My 2 year+ streak of doing Japanese daily

Japanese
#51

End of year report (2021)

Actual data is not a natural year, but the last 365 days. Although it’s very close as this data series started the 28th of December.

I could have probably done more fancy graphics but I’m not very fond of excel, and currently my tracking system doesn’t have coded in any fancy stats. I doubt I’ll ever add it, as I prefer spending time actually studying.

Again my main objective, is being able to read without having my dictionary next to me for every odd word, so do take that in mind when seeing the data.

So let’s try to make some sense of the numbers.
confused2-anime

Totals

For 365 days, tasks related to Japanese learning were done every single day, so even if some days the time invested was close to 0 (especially when I was doing 60h+/week work), it never reached 0. So that’s a 365 streak, which was one of my main 2021 resolutions.

A total of 579.40 hours have ben put in, which gives an average of 1.59h per day)

This is a graphic of time per day and a distribution on what tasks it has gone in:

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Bunpro (50.1h | ~0.14h/day)

Started at level 9, currently at level 47. 8229 Reviews done, and 215 Lessons. Currently at 65% of N4 complete.

Kanji Kentei 3DS Exercises (105.6h | ~0.29h/day)

Started at Kanji Kentei level 10 with 80% cleared, currently at Kanji Kentei level 8 with 96% cleared.

Kanji Kentei Books (80.3h | ~0.22h/day)

Finished Kanji Kentei Books level 10, 9 and 8. I have started level 7 recently.

Watching content (172.6h | ~0.47h/day)

Content in Japanese without subtitles. Mainly anime but some other variety programs also included.

Reading (60.2h | ~0.16h/day)

Mainly manga, have started alternating with some Tsubasa Bunko light novels.
You have the titles I have read on my Bookmeter and LearnNatively profiles.

Vocabulary / Anki (57.3h | ~0.16h/day)

Currrently sitting at over 1627 generated vocabulary cards from the Kanji Kentei books.

Other content (53.30h | ~0.14h/day)

Watched 2 full courses for N5 and N4 to jog up my memory.
Here there’s also some other content that I don’t do daily so it doesn’t have it’s own category, such as pure Kanji repetition, preparation for courses, textbooks, apps on the phone, etc…)

Conclusions and moving forward 2022

Although I did manage to keep the streak of doing Japanese every single day, I feel like those days that reached almost 0 are a bad mark. Next year I don’t expect my work hours to be as high as I’m doing some changes and taking some real life stuff decisions.

So I have established these objectives for the next year:

  • Keep the average of 90 minutes per day global.
  • Finish KKB7 and most of KKB6.
  • JLPTN4 and JLPTN3 grammar on Bunpro.
  • Try to read a bit everyday.

If I do any major changes to my routine, I’ll be updating this post again.
As always, happy to hear feedback on how to improve/change things, and see new methods.

Now if you will excuse me, that’s a lot of numbers and data so I’ll go get my second cup of coffee.
confused-anime

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#52

Not all heroes wear a cape…

… unless you do wear a cape but I didn’t see that on the pie chart

:smile:

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#53

I thought I’d give a small update.

Yesterday I was able to finish my first light novel without giving up due to despair mid-way (Took 8h and 51m).
The novel in question was not complicated but still interesting to not also bore me, like some other easy reads do to me.

The book in question and my quick thoughts are here:

It’s an obscure title I haven’t seen a lot around, but I highly recommend it for beginners.
There’s also something charming about finding something not mainstream that you like.

For example myanimelist:

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#54

congrats!

I wish one day I can read a light novel,

I just do the basics of bunpro: reviews and 2 grammar points per day and wanikani reviews and lessons when apprentice is below 90.

I dont spend much time reading other stuff, my max is articles and twitter about games. With srs is a way to keep them fresh in my mind all the time at least.

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#55

Thanks.

I’d recommend jumping as soon as possible.

That was recommended for me a few times, since long ago, but I wish I had taken the recommendation seriously way earlier.

I have been doing it daily since I started that volume, even if one day it was just 2-3 pages per day.

If graded reads are not for you (I find them very plain), there are other options, but they are a bit less mainstream and harder to come across.

