新 Monthly Progress Challenge

WaniKani Tips & Tricks
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Haha happens to all of us! :smiley:

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PROGRESS POST #: 1 (hi!)

WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 41

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 44

GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: n/a

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • review anki vocab first thing every day

  • learn 75 new grammar points in BunPro (3 per day nearly every day)

  • do 15 minutes of shadowing every day, or as close to every day as possible

  • keep listening to Japanese podcasts every day

  • look things up in the 国語辞典 more often

RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • a dictionary of intermediate japanese grammar

  • shadowing: let’s speak japanese!

  • anki for new vocab + context sentences

  • bunpro for N3 grammar

  • wanikani

  • podcasts (this month specifically listening to a lot of 怖い水曜日)

  • 週刊プロレス magazine (subscribed on phone)

  • reviewing mango languages to reinforce speaking

  • N4 Shin Kanzen Master listening book (took the test in December but still going to review the book a bit since the listening section was so hard)

  • reading news articles + lots of Twitter in Japanese

  • sporadically YouTube videos of native speakers talking about things (sometimes during breaks from SRS)

  • sporadically/not very seriously reading a detective novel (殺人事件「天の川」寝台急行)

FAVE:

  • dictionary of japanese grammar (beginner and intermediate) - so clarifying and helpful

  • shadowing: let’s speak japanese!

  • reading 週刊プロレス (bc doing things you like etc)

LEAST FAVE:

  • i love/hate anki – it’s so helpful and effective but i find it so unpleasant to use lol

TRY NEW RESOURCE:

  • N3 2000 essential vocab book (reinforced w putting the vocab from there into anki)

  • start watching Nihongo No Mori grammar videos

JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: listening comprehension

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • build vocab (using context sentences/collocations as much as possible) and understanding of grammar points (anki + bunpro)

  • language shadowing to process what people are saying faster

  • keep listening to native audio (podcasts)

  • revisit the N4 listening book and maybe in a month or two move onto the N3 one

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

drink lots of water so you feel physically good for studying (lol)

keep doing it every day

See you on January 18 :sparkles:

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#PROGRESS POST #: 2

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 48

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL…60

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Take a hole night (10 hours) to learn 500 vocabs or review 800 words every week.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Keep doing a level a day in Memrise - Wanikani Kanji Readings and passing 2 lvs/week in WK

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WK & Memrise, Jap101 YTB dialogues

FAVE: Memrise
LEAST FAVE: Anything not funny.
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Anime and music

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: vocab retention

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Association technique used by hyperpoliglots and listening jap101 dialogues while working
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: What comes to your mind when thinking about a vocab in your native tongue? Link it with the new japanese vocab.

//See you next month!// (You better remember! :angrymami: )
[/quote]

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#PROGRESS POST #: 12
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: :white_check_mark:41
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 46
#GOALS
LAST MONTH GOAL REPORT
Reading :x: … I didn’t make those 300 pages… christmas and all… visiting family… anyway. I got to read 250 pages still :man_shrugging: ; I’m still reading the 4th story in the １０分で読める伝記４年生 book.
Good thing though, lately unkown words have been dropping to less than 2 per page, I’ll see if that keeps to be the case after I’m done with the book.

Immersion :white_check_mark: Ok, I can proudly say that most of the content I watch is now in japanese, no subs. And while understanding it’s scarce, I can follow pretty well the plot on some shows. So I’ve setted up everything so I can choose from a lot of content until I can get something I can actually follow and enjoy.

The big Christmas surprise was a subscription to the old FujiTV, now called ForJoyTV, which streams 84 japanese channels, most of those are pure rubbish, but some shows are ok, plus there is the possibility to watch something up to 2 weeks before; well, that came with an Android TV box, and it has been such an improvement over watching stuff on the laptop, specially since now I can use the VPN connection to watch both Japanese Amazon Prime and Netflix… so there’s ton of stuff to choose.:open_mouth: …

When I started with japanese I kind of looked down on people doing AJATT watching solely japanese content… :zipper_mouth_face: … I’m not sure if a year ago I would find my current routine very pleasent, but I’m glad I got to do it finally…

Listening training :x: … Ok, I was kinda lazzy with this one. I did one chapter of the book やさしい日本語の聴解トレーニング still. It didn’t even took that long, so hopefully I’ll be more consistent with it… Actually the lesson was really good, I can only recommend this book, if it wasn’t so insanely priced :roll_eyes: …

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
same as the last month :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: … plus the immersion TV setup mentioned.

Reading: finish the １０分で読める伝記４年生 book plus another of the Graded Readers Level 4 volumes.

