🌌 A quest to learn japanese! (meagstudies' study log)

[meagstudies]

First off, as you can see I’ve updated my profile pic! So hopefully that doesn’t throw too many people off haha, I just wanted something a little more colorful. Although I already kinda miss my old pfp

Okay now for language updates: tbh I haven’t really been interested in doing JP study or immersion lately. I just have other hobbies and things I want to do in my free time! But also I can see my JP abilities get worse and worse… today I did all my Bunpro reviews (over 80!) and only had 50% accuracy And I’m scared of what will await me when I do my 500 WK reviews… not planning on doing all of those at once, but maybe I’ll do them while watching a movie or something (don’t worry about me not retaining info, I’ve found I can multitask SRS with watching stuff pretty well). Thank god many of them are kana-only so those will be quick.

Anyway, I really want to balance my language-related hobbies and my other hobbies. But it’s hard, especially with work and other life stuff happening too. I didn’t really do the Read Every Day challenge like I said I would (or the listen every day challenge that that was to be expected lmao). I will try again with the Summer 2023 challenge. I just haven’t been reading in Japanese much. Ugh, idk, I’m just feeling a little… demotivated maybe?

So far コンビニ人間 is a lot easier to read than I was expecting, and I think I’ll be able to keep up for the entirety of the club I love joining clubs but I often fall behind, especially with novels, so I’m happy the club pacing is working as intended and letting me read along even though I’m still a slow reader.

Edit: oh my god I completely forgot to mention what I wanted to with Bunpro!! So I went through my ghosts and troubled grammar, and I’ve decided to work extra hard on the following:

• 上がる・上げる (as in the N3 grammar point)
• きる
• に関する・に関して

These are the three that I struggle a lot with meaning-wise. With my other leeches, I understand what they mean, but I mix up things like the tense of the verb used before or whether I need to use な, の, or に. Stuff like that.

But I mix up 上がる・上げる with きる often, and I often mix up きる with other grammar points that use 切る (きらない and きり). And I think I just haven’t seen に関する often enough, but I still struggle with remembering what it means. If after 14 days of doing reviews and cramming I’m still struggling with these, I’ll reset them and retake my notes on them.

[meagstudies]

Even after doing reviews yesterday and today, I still have over 500 reviews waiting for me in Wanikani this is wild. I want to prioritize getting my reviews down to 0. Obviously not all at once. But I’d like to get back on track with SRS. About 80 of them are up for burning, and 76 are apprentice (but about half of those are about to be guru).

REVIEWS LEFT

500	450	400	350	300	250	200	150	100	50

I’m also going to make a little checklist for what I’d like to read in the next few days:
read this week’s reading あん
finish ch 11 寄生獣 + ch 12
2 chapters ヨコハマ買い出し紀行

Oh also I did two Bunpro lessons today: どうしても and もしも～なら. Pretty straight forward!

[meagstudies]

oh no… the wrap up session button isn’t working… and I have 350 reviews left O_O

I guess I’m leaving that tab open until I get all these done

[Book9]

Any review you have finished both sides of (or one side if it only has it) will be done. So the only thing you lose are the 10 or less items you have only answered half of. This is the change that came about earlier this year (and the reason no summery page currently exists). So unless you feel very attached to those up to 10 half done items, you can go back to the dashboard at anytime without a problem.

[meagstudies]

Oh yeah I know it’s only those 10 or less that aren’t saved, I was mostly worried because my accuracy’s been kinda low and I didn’t want to accidentally answer something incorrectly in one session, not wrap up, and then answer it correctly in the next session. But I ended up closing the tab anyway, I wasn’t too attached and I figure it’ll be fine. It’s better than doing 350 reviews at once!

[meagstudies]

Still have not started my lessons for this level. I guess I am taking a break after all

But today and tomorrow I am doing nothing but language study!! I’m going to get all my reviews down to 0 (for real this time) and I’m going to finish the last two chapters of 寄生獣２! I’d also like to go over the words my italki instructor sent me and maybe do some grammar study too.

Not making a new checklist (but continuing to check off the one from before), just talking about my plans for today. I’ll make another post tonight and talk about how much I actually studied/immersed.

This isn't so much of a JP-related thing, though it is kinda study related, but...

I’m finding myself really excited for my next semester of college!!! It’ll be my first semester of grad school and I’m super excited for all my classes! They all look so interesting and I know all of my profs’ teaching styles really well since I’m going to the same place I did my undergrad. I used to always feel this way about school, but for the first time in a long time that feeling is coming back.