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#56

What level on learn natively would you put that LN at? Hows the LN experience compared to manga? Just find that the contractions and slang add another level of difficulty for a beginner. thanks

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#57

I’m not very used to the LN level yet, but I’d say it’s on the easy side. Probably level 20 is a fair number.

I haven’t found any noticeable slangs, and the stories are independent of each other, so there’s no huge loss if you have more difficulty with one chapter than the other.

It’s available on kindle, so you can read most of the first story in the sample if you want to test it yourself.

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#58

I need to do more reading as well, so I’ve now made an account on that site as well. This does sound like a fun read, so on the wishlist it goes for now.

About Kanji Kentei: would I need to get a Japanese 3DS console as well to use the software?

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#59

Nice! I gave you a follow there.

You don’t need a Japanese 3DS if you install a custom firmware on it. I’m playing my cartridge just fine on my European 3DS.

There’s also the option of emulation, but I’m not sure how good is that input wise, unless you have a touchscreen and a pen.

#60

Such a shame that there’s not a Switch version…

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#61

It really is a shame, but on the other side, you can buy a cheap used 2DS and still get the game to run.

2DS 3DS 3DSXL N3DS N3DSXL N2DS, any of these devices will run the game, so there’s a lot of used hardware out there capable.

#62

I’m not sure why, but this is the first time I’m hearing about Learn Natively! I’m trying to read more books too so I’ll give it a shot. Thanks!

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#63

Small update:

While I reduced the amount of books consumed per month drastically as I have moved mainly at reading novels instead of manga, I feel like I’m reading a bit more and I’m getting a bit more of speed and kanji/reading recognition.

I’ve finished the second book of the series I have started a while ago and wrote a review:

I really really like these series, and I’m so glad I stumbled upon them! I might do a couple manga volumes before jumping to Vol. 3 which I already have at hand to start. As always I’ll update my learnnatively and bookmeter if anyone is interested in keeping up to date for what I’m reading.

I’m trying to get used to the electronic dictionary and reduce dependency on J-E definitions and try to go first for J-J ones, but the vocabulary is still on the weak side for some words.

On the other side of things, I started my seasonal work, and I might be in a new position, so I’m not sure how that will fare on my free time for doing my Japanese tasks, but I’ll try to find empty times to at least keep my averages to the best of my availability/strength.

6 Likes
#65

I didnt know about this Kanji Kentei,

I have a 3DS and will give it a try. But I guess it is quite advanced right?

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#66

You can start with Kanji Kentei level 10 which is very basic (only 80 Kanji).

List of Level 10 Kanji

一 七 三 上 下 中 九 二 五 人 休 先 入 八 六 円 出 力 十 千 口 右 名 四 土 夕 大 天 女 子 字 学 小 山 川 左 年 手 文 日 早 月 木 本 村 林 校 森 正 気 水 火 犬 玉 王 生 田 男 町 白 百 目 石 空 立 竹 糸 耳 花 草 虫 見 貝 赤 足 車 金 雨 青 音

The important part is that you understand the exercises and what is being asked on each part. Figuring it out only takes once per level at most though, so you are not learning new exercises constantly but actually reviewing once you have them figured out.

I’m currently at level 7 with a completion rate of about a 25%, which is after using the software for more than 380 hours and answering more than 9400 exercises.

3 Likes
#67

Small update before my high season work

Finished reading vol. 3 of the light novels. I can clearly see picking up some speed and being able to have (sometimes) longer reading sessions. Probably is also a factor that I moved to the kindle versions now that I managed to unlock Amazon JP purchases again.

As always review is here:

In the other hand, at the same time, I started reading some manga in order to go out of the comfort zone I have gotten while reading the light novels. I recently finished それでも歩は寄せてくる and now started with 貧乏神が! which I had laying around.

As for the daily grind, today I finally managed to pass a 7-kyuu Kanken exam on the 3DS. While my objective is still being able to finish this level before the year ends, now I don’t think I’ll be able to get on the level 6 too far, which was also an objective. The difficulty really picks up.

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That’s about it. Currently sitting at 480+ days with a 93 minutes/day average of studying. I do hope to be able to keep increasing this average despite work. While I had a change in roles recently, I have reduced my hours, so we will see how it goes.