Immersion: try to set up a routine with it… I’m thinking watching the News everyday, then some favourite shows during the week. I started watching いぬやしき this week, looks promising, something like the modern take on Ikiru by Kurosawa :crazy_face: …

Listening training I’ll aim for 2 chapters of やさしい日本語の聴解トレーニング.

LIFE AND ELSE

I’ve made the hosting preparations to be in Osaka for about 6 weeks starting April this year. I’ve decided on what Shodo academy I’ll be going, alongside with some other courses. This upcomming stay there is serving as a great motivation to stick to my routine :muscle::muscle:
Hopefully I’ll finish WK (at least reaching level 60) before april and all this listening practice will do some good once I’m there :slightly_smiling_face:

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PROGRESS POST #: 2

WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 42 :sweat:

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… I think I might be on level 42 for a while as I focus on other learning resources outside of WK :woman_shrugging:

GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: here it is

LAST MONTH’S GOALS:

  • review anki vocab first thing every day – didn’t end up doing this, but ended up reviewing some pages in the “200 Essential Vocabulary for the JLPT N3” book nearly every day, and got through the first 3 chapters. it’s a “quiz yourself” kind of book with a red sheet to hide the answers

  • learn 75 new grammar points in BunPro (3 per day nearly every day) – did this! yay :sparkles:

  • do 15 minutes of shadowing every day, or as close to every day as possible – didn’t stick to it every day, but made it half way through the book (doing one new page each time I sat down with it and reviewing 3 previous pages).

  • keep listening to Japanese podcasts every day – very much did this, actually noticed some improvement this month with my podcast comprehension. i can follow rambly chatty ones a bit better now and keep up with general changes in topic.

  • look things up in the 国語辞典 more often – did this! started translating some magazine articles for fun, which really motivated me to use the 国語辞典 to get a fuller sense of the meaning of words

THIS MONTH’S GOALS:

overarching goal: do something to build your vocab and to build your understanding of grammar each day

specific measurable goals:

  • do shadowing more regularly, first thing, and finish the book

  • keep going with the “2000 Essential Vocabulary for the JLPT N3” book every day, learn Chapter 4 & 5

  • learn 60 new grammar lessons in BunPro (so get to 160/182).

  • re-listen to half of all the Shin Kanzen Master N4 listening book practice exercises

  • keep up with your WK reviews, get apprentice items down so you can start doing new lessons again

RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • a dictionary of intermediate japanese grammar

  • N3 2000 essential vocab book

  • shadowing: let’s speak japanese!

  • bunpro for N3 grammar

  • wanikani

  • podcasts, mainly NHK Journal, and two more specific to my interests: 怖い水曜日 (scary stories) and カテプロ (wrestling)

  • 週刊プロレス magazine (subscribed on phone)

  • listening to Learn Japanese Pod while I’m getting ready for work

  • N4 Shin Kanzen Master listening book (took the test in December but still going to review the book a bit since the listening section was so hard)

  • reading news articles + lots of Twitter in Japanese

  • sporadically Japanese Ammo videos

FAVE:

  • N3 2000 essential vocab book – i love the red sheet and not doing something in front of a screen. also features lots of kanji i already know from WK, used in new but unintuitive ways

LEAST FAVE:

  • still love/hate anki – it’s been so effective when i’ve used it regularly in the past, but i don’t look forward to using it

TRY NEW RESOURCE:

  • Nihongo No Mori grammar videos
  • maybe start in on the N3 Shin Kanzen Master listening practice book

JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: listening comprehension

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • vocab vocab vocab (using context sentences/collocations as much as possible)

  • grammar grammar grammar

  • language shadowing to process what people are saying faster

  • keep listening to native audio (podcasts)

  • revisit the N4 listening book and maybe move onto the N3 one

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

do it every day (and try to make a routine that you’ll actually be able to and want to do every day)

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#PROGRESS POST #: 13
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 46
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 51 (fast level are here!!!)

LAST MONTH GOAL REPORT

Reading: A great improvement compared to last months, specially last week, I managed to read the Vol.2 of my last graded readers series to make a something like 340 pages a month… Reading on a daily basis it’s not always easy, but I think I can manage to make it into something regular in the long run… even when language learning is out of the picture.

Immersion: I finished いぬやしき, and it was good. I really liked the plot and the overall character development, still I got the same feeling as with many anime, of wanting to have a more in depth development of the whole plot. That’s a recurrent feeling I get with anime specially, it’s hard enough to find a really good one that I can binge over a week or so… but then they are one season, 11 or 12 episodes… and that’s it…

Anyway, making the habit of watching shows and actually enjoy them more in terms of content than anything else its great. So far there’s still the (huge) limitation of dialogue heavy shows, those I can really get lost, and then it’s not so fun anymore, so hopefully progressively this will be less often; luckily there’s a lot of action shows to help with this so far.

