Chimmsen's slow and cozy Japanese journey

Japanese
#158

All my immersion doesnt leave me with much time (or motivation for SRS) :sweat_smile:

I wish I were already at a point were I could just say “who needs SRS anymore, I’ll learn through immersion only”. I would anticipate that being somewhere around the 10k vocab range, and grammar completed. But I’m just a measly 3k vocab in (bunpro count at least, I probably do know more, but my brain doesnt come with a vocab count :sweat_smile:) and I’m still learning N3 grammar.

I think my motivation for SRS will come back when switching over to focus on wanikani. Learning kanji and using a different UI and a different review type will make feel things fresh for a bit :slight_smile:

I decided to switch to the anime deck to see how that goes and lower my new vocab amount to 5. I just want to get over the SRS part of the day quickly to go back to reading and watching anime :sweat_smile:

Textbook work? hiatus :sweat_smile: I’d still like to finish genki 2 by the end of the year, but i haven’t touched it for about a months ^^ By extrapolating this data, it’s clear I’m not gonna finish till the end of the year. I’ll just wait till the textbook mood strikes me again. Since I only care about immersion, I take textbooks more like a fun supplement, if they stop being fun than what what’s the point :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#159

With N3 grammar now having japanese explanations, I tried to switch today and it was surprisingly easy :slight_smile: Made sure to read the english version afterwards, to see if I missed something, but at least for this entry I got all the important things :slight_smile: I’m gonna try the japanese explanations for a while, even if it’s just for the “yay, I could read that!” feeling ^^

The switch to the anime deck was fun so far. As expected it’s giving me only stuff I already know :sweat_smile: Things like あっ interjection or わ ending particle ^^ At least those words will now be in my queue and accounted for :slight_smile:

Over the course of the last two weeks I worked on lowering my daily review count in anticipation on switching focus on wanikani for a while. It should now be around 50 reviews a days, which are quickly done and feels like a vacation from the 200 review days I had around early summer (when I ramped up to finish N4 a bit faster). I hope to be able to keep up with reviews and adding 1 grammar and 5 vocab a day when I add wanikani into my routine, but if that proves to be too much at one point, I’m willing to reduce further until I feel like I caught up with kanji.

7 Likes
#160

I finished the sakura card hen of Cardcaptor Sakura and it was such a nice watch! I hadn’t seen this anime before and didn’t expect too much, I was just happy to have found an easy watch. But, omg? This was soooo much fun for several reasons ^^ I even made an (incomplete) relationship diagram to explain to others. Cause tags like these NEED some explanations ^^ IMG_8654
After some happy diagram drawing and math, me and my friends came to the conclusion the hetero tag got way too much weight and the triangle needs way more sides ^^ “love unnamed geometric form”.

For now, I’m switching to Sailor Moon | L23. I have seen that one… (consulting the calender here) a few decades ago :sweat_smile: and I didn’t remember how much personality everybody had, it’s so great ^^ Maybe the dub I watched back than wasn’t done well, or I had just forgotten, but all the characters are just darn funny ^^

Besides watching anime, I’m working on my “finish this year” reading list, six to go, so maybe I’m not finishing them on time, but it’s already over half of the list :slight_smile:

Bunpro is currently on the backburner, no new lessons. The wanikani sale came around, so I’m gonna focus on that for a while. Getting some kanji in now, so I can start reading furiganaless manga and books soon :slight_smile:

My one year “starting to read” anniversary is around the corner, and just looking at my reading list this last year makes me very happy, so much progress! :smiley:

5 Likes
#161

recap time! :smiley:

I started reading native material in january, so pretty much a year has passed since then, so now it’s time to reflect on that.

Reading had always been my main goal, so I dived into it probably “way too soon” when I compare myself to what I read on when others start. I had just barely finished N5 materials, and around one year of random, unguided learning, switching from platform to platform. i started with duolingo but basically tried all the free trials and apps in my first year. Every few weeks in my first year, I tried reading something native, but always failed way too hard :sweat_smile: but last year in january I finally managed to work myself through “chis sweet home” (with the help of the wanikani bookclub of course, i would have dies without :sweat_smile:). And that gave me such a confidence boost, that I read the entire series :smiley:

In that first year of reading, I read 68 volumes (almost completely manga). That surprised me a lot :sweat_smile: I know I love reading and tend to binge read when I’m enjoying myself, but still, I didn’t expect it to go this well and this fast. Of course, my choice of manga supported my reading level. Chi is currently rated at L13 at natively, my next series “Gal to Dino” currently rated at L15 (such a gem! come join the currently active book club on wanikani! :D), and after that the yotsuba series (currently rated at L17). I half-read the takagi-san series (rated at L16), but after 9 volumes or something it became a bit too repetitive :sweat_smile: So I read a looooooot of those low level manga in the beginning. I think you can look at my book list on natively my read books

