Japanese Language Log

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genini1
Yellow Belt
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:21 am
Languages: English (N), Japanese
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Sun Apr 11, 2021 12:25 pm

Spring is finally in the air where I live and it's been bringing back my desire to learn more. Something about the season change makes me more active in general and being able to leave the windows open makes me more energetic. There's a lake just a short walk from my apartment and I've been going for a walk around it every day while listening to Japanese. Generally I've been listening to JapanesePod101 (my subscription actually runs out soon) or watching some tv shows. Specifically I've been watching Teasing Master Takagi-San after seeing it recommended by a Japanese channel for learners and it's pretty excellent for learning. The actually show is just slice of life fluff, but it's entertaining enough and the Japanese is at a level where I could watch it basically straight through without needing to reference English subs. Occasionally I did because they would reference something cultural which I couldn't understand, but still it's progress.

For reading I put Re:Zero on pause again and picked up Yotsuba to reread. It's still pretty good even the second time through and it's still making me laugh.
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genini1
Yellow Belt
Posts: 93
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Languages: English (N), Japanese
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Mon May 03, 2021 10:05 pm

It's been a few weeks since I've posted mostly because I've just been chugging along without much changing. Mostly I've been reading Ascendance of a Bookworm and I jus finished Volume 7 (which is the last one in part 2) the other day. That will probably be the last one that I read as the series has kind of diverged from what I expected when starting. The first volumes were about trying to create paper and other modern day things in medieval Europe (well an analogue of Europe) and then more and more magic was added until the last volume was more about magic and deus ex machina than actual craft. It's still not bad, but I'm going to pause in the series for now. Instead I started reading Amagi Brilliant Park which is just a fun light novel about running a magical amusement park.
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genini1
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Posts: 93
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:40 pm

I've had some problems with posting so I've been away for a bit. Specifically when on mobile I'd type out a post and then when I hit submit it would ask me to log in and then delete the post. It happened a few times and I didn't think to copy the post before hand and didn't feel like retyping it out so I just went without for awhile.

However I've still been continuing my studies. I spend an hour a day on reading whichever light novels I'm interested in at the time. Depending on the novel it might take me a week or three to finish it though. I finished the first volume of Amagi Brilliant Park in about a week whereas the first volume of Overlord I still haven't finished despite having probably spent about 3 weeks on it over the time I've had it. Currently I'm reading 'That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime' and am about halfway through the first novel. It's pretty good overall and while I'd rate it as harder than Ascendance of a Bookworm or Amagi Brilliant Park it's definitely far easier than Overlord.

For listening I've resigned up for Japanese Pod 101 and have been listening to some of their podcasts while I drive or work out. They are pretty generically good as background listening once you get to the intermediate stage and up since they cut out most of the English at that point. I also sporadically watch TV either anime or regular television shows on netflix. My listening is still my weakest skill so I can't just sit down and watch a show, but some of the simpler ones I can mostly make it through.

Lastly I've been trying to do some additional vocabulary drills each day by learning 20 new words through Iknow. I find it easier to add to my vocabulary this way and words I find in other places I may look up and try to learn, but I don't really drill them.
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dampingwire
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Languages: Italian (N), English (N), French (poor, not studying), Japanese (studying, JLPT N3)
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby dampingwire » Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:51 pm

genini1 wrote:For listening I've resigned up for Japanese Pod 101 and have been listening to some of their podcasts while I drive or work out. They are pretty generically good as background listening once you get to the intermediate stage and up since they cut out most of the English at that point.


I edited the Advanced series that I had and cut out all the English. I left the into music (to give me a signal that I was moving from one lesson to the other) but the 英語 is no more!
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新完全マスター N2聴解 : 94 / 103新完全マスター N2読解 : 99 / 177
新完全マスター N2文法 : 197 / 197TY Comp. German : 0 / 389

genini1
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Languages: English (N), Japanese
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Wed Jun 30, 2021 8:48 pm

I'm still trudging along. Recently I watched My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! ( 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグしかない悪役令嬢に転生してしまった) which only had a single season and was one of the most generic isekai I've ever seen except it's a female protagonist who is the most mary sue character I've ever seen who is supposed to not be a mary sue. I'm not sure why, but I actually enjoyed the anime and started to read the light novels. One good thing about the novel/anime is that it's very beginner friendly. It's probably of the best anime/novels for a beginner. In particular it probably has the most formal Japanese of anything I've seen/read so far and since most people start by learning that formal Japanese it's a good place to start. Just don't go into the situation expecting Full Metal Alchemist or Re:Zero.

