Week 7 - 8/19/23
Wanikani Level: 11
Minna no Nihongo Chapter: 14 → 16 / 25
よつばと！ Vol 1: 140 → 150 / 224
パンやのくまちゃん: 25 → 25 / 145
ぐるんぱのようちえん: 0 → 27 / 27
hi. it’s me. i’m the problem, it’s me.
maybe not? idk. i feel like i didn’t do much this week. but i guess i did do stuff? i’ll hit level 12 today, was just a few radicals off. got hit with an enlightened wave last night that i didn’t expect. i get so nervous when it’'s a bunch of things that i know i know, but i don’t know how or how well i know them, ya know? 
didn’t have many casualties in that so i guess i made it out fine.
in my listening i’m noticing how my brain is assigning kanji that i’m picking up to words but it’s still generally concepts that i can latch onto. sometimes i can grab the whole sentence, but that depends on context. i’m trying to think more in japanese and i think doing practice writing outside of the workbook will help in that. it’s also something that my host family back in japan encouraged us to do. basically write about things that i would actually end up telling people so when someone asks about hobbies for instance, i’ll know it off the top of my head instead of formulating it off the cuff. good advice, i just haven’t really followed it yet. 
been doing my anki core 2k at 20 new words a day. in the beginning it was at 50 just to get caught up the rudimentary words that i knew from like a decade of bad studying but that only lasted a few days. the 20 new words is good so far, i don’t know how bad it’ll scale but so far it takes me about 10-15 minutes to get through my anki reviews.
textbook is still dragging along. really don’t think i’ll meet my deadline of finishing MnN by the end of this month, but I don’t think i’ll be that far behind. maybe an extra week and hopefully not much more. it feels nice to get as far as I’ve gotten to be honest, even though I wish by now i would have made it a good habit of doing a bit every day, but finishing 1-3 chapters a week is not bad either. i do feel like I’m cramming a bit since I’m usually only doing it on the weekends as opposed to a bit mid week. it is what it is i guess (at least for now).
i finished ぐるんぱのようちえん which is probably the easiest kid’s book that i have. i actually have read it before like 5 years ago, but i re-read it again and i feel like i picked up more than last time which is good. in my reading travels, there are definitely going to be books that i read and keep for when i have a better understanding so that i can get more out of the story. i mean… this wasn’t one of them just so happened that i realized i included it on the list and wanted to get it outta the way.
not much ‘other’ progress this week. definitely hit a wall which my attempts to learn coding, but i don’t want to give up! just need to include it better into everything. i think i should keep some notes as i go through it though. 
might be helpful especially since I’m having such big breaks between the periods that I’m doing it.
pretty decided on taking some time to compile reference grammar notes after i finish my first textbook. think the best way is to cross reference (hopefully made easier with the internet) and compile.
sometimes i write this blog through the week in little blurbs and i didn’t this week and i feel like i had something to say but i can’t remember. u__u;;
anyway, i think my interview with the language school i picked will be scheduled next week. so here’s to hoping i don’t get rejected from japan twice in one year 
have a good week everyone ! 
edit: I remember ! i was gonna complain about MnN!! 
i think i said this before but the reason i chose MnN is because 1) I had it already from my being tutored attempt and 2) I already had a foundation in Japanese.
SO i don’t like how MnN explains verb conjugation. the textbook is very condensed which is nice for me at this point in my Japanese studies. for instance chapter 14, it doesn’t explain really anything on conjugation and just says it depends on the ます form and to do it. it’s good for reviewing but i couldn’t imagine learning て form solely with this book. the て form also is in chapter 14 and chapter 16. so the division of grammar topics is spread out i think because it’s so condensed but overall, covers more of a diverse range of grammar points that i think Nakama generally glazes over. but that also could be because i did Nakama in university and my professor did that on purpose. he preferred Nakama to Genki and Nakama is more useful in an academic setting whereas i think Genki (haven’t used it yet) is good for both academic and self-study.
