Woooo it’s posted!!
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令和６年７月１７日
Not to overshare on the internet, but I'm about to overshare on the internet. But it's relevant to my Japanese studies
To be completely honest I’ve been going through a depressive episode (smth that’s happened in the past but I thought I’d been recovering for good… just gotta remember that healing isn’t linear). Which means I’ve lost a lot of interest in the things I love, including studying Japanese. Or language in general. This is why I keep saying “I’m going to do this” and then… not following through. And now that I’m done with school and since I’m still job hunting, I thought I’d have more time for Japanese! But instead my depression has gotten worse and I’m still not studying. Ughh.
I’m trying to figure out how to still do the things I love while my brain’s like this. I want to read Japanese, I want to take grammar notes, I want to do active listening practice! But getting started is so hard. And staying consistent is even harder.
idk, guess I wanted to put this out there. Give a little context to my studying (or lack thereof) and find out if anyone else is going through the same thing and has any advice 
Since I haven’t done SRS for a while, here’s my review counts:
Ew that’s so many reviews. On the one hand, I don’t really need to do SRS anymore (especially WK). But on the other hand, I do like the structure it gives, and it’s an easy way to do a little bit of Japanese, even if immersion is more effective for me at this point. So I think I’m going to still chip away at these but not worry too much if I can
Also: randomly decided to update this study log today and it’s coincidentally also my wanikani cake day?
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Sorry to hear you’ve been struggling! I think a lot of people on the forum can relate at some point or another. I wonder if lowering the barrier would help? Rather than saying ‘i need to do grammar’ ‘i need to do active listening’ etc, just do low effort activities in japanese you enjoy, like watching youtube or anime or something? I think it’s fine to not do active grammar study for a while. And, tbh, if you do nothing at all for a while, Japanese will still be here later for you to study.
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Mirroring Soggy, a break from active learning isn’t a death sentence for your progress, passive enjoyment of Japanese content without explicitly studying grammar/vocab/etc will maintain all of your hard work while giving you some much-needed mental rest. But first and foremost, above all learning goals, is taking care of your mind and body – please don’t push yourself during this time. I know the depression instinct is to beat yourself up over long breaks and paused progress, but please be so patient with yourself Japanese will be here when you feel better, as will we!
(btw happy cake day!)
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令和６年９月３日
I’m back!! Thank you all for the kind replies after my last update. The break was really needed, I’m feeling refreshed and ready to get back into things.
What I’ve been up to
I played through Ghost of Tsushima in July/August, it was great to be able to kinda understand what the random unsubtitled NPCs were saying! (Also I’ve now memorized the Mongolian word доошоо 
)
Recently listened to some mochi real japanese, I knew I could understand her N5 videos but I was surprised that it was pretty easy to understand her N4 videos too! All in all, I think my listening skills are finally catching up to my reading skills. There’s still an obvious gap, and god I still struggle with speaking, but it’s not as big as before.
Irodori
Starting over with Irodori. Made a new account and everything. I’m determined to be able to use Japanese in my daily life, going to give it my all! これから頑張る！
Last time, I was going through the Elementary 1 (A2) course. But this time I’m actually starting with Starter (A1). My written Japanese is way above this level, and these first few topics are kinda boring ngl. But looking through the course, there’s so many of these simple speaking/listening Can-Dos that I… can’t do.
It’ ll also be nice to see how they do their starter course, and I love the topic videos where they show their lessons being applied in a real world setting, so I don’t really mind going through beginner stuff again.
Can Do:
- Can exchange greetings when I meet someone
- Can say goodbye when leaving
- Can thank someone or apologize to them
- Can understand stickers with messages such as “good morning” or “thanks"
- Can ask someone to say something again if I don’t really understand
- Can answer when someone asks if I speak Japanese and ask if someone speaks other languages.
- Can ask how to say something in Japanese and understand the answer
Goals
By the end of the year I’d like to:
- complete Irodori Starter
- start and actually keep doing an audio diary for speaking practice. Goal of at least 1 entry per week
- start up Anki again, specifically geared towards listening comprehension + speaking practice
- get to my year goal of 1000 minutes of listening (currently at 317/1000, or 5h17m)
No specific reading goals for now, and I’m not doing the read every day challenge this season. But I’ll be participating in the Fall Readathon and will rejoin the Intermediate Manga Club
鰐蟹は．．．ちょっと．．． 
Like I’ve said before, kanji isn’t really a priority anymore though, don’t really need to continue to use WK. But it’s kinda wild to see it this high
Maintaining N5-N3 grammar on Bunpro, not sure about learning more for now. I’d rather maintain and strengthen what I already know.
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Oohhh a fellow Ghost of Tsushima player !
Playing it again with the Japanese voices is one of my goals, it’s one of my favorite games ever. Did you like it ? The gameplay with the sword feels so good to me, and of course the art direction is incredible. Just exploring the world feels great, the beautiful fields of pampa grass, the leaves and flowers falling in the air, the vibrant colours ; it’s just amazing. Sometimes I even wish there was an option at the end of the game where we could disable the random NPC fights, to just be able to enjoy the scenery without annoying NPC (those golden birds were too much too I think). I can’t wait for GoT 2.
I’ve seen someone else talking about these digital books in an other thread, they seem really great, I will probably start them too this year…
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nice Jin pfp!
omg I loved it, even platinumed it! The world was so beautifully crafted and the combat was incredible. You worded what I love about it perfectly. I watched some GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) talks about it too after I played because I was so blown away by the game design, you can tell the devs really put a lot of love and thought into this game
I’ve been a fan of Irodori for a long time! To the point where I referenced the JF Standard Can-Dos in a final paper in grad school. I like how Irodori teaches using real life scenarios and shadowing too.
I’m using their web app now, but the pdfs+audio are great too
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Thanks ! 
Same for me ; the Iki Island expansion was amazing too. The multiplayer was also great but it could have been even better if there was an option to fight directly other players (not just the Rivals games), and also the possibility to finish the Raids missions alone.
When I went on the website and saw that I could just download these PDF I was so surprised, it’s awesome that they just let us have them for free.
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