🌦️ Sundrop's Refreshed Study Log 🌦️

[sundrop]

1月4日2025年

I’m home sick! I have been since yesterday. I’m stuck on my couch with a mild cold, so I’ve been binge watching Brooklyn 99. I do have to catch up on all my reviews before Monday, so I can start my 2025 plans afresh. And unfortunately, I let my Wanikani and Anki build up over the winter break. 632 reviews… aaaaaaaaaaaaa.

So before I watch another episode, I need to cut that number down. Today’s focus is Wanikani, tomorrow I tackle Anki.

Here with a post for mental fortitude. Let’s go~

Wanikani 632:

Round 1: bleugh that was brutal i did not want to concentrate and got 75% accuracy. 500 to go. first a break.

Round 2: A little faster but brutal still. 400 left.

Round 3: 300 to go. This one was a trudge halfway there lol

[sundrop]

1月5日2025年

Day 2 of catching up. My brain feels fuzzy after this long break, and my accuracy is way down, making this go slower than ever. On the bright side, it's beautifully snowy outside. Today's my final day to catch up, so here's to a snowy winter catch-up day. Cheers.

WK 300:
AK 300:

Update 1: Done with anki and 100/300 wanikani. It’s dark and snowy. So lovely except my car is completely trapped. I tried to dig it out to no avail. Eep!

Update 2: Slowly slowly I have gone–but we’re down to the final 100. Tomorrow is officially a snow day, so don’t have to worry about digging out my car until Tuesday. Hm. After I finish my 100 WK reviews, I’ll set up a bit for tomorrow then reward myself with some soup and TV. Whee.

Update 3: Ouf. I finally did it. Huzzah. I’m left with 192 in apprentice, wayyy more than I prefer, but not bad after taking a break of a few weeks. Time to relax! Until tomorrow~

[mitrac]

@sundrop

After 8 long years of studying Japanese, this year I made intense, tangible progress.

your year overview and reflection is incredible - way to go!

I hope 2025 brings you just as much good fortune!

[sundrop]

Thank you for your kind words ^_^!! This was the year I became truly fed up with the intermediate plateau, enough to do something serious about it :). Good fortune to you in the New Year as well!

[sundrop]

2月12日2025年

Hello and welcome to a little February update.

Things did not go as smoothly as I hoped this past month and a half. I had a great big plan, smart goals, deadlines for myself, all that. And it all fell to pieces as a return to regular programming + insane workload in January kicked my ass. I scraped by at minimum for the first few weeks of 2025, and struggled with burnout. But as ever, I’m still here :).

I’d like to list out some of the good things.

GOOD THINGS:

• My Japanese is noticeably better. I still have many places that I struggle. But overall, I am understanding my coworkers quickly and consistently. I’m able to translate much faster, and I think my coworkers are speaking to me faster as well. I have even been able to catch + tell a joke or two, which makes me immensely happy. There are a couple of new folks who arrived from Japan and aren’t aware of how truly intermediate I was several months ago. They speak to me very, very quickly, which was a bit of a shock. But overall, I’ve been able to adapt pretty well.
• Oh yeah. I PASSED THE JLPT N3. Hahah I forgot about this one. I DID IT! I got 138/180, with a 50/60 in listening as my best category. This was a huge happiness!
• I started reading my novel, 西の魔がが死んだ. No, I have not been consistent, and no, I haven’t gotten very far. I’m on page 17 lol. spent one session getting through 3 pages in about an hour. The pace is gruelingly slow, but it is satisfying to understand nonetheless. My biggest obstacle is kanji, unfortunately; I have to look up tons of words. But outside of that, the grammar and overall flow is fairly comprehensible.
• I started an anime for the first time in forever, 「葬送のフリーレン」. It’s so, so beautiful and peaceful and sad and interesting. I’m watching with other folks, so there are English subtitles and I’m not counting it as a Japanese immersion watch. But I do listen carefully and look away from the subtitles as much as possible. I can understand a lot.
• I listen to my Japanese podcast! It’s not consistent or a routine, but I have been listening.
• Today I decided to browse around for a show to actually use for immersion. I’m giving 「君に届け」a shot, as one of my Japanese friends gave me the manga many years ago (I have not read but 3 or so pages). I’ve watched about 20 mins of the first episode with Japanese subtitles. I understood pretty much everything, there were only a few times I had to rewind. It’s soooo cool to watch a show like this!
  Idk if I’m hooked on the series yet, tbh it feels a little young for me at the moment. I really enjoyed 恋が続くよどこまでも and ブラッシュアップライフ, both of which focus a little more on young adult life (as opposed to student life). If anyone has recommendations for good dramas, or even reality TV, lmk!

HOW I’M RECOVERING
I want to make my way back into a study routine.

• Anki. I spent the last week focusing on bringing my Anki reviews down to a reasonable amount; they finally are. I did about 100-200 reviews per day to catch up. Now I am maintaining them as I work on
• Wanikani. My reviews built up to 1000. I’m working my way down 100 items per day, today I brought it down to 800, which means it’ll be 8 more days before it’s at 0. When I hit 0, I should be in a good place to start adding new WK and AK items sustainably.

