What you can’t tell from that is that I got a bit teary at the end of one of the graded readers… tonki the elephant… sniff
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In bookmeter you can write a review after you finish, so you get to see the activity of others you follow. That’s kinda neat.
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I was straight up bawling at that one! One of the only graded readers I still remember vividly.
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I still find it difficult to think about! Unlike the idiot poor couple in new york who have two things in the world they treasure, and manage to lose both of them in time for xmas… /facepalm…
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I thought I’d do a quick update before my approaching year end post.
I’ve finished finally Kanken Book 8, it took 7.5 months and I hope the next one takes a bit less than that (also have more free time). The difficulty spikes up so we will see about that. Love seeing the wear on the workbook as it reflects the time it has been used:
I have started reading massively, I try to keep to one manga volume a day. When I start with light novels eventually I’ll probably drop to X pages a month. You have in the OP post both my Bookmeter and Learnnatively accounts if you are curious about what I read!
I have changed a bit of how I keep track of my tasks, and it might be overkill for most cases but it’s like this now:
I have a Kanban (かんばん (ソフトウェア開発) - Wikipedia) board that keeps track of what I do daily:
Then I feed it to a report system, I have built that generates a report.
I also have a streamdeck that reminds me in my face of how much I have done in the day:
That’s about it for the update. I look forward extracting the stats I collected from this last year and see what conclusions I reach!.
I really recommend the Kanban for those who want to keep a diary/track.
I went myself with a self hosted version, because I’m that crazy with some stuff, but you can use a free Trello account, which is basically the same. Looks like there’s even a template for it.
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Ooh, thanks for the Kanban template recommendation! I’m a tad technologically-challenged so having an easy setup is necessary. Would be nice to keep on top of stuff, though.
Also congrats on finishing Kanken 8! Looks like your studies are really on a great track. Reading more is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my Japanese comprehension too, though I tend to keep it to my lunch breaks at work (I struggle to focus properly at home, admittedly).
Looking forward to that end-of-year post!
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I’ve been following the learnnatively feed, you’re smashing through those books! I’ll mark up my four pages read of a graded reader, then see you’ve finished an entire book! lol impressive.
I read these posts with a mixture of admiration and depression. The former at how dedicated and organised you are, the latter seeing how much work is involved and reflecting on my own progress. Still it’s about the journey as well as the destination!
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damn, i NEED that stream deck, it looks peak comfy.
anyway, here’s my daily routine, r8 and h8:
- tryhard wanikani (kanji and vocabulary)
- tryhard bunpro (grammar)
- watch one episode of raw pokemon (listening)
i’m like 2/3rds in right now (level 41 on wanikani, beginning of n2 on bunpro and almost finished the first part of johto league, lol).
my goal is to finish the srs stuff asap to get a solid kanji/vocabulary/grammar foundation, ignoring writing and speaking completely. then i’ll simply start re-consuming vns/mangas/anime in japanese until i get good.
ps. any good (and fun) ways to practice katakana reading? i hate it, lol
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When I skip a day of reading I notice it so much the next day. I live with fear of loosing the progress lol.
It definitely helps to write it down to better organize yourself and see where you are at. I was a mess before I started doing this!
I’d say start reading ASAP, it has helped me tremendously. If you don’t mind the content and can go through it, then graded readers, if not, pick up something you really like and start reading.
The reason of why I have gone with something I like is, because aside from the struggle it takes, especially on the beginning, is that you will be more motivated to continue, even if some stuff escapes your current level.
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that’s my goal, though i really don’t like looking up kanji i don’t know, that’s why i’d rather tryhard wanikani for 3 more months and then immerse myself. regardless, i still read online walkthroughs in japanese and some other stuff from time to time, but i have to look up one sentence every 2 for something i don’t know…
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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.
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:
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.
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Not all heroes wear a cape…
… unless you do wear a cape but I didn’t see that on the pie chart
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
Such a shame that there’s not a Switch version…
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