Polishing off 2 years of rust (Study log)

Japanese
#23

Happy Friday!

Grammar: N2 7/213 (3%)
Vocab: N5 - 553/1100 (50%)
Kanji: 278/2300 (12%)

Reading: Pokémon Special chapter 2, 3 pages of Yotubato chapter 10, about 5 NHK Easy articles

Listening: TTS for 3 NHK Easy articles, about an hour’s worth of podcasts

Output: Nothing

I turned ghosts up to full and started on N2 at 1 new grammar point per weekday. I immediately got swamped with ghosts because I keep making stupid little mistakes.(38 at the moment). The idea is to help drill things into my head so I don’t have to think about it anymore.

Not a heck of a lot to say today. I have the day off for my Birthday, but I’ve spent the whole day making chocolate chip cookies and getting my son’s laundry ready so I can pack for the big family Canada Day party tomorrow. I’ve wanted to do some writing practice with a little blurb ranting about people talking on the quiet area of my train home yesterday, but that might have to wait until Sunday.

4 Likes
#24

Happy Friday!

Grammar: N2 - 11/213 (100%)
Vocab: N5 - 592/1100 (45%)
Kanji: 278/2300 (11%)

Reading: Pokémon Special chapters 3 & 4,

Listening: Podcasts

Output: Posted 2 moments on HelloTalk

Ghosts have been at a consistent 59 for most of this week, but since I’m only adding 1 grammar point a day it hasn’t caused my reviews to balloon up, thankfully.

I’m on vacation next week; heading up to take the little dude to visit his grandparents, so I’ve set myself on vacation mode until I get back.

2 Likes
#25

Grammar: N2 - 20/213 (9%)
Vocab: N5 - 687/1100 (62%)
Kanji: 326/2300 (14%)

Reading: started on Pokémon Special Chapter 5, haven’t finished.

Listening: Podcasts

Output: Nothing

I know it’s not friday, but I got back from my vacation 2 weeks ago and I keep getting distracted on Friday and end up not updating. Yesterday was the Monday of a long weekend, so I thought that today would be a good day to catch up on my study log.

I set myself in vacation mode while I was off and did not to any studying. I got a good bit of crochet done, though. I finished the triceratops for my son, and started the one for my nephew, and I’ve got a baby blanket going for a friend of mine who’s expecting. The triceratops’s horns didn’t quite end up where I wanted them, but little dude doesn’t seem to care; it’s soft and squishy and that’s all that matters.

I decided to try the new setting to drop your review level in half when you get a review wrong instead of setting ghosts to max, and I think it’s working a lot better. I’m back to about 11 ghosts.
I’ve fallen behind on reading, but I don’t have much free time in the evenings anymore. My husband’s contract at work ended a number of months ago and he’s having a hard time finding something new. Our savings are dwindling to the point where we may have to sell our house. We both agreed that if it comes to it, we’d rather sell and get something smaller while we have time than try to hold on to the house and end up foreclosing. I’ve been working on tackling our list of little things to do to get the place spruced up to sell, so my reading time has been restricted to two days a week, on the train home from work.

1 Like
#26

Happy Friday!

Grammar: N2 - 23/213 (10%)
Vocab: N5 - 721/1100 (65%)
Kanji: 342/2300 (15%)

Not a huge amount to update today, just wanted to update the weekly stats. As we’re getting closer to the fall, I thought it’d be fun to do some end-of-year projections. At my current pace, I should be 60% through N2 grammar, have finished both the N5 and N4 vocab decks, and be at 835 in KKLC. I’m not sure I’ll hit these number exactly with all the fall/winter holidays, but it’ll be interesting to see how close I can get. Check back here in January to see how I did. :yum:

2 Likes
#27

I know it’s not Friday, but it’s been a while.

