Manga Reading

I’ve been slowly getting used to reading manga again. What’s great about Manga (depending on how difficult the storylines are) is that you get to see loads of common words over and over and over. Sometimes after some hardcore SRSing, I couldn’t immediately go to reading manga because my brain was too tired… but i’m trying to just pretend that reading manga isn’t a chore, just something I do in my free time. I’m going through volume one of “Slam Dunk” a popular, older Anime that I watched a long time ago. I’m reading for basic comprehension, meaning if i can follow what is going on without looking up each word, then i’m fine. There are some words and expressions I don’t fully understand, but i get the gist of what is mostly happening. I’m also able to read a lot more words that I recently learned from doing the Core2000. When words I don’t know very well keep repeating, I will look it up. But generally, I can read through most pages without having to reference too much, which I didn’t realize I could do. My grammar still needs work, but a lot of Manga involves super colloquial ways of saying things in different ways, but I am understanding the variations pretty well. The idea is that since I know what’s going on I dont’ have to look up EVERY new word, because that defeats the purpose of exposure. Through doing my SRSing, sentences and the hardcore stuff, I will eventually be able to read hundreds of common words with no struggles and I will mainly be reading for grammar and retention.

For example in the first block of this page two students are talking about how Akagi got defeated by a student called Sakuragi (first name Hanamichi), and basically how interesting, or exciting the event was. Is that an exact translation of what’s happening? I don’t think so, but it shows me that I can comprehend what’s going on without being horribly stuck. I think that is the point of reading “easy manga”… to just have a way to constantly reinforce what you study in a simple way, with least effort and the most victory. My moods shift dramatically in terms of my attention span when reading manga (because I dont’ have an Ipad and i don’t like reading manga on my laptop) but if I don’t feel like watching a movie, or a Japanese TV show, I find that a bit of manga is ok. I just started this, so I will post more on anything relating to my manga comprehension as time passes.