いっしょに現代文学を読んで日本語を勉強しましょう！
This is a Japanese early reader for those who wish to taste the culture of Japan while getting acquainted with the style and texture of Japanese writing at its best through its finest examples. Japanese modern literature of the period immediately pre- and post-WWII is, for these respects, extremely convenient, and that is what this blog will focus on.
In writing this reader, I am assuming relatively good exposure to Japanese, as well as a basic competency in Japanese. (~JLPT N4-N3)
But before everything, do know that I am in no way an authority on Japanese literature, but just a person studying Japanese as a hobby. In these pages I shall write my notes as I progress through the books, in the hopes that they will be useful for everyone.
I strongly believe that it is through literature that intermediate and advanced learners can best improve their understanding of a language; for not only does the story provide memorable imaginative scenes for the learner to associate vocabulary to; literature is, too, the best showcase of the idioms and mannerisms and obsessions that the native users employ. Beyond a certain point, annotated genuine text becomes more useful than artificial textbook examples, for the former provides subtle but crucial cues from context and frequency of appearance that inform the reader, that the textbook, in its quest for documenting each possible use for every word and grammatical device, will inevitably fail to provide.
How to use this reader
This reader is very heavily annotated.1 It provides a lot more annotation than concision is comfortable with; around half of these annotations are merely definitions for vocabulary, and half of these have a sentence or blurb on some aspects of grammar, and a couple are my reflections on the writer's style. I suggest that you ignore an annotation of a word or expression that you can read and understand without problem.
Do not mouseover an annotation in the worry that what you think a word might mean is not actually what it actually means; if you have some idea or opinion of it, it is more often than not correct, and if it is not, repeated reading of the word in different contexts will fine-tune your sensitivity to the connotation in your head. What is most essential is that you distinguish these semi-arbitrary symbols as meaningful in your mind; that they conjure some feeling, idea or picture, however vague, when you spot them in a text.
But if you do come across a word or expression, and your inability to read it hinders your comprehension of the text, do read the annotation; but that is not enough; I suggest that you copy out in hand the phrase or sentence in which the unknown expression is found, highlighting or underlining the term in question; for words in a sentence are like people in a society; half their identities are defined in comparison to the other members of their society and are themselves defined by it even as they provide definition to the sentence. The interplay of the elements, the social face of the words, the restricted contexts in which one only can find these words being used, are just as important as the inherent meaning given by dictionaries. This is especially important with words like "just", "and so", "already", "still", "by the way" or Japanese ばかり, ところ; where the words have fuzzy physical or logical meaning, but are yet crucial in structuring language.
List of articles in intended reading order
- A very brief introduction to modern Japanese literature
- Akutagawa Ryuunosuke（芥川 龍之介）
- 蜘蛛の糸（くものいと）