Otherwise there's not much to update. I'm preparing to move and had some other things happen which are putting demands on my time so I've cut back on Japanese, but I always get an hour of reading in every day at least and I try to listen to Jpod whenever I'm driving or working out.
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genini1
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Sun Jul 11, 2021 2:50 pm

It's now been a year since I restarted learning Japanese (mid-july 2020) and I'll prepare a one year post to try and put everything together sometime this week. In some ways it has been a great success and in others a failure, but overall I'm farther than I was even if I'm not as far as I wanted to be.

I got through the first two volumes of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! which were pretty okay really. Everything being so formal made looking up grammar patterns and words much easier which was nice. I will probably return to this series at some point, but for the moment I've switched again. This time I am reading Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (くまクマ熊ベアー) which is probably the easiest book I've read in Japanese. The story itself is just another generic person moved into a fantasy world and given overpowered abilities with the slight twist that all the overpoweredness comes from wearing a bear costume. It's not super interesting, but it is easy and it's kind of nice to finally be able to sit down and read large chunks of a book without looking up a word or grammar point.

There is also an anime that was released of it last year apparently so I'll probably watch that once I've finished the first volume or two of the light novel.
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genini1
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:59 pm

I finished Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Volume two today and I'm of two minds on the series. When it comes to language learning I'm a fan of it. The series has very simple grammar, about 95% of the vocabulary is found early on in frequency lists and the vocabulary that isn't is often specialized vocabulary that is repeated often (討伐 meaning to exterminate as in monster killing quests or 解体 meaning disassembly as in taking apart monsters) and the short almost unrelated chapters make it very easy to sort of breeze through. If someone was looking for a first book to read this would probably be on my short list as one to recommend.
However from an actual book perspective it's pretty bad. The chapters are short, there are essentially repeat chapters with only a pov switch, the main character has no actual motivation, problems are solved before they are even problems, and everyone is either cartoonishly evil or pure good. In the anime of the series the bad guy of the episode is literally rubbing his hands together while asking for more money after being accused of embezzlement it's that cartoony.
That being said the author seems to be getting better by the end of Volume 2 so I'll keep giving it a shot to see where it goes. Really I just like being able to pick up a book and read without having to look anything up so it really doesn't matter what the book is about.

That all being said I watched both Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear and Bofuri anime this week. Kuma was mediocre at best, but Bofuri was actually a fun watch. It won't win any awards, but it was a cute show with interesting characters who seemed more fully fleshed out than most of the other shows I've seen lately.
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genini1
Yellow Belt
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:21 am
Languages: English (N), Japanese
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:49 pm

I've mostly been reading light novels again and specifically Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear which I just finished volume 7 of. The writing got better towards the end of volume two and starting with volume 3 it was pretty solid. Volume seven will be the last one I read though at least for the moment. A lot of what the MC does is just repeated with no real variation. This is fine if it's adventuring, but after she opened the second restaurant and recreated the 5th pastry from her original world it just sort of drags on. Instead I'll be trying out some other light novels coming up. Right now I'm looking at Tearmoon Empire, Bofuri, I Swear I won't Bother You Again, and Cast out from the heroes party I started a slow life on the frontier. I'll download samples from amazon and probably flip between them. My abilities are still at the point where reading more complicated stories is not very enjoyable since it takes so much time and effort so I'll probably pick whichever one is easiest.
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PeterMollenburg
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:41 pm

Hi genini1,

I've had a brief scan through your log and I just wanted to say, well done for sticking it out this time. So many of us have had this problem over the years of stopping and starting and doing nothing for a lot of time in between, and many others have, as you've mentioned, started and just stopped altogether with language learning. While that doesn't make them bad people, it's great to see when someone is determined to persevere and actually succeeds in making significant progress in learning a language. Keep up the good work genini1! :)
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genini1
Yellow Belt
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:21 am
Languages: English (N), Japanese
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Re: Japanese Language Log

Postby genini1 » Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:57 am

PeterMollenburg wrote:Hi genini1,

I've had a brief scan through your log and I just wanted to say, well done for sticking it out this time. So many of us have had this problem over the years of stopping and starting and doing nothing for a lot of time in between, and many others have, as you've mentioned, started and just stopped altogether with language learning. While that doesn't make them bad people, it's great to see when someone is determined to persevere and actually succeeds in making significant progress in learning a language. Keep up the good work genini1! :)


Thanks, I appreciate the kind words! Its definitely been a struggle at times and even now I'm not as far as I'd like but im going to keep struggling on!
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