Diary of a French cat (study log)

Japanese
#1

みなさん, bonjour!

It’s been precisely 112 days since I started learning Japanese, beginning with kana, and 50 days since I started using Bunpro. Creating a study log has been on my mind for a week or two. I’m still in the honeymoon phase of learning Japanese, and keeping track of my progress seems interesting, so that (hopefully) one year from now, I can look back and see how much work I’ve done.

About me

Not sure there’s much to say, I’m a French engineer in my twenties, tatamized a long time ago. I’ve originally studied Chinese for a few years, but made the switch after feeling burned out. After a trip to Japan, I’ve been enjoying diving deep into the culture (especially the food, despite the lack of baguette) and the beauty of the Japanese language itself. It looks like Lego, of course an engineer would enjoy it…

What am I expecting from learning Japanese? Mostly, I hope to enjoy the journey. I’m not really sure where it will lead. Ideally, I’d love to spend a few months immersed in Japan’s countryside, traveling around by bike, seeing Cape Sōya (and the monkeys in their onsen!), and discovering more about this timeless culture. Reading haiku would also be a huge achievement someday, but for now, I hope I’ll be able to go through NHK Easy News one day.

How am I learning

I’m lucky enough to have the time and motivation to come back to Anki, Bunpro, and WaniKani several times a day.

  • Vocab: 10 words a day at least (but rarely more) → 5 from Anki ( with Kaishi 1.5k), 5 from Bunpro (I like that the words come with more context).
  • Grammar: Bunpro, along with YouTube for certain grammar points.
  • Kanji: WaniKami, so far I’m at level 4. Not sure I’ll stick with it though, I’ll try to switch to an Iphone app and will check the famous “Remembering the kanji” by James Heisig. I really enjoy studying kanji, so I’m looking forward to improving this skill.
  • Listening: not much so far, but mostly following Japanese interview on Instagram and listening to Japanese with Shun - Podcast - Apple Podcasts.
  • Writing: I’m trying to write a small story (2 or 3 lines) each day on my computer, though I haven’t been very consistent with it.

I’m a math guy, so I’ll occasionally dive into some stats, along with any new discoveries or fancy stuff I pick up each day. This will be a simple daily log, but hopefully still an interesting one!

13 Likes
#2

07/09/2025
Currently playing: Hollow Knight Silksong

Probably spent more time today writing the entry above this post, so I’ll keep it concise.

New words

  • 賑やか
  • 電話
  • 午前
  • 音楽
  • 降りる
  • 先週
  • 牛肉
  • 遅い
  • 本当
  • 家族

Small text

先週、お祖父さんやお祖母さんと牛肉を食べました。私の家族は賑やかですが、お祖父さんはおとなしいです。

Note

Listened to 36 hours, by Mama Kay today, really nice song

5 Likes
#3

Coucou :wave:

Wishing you luck on your Japanese learning journey, hope that honeymoon phase lasts as long as possible.

If you’re looking to switch kanji learning apps, most french speakers around me (myself included) are pretty happy with “kanji study”. It has a lot of cool features and you can go with a mix of french and english for words definitions, which I’ve found to be pretty helpful for recall.

2 Likes
#4

Merci!

Sadly, Kanji study doesn’t exist on iPhone… that’s a shame, seems to be a nice app :confused:

2 Likes
#5

I’m a Brit, so I’m born to bash the French :joy:, but I can’t lie that Japanese bread and cheese doesn’t hold a candle to stuff in France (or cheddar in UK)

1 Like
#6

Ahah that’s fair game… though I might be a false French, I don’t really like cheese, but I do love Cathedral city’s cheddar :see_no_evil:

2 Likes
#7

Miaou :cat2:

2 Likes
#8

08/09/2025
Currently playing: Hollow Knight Silksong

Second entry of this diary, not my best day. 70% accuracy for the vocabulary and 50% on grammar, I will need to cram すぎる and ですから a bit.

Yesterday, while reading L’usage du Japon, written by Emmanuel Ruben, I’ve learned about the もののあはれ, or “a sensitivity to ephemera”. I don’t really know why, but I think it’s a simple phrase that captures a huge part of Japan. Watching cherry blossoms and maple trees depending on the season is a national sport, and there’s surely something soothing about living through the flow of the seasons like that… Damn, that was poetic.

New words

  • 捨てる
  • ものの哀れ
  • 毎週
  • 鳥
  • 来週
  • 結構
  • 氷
  • 住む

Small text

来週、彼女と僕は結婚します。フランスに住んでいるだけど、毎日日本語を勉強します。彼女は日本に旅行した、氷の鳥を見ました。

Note

Listened to First dinner, by Mama Kay today

4 Likes
#9

My condolences. Cathedral city is mid tier, for UK Cheddar. It definitely is cheese though!

1 Like
#10

09/09/2025
Currently playing: Baldur’s Gate (small break)

Yesterday was a terrible day, today was a successful day! 95% accuracy on vocab (damn you 昨夜), we don’t talk about grammar (55% lol). Still quite happy with my result!

