Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

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koolawant
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby koolawant » Sat Sep 28, 2019 1:59 pm

OH MY GOSH

I haven't posted in so long I'm so sorry.

While I was gone I:

Graduated from University (yay)
Finished my study abroad in Japan
Returned home to the states for a few months
Returned to Japan a little over a month ago

So yes, I am back in Japan! Maybe for good this time??? I am working full time at a Japanese company and have to use Japanese for 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. It is HARD. I cried at work actually a few days ago haha. Adjusting to non-school life, being an adult, working my first big girl job, and culture shock for the third time has been....a journey to say the least. I expect I'm not going to start feeling comfortable for another year maybe...

But I'm doing my best and hanging in.

I signed up for the N2 (which I honestly should have gotten years ago) and that's in two months. I should be studying so much more but after work my brain is fried from the sheer amount of Japanese being dumped on me all day. :o

Sorry for this post being so all over the place.

Side question but my commute is about 40 minutes each way. I try to bring a book to read but it's way too crowded on the bus. Recently I was wondering if I should try an audiobook? I'm afraid I'll zone out and not listen to it though. Has anyone had good success with audiobooks?
6 x
: 6343 / 50000 50,000 pages read / Japanese

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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Sep 28, 2019 10:04 pm

koolawant wrote:Side question but my commute is about 40 minutes each way. I try to bring a book to read but it's way too crowded on the bus. Recently I was wondering if I should try an audiobook? I'm afraid I'll zone out and not listen to it though. Has anyone had good success with audiobooks?
Yes, but I have never listened to an audiobook while riding a bus crowded with speakers of another language. Not sure I could concentrate, but I think I could.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

koolawant
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Re: Koolawant's Japanese Log

Postby koolawant » Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:44 am

It's been a really long time since I posted!! Originally I had planned to read 50,000 pages (after being inspired by the german leaner who read this many pages) by 2022. But then my Japanese study fell wayyyyyy by the wayside.

I'm still living and working and Japan, but I have not had active focused "study" for a really long time. A few weeks ago I decided to change that and get serious again. I don't want to have great Japanese, I want to have exceptional Japanese.

Since my last post I have attempted and passed N2, and attempted and failed N1. I will be retaking N1 in July of 2022, and I *will* pass this time, I'll make sure of it.

In the meantime, I have been throwing myself into input. Suddenly I woke up one day and my brain said "you can do anything you want in Japanese, you're more than capable." So I started reading and watching in Japanese more than I do English. In the last two/three weeks alone I think I have listened to over 30 hours in native content and read over 200 pages. I haven't had a sudden jump in comprehension like this since the bridge from N4 to N3 well over 5 years ago so you can imagine my surprise.

I'm not really focused on counting listening, speaking, anki, etc. hours. I just want to keep track of the book pages I'm reading here until I get to 50,000 pages. I won't set a deadline this time, but I intend on being serious. I will update sporadically as I finish books and update on my vocab and (double fingers crossed) my grammar fixing itself through massive input.

Just in case anyone is wondering I do a mix between intensive and extensive (although usually more intensive) depending on the day. I also use reading to mine vocab and put whatever I think is useful into anki to review.

I'll add;

クララとお日様 433 pages
長靴下のピッピ 233 pages

...to my counter. They were the only books I read this year so far in Japanese :oops: But I did read a lot of books in English this year!

Currently I am reading 海辺のカフカ(上巻)274/486 pages

I am enjoying the story and the plot is interesting so far. But I find Murakami to be a bit of a pervert. I'm not prude but I don't appreciate it in his work because it doesn't seem to advance the plot at all. He just writes it because he can :lol: this might be the last I read from him for a while.
7 x
: 6343 / 50000 50,000 pages read / Japanese

koolawant
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby koolawant » Sat Dec 04, 2021 1:16 pm

November is finished! I can't believe it's already december and 2021 is soon to be over. Honestly I was on a roll reading this month and then got bogged down by "the long winter". It's so boring and the pacing is so slow that I was avoiding reading it all month and every time I did sit down to read it I would stop 10 pages in. The author wrote a nearly 500page book that should have been 200 or so max. Ugh. I hate to do it but I wound up DNF-ing it and will add the total pages in my counter.

