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

[meagstudies]

I’m finally doing it. I’m finally creating a study log.
_{Want to know when I first made a draft for this? Over a year ago}

Background

putting this under a read-more :-)

The Beginning
So I first started learning Japanese July 4 2016 completely on a whim. I remember it vividly: in the bed of a pickup by the train tracks waiting for the fireworks show to start, I downloaded some random app (that used romaji…) and began learning a bunch of random vocabulary. At the time I was in high school and liked to learn the basics of a lot of different languages just to get a feel for them since my 15 year old self’s goal was to be a polyglot. But then I never got far with most languages I tried learning and then quickly forgot everything. I don’t know why I stuck with Japanese out of all things, but I’m so glad I kept with it.

Unfortunately, for many reasons, I was stuck in a semi-beginner stage for quite a large portion of the last 6 years. idk if I’d even consider it the intermediate plateau… it was like, the semi-beginner switchback or something. Like you know when you’re hiking and you stop for a break and then you don’t want to get going again b/c you’ve lost momentum? yeah

Wanikani and Reading
I bought WK lifetime a year and a half ago and I actually consider myself intermediate now! Not just because I’ve learned about 1300 kanji, but because this community has encouraged me to actually begin using Japanese instead of just doing flashcards all day. The book clubs on this forum have changed my life.

Well, I’m intermediate-ish when it comes to reading. Listening, on the other hand… definitely a beginner still. And don’t even get me started on my speaking ability. But I want to work on that!

The Reset
Right before I started making this post, I reset from Level 40 to Level 37. That was my level about 5 months ago. This last semester of school was really hard on me, and even though I was (slowly) leveling up in WK, I wasn’t really retaining what I was learning. Reviews just got so hard to keep up with due to leeches and feeling overwhelmed. So I decided to reset and create this study log.

If you’ve taken the time to read through all of this, thank you!

Current Resources

• a ton of books I’ve collected on Bookwalker + Jisho + Natively + sheer determination
• Wanikani (as you might be able to guess)
• Bunpro
• Comprehensible Japanese
• italki
• miscellaneous other stuff (e.g., youtube channels + podcasts) that I don’t really use often

2024 Goals

@meagstudies

• Finally finish WaniKani
• review N3 (I need a refresher) and learn N2 grammar)
• read every day, even if it’s just one page
• I would really like to improve my listening comprehension, but once again I’m struggling to think of a good goal for that. I’m thinking 1000 minutes of active listening?

Archive

2023

2023 Goals

SRS

finish Wanikani, whatever that means for me. whether it’s stopping at LV 50 or LV 60, I believe it’s doable
finish N3 on Bunpro
finish N2 on Bunpro (tbh I don’t know if this is attainable but I will try!)

Reading

read 24 books (11/24)
read 10 novels (i.e., not manga) 5 novels (1/5)
read at least one book in the Natively L34-L40 range

Listening

not sure how to make this into a measurable goal yet, but I want to improve my listening comprehension. some possibilities:
finish all Comprehensible Japanese (Beginner) videos
finish all Comprehensible Japanese (Intermediate) videos
get through some sort of audiovisual media, whether that’s a show or a movie
finally do an italki lesson

Summer 2022

My main goals at the moment are to get better at reading and to get better at understanding grammar points! And to get back into Wanikani.

reset
WK level 40
WK level 43 (my estimate for where i’ll be at the end of summer)
learn all N3 grammar on Bunpro (and 90% to Adept or higher)
read 15 books (7/15)
finish all Satori Reader stories (that I want to read) (6/18)
Read Everyday Challenge Spring 2022 (June Bonus Month)
Read Everyday Challenge Summer 2022
[ ] Listen Everyday Challenge Summer 2022

I feel pretty confident that I can reach these goals. I’ve already established pretty good habits for reading that I’m sure will also carry over to the listening challenge. WK and Bunpro will be the most difficult since I need to get back into a routine with those.

WK progress tracker

Wanikani Progress

note: # is level reached!

start!	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50

51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60

atm I’m only planning on going to level 50. Who knows though, maybe when I get there I’ll want to keep going to 60 and get that shiny gold badge going to level 60!!

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I plan to update this study log every time I reach another level. Or if anything comes up that I want to share!

Ok, I think that’s it! Time to do some reviews, learn some grammar, and read some books!