Some other things that I’m considering:

  • Finding a place and time to do an official Kanken test. These are not as common as the JLPT ones, so we will see if I manage
  • Maybe retaking JLPT N3 or giving N2 a shot to see how far I am from it.

As always, new suggestions and questions welcome if anyone has one.
I keep trying to improve the way I do things, how I keep track of them, and ways to expand the time I spend doing them.

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#68

Congrats!!! Its really cool seeing you consistency!
Hopefully work will not get in the way too much.

In one way, taking the N2 just for fun is a great experience… I applied and took the N2 exam just as an incentive after a long break from studying. No regrets. I failed miserably but passed some sections haha and the experience made me really think about my study methodology.

If possible and not in a rush, take the N3 this December (Probably its too late for July 2022) ??.. Passing the exam and getting the certificate should give you a really big boost… Just trying to say that its nice to get the paper for the effort hehe…

2 Likes
#69

Thanks for the encouraging words!

I already (barely) passed N3 although I feel it was more sheer luck than anything else.

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That’s why I’m at a loss still if I should retake N3 to see if there’s progress or go N2 and have a laugh at myself of the long way I have in front of me.

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#70

OHH in this case, go for N2 this December if possible!

Everybody (including me) was laughing when I said I will take the N2 exam. (I had 1 month of Japanese classes in Japan before the exam). Its a really strange and freeing experience taking the N2 without any expectations. Highly recommend it!

There is still a lot of time, maybe applying for the exam will motive you to continue to daily study even when work gets too much :smiley:

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#71

End of year report (2022)

So another year goes by, and I try to make sense of the tracking I do and see how I did and if I got any objectives done, and how to improve for the next year.

Totals

For 365 days, tasks related to Japanese learning were done every single day again, even if I wasn’t feeling that well, I still tried to get something done.

A total of 542.78 hours have ben put in, which gives an average of 1.49h per day)
This number is down 30 hours, and the average down from 1.59h per day.

This is a graphic of time per day and a distribution on what tasks it has gone in:

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Bunpro (23.0h | ~0.06h/day | Streak 498)

Finished N4, but didn’t progress too much beyond that.

Kanji Kentei 3DS Exercises (156.1h | ~0.43h/day | Streak 414)

Levels 10, 9 and 8 are cleared with 99%. Level 7 is at 98% and I’m ready to start Level 6 in the next few days

Kanji Kentei Books (52.4h | ~0.14h/day)

I finished just in time for the year the Level 7. Ready to start Level 6 in the next few days.

Watching content (116.6h | ~0.32h/day)

Content in Japanese without subtitles. Mainly anime but some other variety programs also included.

Reading (113.8h | ~0.31h/day | Streak 6)

I started reading not only beginner novels, but also full fledged novels.
You have the titles I have read on my Bookmeter and LearnNatively profiles.

Vocabulary / Anki (66.5h | ~0.18h/day | Streak 297)

Currrently sitting at over 2880 generated vocabulary cards from the Kanji Kentei books.

Other content (3.8h| ~0.01h/day)

This is mainly one-off stuff that I don’t specially track because it’s not significant in recurrence. Such as the taken JLPT N2.

Objectives Report

:green_circle: Keep the average of 90 minutes per day global.
:yellow_square: Finished Kanji Kentei Book level 7 but didn’t start Kanji Kentei Book level 6.
:yellow_square: Finished only N4 grammar but didn’t finish N3 on Bunpro.
:red_circle: While I read more, I didn’t read every day.

Conclusions and moving forward 2023

The numbers are down, and objectives were mostly not completed successfully which is a bit of a downer. If I try to look at the numbers positively, the watching hours are down while I have increased in harder tasks such as reading.

With all these in mind, I have tried to rearrange the expectations for the next year.:

  • Increase the average study time to 100 minutes/day.
  • Finish Kanji Kentei level 6. Going to try to set a deadline for a lesson every week to keep the pace.
  • N3 Grammar in Bunpro, increase time spent by using Cram 2.0 too.
  • Read at least 20 minutes a day.

While the numbers aren’t that positive, I’ll try to improve for next year. As always, feedback and discussion is welcome!

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