This is more than a little hopeful on my part; while I'm level 18 on WaniKani and therefore know a few hundred kanji and a couple thousand words, I couldn't even completely read the cover!
The main problem is my very loose grasp on Japanese grammar. I know bits and pieces from my university time and what I've looked up online, but after a couple of months it gets muddier and I need a refresher.
The Japanese on the cover is 日本語の短篇小説. Here's how my mind processes that currently:
- 日本語 is "Japanese language" - nihongo
- の is the association particle, something like "'s" or a reverse-positioned "of" - no
- 短 means "short" - tan
- 篇 ???? I had to look this one up, it means "volume" or "collection" - hen
- 小説 means "novel" in the sense of "short story" - shousetsu
So, I read it as "collection of Japanese short stories". The first in the book is by the famous Murakami and is indeed very short; only a page and a half! However, the Japanese text remains annoyingly out of reach. I can read many of the kanji words, but the grammar and hiragana-only words are confusing. It may be another year or two before I can read prose, with some dedicated study.
My team is still in the GTASC! We were never really in any danger, but it's getting harder. Especially because I didn't bring my Xbox to Scotland - no room, plus these things don't travel very well. Still, if I can continue to beat large parts of the Bard's Tale Trilogy, I should be fine.
My team is still in the GTASC! We were never really in any danger, but it's getting harder. Especially because I didn't bring my Xbox to Scotland - no room, plus these things don't travel very well. Still, if I can continue to beat large parts of the Bard's Tale Trilogy, I should be fine.