Major Milestones

	Milestone	Post Date
	Study Log Started	2022.06.24
	Finished Level 40 (Started 天国 levels)	2022.09.30
	Reset N3 Bunpro Deck + 2022 Recap	2023.01.01
	Finished Level 50 (Started 現実 levels)	2023.05.21
	First italki lesson	2023.06.06
	Finished N3 Bunpro Deck	2023.07.18
	Finished 関西弁 Bunpro Deck	2023.07.19
	Reset 56 → 54	2023.09.28
	2023 Recap	2023.12.31
	LEVEL 60!!!	2024.04.09
	Level 60 Post	2024.05.27

[meagstudies]

What I'm Reading and Watching

natively + bookmeter

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currently reading/watching:

0-24% 25-49% 50-74% 75-99%
paused

	Media	Type
	小学生なら知っておきたい教養366	Children’s Nonfiction
	葬送のフリーレン１	Manga
	とんがり帽子のアトリエ１	Manga
	くまクマ熊ベアー１	LN
	魔女の宅急便１	Children’s Book

finished (2024)

Book	Type	Completed	★ rating
極主夫道１３	Manga	February 10	★★★★★
かわずや１	Manga	February 16	★★☆☆☆	review
気になってる人が男じゃなかった１	Manga	May 12	★★★★★

finished 2023

Book	Type	Completed	★ rating
極主夫道９	Manga	January 1	★★★★★
神さまがまちガえる１	Manga	January 7	★★★★☆	review
極主夫道１０	Manga	January 14	★★★★★
時のオカリナ	Manga	February 17	★★★★☆	Part 1 + Part 2
神さまがまちガえる２	Manga	March 17	★★★★★	(4.5 tbh but I’d rather round up)
極主夫道１１	Manga	March 19	★★★★★
寄生獣１	Manga	March 23	★★★☆☆
ウスズミの果て	Manga	April 25	★★★★★	review
マグナムリリィ１	Manga	May 3	★★★☆☆	review
ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂１	Children’s Book	June 1	★★★☆☆	review
寄生獣２	Manga	July 17	★★★★★
ヨコハマ買い出し紀行１	August 27	Manga
極主夫道１２	Manga	October 4	★★★★★
赤い蝋燭	Short Story	December 4	★★★☆☆
赤い手袋	Short Story	December 5	★★★☆☆

finished 2022

Book	Type	Completed	★ rating	review
極主夫道１	Manga	January 11	★★★★★	review
チーズスイートホーム１	Manga	February 21	★★★☆☆
極主夫道２	Manga	March 27	★★★★★
極主夫道３	Manga	April 17	★★★★☆
ふらいんぐうぃっち 1	Manga	May 16	★★★☆☆
極主夫道４	Manga	June 15	★★★★★
ゆびさきと恋々１	Manga	June 20	★★★☆☆	review
神々のトライフォース	Manga	June 21	★★★☆☆	review
少女終末旅行１	Manga	June 30	★★★★★
夜カフェ１	Children’s Book	July 13	★★★★☆	review
極主夫道５	Manga	July 20	★★★★☆
しろくまカフェ	Manga	July 21	★★☆☆☆
極主夫道６	Manga	August 28	★★★★★
シャドーハウス１	Manga	September 3	★★★★★
極主夫道７	Manga	September 28	★★★★★
耳をすませば	Manga	September 28	★★★☆☆
極主夫道８	Manga	November 26	★★★★★

Satori Reader

Story	Completed	★ rating
Akiko’s American Foreign Exchange	January 21	★★★★☆
Kona’s Big Adventure	April 13	★★★☆☆
The River Sanzu	April 30	★★★★☆
The Neighbor	May 2	★★★☆☆

finished 2021

Satori Reader

Story	Completed	★ rating
Sakura and Suzuki’s Long Distance Relationship	October 13	★☆☆☆☆
Kiki-Mimi Radio	October 17	★★★☆☆

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For more detailed / frequent updates about what I’m reading, check out my posts on the Read Every Day Challenge threads! winter 2022 | spring 2022 | summer 2022 | spring 2023 | CURRENT: SUMMER 2023

[meagstudies]

Study log for other languages (on Natively forums)

✨ Save point! (against better judgement, meag studies more languages)

[meagstudies]

