Well, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t need any introduction to the topic, but whether you know it or not, I participated in the Read More or Die competition this last month. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve felt a huge boon to my Japanese comprehension as a result. I’ve also been fortunate enough to spend some time with some of the participants via Twitter and IRC, and, really, the competition wouldn’t have been anything without everyone. A ton of my motivation to read came my own competitiveness, fueled by the people who kept passing me, even though one of them disappeared halfway through.
The results are in, and I scored an unexpected victory. Before the contest started, reading a thousand pages in Japanese was nothing more than a whim. I never actually expected to get that far–let alone to keep going and read over twice that much before the month’s end.
For those who are interested, I posted my entire reading log to a Google Doc, including personal comments and specific details as to what I read each day. On most days, I ignored miscellaneous reading, like tweets, and only focused on the big things I did. On a couple days, there are some assorted extra pages, though it was mostly just a whim, whether I counted the small things.
Here’s a quick list of the things I read (or watched, with Japanese subtitles) during the month:
- ゴーストトリック (Ghost Trick, Chapter 4-End)
- ラストウィンドウ (Last Window, Chapter 1-10)
- うみねこのなく頃に散 (Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru, Episode 7)
- 屍鬼 (Shiki, Ep. 5-7)
- Bleach: Movie 3
- 日本人の知らない日本語 (Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo, Ep. 1-6)
- 東京DOGS (Tokyo DOGS, Ep. 1-10)
- ヤンキー母校に帰る (Yankee Bokou ni Kaeru, Ep. 1-4)
- よつばと！ (Yotsubato!, Ch. 35-41)
I had the good fortune of pretty much loving everything I read/watched. I had some doubts about 日本人の知らない日本語 from the first couple episodes, but it turned out to be a very educational, entertaining show, and I look forward to new episodes every week. 東京DOGS was much more difficult, and there’s a lot that, even after finishing, I still don’t quite understand, but I understood enough to enjoy the show, and as far as I’m concerned, being the first Japanese drama I’ve watched in its entirety without English subtitles, that’s perfectly acceptable.
I had a lot of firsts this competition. Watching anime/drama without subs was something I rarely did. Every time I thought about it, I argued against myself, saying, “I don’t want to waste my time if I don’t understand it; I just want to enjoy what I’m watching.” Now that the competition’s over, I actually prefer watching my anime without subtitles (or with Japanese subtitles, if possible). No, I don’t understand every word everyone says, but I get so much more out of it anyway. The dialogue feels so much more varied and lively compared to translations, and I feel more invested watching it without any English.
This was also the first time I played dialogue-heavy game through to completion in Japanese. Playing games, I feel much the same way as I do about anime/drama. While I imagine Ghost Trick will have a stellar translation, based on the Ace Attorney games, Last Window isn’t even receiving a North American release. Umineko’s translation, while high quality and very carefully executed, doesn’t give me nearly the same feeling of involvement (though there are a multitude of possible reasons for that, being a translation is definitely among them).
For this competition, I had the advantage of having the first three weeks completely clear, being summer break, which allowed me to focus on reading and getting myself into the experience. Had ReadMOD begun during the school year, I don’t know that I would have been able to muster the effort required to read more than 2,200 pages of Japanese in a month.
Of course, not everything went smooth and easy. The day before I was set to drive back for school (August 20), my motherboard’s on-board sound completely crapped out on me. Since nearly all my reading required audio for full enjoyment, I about hit a stand-still that day. And on top of that, the same evening, I found myself unable to progress in Last Window. My impasse in Last Window lasted until today, just after the competition’s end.
I was fortunately able to use my laptop for the remainder of the competition, which allowed me to complete Umineko and Tokyo DOGS, and then to start Yankee. I’m still waiting to get a replacement sound card so I can move back to my PC, but until then, my laptop provides me with the resources I need to continue reading and indulging myself in Japanese media.
On a whole, the contest has been wonderful, and I’m extremely grateful to LordSilent for hosting it; LizLearns for tweeting about it (check out her blog, too!), which is why I signed up in the first place; and everyone on Twitter for making it so much fun. I have no intention to stop reading Japanese, now that ReadMOD is over–it’s far too valuable for learning–and I will definitely try to participate in future reading competitions.
やった、おめでとうございます！
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