1.5 Year UpdateAs usual, motivation ebbs and wanes, even as my progress continues, however imperceptibly. A month or two ago, I was very excited by my progress, but recently I've been struggling with lack of motivation again.
Anyway, my main activity has been
podcasts, as it's been for most of the year. I listen to Japanese podcasts in the background whenever I can (cooking, eating, going for walks, etc.) I'm rarely focused on it or paying much attention, but I figure it still helps. Last month, I tried estimating the time spent listening to podcasts, and I got an estimate of
over two and a half hours on average
per day which was much higher than I expected.
Apart from that, I resubscribed to Wanikani and have been doing that again to try to refresh my memory of all the words and kanji I learned last year then forgot. You can follow my WK progress
here, but the gist is that I've been spending over half an hour per day most days doing WK reviews as well. Unfortunately, I'm still just trying to whittle down the review backlog there.
Also, a few months ago, I started going to a weekly Japanese practice chat. I can still barely speak Japanese, but I figure it's better than nothing. After all, the only way to get better at speaking is to ultimately try actually speaking it. However, I'm usually not brave and/or skilled enough to actually try saying anything.
As for anime, it's a bit ironic, but a few weeks ago I gave up and switched to mostly watching anime with English subtitles. It's ironic that I'd start watching anime with subtitles now, when my Japanese skills are theoretically better than ever. But I got frustrated with watching Japanese without subtitles in hopes of improving my skills and realized I was still missing most of it anyway. Plus knowing what they're actually saying can help me occasionally catch words I wouldn't recognize otherwise.
JLPTSince I just reached the 1.5 year mark, I decided to take the same JLPT 4 practice test
I took six months ago to see how much I've improved (or gotten worse).
When I took this test at the one year mark, my scores were
Vocabulary: 28/34
Reading and Grammar: 17/35
* Grammar: 11/25
* Reading: 6/10
Listening: 22/28
* Task-based comprehension: 7/8
* Point-based comprehension: 7/7
* Utterance expressions: 3/5
* Quick response: 5/8
Today, my scores were
Vocabulary:
27/34
Reading and Grammar:
22/35
* Grammar:
16/25
* Reading: 6/10
Listening: 22/28
* Task-based comprehension:
6/8
* Point-based comprehension: 7/7
* Utterance expressions: 3/5
* Quick response:
6/8
Overall, my scores were remarkably similar to six months ago, which was pretty disappointing. I scored 1 less on Vocab and 5 more on Grammar. I guess that's still a big improvement since grammar is easily my weakest section on these tests (even today, taking the grammar/reading section was basically torture). Listening was a wash with me scoring 1 more on Quick Response and 1 less on Task-based Comprehension.
One thing I'm puzzled by is how remarkably stable the scores are. For example, it appears that I got the exact same questions right and wrong on the reading section both times. I'm not sure why. Likewise, I don't have my original answers, but I strongly suspect that I got the exact same questions right and wrong under Utterance Expressions as well. I suppose it makes sense, if the same question tricked me the same way both times, but it's disappointing to see that I didn't progress on anything except grammar.
AnimeInstead of providing a list of the anime I watched recently, I decided to instead rate all the anime I've watched in the last year and a half in case anyone is looking for recommendations:
Liked:K-On!
Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
Bofuri
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun
Drifting Dragons
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
Neutral:Violet Evergarden
Aggretsuko
Hunter x Hunter
Love, Chunnibyou and Other Delusions
Toradora
Disliked:Cardcaptor Sakura
Cannon Busters
BNA: Brand New Animal
Sword Art Online
One Piece
Beastars
Teasing Master Tagisan
Hated:Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
One Punch Man