In November I read:

海辺のカフカ(上巻);486/486 pages
長い冬;404/480 pages
Total; 890 pages

I think I will start writing the authors names too. I will aim to update at the end of the month and only add books I finish or DNF to the total to simplify things. I plan on finishing Kafka by the shore this month and reading short novels between 1-200 pages. I love big books but for my current level I think I should stick with novellas to keep things interesting and keep me reading. No promises though :lol:
3 x
: 6343 / 50000 50,000 pages read / Japanese

koolawant
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Posts: 89
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby koolawant » Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:40 am

Happy New Year! I had a slower reading month since it's the holidays and was overall busy with work. I do set a timer and make sure to read a minimum of 30 minutes a day but my read speed varies. Sometimes I can only get 10 pages read in that time :oops:

In progress;
海辺のカフカ(下巻)200/528

Finished;
木曜日にはココアを 211/211
かなしきデブ猫ちゃん 153/153

Total (to be added to counter); 364 pages

I'll add Kafka when the entire book is finished next month.
3 x
: 6343 / 50000 50,000 pages read / Japanese

kraemder
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby kraemder » Sun Jan 02, 2022 5:53 am

That's so cool that you are abroad living in Japan and working there. Do you use Japanese on your job? Have you taken an N1 mock test? I passed N2 and wanted to pass N1 also but I think I'm giving up and just learning other languages (since I don't live in Japan anyway). I feel like the N1 exam is more about academic Japanese than anything you'll see outside of school but maybe that's just me.
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golyplot
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Re: Koolawant's Leisure Stroll to N2

Postby golyplot » Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:04 pm

appelkoekje wrote:That's amazing! 日本での生活を楽しんでくださいね!


Are you really allowed to use -ne after kudasai like that? I thought ne was for statements, not commands.
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devilyoudont
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby devilyoudont » Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:19 am

golyplot wrote:Are you really allowed to use -ne after kudasai like that? I thought ne was for statements, not commands.
It's definitely ok to use after a command, japanese people do all the time. To my ear it softens it but I'm really not aware of grammatical rules around this.
2 x

koolawant
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Posts: 89
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby koolawant » Fri Jan 07, 2022 3:13 pm

kraemder wrote:That's so cool that you are abroad living in Japan and working there. Do you use Japanese on your job? Have you taken an N1 mock test? I passed N2 and wanted to pass N1 also but I think I'm giving up and just learning other languages (since I don't live in Japan anyway). I feel like the N1 exam is more about academic Japanese than anything you'll see outside of school but maybe that's just me.


Not at my current job I use english mostly but I'm switching careers in a few weeks and will most likely primarily use Japanese at the next place. I took the actual N1 exam. I think you need 100 pts to pass and I got 78 or so. Close enough to passing but I wouldn't be really proud of a 100/180 either. Even if I pass in july if I get a low score I'll probably retake until I get something I'm satisfied with. I think those living outside of Japanese have 0 need to learn N1 but as a person living here I'm going to go against the grain and say N1 has been the most helpful in my day to day life. I encounter N1 phrases, vocab, and grammar nearly everyday.

Are you really allowed to use -ne after kudasai like that? I thought ne was for statements, not commands.


You absolutely can use it like this but it also depends on who I'm talking to. Friends? Sure. People higher up on the ladder at work? Absolutely not.
4 x
: 6343 / 50000 50,000 pages read / Japanese

koolawant
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Posts: 89
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 2:04 am
Location: Japan
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Re: Koolawant's 素晴らしい Japanese Log

Postby koolawant » Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:47 pm

January update

I got a new book this month but I think my book spending is getting a little out of hand so I decided to read through what I already have. I almost finished kafka but as a woman I had to DNF the book. It was making me extremely uncomfortable to read, and I learned that all Murakami's books are more or less like this. A shame because he creates very interesting characters. I read "the dear god" this month (I purchased it like 2 years ago) and found out that a movie is coming out for it in a few days!

Someone thought I was reading it to watch the movie but I was on this train seemingly a long time ago :lol: . I liked the book at times but it's fantasy. It's a challenging genre to read in my native language never mind my second one. Sometimes I was breezing through pages, other times I was stuck on descriptions of the world/the world politics/ culture of the people etc etc. There are 3 more books in the series. I mayyyyy get around to reading them.

Finished;
海辺のカフカ(下巻)314/528 pages
コンビニ人間 168/168 pages
鹿の王 277/277 pages

Total (to be added to counter); 759 pages
4 x
: 6343 / 50000 50,000 pages read / Japanese


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