Aozora's 2018 Log for Japanese and French

[Aozora]

Japanese
Everything's going well. I'm on page 185 of Boogiepop vol 5. Since I'm doing the 90 Day Challenge for both Japanese and French, I've been reading Japanese on Lingq. There's plenty of challenging texts, and I've been reading non-fiction there to get a little variety from my usual light novel reading. I also came across this playlist that has tons of audiobooks and audio dramas: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... oGAydJyuc-
Yesterday and today, I did some vocabulary study from the Boogiepop novels. I figure even if I don't keep up with reviews, even a little repetition and study will benefit me.


French
I've been doing all my French on LingQ, keeping up with the daily requirements. I do feel I'm improving with reading. Texts that have a lot of new words are mostly comprehensible after I look up the unknowns. The funny thing with language learning is, even though I know reading a lot will help me, if the texts feel too difficult, I end up avoiding it. Once reading becomes easier, I can keep going with it. When I finished my year of French in university, I thought I'd try reading a bunch, but it was just way too hard. Everything was too hard, even passages in my textbook. So I put off learning French for a long time. Last year I picked French up again for a little while and made enough progress that I could read easier texts and now I'm picking up where I left off.

[Aozora]

The bookshop I usually order from didn't have Boogiepop volume 6, so I was checking what I could buy on Amazon Japan... I ordered volume 6, a couple of manga, and by mistake I ordered Boogiepop volume 8 without it's direct sequel volume 9 D: Volume 7 wasn't available at all, so I decided to skip over it.

Edit: I fixed my order and added volume 9


I have a pretty hard time finding titles to read. In the past I'd buy manga and novels if I liked the cover art, but after getting stuck with a number of subpar titles, I've taken to reading reviews, looking up scans, etc. It's still so hard to find things I would like. Learning Japanese means I can read things that haven't been released in the west, but I don't have a great way of sorting through things. If anyone has any recommendations, that would be great (with a blerb about why you liked the book).

[Aozora]

Japanese
I've reached 10/100 books read for the Super Challenge! I'm trying to reach 1000 pages read this month, for Tadoku. That would be 1/5 of the entire Super Challenge. I read a volume of manga, some more of Boogiepop vol 5 (still not quite done), and I've been reading more on LingQ. I watched some anime over the weekend and I've been watching this Let's Play of Xenosaga: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... UaI2yP_zjN I've also reached 10 films for the Super Challenge, but that's easy for me to do in Japanese.

I'm definitely thinking more in Japanese since I've been reading more. This effect comes and goes depending on how much input I get.


French
I'm still hacking away at French with LingQ. A bit slower as I'm trying to get more done for my Japanese Tadoku reading. I'm having a hard time getting watching or listening in because it's just not comprehensible yet. I put some audio on and proceed to tune out and have my own thoughts.

[brilliantyears]

I have a pretty hard time finding titles to read. In the past I'd buy manga and novels if I liked the cover art, but after getting stuck with a number of subpar titles, I've taken to reading reviews, looking up scans, etc. It's still so hard to find things I would like. Learning Japanese means I can read things that haven't been released in the west, but I don't have a great way of sorting through things. If anyone has any recommendations, that would be great (with a blerb about why you liked the book).

I have the same problem! I tend to stick with short story collections so I don't get bored, i.e.:
20の短編小説 (all different authors)
本からはじまる物語 (haven't started this one yet)
気まぐれロボット (extremely easy and the stories are extremely short, but it was a fun read)

I'm not sure if you've already picked up this series, but I really liked this one in particular:
Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers

And I like Haruki Murakami's shorter (untranslated) works.

[Aozora]

Japanese

I finally finished Boogiepop volume 5! It was interesting, but the point of view changed around constantly, and at times I had trouble telling what was going on (both due to not understanding the text, and due to the bizarre plot). I've picked up a book from the library to try next, it's called 三毛猫ホームズは階段を上る. I didn't reach my goal of 1000 pages for tadoku, but I got closer than usually, almost 700 pages. I also found a few documentaries about manga artists on youtube, the show is called Manben. It's pretty neat to see how the artists work.

I have the same problem! I tend to stick with short story collections so I don't get bored, i.e.:
20の短編小説 (all different authors)
本からはじまる物語 (haven't started this one yet)
気まぐれロボット (extremely easy and the stories are extremely short, but it was a fun read)

I'm not sure if you've already picked up this series, but I really liked this one in particular:
Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers

And I like Haruki Murakami's shorter (untranslated) works.

