Polishing off 2 years of rust (Study log)

Japanese
#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.

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#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.

3 Likes
#43

Happy Friday!

BACKLOG:
Kanji: Caught up! Up to #536
Vocab: 681 cards
Grammar: 426 cards

I got caught up on my kanji cards and started adding back in 2 new kanji per day. I’ve also finished my overdue N5 cards on Bunpro, so I’ll be able to start whittling away at N4 tomorrow. By my count I’m just shy of halfway through my Bunpro backlog. I think when I get caught up, I’ll hold off on new grammar to let what I learned already to solidify while I focus on Kanji and vocab.

Writing the JLPT isn’t in the cards for me this year, but once my backlog is done, I’d like to start on N3 test prep materials with a view of writing a practice test in December instead to judge my readiness to move on to N2.

N5: Caught up!
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 3 of Basic Dutch

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#44

BACKLOG:
Kanji: Up to #538
Vocab: 621 cards
Grammar: 433 cards

Got busy dealing with a sick toddler (which he generously shared), so didn’t get much done last week, so not much progress compared to last update. I’ve given up splitting up dealing with the backlog by JLPT level. I’ve just set the study batch to 100 per session, and I’m choosing to just review vocab.

Weekly Dutch update:
Nothing for the past few days

4 Likes
#45

Happy Friday!

PROGRESS
Kanji: Up to #548(+10)
Vocab: Caught up!

BACKLOG:
Grammar: 393 cards (-40)

I powered through and finished my vocab backlog on Tuesday! I started chipping away at Grammar on Thursday. I’m taking that slowly, just 20 grammar cards per day, in order of descending SRS level. My thought is that at first, this would be stuff I’m least likely to have forgotten, so I can get a bunch of correct answers under my belt and get the easy cards done and out of the way while I wait for my vocab review count to decrease. At this rate, it’ll take around 3-4 weeks to have seen each card in the grammar backlog once.

I’ve also gotten back into listening to podcasts. I’ve added everything released by “Easy Japanese Podcast” to my playlist and just letting it autoplay during my commute. I’ve chosen it mainly because it claims to be N3 level. Right now, my comprehension is only at about 60%, but that will improve by the time I get caught up. (Fun bit of math: playlist duration is currently 154:28:58. With a 45-minute train ride each way, it’ll take me approximately 42 days to get through everything, if I listen every day I’m in the office)

Weekly Dutch update:
Nothing

4 Likes
#46

Happy Friday!

PROGRESS:
Kanji: Up to #562 (+14)
Vocab: Caught up!

BACKLOG:
Grammar: 255 cards (-138)

Making good progress on the Grammar backlog. I’m hoping that two more weeks should do it. That said, I’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks, doing day trips with my toddler, so we’ll see how the disruption in routine affects things.

Weekly Dutch update:
I got started on chapter 3 of Complete Dutch

4 Likes
#47

Hey, just a quick stats update this week. Still on vacation next week hanging with my little dude.

Progress
KKLC: 570 (+8)

Backlog
Grammar: 70 (-185)

2 Likes
#48

Another drive-by update today.

Kanji
KKLC: 574 (+4)

Backlog
Powered through this week and got caught up on Thursday!

2 Likes
#49

I’m back from vacation, so now it’s finally time for a proper update.

Vocab: N4 - 446/1100 (42%)
Kanji: 596/2300 (26%)

So, now that I’ve finally caught up (it only took 2.5 months) it’s time to start making progress again.
Right now, I feel that being behind on vocab is my biggest hurdle, so my goal is to get it back up to where it was before my 2-year gap. To that end, I’m going through 20 new vocab items per day with a goal of finishing both the N4 and N3 deck by the end of the year. I also hope to be close to the halfway point in KKLC by then at a rate of 4 kanji per day. I’m going to let grammar marinade in the meantime.

Once I finish the N3 deck, I’ll take a JLPT N3 practice test and decide where to go from there.

Reading: I’ve been reading a couple of N4-rated articles per day on Todaii. So far I’ve been acing the comprehension questions, and even posted a translation or two. I’m working on digging out my copies of Yotsubato and Pokémon Special from wherever they’re packed to take with me on the train to work.

Listening: Nothing

Output: Nothing

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#50

Vocab: N4 - 654/1100 (59%)
Kanji: 620/2300 (27%)

Not much going on, but I wanted to update my stats anyway so that I can look back at them later.
Managed to find the box my manga was packed away in, so it’s in my work bag waiting for my next in-office day tomorrow.

1 Like
#51

Vocab: N4 - 762/1100 (59%)
Kanji: 632/2300 (27%)

Got back to working through the Comprehensible Japanese playlist, read about 6 articles on Todaii, this week. I also snagged Migii lifetime during their JLPT-Results sale, so I think that settles when I’m going to do once I finish the N3 content on Bunpro.

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