Nantoka Journal - French, Japanese and Surprise Guests

[NantokaHito]

Welcome to my log for (mainly) French and Japanese! This is vaguely a Super Challenge '24-25 log, but not limited to one.

Background

French: I studied French in high school for a year, however many years ago, and after a lot of false starts in-between, I started studying it more seriously last year. My level now is (probably) a solid intermediate; I've never tested it and have no plans to. I read native fiction and watch YouTube videos targeted at natives, but don't have perfect comprehension and I have a hard time still with things like movies and television shows. It's a regular part of my daily life and entertainment at this point.

Japanese: I took one semester of college level Japanese a few years ago now, took a bit of a break, and started studying it regularly with French early last year. I'm currently working (struggling) through an intermediate textbook and working my way up to reading native fiction. I've read a few volumes of manga, and I'm currently rereading a graded reader of folktales.

Goals: My super challenge goal for French is to just up my comprehension to the point where I'm comfortable picking up any kind of content. I don't use the language to communicate, but over the long term I would like to use it to write essays eventually.

For Japanese my SC goal is to read my first book targeted at natives. I'm not sure if this is an ambitious goal or a low bar, but for now I remain frustrated by my attempts at reading native fiction! Besides that I'd also like to up my oral comprehension to about the level my French is. Right now I'm more miss than hit when it comes to listening, and at least for French a big barrier was just vocabulary.

My next post I plan to include learning materials and content of note, to be updated throughout the challenge.

Thanks to those who've made it this far!

[NantokaHito]

Currently Enjoying

French
Reading: Les Rois Maudits (Tome I)
Watching: YouTube documentaries and true crime

Japanese
Learning from: Quartet I
Reading: Japanese Folktales for Language Learners, Chi's Sweet Home
Watching: Bite Sized Japanese Podcast

updated: 26/05/24

[NantokaHito]

Learning Materials

French
Easy French Step by Step - this is the resource I used to get back into French after many years of not using it, and I highly recommend it. By the end of it I was ready to tackle some easier native media, most notably Le Petit Nicolas series.

Japanese
Genki I/II - I highly recommend anyone looking for beginners materials in Japanese to follow these textbooks. By the end I was able to read manga with a dictionary in hand.

Quartet I - I'm currently making my way through the first volume of the Genki intermediate follow-up series. The transition for reading is smooth, but I find their listening exercises a bit frustrating. They take a lot of concentration, but with some determination they're doable. I highly recommend this as well and am looking forward to moving on to the second volume.

Input of Note
Here is a list of books and audio-based material I recommend. I'll use a five star difficulty rating for how difficult I perceive the content to be, * being easier, ***** being more difficult.

I'd like to categorize certain content for other's ease of reference.
Legend:
D - documentary
M - manga
NF - non-fiction
TC - true crime
!! - highly recommended!!

French Books
01. Le Petit Nicolas by Sempé-Goscinny*
02. Une Vie by Maupassant ***
03. En Famille by Malot **

French Audio
01. Inner French, Podcast (*, !!)
02. Easy French, Podcast (*, !!)
03. McSkyz, YouTube (TC, **)

Japanese Books
01. Japanese Folktales for Language Learners (**, !!)
02. Chi's Sweet Home (M, *)

Japanese Audio
01. Bite Sized Japanese, YouTube **
02. Japanese with Shun, Podcast *
03. Japanese Shower Listening, YouTube *

Check back later for more recommendations!

[NantokaHito]

Super Challenge Stats:
These are totals since the start of the challenge, so for the past three weeks.

Total Japanese listening: 480/9000 minutes
5.3 percent: 480 / 9000
Total Japanese reading: 107/5000 pages
2.14 percent: 107 / 5000

Total French listening: 520/9000 minutes
5.78 percent: 520 / 9000
Total French reading: 219/5000 pages
4.38 percent: 219 / 5000

Japanese

My Japanese reading consisted of a mixture of four main sources:

1. A couple volumes of Chi's Sweet Home, which I count at 10 pages = 1 challenge page, rather than the normal 5:1 ratio, as the text is quite sparse. It's a very sweet and heartwarming story that uses some pretty basic language.

2. A few stories from Japanese Folktales for Language Learners. This is my second read-through and I'm really pleased with how smooth the experience is. I'm able to read and understand the stories very fluidly, and it's a great feeling.

3. About fifteen pages from A Japanese Reader by Roy Andrew Miller. I made it through the "elementary" section, which featured some collections of sentences meant to help with some grammar points and introducing important vocabulary. Some of the later ones used very formal language I'm not used to, but the next lesson was usually the same material rewritten at a less formal register, which was a pleasant surprise. The last sections also became some kind of conversation between two former soldiers, talking about their experiences in "the war". I was really surprised when one of them started talking about killing in China, to say the least! The next section begins some excerpts and essays from native materials, and I'm very much looking forward to it. I mean to add this book to my list of recommended resources when I organize myself enough to do it.

