I’m a big fan of the “pay their fees, then sail the seas” approach, but now we’re really getting off topic. Reading is good, friends! 
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I don’t know, but I feel like people in the comments are sometimes more aggressive and make points like no one even makes about people who play games all day long. Like speedrun is such a tangible thing, or it can ruin life, or one I like the most, “I know many better ways to spend that time” this one is basically banger. But it’s intent, and the Japanese community is considered the most toxic language community out of all.
Well… I should stop writing messages at 4 am, because it feels like I hate the society, while I don’t want to show it
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It’s definitively the most unique language learning community I’ve come across so far. There is tons of really helpful, friendly and engaged people in it 
There are a huge amount of those tech/stats folks, and while I don’t vibe with their approach personally, I enjoy reading about their endeavours and their tools are really helpful! Online communities oftentimes become bubbles where “one approach fits all” is greatly promoted, the trick is to find the community that’s all into your own approach. It would be even better to find a community that’s more diverse and accepting of different approach, but generally that’s nothing I’ve ever came across in online communities. Cause loud folks will be loud and drown out other opinions fast. In that sense, every online community is kinda toxic.
Hating society is a tough one, on one hand it’s understandable, cause frankly there is so much stupidity, hate and needlessly mean people going around that one can feel lost, especially if one doesn’t fit the expectations of society well. On the other hand most of the life we live today would be completely impossible without the society being like it is. In the end, it comes down to surrounding oneself with good people who care about you and who you care about. Even if it’s just one or two people. It gives a nicer outlook onto society.
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Well, I feel like you are right)
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“I know many better ways to spend that time” this one is basically banger
Hey, I feel like this one is aimed at a comment I made in the other thread, and I apologise, especially if I made you (or anyone else) feel bad.
I came in pretty hot in that comment, primarily because I was annoyed the OP was so nonchalant about blowing off school - I had to spend a lot of time out school because of illness, and watching someone voluntarily give up that privilege rubbed me the wrong way. But with hindsight this could have been their way of coping with other stuff going on in their life, so my dismissiveness was out of line.
Anyway, I’m pretty supportive of people speedrunning Japanese, because it can be fun and useful sometimes? I, uh, speedjogged(?) N5-N3, primarily because I was depressed and direly needed the distraction. It can, arguably, be maladaptive, but I can think of worse vices.
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Such an insightful comment! Thanks
Hard times in life that you don’t have control over (like still being in school, unsupportive parents, life troubles that cannot be fixed by just changing your behaviour, or being chronical ill and unable to do most normal things) require something, that distracts you, keep you aflow, and most importantly keeping your mind from ruminating on bad thoughts.
I had many such bouts in life already and learning japanese is the direct result of such an incident (family member had an accident that required surgery that uncovered even more bad things), so for a few weeks I just completely immersed myself as to not think about the big worries I had.
That’s one of the reasons why I always defend people skipping on life in favor of total hyperfocus on something, even if it’s something irrelevant. Cause folks who skip on life rarely do it because life is currently great, right? Sometimes all they need is a bit of time and success to be able to reevaluate their situation. But sometimes hyperfocus is their only lifeline, I would be too scared to accidentally cut it.
I highly empathize with you, though. As someone who’s life was deeply uprooted by chronical illness and who can’t live a normal, age-appropiate life, feelings about people who take their health for granted and don’t take the chances they got can get really mixed, right? But those people still got their baggage and problems, noone can see what’s inside the others head.
Blowing of school usually is indeed a big red flag, but reasons vary. School mostly is also a one size fits all, which means there will always be a bunch of kids who really suffer in and due to school. It’s quite saddening. But saying to those kids to just go back to school? Taking it more seriously? Without knowing the extend and reason of their suffering? This is something I would love to be taken care of by professionals who know the kid in question personally.
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Heck you can’t even buy a Japanese kindle in the states anymore for this reason.
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Ye I think so
But you’ve made a really good point about using jlpt related stuff instead of anime and novels!
I myself dropped out of school after 8th grade and it was the best decision for me. I understand that not everyone can learn by themself, and some people will just go into depression which is one popular way of how it can go, not everyone has a person who can help with that while for me it was one major factor. Well mean I’m talking to much, but I don’t think the school is the only way, and I don’t even think it’s the most efficient way of accovona anything (if there are resources to make it in another way)
I have no idea how to close this text, but I don’t hold a grudge against you, I’m totally cool with people holding their opinions, I just feel a bit of anger if the statements are not appealable, which is definitely something to work with. Have a good day!