And I’m finding I really want to learn other things too. I want to get back into programming. I’ve been doing web development for classes/work but not actual programming (it’s just HTML/CSS in some CMSs), and I miss it a lot (well, I don’t miss coding in C++, I think that’s what made me stop but I miss being able to make things and I want to get back to it). So I’m starting LeetCode and seeing how that goes. Doing a little bit every day. Going to really focus on Javascript and Python.

I’m suddenly super interested in Japanese history too. Not recent history, but pre-Meiji… like samurai era. Which is funny b/c I’ve never been all that interested in that time period, but now I randomly am. I guess I’m realizing I know very little about Japanese history other than a handful of well-known events and a general idea of what things were like. So I want to learn more about that! Ugh, I’m just in the mood to cram as much knowledge into my head as possible

[meagstudies]

Wanikani and Anki

Got my reviews down to 0 and finally starting my kanji lessons for this level!

I’m slowly migrating back to using Anki. I don’t want to rely too heavily on SRS once I’m done with Wanikani, but I’ll use Anki for those things I come across “in the wild” that I really want to stick, and also for the vocab my italki instructor wants me to remember. And hopefully that will prompt me to remember to do my Irish Anki reviews too…

Bunpro
Almost done with N3!! Grammar lessons I’ve done recently:

• 同士
• がたい
• まさか
• 前者は・後者は
• つい
• せいで
• くせに
• がち
• 気味

Reading
Just about done with 寄生獣２! Still unsure if I’m joining the あん club, I might just focus on コンビニ人間 instead.

Misc
This isn’t really studying since I’m using English subs, but I’ve started playing Trek to Yomi and it’s cool how much I understand I don’t look at the subtitles. Not enough to play without subs, but I’m picking out certain words and grammar. I also started Sekiro a while back but I’m really bad at it… but yeah that’s another one I’ve been playing. I guess I’m in my historical Japan video game phase??

[meagstudies]

I’ve finally done it! I’ve completed all the N3 grammar points on Bunpro!! It has taken me 7 1/2 months since my reset at the beginning of 2023. But if you ignore that reset, it’s actually taken me over a year!

My beloved green highlighter is basically dead now though even with trying all the tricks to revive it. I guess I’ll switch to a different color for N2 (rn I use green for explanations and brown for example sentences, that combo looks really pretty with a brown pen)

I’ll be taking a short break from learning new grammar to make sure the N3 terms are sticking in my head. I’ll also be finishing the 関西弁 terms before moving on to N2 (I am 57% done with those).

Some other things of note:

• finished 寄生獣２ yesterday
• did all my prep for the 極主夫道１２ club (except I still need to make the vocab sheet)
• still chipping away at Wanikani… all of my kanji lessons are complete for this level, just gotta get them to guru

[meagstudies]

@meagstudies

I’ll be taking a short break from learning new grammar to make sure the N3 terms are sticking in my head. I’ll also be finishing the 関西弁 terms before moving on to N2 (I am 57% done with those).

… so I ended up not taking a break from grammar and decided to learn the rest of the 関西弁 terms. I was already familiar with many of them so I just powered through it. So now I’m completely done with that deck too! I’ll have more reviews than I’m used to, but I’m fine with that since they’re not too complex.

But now I’m taking a break from grammar lessons. For real this time. Even though I’m in a grammar mood rn so I really want to start N2 this second.

[meagstudies]

Level 54

time on level 53: 41 days, 6 hours

WaniKani

This is my first time seeing the new level up banner in action! It took me so long to get through level 53… in fact it’s my second longest level (if you don’t count the time I was waiting for the lifetime sale). Hoping I get through these last few levels a lot quicker!

Grammar

Haven’t started N2 grammar yet but I want to so bad The only reason I’m waiting is because I don’t want to get overwhelmed and I want to solidify N3, but I feel ready now!!

Speaking

My second italki lesson went well, although there were lots of airplanes that went overhead (I live by the airport), so that paired with my usual poor listening comprehension meant I was going 「もう一度お願いします」 non-stop.