Level 37

down to 0 reviews, when i’m starting lessons again, and missing 又

I haven’t leveled up yet (obviously, since I only reset yesterday). But I just got both WK and Bunpro reviews down to 0 for the first time in ages and I’m really happy about that! I was worried I would regret resetting, but I don’t regret it at all

I am waiting to do WK lessons until my expected daily reviews get to 100 per day. atm I’m at 126 per day. Ok that’s a lie, I did do all the level 37 radical lessons. But other than that no lessons until I’m at 100 per day. Usually I’m comfortable at 150 per day but since they’re basically all leeches atm I’m lowering the lesson lock to 100

btw here are the userscripts I use for lesson lock and expected daily reviews

Oh and here’s my current apprentice/guru/etc counts

A bit of a tangent, but I’m so sad 又 is no longer burned… I learned it before it got moved up to level 51 and I always liked seeing that lone high level kanji. and since I’m not planning on going past level 50 it won’t be burned again maybe I should stop at level 51 so i can reburn it (so i can burn it 又 ). go full circle, you know?

I’ll also be waiting a bit to start Bunpro lessons for a few days since it’s been a while since I did reviews there so there’s going to be a bit of a pile for the next few days. And since I’ve forgotten quite a bit there too. Not enough to reset all N4 grammar again, but enough that I’ll need to take some time to refresh my memory

[meagstudies]

Level 38

time on level 37: 8 days 16 hours
leeches, new grammar, and more thoughts on resetting

wanikani

Only 8 days on a level? That hasn’t happened in a long time!

I’ve now raised my lesson lock to 125 reviews per day! 100 was way too low for me, but it was necessary to bring down my reviews.

It’s a bit weird going through these kanji again, but not in a bad way. It reminds me of when I first started WK since I had been learning Japanese for four years by that time so I already knew some kanji. I know the kanji for the most part, and some of the vocab, so now I’m able to really focus on relearning the vocab leeches I reset. It was also a bit weird to start burning level 36 stuff while on level 37

Also, after all this time, I’ve finally gotten the difference between 納入・収入・収納 straight in my head! 収める・納める too, although according to Jisho 収める and 納める are the same word? But I’m assuming there’s at least some sort of difference in usage, so for now I’m sticking with WK definitions instead of making synonyms.

Still working on 審判・裁判・評判. Seeing them in a row like this, I can tell the difference, but when I’m actually doing my reviews I get them confused.

grammar

grammar learned on Bunpro

• の間に
• うちに
• ないうちに
• べき
• べきではない
• って
• なかなか
• あまり
• なかなか～ない

A few of these are review, a few are things I’ve looked up several times in the past but mostly forgot, and a few are completely new to me

My main priority lately has been grammar, since that’s what’s been holding me back with reading. Right now I’m going through these grammar points (taken from the Bunpro N3 grammar announcement):

other things of note

I’ve started Orange with the book club, finding it really easy so far but also intriguing enough to keep reading. I’m also thinking about trying an Intermediate Book Club book? Maybe I’ll try Spy X Family? I know very little about it other than it’s what the club’s reading right now. It looks difficult but doable (based on the first few pages). Even if I’m a little behind and don’t finish on time I’ll be okay with that. But I should probably make sure I’m caught up with other book clubs first before I decide.

[meagstudies]

Not a level up post, just an update

I’ve fallen back into old habits again I’m at 302 reviews after forgetting to do them for a few days. It’s weird, I remember to read every day, and even listening I’ve been pretty good at doing every day so far this month. It doesn’t help that I’d raised my lesson lock to 150/day thinking “I can handle it.” But then of course when you miss two days, that means 150 + 150 = 300 reviews waiting for me

I think I have a solution though! Well, obviously the solution is “do my reviews” but I have a solution to my forgetfulness/procrastination. I’m reading every day, and right now I’m reading stuff I really love to read (極主夫道 and Zelda, and モブサイコ１００ is soon to be added to that list). But that means I keep thinking “I’ll do my reviews later… once I’m done with this page… well, once I’m done with this page… eh I just read a lot today, I’m going to play final fantasy (in english)” and there goes my day. So for the rest of this level I’m going to try this:

1. reviews first thing in the morning
2. no reading that shiny new Zelda manga until after I’ve done my reviews, no matter how much I really want to

I think the end result should be that I move away from wanikani and learn through immersion instead. But at the same time I’d like to keep working at it. 諦めないよ！

Other updates (warning: I ramble):