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I’m taking a short learning vacation for a few days! I noticed I felt a bit bored and stuff started to feel samey and like I’m in a rut. This doesn’t neccessarily mean it’s due to learning japanese, could something else in my life. Whatever it is, my brain needs some new stimulation, so I’ll focus on something else for a few days and will only do reviews, so they won’t pile up too much.
I’ll probably repot all my plants or something and when I’m done, I’m back and fresh
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And I’m back again! Took about a week off, restarting on a monday has a nice feel to it. In addition I had a splendid family weekend
I didn’t do much really, I did repot half of my plants and prepped lots of cuttings, I will be drowning in plants soon
I spend lots of time outdoors, since we had great weather
I played a bunch of video games with my friends
And I looked into another hobby, in which I can sink lots of hours into it. Cannot spend all my time on japanese after all, but still want to learn more new things.
I managed to do reviews every day, but not all of them, cause I wanted a pause! My backlog was small, I aim for 100 reviews a day, and today I had less then 200 reviews, those went by in a flash and now I’m back again! I didn’t read any manga or watched any japanese only anime (but still got a lot of anime with english subtitles in). I won’t be in full gear mode for a few days, meaning I don’t intend on adding new cards to my review today and I’ll take it slow with reading/watching for the first few days, to give my routines time to come back naturally.
Hope everyone was well, too
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Thanks for asking! I had been sick for a bit and then just forgot about this thread.
I’m currently in a nice groove of doing 10 vocab a day plus a grammar point. Still, it’s only early N4. Recently I started to add “immersion words” which is around 5 per day. While I was sick, I was binge watching a lot of anime, with english subtitles of course, but I somehow managed to learn so many words just by passively listening, that I started to add them now. Everytime I have recognized a word a few times, it goes straight into my deck
I haven’t done any reading recently, since I started up a few other hobbies again.
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That actually sounds motivating.
I’ve been watching Black Clover a lot lately (like 3 hours/day) and I have feeling that I’ve learned only 4 words - 子虫、「私は王族だ」、まだまだ、魔法帝 literally 
But maybe I’ve picked up something else as well)
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I bet you’ll surprise yourself if you try I only realized how many words I learnt, when I started adding them. And you’ll probably have a higher learning rate in long running, repetetive anime, those have built-in srs.
That being said, I watch japanese with english subtitles still, never intended it as a way to learn, just a nice pasttime with a side of “yay, I know this word!”
The usefulness of immersion words can vary greatly, though. I learned a bunch of acid names without trying… and I will probably never hear those anywhere else still a fun experience
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Reading season is on!
My garden is prepped, the weather is nice and nothing beats reading in the sun! So after a small reading pause, I’m back at it again. Over the last few days I read Yotsubato! 3-7 and and the first book of the Dr. Stone manga.
While Yotsuba obviously is the perfect difficulty for me (finished N5, starting N4), I’m just currently obsessed with Dr. Stone. With a natively level of 28 it’s considered low N2, but after watching the Anime, I had no trouble understanding the first book and rarely needed to look up words.
I also decided to up my daily new vocab and grammar to 15 vocab and 3 grammar points for a while. I noticed I already know most of the grammar I got recently and about half of the words. I guess all the reading and watching I did already pays off If I keep up with this pace, I’ll have all of N4 added in about 2 months, which sounds crazy fast. Afterwards I’ll treat myself to a “only reviews and reading” pause, to let the N4 simmer for a while ^^
Small update time! 
I’m still putting 15 vocab and 3 grammar points a day into my review queue and today I reached about a third of all of bunpros grammar and vocab points of N4 It’s a small milestone but I’m very happy about it and it feels like I’m breezing through them easily. In fact, I get a bit impatient now, cause I already know most of the stuff, so for grammar points it just feels like a refresher and for vocab, I already know over half of them. To an extend, that I looked up two words, cause I was so SURE that I already had them in my reviews for a long time. But turned out they were actually new, they just were used a lot in earlier sentences.
While my plan was to put immersion on the backburner a bit, to focus on adding grammar and vocab for a few weeks, I find myself constantly going back to my current obsession of Dr. Stone. I actually very rarely consume shounen, and dislike most of them, but how could I not watch “science: the anime” it’s just way too much fun ^^ Feels like being back in the old days of university where I was part of a “maker group”, many of the things they build, we did, too. And the endless sessions of coil wiring were just too relatable 
It just feels like home ^^
So what else is there to do, besides watching the anime, rewatching the anime, reading the manga, switching to japanese subtitles and turning the subtitles off? I think I’ll have all lines memorized soon
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