At a more advanced level, one can “subs2srs” a TV show, then later go through the script and mine unknown words and phrases of the non-dialogue portions. You’re left with about 10 to 15 pages of material that you know very, very well. That makes it the perfect reading material as it’s tailored to your level. This gets you used to reading at a natural pace.

At an even higher level, you can later print out multiple scripts from various shows you watched and shuffle them up. Now every page is a quick shift, almost like having random play on your iPod. Useful for not zoning out while reading and keeps it entertaining through multiple readings.

Hope it helps, and keep up the good work.

Which book for young girls are you reading? That sounds like something I can handle. I read manga too, but sometimes I feel like reading a *book*. I have a Kinokuniya in the city, I should probably go see if I can pick up something like that.

Agree with you on smart.fm. I am quite disappointed with their latest revamp. I’ve been spending more time on readthekanji.com and renshuu.org, doing some quizzes and making sentences for grammar points (which is pretty good practice, I think).

The shipping was expensive, but as I bought several books, that was still less expensive than ordering in France. But the customs taxes were some bad surprise

I’m a college student, majoring in mandarin chinese and japanese, I’m still a freshman. The japanese I’ll have in the end of the course will be really basic, something like JLPT3 (we are using Minna no Nihongo). However, I bought myself the Japan Times books, the Genki’s and An integrated Approach. During the week I need to study like 85% and the rest for japanese. With those goals of yours I might change that!

I’ve been reading your blog for quite some time, lightly, as soon as I have time I’ll read it hardcore.

Thanks and take care!
Carolina.

The only problem I had was yes, Shipping can be expensive (but it always is when shipping to Australia – damn being at the arse end of the world!) and it takes a loooong time, about a month (Same if I order from amazon.com – it seems to take a month, much longer than from anywhere else, so I don’t know what’s wrong with Amazon).