• learned on bunpro:
  • lesson 1: によると、によって、全く～ない、ことだ、そうだ、すると、そうすると、のは～の方だ、型、てごらん
  • lesson 2: combined particles、である、ところが、ところで、ほど、ば～ほど
• I have so many things that I’m reading at once right now… I’m in 3 book clubs (soon to be 4 w/ the VN club), and I’m still not done w/ 夜カフェ but the next BBC book is starting soon, plus I’m reading 2 books on my own, plus I still want to get through Satori Reader by mid-August… I think I’m going to have to drop something… maybe pokespe since I’m still at the beginning and I only casually like pokemon so I’m mostly reading for practice
• I’m in the process of adding all the 姫川明 Zelda manga to Natively! Currently there’s only 神々のトライフォース since I only added the one I was reading at the time. Now I’ve just requested 時のオカリナ, but I’m waiting to hear back about how the different editions (OG 2-volume version vs newer 1-volume version) should be handled first before requesting more. But yeah, once that’s done, I’ll go ahead and request all of them! I’ve also been making my vocab sheet for it all pretty (when I should have been doing my WK reviews)

ok that’s it for this update! またね！

[oliverdes]

im going to follow u. This is quite interesting

[meagstudies]

Level 39

time on level 38: 22 days 23 hours

wanikani

So my solution for actually doing reviews I thought up earlier? Didn’t really work out. Partially b/c I haven’t been reading nearly as much recently… so my “can’t read until I’m done with reviews” thing didn’t really work out. And life has once again gotten kinda chaotic. Every time I realize I should put WK in vacation mode it’s when things are settling down. Oh well, I’m back to reviews now!

I have so many lessons waiting for me… Crabigator様 I’m so sorry (he looks so overwhelmed)

grammar

• lesson 2: ほど～ない、では、のに、ため（に）、ために、という、ということだ、というのは、的、もの、ものだ、最中に、上で、おかげで、に基づいて、点
• lesson 3: なぜなら～から、こそ

I’ve been getting confused a lot w/ ために and the new meaning of のに. And for some reason I keep typing in よう instead of either of those even though I know よう has nothing to do with them???

edit: i apparently completely forgot about the “in order to” meaning of ように, so I guess me typing in よう isn’t a completely random mistake… I’ll have to review the difference between all these again

At least I’m doing alright with the other grammar points

other things of note

Finished quite a few books this month. 夜カフェ１、極主夫道５、and しろくまカフェ１!! Not a lot of other things to say… I fell off the listen every day challenge pretty quickly, I’d like to get back into that but reading, grammar study, and WK are taking priority rn so we’ll see

[meagstudies]

A week has gone by and I’ve barely done any reviews, studying, reading, listening, really anything related to Japanese other than play games made in Japan but that doesn’t count since it’s in English. I’ve decided to lay out this week’s goals here so I can check things off and maybe hold myself accountable

	火	水	木	金	土	日
wanikani reviews
wanikani lessons
bunpro reviews
bunpro lessons
reading

SRS
Get Wanikani reviews down to 0. Should be doable since I don’t have many reviews coming in. Currently at 280 reviews
once reviews are at 0, do reviews every day!!!
do lessons up to radicals (i.e., last level’s remaining vocab lessons)
Get Bunpro lessons down to 0. Possibly reset some beginner/adept grammar points
Learn 3+ grammar points

Reading prioritized in this order
極主夫道 Ch 48 and 49
シャドーハウス Ch. 3 and 4
Orange - Finish! 2.5 chapters left
魔女の宅急便 finish Ch. 1 (2 pgs left) and read Ch. 2
ルーパーズ finish Ch. 1
時のオカリナ【こどま編】 Finish Ch. 3

[meagstudies]

I don’t think I’ll post a checklist every week, but it worked well last week, so I’m making another!

	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
wanikani reviews
wanikani lessons
bunpro reviews
bunpro lessons
reading

SRS
all level 39 kanji lessons done
6+ bunpro lessons

Reading prioritized in this order
極主夫道 Ch 50 and 51
シャドーハウス Ch. 5 and 6
Orange Ch. 3
夜カフェ２ Ch. 1
魔女の宅急便 Ch. 2
十角館の殺人 Prologue & half of Ch. 1
ルーパーズ Ch. 2
時のオカリナ【こども編】 Ch. 4

[meagstudies]

So… last week I was pretty good with SRS, but not with reading… why is it always one or the other with me?