Now, I feel confident in reading up to around L24. Which I think is a huuuuuuge development over a year :smiley: I doubt this scales linearly, but wouldnt it be nice if my recap next year says that I’m feeling comfy about reading the apothecary diary light novels? :sweat_smile: (well, I can still dream ^^)

This year I had three noticeable outliers in my reading list:

  • Dr Stone series, currently rated at L28. I haven’t finished that one yet, still undecided if I want to wait and watch the anime final before reading through it. But at least I’m confident I would understand the ending (with an ungodly amount of look-ups)
  • 自転車屋さんの高橋くん, currently rated L24. My first non furigana series :dizzy_face: I somehow managed, even without having learned kanji yet. but learning kanji is part of this years study plan, so I’m looking dorward to more furigana free works in the future :slight_smile:
  • My first light novel: orange. Only being rated at L23 AND having furigana, this was fun and not too difficult :slight_smile: I noticed I enjoy reading light novels more than reading manga. I had always been a book person, not a comic person :sweat_smile: and japanese just reeeeeaaaally lends itself to beautiful sentence structures and prose. There are not many Light Novels at the level I’m currently comfortable with, but I’m really looking forwards to some more this year :slight_smile:

For those interested about my reading setup: basically nothing ^^ I’m either reading with bookwalker or similar apps on my ipad. using split screen with the dictionary app open. just manually typing (or in cases of kanji: drawing) unknown words to look them up.

Goals for next year? Basically just keep going :slight_smile: I think a volume per week is a realistic goal, but if I start reading more and more complex books, my count might get lower and I would be fine with that, too :slight_smile:

13 Likes
#162

After reflecting on my reading list this past year, I really think it was a good idea to binge-read all those easy manga :smiley: All those manga that were rated mid to upper tens on natively really gave my reading a boost and feel very comfortable now.

So I decided to binge-read low twenties now! :sweat_smile: Really, it’s the only reasonable choice, right? So my new to read list now looks like this:

  • ぷにるはかわいいスライム | L21 I love slimes, even though this series can be a bit questionable sometimes :sweat_smile: it’s surprisingly easy. I still remember trying to read it directly after reading chis sweet home, it was a desaster :sweat_smile: now it’s a casual read with not too many look-ups. I’m already in volume 2. I only own 7, though? must’ve been a while, since I bought those ^^

  • ホリミヤ | L23 Still the very best high school romance in existence (though feel free to recommend me an even better one :D). I saw the anime already, instantly bought the manga, thought it was still too hard to read and kinda forgot it in my reading pile. But now is the time to devour all those 17 volumes :smiley:

  • よふかしのうた | L23 I know nothing about this one, but it was a recommendation by my husband, so I’m sure I will love it :slight_smile: I got 17 volumes and I thought that’s all, but the natively page shows me 20 books :sweat_smile: well, worst case is buying some more when I see the finish line ^^

That will be around 40 volumes of manga in the low 20s range :sweat_smile: I wish I could add more light novels, but I only have the orange light novel, two more volumes. I’ll be reading those, too, but they seem like they wont even make a dent inbetween all those manga :sweat_smile:

Anyway, I’m looking forward to read them all :slight_smile:

5 Likes
#163

I’m still pretty new to Bunpro and the community, but I felt like I had to leave a message here.
I read most of your log, and I’m really impressed by your consistency and how you’re making slow but steady progress. I’m trying to keep up!

Best of luck going forward!

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#164

Thanks a lot :smiley:

My journey is a bit random and probably quite inefficient, but I guess it proves enjoying yourself and just doing something will still lead to improvement :slight_smile:

Hope you’ll be able to enjoy your japanese learning journey for a long time, too :slight_smile:

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#165

Rather rapid, I would like to point :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#166

at least I’m still very cozy, with all those books :slight_smile:

5 Likes
#167

I did a reading recap, but no anime recap yet! To be fair, it hasn’t been a year so far of watching anime either with no subtitles or japanese subtitles. but I just finished the first season of sailor moon and thoight, why not do a quick recap :smiley:

while I tried watching my first anime in january when I started reading, I failed a bunch of times, and it only really took off in june. But I still tried once a month until then :sweat_smile:

to this day, i have around 180h of anime logged, which doesn’t sound that impressive imho, but the fact that i now can just watch easy anime, understand them, enjoy them and at least get some of the jokes is the real goal :slight_smile:

After my reading speed picked up at the end of last year, switching to japanese subtitles made watching anime way easier :smiley: I wouldn’t consider counting it towards listening, though. But i’m ok with that for now. Anime is now narrated text :sweat_smile: it’s insane kanji practice, though? Oftentimes i find myself understanding the word, looking at the kanji and thinking “ah! so that’s how you write it!”, which I never did while reading with furigana :sweat_smile:

Anime gives me now way more practice than reading does. not only is the textdensity per minute way higher, I can also easily watch 8 episodes of anime a day (well, not every day probably ^^) while i usually dont read for more than an hour. I can feel my sentence parsing skills and vocabulary growing quicker than before :slight_smile: And most importanly, it’s really fun :slight_smile:

For now, I’m finishing the sailor moon series. For more seasons with around 40 episodes each will keep me busy for a while :sweat_smile: The newer cardcaptor sakura season is also still on my watchlist, and after that? i dont even know yet, it will probably take a while until then ^^

6 Likes
#168

I finished the second season of sailor moon! :smiley: i watched the whole season, even though it has a looot of filler episodes, thinking practice is practice :sweat_smile: i don’t regret that decision, but now i definetly need a pause from sailor moon :sweat_smile: binge watching around 90 episodes with basically zero plot was maybe a bit too much ^^

i will be watching Kanon | L21 next. 24 episodes, and probably a complete story. I’ve never seen the anime and don’t know anything about it, but it seems to be well liked :slight_smile:

for reading: im currently in volume 5 of puniru, so I will finish the series soon. I’m also a third into the orange light novel, volume 2. already eyeing different light novels and books for children, but haven’t decided on what to read next. reading books is still more fun, but also more exhausting. i’m looking forward to the day, when reading a book will no longer feel exhausting, but that’s probably still quite some time in the future :sweat_smile:

6 Likes
#169

I vote 恐怖コレクター. I’ve mentioned before that it’s been my go-to for fun reading for awhile now.

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#170

low level, full furigana, lots of books and a chance to rehearse all those mystery related words? sounds great :slight_smile: i put it on my list :slight_smile: ill probably get the first book to see if the series catch my eye, when i finish the third orange volume (which will peobably still take quite some while ^^). thanks!

2 Likes
#171

no one warned me how sad kanon is? :sob: just watched episodes 9 and 10 and… well, enough kanon for today :sob: (i’ll keep watching of course, but was a bit surprised as I went into it completely blind).

on the bright side: i finished those 7 puniru manga volumes and am halfway through the second volume of the orange light novel. already started with the horimiya manga.

4 Likes
#172

Party time!

Today I got my 365 days of learning on Bunpro! The fact that it’s February now and I got Bunpro on the Bunsgiving sale tells the story of me being quite the slacker every now and then :smiley: I guess I took a cumulative vacation of around two months ^^ But I think vacation and days off are important :slight_smile: Having a pause from reviews makes them feel fresh again.

Current status:

Bunpro: adding around 30 vocab a day. That might sound like a lot, but those are mostly words I already know through immersion. I noticed I know way more than I thought :sweat_smile: so I’m currently manually going over one vocab chapter a day and adding everything I already know.

Wanikani: Reached level 6 today. It’s actually really easy, I know most of the words and vocab on there already and just have to associate the kanji. Knowing the words, I mostly know all/most the readings of the kanji, but didn’t necessarily know what kind of kanji they would use. For example I knew きょうだい and was really surprised it’s written 兄弟. But yeah, makes sense :rofl: Same for へいき, you hear that all the time! But it’s written like 平気, which is way too funny ^^

Reading: I swear I’ll finish those orange light novels :dizzy_face: It just feels like it takes forever. A manga takes a day or two if I’m committed, but a light novel takes forever. So much text :dizzy_face: And I don’t really want to start on Horimiya before I finish at least volume 2 of orange. So close now ^^

Watching: Still feeling a bit sad about Kanon ^^ But I’ll continue watching any day now ^^

9 Likes
#173

Chimmsen, I enjoy reading your journey updates - as a very beginning learner myself, it’s very inspirational.

One quick question, if you don’t mind. Where do you get the books you read? I happen to live in Miami, and there really is no source locally to easily get Japanese-language books. I’d love to pick up copies of series like Chis Sweet Home and Dino to Garu to read, but neither the local library system nor any bookstores carry them - and I haven’t been able to find online sources.

Thanks!

Albaby

1 Like
#174

I watched Kanon last week. very sad Not as sad as Clannad though.

#175

Sorry for the late reply, I kinds forgot about the forum, ooops :sweat_smile: I buy from bookwalker and only read digital books.

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#176

and clannad had been on my watchlist :sweat_smile: well, for later then.

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#177

Chimmsen, no worries - and that was incredibly useful! I didn’t know about bookwalker, and it’s fantastic for me. I went and found チーズスイートホーム immediately - when I hadn’t been able to find the physical version for purchase anywhere (at least, not in Japanese). Even better, the first three volumes were available as a free trial - so now I have a fair amount of content to practice with for free. I’m so glad you suggested that to me, and I really appreciate it!

1 Like