Tadoku - Let's Read! Course Introduction Video (and transcript)
/Tadoku (多読), also called Extensive Reading, is the practice of learning a foreign language by reading lots of easy books. It's a really fun way to explore the Japanese language, without feeling pressure to understand every word.
This footage is from the 2019 Tadoku Summer Course at Step Up Japanese in Brighton, UK. In summer 2020, we also held our first Online Tadoku course.
Thanks to Daniel Sheen for making this video!
Watch the video, or scroll down to read a transcript. Click "CC" to turn on the subtitles 👍
What is Tadoku?
David: Tadoku is the practice of reading lots and lots of books, with the focus being on skipping things you don’t understand.
Fran: I think that lack of pressure’s really important, isn’t it? Skipping things, and… it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand everything.
Let’s take a look inside a Tadoku class at Step Up Japanese (filmed in 2019):
Fran: What did you read today? How was it? What was your favourite part? What was your least favourite part?
Snippets from students’ conversations about books:
A: I work in a publishing company – we make books – and this is from my publishing company.
B: Oh really?
A: And that one, yeah.
C: She’s actually a ghost! Oh no! And he’s really scared.
What do you like about Tadoku?
Sara: It’s quite nice just to kind of come back from work and just sit and you’re getting your practice in but it doesn't feel quite so much like practice, because you are focusing on the story, and I quite like the whole rules of the whole thing, which is like, you know, don’t sit there looking words up, just try and work it out from the context of it all, but yeah, I do actually sit and enjoy little stories more, that way.
David: I enjoy Tadoku, as it gives me the opportunity to read Japanese, without the pressure of understanding every single word.
Fran: I really like that experience as well, like you’re reading a book and then like a couple pages on you’re like “Oh, that’s what that word means!” – you didn’t need to look it up.
Sara: It’s like a little gold star for yourself as well, like: “Oh, I did know that!”
Would you recommend Step Up Japanese?
David: I would recommend Step Up Japanese to friends and family, and have. I really enjoy classes, I really enjoy the teacher, I really enjoy all of the students as well, it’s just like a really friendly bunch, and I’d like for more people to be part of the Step Up Japanese family.
Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.