I’ve decided to drop a couple things for now. As excited as I was to read it, 十角館の殺人 is too difficult at the moment (I could push through it but I’m already reading so much right now). Also dropping ルーパーズ, not because of difficulty, but b/c I keep forgetting about it. With both of these I will get back to them someday, just not right now.

	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
wanikani reviews
wanikani lessons
bunpro reviews
bunpro lessons
reading

SRS
WK level up!
6+ bunpro lessons

Reading prioritized in this order
極主夫道 Ch 52 and 53 (30 pgs)
シャドーハウス Ch. 7 and 8 (25 pgs)
夜カフェ２ Finish Ch. 1 (12 pgs left) and read Ch. 2 (7 pgs) ← pg count according to bookwalker, not physical copy
Orange Finish Ch. 3 (14 pgs left)
時のオカリナ【こども編】 Finish Ch. 4 (5pgs left) and read Ch. 5 (18 pgs)
魔女の宅急便 Finish Ch. 2 (9 pgs left)

[meagstudies]

Level 40

time on level 39: 27 days 6 hours
caught up to pre-reset, plans for studying this next semester, and trying to get through my reading list

wanikani

It took quite a bit longer than I hoped, but I finally leveled up to level 40! This is where I was when I reset two months ago. All new kanji from here!! And that also means new level up emails! I’ve missed those so much

I’m thinking I’ll get to level 50 by the end of the autumn semester in December. Since I have a consistent schedule this year with every day MTWR being basically the same and Friday being similar, I’m going to try to have a consistent schedule for Japanese as well (right now I just study whenever I feel like it). Reviews in the morning before work/class, reviews and lessons after class in the middle of the day, and reviews in the evening. If it doesn’t work out it’s fine but I’d like to at least get some better habits

grammar
not a lot of grammar study this time. I was familiar with many of these already, but just now added them to the srs since I’m doing bunpro in order

all from lesson 3 of bunpro n3: からこそ、ばかり、ばかりだ、ばかりに、ことがある、ことにする、ことなの、ことになる、は～で有名、について

other things of note

I haven’t finished a single book in August so far… As you can see from my checklists these last few weeks I definitely plan on reading but then just… don’t I’m probably not going to make any more checklists for now, but I’ll split what I’m reading into different priority ratings

• high priority: 極主夫道 and シャドーハウス
• medium priority: 時のオカリナ and 夜カフェ
• low priority: Orange and 魔女の宅急便

[meagstudies]

Level 41

time on level 40: 38 days, 2 hours
finally in the 天国 levels!

wanikani

So I actually leveled up a few days ago, but didn’t make this post until now. Level 40 was… quite difficult but I made it through! Still have quite a few vocab lessons to get through, but then I can move onto level 41 kanji!

bunpro
Since I took such a long time to level up on WK, I had lots of time for grammar!

• n3 lesson 3: ことはない、～と言っても、といえば、合う、に合わせて、～の姿、と言える、ちゃんと、そのために、その結果
• n3 lesson 4: に比べて、どんなに～ても、いくら～でも、～かは～によって違う、かなり、あまりに、わけだ、わけではない、と同時に、ところだった①、だって、んだって、関係がある、に関する、に対して、くらい②、は～くらいです、さ (all 3 uses)、それぞれ
• n3 lesson 5: まま(に)、そこで、しかない、てもかまわない、～ても～なくても、わけがない、としたら、として、にしては、にしても、～というのは事実だ

other things of note
I started this challenge (Level+1) on Natively and will use this to choose future books to read! That way I can steadily increase the difficulty of books I’m reading But I also still want to read with book clubs of course.

I’m also going to give the Listen Every Day Challenge another try. 2022 became a very reading-focused year (unintentionally, but it’s a good thing). I’ve become so much better at extensive reading thanks to book clubs and pushing myself to read more and more. Next year, I’d like to focus on listening, so I’d like to get started now with establishing good habits. Hopefully I won’t forget about this challenge again…

Now for what I’m reading. I liked my priority system from my last update so here it is again:

• high priority: 極主夫道 and 夜カフェ
• medium priority: Level+1 book(s) and Hunter x Hunter
• low priority: orange and ゼルダの伝説
  Yes, I still want to finish orange, if only to say I’ve finished it. I do like the story so far, but I just can’t get myself to read more for some reason…

[meagstudies]

the answer

time on level 41: 15 days, 16 hours

wanikani
Leveled up a lot quicker this time! I’m finally getting back into the groove of things

Looking at some of the kanji I’m going to learn this level, I’m kind of surprised at how many kanji I already know. I could have sworn these were in earlier levels! But I guess that’s my pre-WK knowledge coming through.