Grammar: N2 - 26/213 (12%)
Vocab: N5 - 763/1100 (69%)
Kanji: 342/2300 (15%)

Things have gotten busy again, with getting the house ready for sale. I got behind last week and finally managed to get caught up again with use of the vacation function to keep new stuff from piling up on me even further.

I’ve also found out that a cousin of mine is expecting, so I had to start spending most of my free time working on a baby blanket so I can get it done in time for the shower.

This is definitely going to kill my end-of-year projections, but I knew I wasn’t going to hit them, anyway. The point is to give myself that dangling carrot so that I keep doing what I can rather than blowing it off.

4 Likes
#28

Happy Friday!

Grammar: N2 - 29/213 (13%)
Vocab: N5 - 808/1100 (73%)
Kanji: 342/2300 (15%)

So same story as usual lately, fall a bit behind, get caught up enough to make a little bit of progress, repeat. I’m caught up with Bunpro again, finally, but still have a backlog of 155 reviews on KanjiStudy. No reading or listening outside of Bunpro audio since I really just want to read/watch something in English in the little time I have left.

Finished the baby blanket and had enough left over yarn to do a cat-ear toque. Current crochet gift backlog is now 1 more baby blanket, 2 plushies, and a bottle holder. Also making slow progress on the house, but I’m hoping to be able to call the agent by the end of the month.

5 Likes
#29

Great job catching up! I fell behind in some of my studies personally and am closing in on being back on pace in about a week or so.

Some days I end up having to just tell myself to take the day off instead of worrying about keeping on track, otherwise the added stress will slow my pace more than if I just took that time to rest, or enjoy some other hobbies.

Also, don’t worry about not immersing as much as you may think you need to! Sometimes I’m just in the mood to watch some video essays on YouTube and not worry about reading Japanese news, playing a game in Japanese, or listening to various Japanese content creators on my feed.

I wish you luck in finishing up your reviews!
皆と一緒に頑張ろうね！

1 Like
#30

Happy Friday!

Grammar: N2 - 34/213 (15%)
Vocab: N5 - 918/1100 (83%)
Kanji: 358/2300 (15%)

I was able to work through my KanjiStudy backlog and start adding in new Kanji again this week.

I finally managed to find time to get some input in this week: I listened to Nihongo con Teppei while painting the bathroom last weekend, and that got me back into listening on my way from the train to the office and back. I’ve also started watching Comprehensible Japanese videos while brushing my teeth. Still no reading, but better than nothing.

Baby blanket #2 is more complicated than #1 and is done in panels which are assembled at the end. When I first started, one panel took me a week of evenings to do, but I was able to get one done in half that time this week! 4 panels done, 5 more to go.

3 Likes
#31

Grammar: N2 - 38/213 (17%)
Vocab: N5 - 996/1100 (90%)
Kanji: 382/2300 (16%)

Reading: I read 3 NHK Easy articles, and I downloaded a level 3 tadoku graded reader that I’m halfway through.

Listening: Podcasts, Comprehensible Japanese videos

I finally managed to get a bit of reading in. I’m also on track to finish up N5 vocab next week, so there’s that to look forward to.

I’ve been thinking lately: Since I’m not going to be able to take the JLPT this year, maybe I should try an online test at around JLPT time in December and July to track my progress. TTBJ or an online JLPT practice test or something. I used to do the same thing with J-CAT in the Before Times, but that’s obviously not an option anymore. If anyone has experience with this kind of thing, I’d love to hear from you.

3 Likes
#32

Does anyone have any other podcast recs? I’d like to get used to more than just Teppei-sensei’s voice.

If you’re still taking recs, I can recommend Japanese with Shun. His Oyasumi Japanese podcast is just at the perfect N+1 comprehensible input point for me as a low N4. He also has some more advanced stuff on his Youtube channel, I think.

1 Like
#33

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

1 Like
#34

Happy Friday!

Grammar: N2 - 44/213 (20%)
Vocab: N5 - 1078/1100 (98%)
Kanji: 420/2300 (18%)

Reading: Finished my graded reader; started another one but there was too much unknown entomology vocab. All NHK Easy News articles for the month of October to date.

