September is here!
Reading challenge & JapaneseThus begins my 読書の秋 challenge! Unfortunately, I didn't get around to making a thread, so if anyone wants to participate and have their own "reading autumn", by all means do so! And let me know, so I can follow your progress! To re-iterate, I've chosen a book I wish to read over "autumn". I use " " as the end date for this challenge is December 31st
So it's a little bit of winter, as well. It's very simple. Finish reading the book by then, and reflect on the challenges, the successes and what I have learned.
I'll be updating with an overall summary of my progress weekly, but every time I update my log I might mention how it's going. It's very casual, and it's just something to encourage me to stick to one book and finish it.
As mentioned before, the book I have chosen is 花散る頃の殺人. It seems to be a collection of stories centered around a 女刑事, a female detective. The first short story is called あなたの匂い。Your scent. I'm very intrigued by it already
I read the first chapter in the bath today. The vocabulary isn't too hard, and it's quite comfortable to read. Some words trip me up but I am able to guess their meaning from context.
Which actually leads onto my first success: The very first sentence of the book is as follows - 急いでいる朝に、せっかく穿いたストッキングが伝線することほど苛立つものはない。I understood every word except 伝線, though from the context I could guess the meaning. I also guessed the reading correctly which surprised me
I'm usually way off. But I guessed from the context, it meant when you get a run in your stockings. After that first line, and being able to guess it from context, I knew I had made the right choice! This book seems perfect for my level, not too many unknown words, but enough to make it worthwhile to read.
There are 313 pages in the book. It seems the last few pages are an interview with the author, but we'll include it still. Chapter 1 was 16 pages. So, that puts me at
16/313 pages. We're off to a strong start! I'm looking forward to reading chapter 2 at some point today. If I somehow manage to finish this book before the end of the challenge, I'll move onto a second book and see how far I get.
I believe I have a group call scheduled at some point today with a native and some learners. I hope it goes ahead as I haven't scheduled in any phone calls with natives this weekend, though I'm sure I can arrange something for tomorrow if needs be.
NorwegianDecided to make my updates a little more neat and separate by languages. Not a lot to report. I finished Chapter 2 of Norsk på 1-2-3 today. I started it not last night, but the night before, but got too tired and was unable to finish. Poured myself a cup of tea and finished it today. I might do a review of the word order part, however, as there was an exercise at the end of the chapter and I got most of it wrong! It does give a very brief introduction to word structure, so it could just be that the introduction was too brief, and it might expand later on. I will review it though, just to cement it. I plan to complete some more units on Duolingo today. Right now, Duolingo is good for vocabulary drilling
Hvordan har du det?
Jeg har det greit. Men jeg er litt trøtt. Jeg må vasker klær.
A little writing practice! I heavily relied on a dictionary. Does anyone know any good EN-NO/NO-EN online dictionaries? Takk på forhånd.
DutchLittle to nothing outside of asking my boyfriend how to say something in Dutch. I plan to finish off Unit 6 in Teach Yourself: Complete Dutch this evening, and do a few more units on Duolingo to reinforce vocabulary. Might watch some Dutch youtubers, as well.
Must think of a way to incorporate using more Dutch with my boyfriend. English has always been our primary language, so it is quite difficult making the step! Even starting off small is difficult as my knowledge is so limited. I shall see what I can do.