I decided to read 田中くんはいつもけだるげ and funny enough there’s coincidentally been some vocab from recent levels showing up in that manga. Can’t remember most off the top of my head, but I know 活躍 specifically shows up a LOT, which is nice because I was having trouble with that word.

bunpro
から言うと、にとって、ことから、というより、はもちろん、をはじめ、て初めて、さえ、さえ～ば、たものだ、さて、むしろ

other things of note
I haven’t been keeping up with the Listen Every Day challenge at all but I’m going to keep trying to remember.

I’ve been good about keeping up with the 極主夫道 club this volume I’ve been stepping back from other book clubs for a bit, but I’d like to eventually finish what I’ve started (hxh, orange, and 夜カフェ). Other than 極主夫道 I’ve been reading 時のオカリナ and 田中くんはいつもけだるげ (my current Level+1 book).

[meagstudies]

Level 43

time on level 42: 34 days, 22 hours
finally turning on vacation mode

@meagstudies

I’m finally getting back into the groove of things

… so about that

tbh I haven’t had much motivation lately to study Japanese or read. I’m pretty burnt out with this last year of undergrad, and so I’ve been spending my free time playing games in english instead of wk or bunpro or reading

wanikani
This level wasn’t too hard but I haven’t been doing my reviews consistently so it took FOREVER I’m considering turning on vacation mode once I get through my stack of reviews. It wouldn’t be for long (hopefully), until the end of the semester at max, and it might just be for as little as a few days. I just need to focus on school & work for a bit

bunpro

somehow 100 bunpro reviews feels like 500 wk reviews

my plan is to get through these reviews and turn on vacation mode, just like with wanikani. but also, when i get through these reviews, i’m going to reset any grammar points that have fallen back to Beginner so I can go through grammar explanations and add them back slowly

learned: つまり、即ち、却って、まるで～ようだ、ような気がする、とても～ない、別に～ない、ばかりでなく、ではなくて

other things of note
I haven’t read since October sorry to my fellow book club members

This last month I ended up dropping lots of books. Some, like Orange and HxH, I’ll hopefully continue sometime later. others, like 田中くんはいつもけだるげ, weren’t all that good so I didn’t finish.

I want to focus on 極主夫道. Not just because I run the club and I feel bad about falling behind, but also because that series is easy for me to get back into once I actually, you know, start reading.

Giving up with the Listen Every Day challenge but I’d still love to start listening immersion soon. Maybe over winter break.

[meagstudies]

haven’t leveled up yet, just thinking about my plan for the end of the year

So next year I want to focus on listening. I use public transportation in the winter months (so… october to april lol) which means lots of listening time! I’ve been planning this for a while actually… but . I wonder if a beginners listening club would be feasible? I found it so hard to get started with reading until I joined the book clubs one year ago, so I wonder if it would be easier to start listening with a club as well. Might start one if there isn’t one already and if there’s interest

But of course my plans for next year all depend on whether I can actually get back into the habit of studying consistently… it seems like every time I’m getting back into it, life throws something at me that I have to prioritize over Japanese. So it’s been very hard to study.

My goals for this weekend:

get Wanikani reviews down to 0 (at about 300 rn)
Bunpro reviews also to 0 (about 70 rn)
2 chapters of 極主夫道９
finish the chapter I’m on for 夜カフェ２ (ch. 6)

Goals for the end of the year:

• Level 45 in Wanikani (although at my pace? I doubt it )
• Complete Section 6 of N3 Bunpro.
• chapters 1-3 of ルーパーズ
• have a clean slate for reading. this means being done with 極主夫道９、夜カフェ２、and シャドーハウス２. The only thing I’ll carry over is 極主夫道１０, ルーパーズ, and any other ongoing clubs I decide to join

[meagstudies]

not a level update (haven’t even started level 43 lessons, still working through reviews…) but it’s a new year so I figured I’d make a little end-of-year post!