Still struggling quite a lot with kanji recognizion, but I suppose it comes with time. Since I haven’t found a good app for Kanji yet, I’ll stick to Wanikani (and its 9$ per month :skull:) for now. It still help quite a lot, though some vocab is a bit weird for a beginner.

New words

  • 言葉
  • どんな
  • 気持ち
  • 場所
  • 沢山
  • 娘
  • うる
  • 泣く

Small text

母は娘に言いました。「泣かな、私は疲れたの。」

Note

Listened to Usseewa, by Ado today. Makes me want to play rhythm games again.

4 Likes
#11

I also wanted to attach my current progress: I’m already at 100/127 for N5 grammar, but I’ll probably take more time to consolidate what I’ve learned already rather than adding more lessons for now. Slow, but steady!

Screenshot 2025-09-09 at 23.26.07
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5 Likes
#12

10/09/2025
Currently playing: Hollow Knight Silksong

Good accuracy today, but I still need to cram some more vocab and grammar

Screenshot 2025-09-10 at 20.31.16
Screenshot 2025-09-10 at 20.31.161596×526 27.8 KB

Desptite ot having lot of beginner words, I feel that I have quite a lot of Adept, which leads to have more than 100 reviews per day. It’s ok by itself, but along Wanikani and Anki, it’s quite a lot. I think I’ll drop Anki for now, keep focusing on kanji, and consolidate N5 grammar for now while adding words per theme (ie vegetables, animals, job, …) rather than learning word on random order on Bunpro. I think this should help me to assimilate words faster.

New words

  • 国
  • ゆっくり
  • 宿題
  • わたる
  • どうして

Small text

船で海を渡って、フランスからアメリカまで行く。

2 Likes
#13

12/09/2025
Currently playing: Hollow Knight - silksong

Since I had some friends over yesterday, I didn’t find time to write the entry. I’ve dropped Anki for now: the deck, despite being really cool, is introducing too many kanji at this stage. I’m already focusing on WaniKani for kanji study, and I’d rather increase my grammar and basic vocabulary for now.

My reference for Japanese learning is Donkuri’s guide to immersion-based learning. While I’m still lacking Japanese experience (of course, since I’m just starting), this seems to be a great way to learn and improve. However, I still feel that I need additional resources for grammar and kanji study, and that’s where Bunpro and WaniKani come in. I can’t wait to see where this leads.

You can find the guide there
https://donkuri.github.io/learn-japanese/

Anyway, I enjoy (so far) Japanese learning. Really cool language, wish I had started earlier

5 Likes
#14

14/09/2025
Currently playing: walking around Madrid with friends

Busy weekend, friends were coming over to visit Madrid. We had a great time, and I was still able to do some quick revisions between two bocadillos. Food is really great, but I miss veggies.

I can’t believe that I’m almost done with the N5 grammar, while I still have 700 words to deal with for N5. Not sure how Bunpro is doing the N5 deck, but I trust the process. My goal would be to finish all N5 before EOY (ie (1100 - 456) / 108 = 6 words per day). Which should be possible, nice!

I’m still wondering if I could take the N4 certification in June 2026, I should check how many words per day this would take, I’ll do the maths tomorrow.

Small text

ダイエットを終えてから、毎日ケーキを食べています. 美味しいですね

4 Likes
#15

Oula on va faire semblant d’avoir rien lu

2 Likes
#16

Pas lu quoi, la phrase en jap?

#17

“I don’t really like cheese, but I do love Cathedral city’s cheddar”

2 Likes
#18

lol I really need to taste other cheddars when I go back to the UK then, we should do a cheddar recommendation thread

2 Likes
#19

Nice to see someone here that is pretty much as the same level as me. I’m also new to studying Japanese, and have no really clear goal for it too.

As you I’m studying with WaniKani, currently lvl 4. But unlike you I enjoy WaniKani and find that the mnemonics there make them stick better. I’ve used Bunpro since 20 days or so. Loving it for the grammar lessons and for putting the kanji in context.

I’m right now trying to do 5 new items in WK each day and 2 grammar + 4 vocab each day in Bunpro.

I don’t do much readning/listening as of yet. But I found these resources that I like:

I guess I’ll have to ramp up on listening, reading and then even speaking/writing as I learn a bit more of the basics.

Keep up the good work and see you at the finish of N5? :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#20

Hi Count Olaf

It’s true that, despite having quite wacky memotechnics sometimes (but maybe this is what makes them work), I feel that WaniKani is one of the best way to learn kanji. I’m using https://www.wkstats.com/ to track what I’ve learned, it’s really rewarding to see the N5 grid getting filled up! It seems that by level 10, almost all N5 kanji are covered. Five levels later, almost all N4 kanji are also covered (src). Keep up the good work :muscle:

I’m not sure how much input we can understand before wrapping N4. Looking at the CEFR correspondence here, this is an A2, not sure we can understand much before that. Still, I’m looking for listening practice, especially to get used to pronunciation, so I’ll definitely check out your links. Really appreciate it! Let’s catch up once we’re done with N5 :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

1 Like