About aimlessly watching over the IP Japanese TV service… well, I was watching the news every day for the first weeks, but then I found the Sumo tournament been broadcasted on NHK the last weeks; it coincided with my breakfast, so quickly I added that to my morning routine.

Listening training: I did the 2 chapter of やさしい日本語の聴解トレーニング I planned. I think I can manage to make it into something weekly thing, aiming for one more the next month.

I’ve been also listening passively to the 魔女の宅急便 audiobook. After watching the movie a couple of weeks ago I started. Very clear language and greatly parsed too. I was thinking in maybe do this my first book after I’m done with all graded collections. Reading alonside with the audio seems like a really valuable resource. :slightly_smiling_face:

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: same as the last month.

GOALS FOR THE MONTH

Reading: Same as before, but this time I’ll be tackling the last volume of the Level 4 Graded Readers, and then the １０分で読める伝記５生, which actually seems harder than the last one, I’ve notice the last books of the series managed to include more text in the pages, so overall I’m expecting to notice the change of pace.

Immersion: Well, since いぬやしき it’s over, and I wanted to watch something else than 名探偵コナン (which I probably won’t be finishing in this lifetime), I’ve started watching クレイモア, a show that I watched some years ago, and still have a vague memory of the plot. Same for エルフェンリート, I remember having watched some episodes before, but left it unfinished. So I’ve watched the first 4 episodes of both shows, and probably will be alternating those until I’m done.

A nice resource to keep track of my anime has been myanimelist.net, sort of the same as Bookmeter, but for anime. I like to look backward and at least know how much I’ve actually progressed in term of books or shows, specially when I get that feeling that I’m stuck or progressing too slow in the whole language learning journey. So a quick look into my 6 month ago immersion and the current one promptly put things in perspective. :+1:

As the Sumo tournament it’s over, and won’t be back until March, I’m looking for something to watch still… Aimlessly zapping it’s not my favorite activity, so I hope I can find a couple of good shows to watch during the week and stick to those.

Listening training : I’ll aim for 3 chapters of やさしい日本語の聴解トレーニング.

I have the Harry Potter audiobooks too, but im still expecting to be able to watch the movie in japanese first (I’m looking ofrward to this, as its veen available in my local Netflix recently). If this happens, the idea is the same as I’m planning to do with Kiki’s: movie first and then attemp the book + audiobook combo😋

EDIT:
A recent discovery has been the Television Drama Academy Awards, which provide a nice way to find good dramas (which so far it’s been one of those resources I’m really eager to make use of… but usually I’m turn off after a few episodes with most of the shows I’ve tried).

Currently I’m keeping track of my dramas as well using the mydramalist.com website, this way I’ve found out about: マザー and Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi. Finally dramas not happening in a japanese school !!! :joy: …
One of the biggest surprises has been discovering Mana Ashida :open_mouth::open_mouth:… she seems to be what Haley Joel Osment was by the time of Sixth Sense, one hell of a kid actress …

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#PROGRESS POST #: 3 I know I’m either loads early or loads late but I wanted to check back in to mention that, after crashing on WK after christmas, I’m back on the horse. Er, crabigator. Cleared out about 400 of my huge review backlog, a few more days of this to go I guess.

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: Level 11. Which is further than my last progress post! Hadn’t realised that, and it’s oddly motivating to be in the '10s.

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… level 12. I think it’s going to take another week to clear out these reviews, and then I’m aiming for ~10 day levels so I should be either just finishing 12 or just starting 13.

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Whoops. Took a burnout break! Which means I burnt myself out! Which means I did exactly the most counterproductive thing I could have done!

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Don’t. Burn. Yourself. Out. My learning lately has been very wk focused, and while I like wk and think it’s a super amazing tool I want it to be a thing I just sortof plod along with while I get on with the main business of learning the language, of which the writing system is only one part.

Listening:

Reading:

*Reading has also suffered from the “you must do things perfectly for them to be worth doing” syndrome. I know a lot of people say the ideal is to get to J-J but I’m just not gonna be there until basically I’ve finished Wanikani. Looking up words in the goddamn dictionary is not some kind of failure! Anyway I’m gonna focus on volume and get some reading done any old how, especially now my books are gonna be on a bookcase and not in some boxes. I’ve got a bunch of Naruto volumes, I’ve got 「時をかける少女」、I’ve even got Harry Potter in Japanese.

When I learned french I ploughed through whatever looking up words whenever I forgot them; the new language learning method seems to suggest this was bad, but fuck it, it used to work for me and I’m gonna go back to the old low tech “write a list of new words and look them up”.