First off, some study updates:

• I reset all N3 grammar on Bunpro. I haven’t started lessons again but I’m already sort of regretting it… but I think it’ll be better in the long run.
• still working on Wanikani reviews, down to 275 now. I finally installed Flaming Durtles and that’s been helping

2022 Progress

• WK levels: 36 to 43, with a reset to level 37
• Books Finished: 18 (I almost finished one more last night but I couldn’t get it done before my family’s New Year’s celebrations)

And here is my Bunpro year in review thing. But it didn’t take my recent reset into account so it’s missing the data for all my N3 grammar

Plan for next year

Next year I want to finish Wanikani; whether that means level 50 or level 60, but whatever level I reach, I want it to be one where I’m satisfied. I’d also like to finish N3 on Bunpro and get into N2 grammar.

Other than that, my main focus in 2023 will be listening. I’m doing the Listen Every Day challenge and trying to get through Comprehensible Japanese for the first quarter of the year. Hopefully audiovisual content will be added to Natively soon, Natively has motivated me so much for reading and it’s helped me figure out what I can accomplish with my current skills, so using the same resource for listening would be really beneficial.

I’m not going to be doing the Read Every Day challenge again, but my goal this year is to read 24 books I’m not participating in the BBC for a bit; I want to read 神さまがまちガえる eventually but not right now, I’m still on the fence about 月刊少女野崎くん, and tbh I’m not big on 古見さんは、コミュ症です.

What I’ll be reading this year:

• finish 極主夫道
• Zelda manga → I’d like to read them all this year (other than Twilight Princess, will probably not finish all of those within a year, especially since I haven’t played the game so I want to wait for that manga)
• I own the Mob Psycho 100 manga so I’d like to read it this year (for the billionth time but this time in Japanese lol)
• work on my Level+1 Natively challenge
• I have a large reading backlog now thanks to Bookwalker sales/freebies/coins, so I’ll try to read as much of that as I can

[meagstudies]

Level 44

time on level 43: 72 days, 0 hours

Wanikani
So… I ended up NOT turning on vacation mode, but instead dedicated a lot more time per day to SRS, which I was able to do because of winter break. I have spent over two months on level 43. But that’s not a bad thing. I was able to get my reviews down to 0 consistently, focus on rebuilding habits, and actually start enjoying using Wanikani again! Instead of looking at my reviews with dread, I’m staring at that review forecast with anticipation like I’m back in the 快 levels

I will hopefully not spend 70 days on these next levels though

Here’s my current review count:

Bunpro
I really regret resetting all my N3 grammar. I really should have only reset the grammar I was struggling with. But oh well, too late now I’ve been slowly catching up to where I was before.

Reading
I have been on a roll with reading! Started off the year finishing up 極主夫道９ (and I’ve also finished 極主夫道１０), and read 神さまがまちガえる! I am now reading:

• 寄生獣 1 | L26
• 魔女の宅急便 1 | L25
• ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ 下ススペシャル | L25
• 神さまがまちガえる 2 | L23

And I’ll be reading 僕が愛したすべての君へ | L30 along with the IBC and reading 七回死んだ男 | L30?? with the Natively Mystery Novel Club

Listening
I joined the Listen Every Day challenge, but I’m not very good at staying consistent. Still trying to figure out what works for me. I do a better job staying focused and understanding what I’m listening to when I’m listening to something with visuals (e.g., リラックマとカオルさん or Comprehensible Japanese) than a podcast, but podcasts are easier to fit into my life. Also, I’ve realized listening while reading a script doesn’t work for me since then I focus more on the written words than the spoken words! But I guess transcripts are nice for double checking I understood the material. I’m so excited for Natively’s audio-visual update so I can see what easy shows are out there!

[Akashelia]

@meagstudies

Bunpro
I really regret resetting all my N3 grammar. I really should have only reset the grammar I was struggling with. But oh well, too late now I’ve been slowly catching up to where I was before.

Not sure if you already know this, but if not, you can open any grammar point and click “I already know this” to put it at max SRS level
Good luck, looking good with the number of items on WK, you got it under control!

[meagstudies]

I did already know that, but the problem is I don’t think I know these grammar points well enough to put at max level Some of them definitely did need to get reset, but most of them should have stayed in the middle SRS levels (like Seasoned). Thank you for the advice though, and thanks for the words of encouragement!