proficiency level to enjoy reading a translation of a book or series I'm familiar with; but if I ever get through this re-reading (and listening) of WoT, I would definitely be keen to at least start with some Japanese audio renditions of stuff I'm familiar with in English; and then, maybe move onto some simple reading (maybe some kids' adventure stories or something).

I can only imagine how great it is when you read stuff in Japanese, get into the flow, and things actually start to come together. Right now, if I tried reading anything of the calibre of even the simplicity of Harry Potter, I'd be looking up vocab and attempting to look up grammar so much that by the end of the first chapter I'd probably want to burn the book and not think about anything to do with Japanese for a good long time. :p

Thank youuuuuuuu! This is a very good resource to practice reading! Some even have audio! And I thought I was getting faster  

Going back to the topic, I saw in many places around the internet that reading a Harry Potter book is a very popular way to practice Japanese...but then, when remembering what kind of story it talks about, it's somewhat complex and indeed requires PLENTY of vocab! In fact after writing that I went and searched for a sample over the net...then I came up with the conclusion that I would be stuck with the first chapter for some time (perhaps weeks or months) and would get pretty stressed, so it'll be a distant goal for now.