Thanks for the recommendations! I have Read Real Japanese Essays, but not the short stories one. I'm a little iffy on reading Murakami since I tried Colorless Tsukuru; it was extremely boring and all exposition.

[dustinmacdonald]

Aozora! I think you and I know each other from another community, I hope you've been well. I'm A2 in French right now, and working on the Super Challenge too. What level would you say your French is? I'm solidly stuck in A2, mostly because of harder grammar points I think. And not sure how to move from A2 to B1.

I've heard many people gush about LingQ, so I may decide to subscribe if it really is the advantage to your reading skills people say it is.

[Aozora]

Aozora! I think you and I know each other from another community, I hope you've been well. I'm A2 in French right now, and working on the Super Challenge too. What level would you say your French is? I'm solidly stuck in A2, mostly because of harder grammar points I think. And not sure how to move from A2 to B1.

I've heard many people gush about LingQ, so I may decide to subscribe if it really is the advantage to your reading skills people say it is.

Hi! It may be another person you are thinking of, this is the only site I'm active on as Aozora. My French level is only passive right now. I don't feel comfortable producing anything, though I've done grammar exercises and I did speaking/writing a few years ago in French 101/102. I can read texts around this level:

Cela peut sembler évident, mais pour devenir polyglotte vous devez vouloir communiquer dans une autre langue. Les gens qui réussissent à apprendre une autre langue ont un but en tête : connaître d’autres gens et leur culture, pas simplement apprendre une nouvelle langue. Ce n’est que lorsque j’ai été motivé pour me mettre en contact avec une nouvelle culture et de nouvelles personnes que j’ai pris le chemin de devenir polyglotte. Tous ceux qui apprennent des langues ne sont pas motivés pour utiliser la langue qu’ils apprennent.

French 102 left me at a level where this would be incomprehensible and since then I've used grammar books, Memrise, and LingQ.

Ah, ha ha, I don't really mean to rave about LingQ but I am using it and it's kind of a one stop shop for my French at the moment. The site is kind of clunky and I don't love paying learning resources, but there are so many helpful features (including importing whatever text you want).

[brilliantyears]

Thanks for the recommendations! I have Read Real Japanese Essays, but not the short stories one. I'm a little iffy on reading Murakami since I tried Colorless Tsukuru; it was extremely boring and all exposition.

Colorless Tsukuru is extremely boring Instead, for something fairly low level I'd recommend:
- ふしぎな図書間
- 羊男のクリスマス (a Christmas story)

Higher level:
- 海辺のカフカ
- ねじまき鳥クロニクル (a 1200 page monstrosity but very good)

[Aozora]

Japanese
I've been watching a bunch of stuff, and I recently binge watched a let's play of Detroit: Become Human. The Super Challenge bot was just updated and I realized, I hadn't properly registered for Japanese (I mistakenly hash-tagged both French and Japanese in my registration post, instead of making two separate registration posts). So all my updates for Japanese were showing on the website, but not actually updating for the current round. I tried to round up my posts and resubmit everything.


French
I feel like I've made a breakthrough with my French reading! I found some short stories I wanted to read and uploaded them to LingQ, and even though each story had tons of new words, more than I could usually manage, I could just keep reading and reading. I think it was a combination of really wanting the read the stories, and the fact that they were modern fiction as opposed to random articles, folk tales, podcasts, etc that I've been reading up until now. I much prefer modern fiction to non-fiction or older literature. Words and phrases repeat quite a bit, so I'm learning a lot, at least, as long as I keep reading similar stuff.

[Aozora]

It's been a while since I updated, not sure what happened. I've been reading some articles on the AJATT website while on the bus, waiting in lines, etc, and I've been inspired to get some more immersion in my daily life. At least, I want to have French or Japanese audio going on in the background whenever possible. I'm looking for an online Japanese radio that will play continuously, if anyone knows one. Currently I've only found a site which lets you listen to one radio program at a time, which might be 10 minutes, 30 minutes, so it's not continuous.

Japanese
I've been reading a webnovel from syosetu.com on Lingq since my last update. I hit a snag with a boring chapter, so I'm dragging my feet about returning to it or just picking something else to read. I listened to a bunch of miscellaneous audio yesterday, as part of my semi-ajatt.

French
I've been listening to a lot of French radio for passive listening. Since my last update, I ran out of engaging stories to read, I'll have to search for more. I have been reading and listening to InnerFrench's podcasts; I find it's a great level for me right now. I feel like it will really help my listening skills because I can more or less understand just by listening, which can't be said of most other audio sources.