Also she asked what I did last weekend (I went to an amusement park), and I didn’t know any of the words, and I didn’t know any words to describe it! I remembered the kanji 遊 is in it, so I kept going like, 「ゆう…ゆう…ゆうぅ～？？？」 and she was so confused. I tried a katakana-ized version of roller coaster, but she didn’t know what I meant. But then afterwards I looked it up and コースター is actually how you say it! Maybe I didn’t hold a vowel long enough. Or maybe it’s more common to say ジェットコースター? We ended up just switching topics but now at least the words 遊園地 and ジェットコースター will forever be ingrained in my head.

Reading

I’ve been mainly focused on grammar study instead of immersion lately so I haven’t been reading as much. I’m reading through はなにあらし since it’s free for a limited time, but idk if I’ll be able to finish it before the deal ends. I’m reading it extensively with very limited lookups.

[meagstudies]

WaniKani

Still haven’t gurued any kanji yet… man, I’m struggling with this level. The only things I can consistently remember is 鯨 (gay whale) and 茜 (b/c Zero Escape). But slowly I am pushing those kanji towards guru. And I’m doing pretty okay with vocab

^ this has been my mindset lately. my progress isn’t perfect, but good enough, just gotta keep on truckin’ and i’ll eventually get there!

Grammar

… okay I caved, I’ve started N2 grammar. Taking it slow though, b/c oof I can tell I’m going to struggle with some of these. especially どうせ and せめて… not so much basic meaning but the nuance.

• 得る
• 得ない
• ざるを得ない
• つもりで
• どうせ
• せめて

得る is really important for me to learn b/c I’ve seen it a lot. Luckily it’s pretty straightforward.

Funny enough I had a dream the other night where I was reading Japanese and つもりで came up in a sentence! I highly doubt the dream sentence was in any way grammatical, but dream-me did know what つもりで meant which was cool. Now if only I could get it right during my actual reviews this morning

Reading

Welp it’s the last day of July and I only finished one book. Well, 1 1/2 books if you count はなにあらし, which I won’t finish b/c I’m not going to buy it.

Read every day challenge - Summer 2023

JULY 31 2023 → home post ヨコハマ買い出し紀行: 22% - 53% July Summary Plans for August

[meagstudies]

Level 55

time on level 54: 15 days, 11 hours

Nooo I just wrote all this and then accidentally hit discard draft instead of save draft for later I rewrote it but I know I’m missing things and it’s not worded quite the same

WaniKani

@meagstudies

man, I’m struggling with this level

All of a sudden, something in my head just clicked and all the level 54 kanji made sense!! A true lightbulb moment

edit: and with the way I leveled up these kanji (slowly, not all at once), I’m already done with leftover vocab and I’m ready to start on Lv 55 kanji!!

When I was learning all the 酷 vocab and got to 残酷, I was like, why is this so familiar? It was on the tip of my tongue… I even kept saying 「ざんこく、ざんこく」 to myself, but couldn’t think of it. …And then like 8 hours later I coincidentally heard the beginning of A Cruel Angel’s Thesis and was like. YOU.

Grammar

• どうやら
• よりほかない
• 確かに
• 一応
• に相違ない

Is 確かに really considered N2? I always thought it was a very basic adverb, I learned it around the same time as like, あまり and たくさん and 絶対に and all that. I’ve never really paid attention to JLPT other than following the Bunpro order though, so it could be I just learned it very early on?

Reading

See I know for sure I had more stuff to say about reading in my original draft but since it was deleted I can’t remember what it was I will say though that I was right, 極主夫道 seriously is such a huge motivator for reading. I’ve read chapter 100 and instantly was like, okay now I want to read this, and this, and this… so I think I’m back on track for reading!

Misc

Man, it’s getting to the end of summer and I still haven’t brushed up on my Irish like I planned. Kinda wondering if I should use this study log also to document my Irish studying too since it’s been very motivating for Japanese. Since I moved in May, I can no longer find my old notes or the new notebook I bought for Irish, so that hasn’t helped motivation-wise…

[Book9]

@meagstudies

Man, it’s getting to the end of August

It is August 6? Not to be that person, but… xD I assume you meant something like end of summer or the like. I remember fondly when I was in school and it was easy to tell month and such just by what was happening in class. As an adult, that sense of where in a month or year I am, have almost completely disappeared. Weekdays are still fine, but anything beyond that and my general sense is gone.

I felt like July flew by in the blink of an eye. No idea where that month went.