Listening: Podcasts, Comprehensible Japanese videos

Output: Nothing

I’m currently on track to finish N5 vocab on Monday. The plan is to jump right into N4 vocab afterwards and finish that deck by the end of February. I also did some flipping through my copy of KKLC, and based on where the book opens easily to, and which kanji look familiar, I believe I left off at #724, so I’m on track to catch up there by the end of the year, too.

I’ve also been keeping up with all of the daily NHK Easy News articles so far this month. I think I’m going to turn it into a month-long challenge to myself to keep it up.

3 Likes
#35

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, to all the Canadians and Canadian residents on Bunpro!

Grammar: N2 - 49/213 (23%)
Vocab: N4 - 169/1100 (16%)
Kanji: 460/2300 (20%)

Reading: I’ve read up to the articles for October 8th in NHK Easy News.

Listening: Comprehensible Japanese videos. I’m up to 39/54 in the “Complete Beginner” playlist.

Output: Posted 2 moments to HelloTalk

I’ve had a very productive week: I finished N5 vocab on Monday and moved on to N4. Current ETA for that deck is mid-february. I’m only one day behind NHK Easy News for the month, but I’m pretty sure I can catch up. Finally, I was able to find the time to write a couple of moments to post to HelloTalk. (Although I think my main problem is finding things to talk about rather than time to write what is essentially a tweet.)

I’ve also gone and pulled out the N5 vocab list from Bunpro, uploaded it all to a deck in JPDB, and marked them all as “never forget” since I’ll be SRSing the words here. I’d like to do this with each deck as I finish them to make it easier to find new material by known words % in the future and to not duplicate effort.

4 Likes
#36

Happy Friday!

Grammar: N2 - 54/213 (25%)
Vocab: N4 - 261/1100 (23%)
Kanji: 484/2300 (21%)

Reading: I’ve read up to the articles for October 16th in NHK Easy News. Finally got back to Pokémon Special

Listening: Comprehensible Japanese videos. I’m up to 43/55 in the “Complete Beginner” playlist.

Output: Nothing

Another good week. I’ve been able to stay up-to-date with NHK Easy News and last night I found some time to finally keep going with Pokémon Special vol 1. I finished chapter 5 and got halfway through chapter 6. Having the deck page open here and pokejisho open in another tab have been a lifesaver. It’ll be a lot more annoying after I finish the volume and I have to start doing my own vocab lookups.

6 Likes
#37

Grammar: N2 - 60/213 (28%)
Vocab: N4 - 341/1100 (31%)
Kanji: 524/2300 (22%)

Reading: Still up-to-date with NHK Easy News. Working on chapter 9 of Pokémon Special volume 1

Listening: Comprehensible Japanese videos. I’m up to 47/56 in the “Complete Beginner” playlist.

Output: Nothing

Had another good week; especially for Kanji studying. I’m not sure if it’s the added reading or the cumulative effect of everything I’ve done since March, but I feel like I’m finally starting to see some progress instead of just playing catch-up.

5 Likes
#38

Happy Friday! Hope everyone had a good Halloween

No stats update this week. Things have really kicked into high gear with our house-selling. We had our realtor over for a meeting on Saturday, and then again yesterday with the stager to give us our final to-do list. She’ll be back in 2 weeks to put the final touches on things to get the place ready for photos. At first I was trying to just keep up with reviews without adding anything new, but I wasn’t even managing that. I’ve set myself to vacation mode as of yesterday. I can’t find a vacation mode in KanjiStudy, so I’ll keep up with that as much as I can, but for the most part I think I’ll have to set Japanese aside until the move is dealt with.

3 Likes
#39

Hello again!

It’s been a crazy 6 weeks, but the house is finally on the market. Until it sells, I’ll have some free time again to do a bit of studying.

