How can I increase in Japanese? (speaking and reading)

[Shokai]

I am not sure if this works with Japanese the same way it does for learners of English. I am thinking of reading either a manga that I like in Japanese or just an easy book to start of with in Japanese. Im not the person who eats, drinks, sleeps manga but I just happen to like GTO and I have two volumes of it in Japanese.

My sensei advice that I do this and with words that I dont know, look it up in the dictionary. In class we also read a lot of stories from children's books and there are a lot of children's books in Japanese at the library. Sensei said this is another way too.

What do you think? Has anyone ever tried this?

To my guess I think it will work, after all if we are diligent in reading in Japanese we are able to increase our reading speed rather than just going all slow like "mi n na sa n".  

[chinotenshi]

That's actually what I do, and I'm a Japanese teacher. When you can connect the language to something that has more meaning to you, it makes it easier to remember. I use it a lot to pick up the spoken grammar, as that is much different than what is usually taught in books.

However, be warned. Many manga use words and phrases that aren't used in daily speech.  

[Shokai]

chinotenshi

That's actually what I do, and I'm a Japanese teacher. When you can connect the language to something that has more meaning to you, it makes it easier to remember. I use it a lot to pick up the spoken grammar, as that is much different than what is usually taught in books.

However, be warned. Many manga use words and phrases that aren't used in daily speech.

Thanks and yes I am very aware of that too. I think I will stick with the simple children's book and stories for the time being as well since I am sure they dont use words and phrases like they do in manga.  

[entis]

I got an advice to read children's books too because there are no difficult kanji in those. But alas getting my hands on japanese books at all is very hard in my country. Does anyone know where to could get some simple japanese texts online? It would help me out a lot.  

[Tanu-chan]

There is a big part of the Japanese/English that lots of people get confused with.

In japanese, we usually don't include the Subject in sentences when we talk. (ex: Watashi wa Gakkou e ikitaku nai=Gakkou e ikitaku nai.)
that would be in English like:
(ex: I don't want to go to school=Don't want to go to school.)
Even though it kind of sounds weird in english, that's what we usually(99% of the time) do when we talk.

...was my explanation confusing? Dx  

[MatchaCosmos]

I find japanese restaurant menus online and try reading those everyday (Mos Burger is the one I've been looking at more recently). Mos Burger has a LOT of katakana on their menu and any practice I can get to improve my katakana and hiragana reading skills is welcome by me. I have improved a bit, but I'm still pretty slow.

I suggest online menus, and kid's books.

Mos Burger's Menu
Children's Books in Hiragana - supposedly there's 5-15 to this series as well, when I find them, I will post links <3  

[=X-Sparker + AquaKiller=]

I wouldn't suggest you to solely depend on manga to learn Japanese.
Of course, since you already have a Sensei, it seems like you are already getting proper education on it.

I guess what I'd suggest you to do is try to apply what you learned from your Sensei to your understanding of the story of the manga, and also when you get confused about something in the book, ask your Sensei. Basically, let the manga complement your learning of Japanese, not dominate it.

I don't read manga in Japanese that much. I usually do this "complementary learning" by watching tons of J-drama.

Oh, and it also helps tons if you have some native Japanese friends to speak Japanese to.