@meagstudies

Nooo I just wrote all this and then accidentally hit discard draft instead of save draft for later I rewrote it but I know I’m missing things and it’s not worded quite the same

RIP

[meagstudies]

@Book9

xD I assume you meant something like end of summer or the like

oh whoops! yeah that’s what i meant, just edited the post

@Book9

I felt like July flew by in the blink of an eye. No idea where that month went.

Same, I swear it was just July 1.

[meagstudies]

Level 56

time on level 55: 10 days, 1 hour

WaniKani

This level went so much smoother than the last one! Don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but I think it’ll be smooth sailing for the home stretch

Writing down the kanji + meanings + readings ahead of time has been very helpful with these last few levels. At this point all these kanji kinda blend together sometimes lol, and these kanji aren’t as common, so previewing them at least lets me get familiar with a couple of them.

Speaking of which: looks like 弦 means both chord and bowstring… I’m a BRD main in FFXIV, suddenly the connection between bards and archers doesn’t seem as far of a stretch. Though I still wish we could fight with actual instruments instead. I want to obliterate summons with a saxophone.

Grammar

Finished up N2 Lesson 1!

• 万が一
• ようがない
• にほかならない
• っこない
• それなら
• ものなら
• ～を～に任せる
• 活かす
• まい

I’m still trying to decide how slowly I should take N2 grammar. I set batch size to 1, but sometimes I’ve still been learning a couple in one day (especially with things like 任せる which I already know about). I know I should be reading more to cement these grammar points in my head …but more on that in the reading section

@meagstudies

My beloved green highlighter is basically dead now though

SHE HAS RETURNED My grammar notes are pretty again! Turns out you can buy that color in bulk so now I have 10 of the same highlighter lol

(fyi the pen is the olive green zebra mildliner. I use a brown pen to write my notes and this color green is so pretty with it )

Reading

Mainly just reading 極主夫道, I haven’t been great about keeping up with other book clubs (…what else is new). This is not the summer of reading I’d hoped for it to be, my focus is on other hobbies I guess. I feel kinda bad about it, especially since joining clubs and falling behind has become a habit of mine Am I being too hard on myself? Possibly. This is just a hobby after all. But I hate saying I’ll do something and then not committing.

[Book9]

@meagstudies

This is not the summer of reading I’d hoped for it to be, my focus is on other hobbies I guess. I feel kinda bad about it, especially since joining clubs and falling behind has become a habit of mine Am I being too hard on myself? Possibly. This is just a hobby after all. But I hate saying I’ll do something and then not committing.

Relate to this a lot. Although I’m not part of that many book clubs, and right now I run all of them. Especially since yeah, I tell myself I’ll commitment (and obviously the other people in the club) and then my follow through is very poor. Feels bad.

[snowwater]

@meagstudies

Speaking of which: looks like 弦 means both chord and bowstring… I’m a BRD main in FFXIV, suddenly the connection between bards and archers doesn’t seem as far of a stretch. Though I still wish we could fight with actual instruments instead. I want to obliterate summons with a saxophone.

Not the the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, with an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime!!! Forgive me, I’m a very big FFXIV fan/gamer

[meagstudies]

Why yes, it is the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, with an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime
soon to include Stormblood too aaaaaaaaaa I’m so excited!!!

I’m actually a free trial player myself I’m going through the game sooo slowly (at 3.1 MSQ now), I tend to take long breaks… eternally a sprout

@snowwater

I’m a very big FFXIV fan

oooh what job(s) do you like to play as? Like I said I’m a BRD, though sometimes I switch to DRG. Thinking of getting into Healing instead of DPS b/c white mage is one of my fave jobs in other FF games, but I’m nervous about messing up

[meagstudies]

---

In other news (none of this JP related lol)

• grad school starts tomorrow!!! this is the most excited i’ve been for school in a long time, all my courses look super interesting and i already know i like all my professors (going to same place i did my undergrad), so i’m really looking forward to this semester
• i found a copy of the original Animal Crossing (complete in box too!!), I’ve been having a lot of fun playing that! I love how mean everyone is in that game lmao. The only problem is my gamecube’s clock battery has been dead since i got it, so until i replace it i have to manually set the date/time every time i play

[taiyousea]

@meagstudies

grad school starts tomorrow!!! this is the most excited i’ve been for school in a long time, all my courses look super interesting and i already know i like all my professors (going to same place i did my undergrad), so i’m really looking forward to this semester

OMG WELCOME!!! i just finished my first year of grad school and it has been a crazy and interesting adventure! I’m so excited for you what kind of field are you entering?