That said, I’m taking it slow at the moment. I did set things to vacation mode, but I haven’t been able to get through all my reviews since I started up again on wednesday. Not to mention that my success % is pretty low again. I’m going to try to do 50 reviews per day without adding any new cards, starting with vocab only, then adding in grammar as I get caught up.

Current backlog:
Grammar: 128
Vocab: 183
Kanji: 274

3 Likes
#40

Hello again!

With my move behind me (but a lot of unpacking still ahead of me), I’d like to slowly start up my studies again. I’ve got quite the backlog, so I’ve decided to slowly tackle it one deck/source at a time, in the following order:

BACKLOG:
Kanji: 1149 cards
Vocab: 1579 cards
Grammar: 457 cards

I’m going to start adding new cards at a reduced pace once the backlog of each deck is dealt with. I also can’t guarantee I’ll have more than 30 minutes a day, so wish me luck!

(Yes, I forgot to set vacation mode with all the chaos)

2 Likes
#41

Happy Friday!

It’s time for my weekly check-in. I made good progress working on the Kanji backlog this week.

BACKLOG:
Kanji: 526
Vocab: 1579
Grammar: 457

While unpacking, I discovered a Dutch textbook my mom gifted me 20ish years ago, and decided to get back into studying Dutch, too. It’s my heritage language - both my parents are native speakers, but they spoke English to us growing up. When in Canada, do as the Canadians do.

I wonder if I can find somewhere to start a Dutch study log.

Edit: You know what? I’m just going to add it here in a collapsed section.

Weekly Dutch study update:

Growing up, my grandparents spoke mostly Dutch, so when they came to Canada to watch us every summer, we did get some exposure to the language. We’d go to the Netherlands to visit them once every 4 years. I’d say I’m able to carry on basic conversations in a casual setting. My main goal is to identify and patch up holes in my knowledge and get to a B2/C1 level.

Resources:

  • Teach Yourself Dutch by Gerdi Quist & Dennis Strik (2003 edition) ← the one I got from my mom
  • Basic Dutch, a Grammar and Workbook, by Jenneke A. Oosterhoff (2nd Edition, c.2024)
  • Intermediate Dutch, a Grammar and Workbook, by Jenneke A. Oosterhoff (2nd Edition, c. May 2025)
  • Anki: I found a few decks, A0-A2, and B1-B2, but there are less than 3000 cards total, so I’ll likely have to build my own deck as I run across new words.

The plan is to go through them in parallel, a chapter of 1 and then a chapter of the other. Teach Yourself Dutch is more rounded, with listening and reading passages centered around a new topic each chapter. Basic Dutch/Intermediate Dutch are pure grammar. Both purport to finish at B2 level.

So far, I’ve breezed through chapter 1 on each, since the basic stuff is all review to me. I’m working on chapter 2 of Basic Dutch (on pronouns) and have done 2 of 6 exercises. Once I finish chapter 2 in Teach Yourself Dutch I’ll stop and start compiling that Anki deck.

#42

Hello again!

BACKLOG:
Kanji: 360 cards
Vocab: 1036 cards
Grammar: 457 cards

I think I’ve found myself a good rhythm for gradually working through the backlog. In the morning before work/during my commute I do 50 kanji cards and my Dutch vocab in Anki. After work/on the commute home I’ll do 100 Bunpro reviews. I’m doing it by JLPT level starting from N5, vocab first. Here’s the breakdown from that perspective:

N5: 373 vocab, 32 grammar
N4: 303 vocab, 139 grammar
N3: 86 vocab, 218 grammar
N2: 38 vocab, 60 grammar
N1: 52 vocab, 1 grammar

Weekly Dutch update:

I finished chapter 2 of both textbooks and added all the vocab lists from Basic Dutch to an anki deck, for a total of 669 cards. For now, about 60% seem to be words I already know, so I’m going through 20 new cards per day with liberal use of the “easy” button.

1 Like