Misc:

Might listen to some Jpod101, especially if feeling discouraged, but I’m not a fan of how much english they still use. It’s getting less, but you learn some random-ass specialised vocab but the show is mostly still in english and at times it seems silly. Still, I like it and I’ll still use it a bit.

TV I guess? I still need subs for most things, that’s okay. I’m not a great tv watcher anyway and whole some people say you just read the subs…I don’t? Like I read them but I’m much more of an auditory learner anyway so my brain prioritises the audible input. Definitely helpful for solidifying grammar structure in your head, “oh THAT’S how you say that!” and hearing words you know in context.

Drops, because it’s 5 minutes a day so why not, and I find myself far enough along in japanese to care about what vegetables are called. I want to understand slice of life anime without subs! Everyday words are important!

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Wanikani, books/manga, my trusty shitty cheap journal where I write the kanji, Jpod101, Nihongo con Teppei, that Kokoro-ya podcast, whatever anime is on netflix (currently Stein’s Gate)

  • FAVE: Still Wanikani. You can see your progress!
  • LEAST FAVE: jpod101, which is mostly situational.

TRY NEW RESOURCE: Not unless something seems really cool.

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS/HOW I WILL IMPROVE: I have got to get out of the habit of trying to ‘optimise’ my learning and just Do Stuff More. If I can see or hear japanese, I’m doing something right.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Don’t make my mistake and worry about getting the Perfect learning method or using the Perfect materials! Like you can worry a little bit - don’t use Pimsleur unless you’re really sure you know what you’re doing, everyone knows it’s a bit crap - but once you’ve got Some Stuff don’t worry if it’s the Right Thing or the Right Order or whatever.

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#PROGRESS POST #:7

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 16

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 17!

#GOALS

LAST (several) MONTHS’ GOAL REPORT:

  • Ok, so it has been a while since I’ve updated this. Way back in December I basically took two weeks off of WaniKani and during that time the reviews reallyyy piled up. It was discouraging to see 2000 reviews or so waiting, and because of that I stopped frequently doing my reviews and fell even more behind! I’m proud to say however that for the first time since December, I was able to bring my review count back down to 0. So while I can’t really say that I acheived the goals that I set way back in December, I’m just glad to be back on track.

  • Another one of my goals back in December was to be doing DuoLingo every day, and I’m happy that I mostly kept up with that and currently have a 17-day streak (I had one for about a month before losing it tragically while moving). To some of the more dedicated DuoLingo fanatics, especially those with streaks spanning over several years, this might seem very insignificant, but honestly, I’m kinda proud of myself.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Keep my review count low

  • Restart my lessons

  • DuoLingo daily

  • Start using BunPro more

  • Start using Memrise again

  • Finish translating the manga I’m reading

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Wanikani /Duh/
  • Duolingo
  • LingoDeer
  • Memrise
  • Anki
  • A couple of textbooks < Finally got Genki as well
  • BunPro
  • Manga / Anime (these count… right?)

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

  • Grammar
  • Writing Kanji

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • Stay caught up with Wanikani lessons/reviews
  • Do Genki lessons
  • Do Memrise/Duolingo/BunPro lessons
  • Practice writing kanji

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

  • You will get there! Even if you fall behind and get discouraged, as long as you keep at it, you’ll get there eventually.
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#PROGRESS POST #:8

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 17

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 19!

#GOALS

LAST (couple) MONTHS’ GOAL REPORT:

  • So I just realized that I completely skipped the month of June, but it’s July and I’m back with my report! I surprisingly made my goal to be level 17, although it wasn’t a high bar by any means, I had little faith.
  • I have managed to get and keep my review count low and for the first time in ages, I have 0 lessons (yay)!
  • I kept up with DuoLingo and have a 70 day streak now (not long compared to many others, but I’m rather proud), but I still haven’t done much with BunPro or Memrise.
  • I finished reading the manga, but soon gave up on translating it… Maybe someday!

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Keep my review count low
  • Level up quicker (at least quicker than a month per level…)
  • DuoLingo daily
  • Start using BunPro more
  • Start using Memrise again

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Wanikani /Duh/
  • Duolingo
  • LingoDeer
  • Memrise
  • Anki
  • A couple of textbooks < Finally got Genki as well
  • BunPro
  • Manga / Anime (these count… right?)

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

  • Grammar (yikes)

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • Get my Genki book out of a box and actually look at it…
  • Do Memrise/Duolingo/BunPro lessons
  • Try constructing some sentences

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

  • Perfect practice makes perfect, but try hard enough and you’ll get there eventually… Hopefully.
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