4. The first three chapters of くまクマ熊ベアー. A lot of unfamiliar vocabulary, but that's pretty much the only barrier. This is a free web novel that I'm reading on my phone, so the lookups are pretty easy with a pop-up dictionary. The story isn't something I'd read in English, I think, but the novelty of reading Japanese is still high enough that I can still enjoy it very easily.

Listening is harder to track for me, because I listen to a lot of varied things, but it was probably mostly a mixture of:

1. Bite Sized Japanese, one of my favorite sources right now. The host explains things so well, and she's just a pleasure to listen to.

2. Nihongo con Teppei for beginners. I like this podcast because it's very comprehensible for me. Sometimes it feels too easy, but sometimes I need that kind of material for a confidence boost.

3. Japanese with Shun. This podcast is all over the place for me. Sometimes I understand it perfectly, other times it makes me question if I ever knew any Japanese in the first place.

French

All of my French reading was dedicated to finishing up Hector Malot's En Famille, which I loved. I had already seen the anime, Perrine Monogatari, part of the World Masterpiece Theater, and I was surprised by their differences. The anime didn't exactly shy away from Perrine's struggles, but they did make the series more upbeat by adding a dog character (I was upset he wasn't in the book!!) and delaying some of the more depressing events.

Like Japanese, I'm not exactly sure what constituted all of my French listening. The usual true crime McSkyz, and Sonya Lwu, to be sure. I also watched some really good documentary videos. The first was from the channel Reportages et Investigations about pollution in commercial fish products. It was very eye-opening and depressing. I had been trying to get more fish in my diet, but with how contaminated they've become I'm rethinking that in a big way. The other video I wanted to highlight was from Notre Histoire, about the real world roots of the French Arthurian legends. I really enjoyed it and plan on watching more of the series.

Going forward this week I'm continuing with Quartet, of which I'm starting chapter four, and keeping on with my current reading materials. No plans to change it up for now.

In French I already started my next book, Le Roi de Fer, and I'm very excited! It's a perfect fit for my level, and so far is a great read. This series is supposed to have inspired Game of Thrones, which I loved up until Feast for Crows. I'm also expecting some books in the mail today; three nonfictions, as I don't have much experience with that, about French history, dinosaurs, and women in society. Super excited to add that to my daily reading!

[NantokaHito]

I believe this was my first full week keeping track of the super challenge. I finally cracked into French commentary YouTube, which I'm excited to explore more of, and continue to plug away at Japanese.

Current stats:

Total Japanese listening: 631/9000 minutes
7 percent: 631 / 9000 +151 minutes
Total Japanese reading: 158/5000 pages
3.2 percent: 158 / 5000 +51 pages

Total French listening: 840/9000 minutes
9.4 percent: 840 / 9000 +322 minutes
Total French reading: 314/5000 pages
6.3 percent: 314 / 5000 +94 pages

Japanese

I'm a little insecure about my Japanese reading total. About half of it is Chi's Sweet Home, which doesn't feel like it should count for much. I continue to use my conversion of 10:1 because of the sparse text. The rest of my reading this week is made up of the Japanese Folktale reader I'm rereading, and Miller's A Japanese Reader, whose articles I read about three times (and probably more to come). The first time can feel a bit arduous, but I'm always pleasantly surprised the second time how much easier it is. The articles are wonderful, I have to say. The first one was about the traditions and culture behind the Japanese Blue Flag and Sweet Flag Irises, one of which is beautiful, and one of which just smells beautiful but features in some old traditions and festivals. The next two were newspaper style stories about some 紙芝居屋 that raised money to donate to others less fortunate. 紙芝居 is an old Japanese street profession, now out of practice thanks to the TV from what I understand, which was basically a moving picture show. All that to say, I think the articles are beautifully selected, and a great opportunity to learn some things I otherwise wouldn't.

When it comes to listening, I've just been focused on Bite Sized Japanese. I'm struggling through some beginner's plateau. I'm finding it very difficult to find the sweet spot of "just difficult enough", and a lot of my go-to content varies between too easy, just right, and "do I even understand this language". I have been appreciating some lower level content as a way to keep my spirits up. I find when I challenge myself too often I get very discouraged and frustrated. Low level content is a great way to remind myself of all the progress I'm making.

French

Clearly the bulk of my time has gone to watching French content! What did I even watch?? I know I cracked into French commentary YouTube, so some of it is that, but I didn't think it was that much.

For reading most of it was Le Roi de Fer, with some guest appearances for a few pages of Une histoire populaire de la France, which I'm enjoying and hope to spend more time with this week. I've been struggling lately with focus and motivation, so reading in both of my languages has been a bit neglected.

For the week coming up I'm debating focusing on reading, and then alternating the next week with focusing on listening. Has anyone tried this? Especially people with issues focusing, I'm curious how your experience was. I'm optimistic that it will help with choice fatigue, and staying on track.