That’s it for now. I will continue reading my novel when I can, watching my TV show when I wanna. Oh, and continuing with my podcast. When I feel like AK and WK are back under control, I will choose one of these areas as my next goal:

• Novel
• Podcast
• TV Show
• Articles
• Kanzen N2 grammar book

One last thought. After some recent events in my country, I ended up deleting most social media outside YouTube. Instagram, Reddit, all gone. The news cycle was too distressing and too much at once, plus social media corporations have been giving me the ICK. It’s been about a month now with YouTube as my only doomscrolling app, but today I got tired of the shorts there too. I’m thinking of deleting that app as well and looking up videos on a browser if needed.

All that to say, I’ve really been trying to take more time this year. And without scrolling on social media, I’ve had lots more moments where I get to think–woah, how do I wanna spend right now, what do I wanna do? I’ve already had more time for reading, thinking, cleaning, looking at the news, crossword puzzles, calling friends, daydreaming. I’m hoping that this big step back this year will give me more time for filling my free time with Japanese study, relaxation, and the things I care about.

Bai!

[GolyBidoof]

Deleting social media in general is a good idea, WaniKani definitely scratches that social media itch for me now xddd

But also be on the lookout, because it’s very easy to go from social media to something that doesn’t exactly fit the definition, but you’re still wasting a ton of time on it regardless, like Reddit or even YouTube xddd

Congrats on the N3 result, 138/180 is a really good score from the test ^^

And stan Frieren, I have a poster of it up on my wall and I think about it sometimes. A YouTube video scrolled through my YouTube feed about how cool the cinematography of it, minor spoilers, but you might like it ^^

Good luck on the rest of the grind!

[sundrop]

@GolyBidoof

it’s very easy to go from social media to something that doesn’t exactly fit the definition, but you’re still wasting a ton of time on it regardless, like Reddit or even YouTube xddd

Yes!! A while back when I deleted social media, I ended up spending way too much time on those two exactly. This time, I’ve deleted Reddit (the negativity and constant stream of upsetting news was a huge motivator) and put an app limit on YouTube, which has been working pretty well because if I really want to use it I can still use my computer or tv, which tends to be a more intentional use of time.

On my phone, I seem to be channeling my time into word games or a legit newspaper app, which are much less addictive and not eating so much of my time.

@GolyBidoof

Congrats on the N3 result, 138/180 is a really good score from the test ^^

Thank you, I’m quite satisfied! It’s so nice to have passed!

@GolyBidoof

And stan Frieren,

I actually just finished the season yesterday. What a show. Thank you for the link, I’m going to go check it out after I finish my reviews for today. My goal is to get it down to 600… 100 to go!

[mitrac]

@sundrop

I PASSED THE JLPT N3. Hahah I forgot about this one. I DID IT! I got 138/180, with a 50/60 in listening as my best category. This was a huge happiness!

Congrats !!!

[sundrop]

Thank you so much!!! (I like your adorable turtle emoji)

[sundrop]

Here for a brief update from my phone. I’m celebrating, because at long last, I have overcome the mountain of reviews that built up when I fell off in December-January. I did about 400 over the course of the day and am officially at 0 !!! (for the next few hours.)

It’s not quite over yet. My apprentices are at 210, I like keeping them under/around 100. I’m going to concentrate for the next little while on keeping up with reviews 1) to bring that number down and 2) to get back in the habit. The difficult thing is, I think I get a lot of motivation from the thrill of leveling up. So I think it feels more tedious than normal when I’m not making progress on finishing my level. Alas, just a bit longer.

I am back into my Anki groove and adding 20 cards (10 terms) a day on weekdays. That seems to be going well.

I am also on a ROLL with the novel I’m reading. I’d like to do a longer, more detailed post about that soon. For now, I shall simply say, I am genuinely enjoying this book, and it feels like a breath of fresh air in a hectic day. There are lots of words and kanji that I don’t know. But I have some plan and ideas… I’ll go into it later.

[sundrop]

Another little update for my phone—I did my reviews twice today, once at 6:30 and once at 11. There were about 100 items each time, and it will be so again at 7pm today. Alas, my apprentices are at 230. The number is climbing!

When I’m in a good wanikani flow, I generally have 100ish reviews in the morning, then 30 or so in the afternoon and night. The current situation is significantly more exhausting. But I must plow on to recover. Here’s to recovering my flow!

[sundrop]

Down to 178 in apprentice today! I also went ahead and added the last few kanji in level 27, so I’m poised to level up in the next few days. Hopefully that will be good motivation and feel like a fresh start. In the meantime, I’m getting these apprentices to a manageable level!

Just gotta do my Anki and I’m covered for the rest of today :).

[sundrop]

3月8日2025年

Level

28

at

last!!!

Ouf, it has been a long time on this one. The next week is going to be difficult, because I want to get back to the routine of steadily moving forward.

Fortunately, a steady pace means level progress, and quicker recall overall.

Unfortunately, this means I have to hold myself to a regular pattern of learning 15 new items on weekdays, and reviewing 3 times a day. That’s an amount of discipline and routine that I have not practiced for a few months. But I have my notebook, my pen, and my determination to learn all of these damn kanji.

If I can level steadily for the rest of this year, I shouldn’t have to worry much about extra kanji studies for the N2. I also should see a significant improvement in my reading ability.

Speaking of which, I have been progressing in 西の魔女が死んだ. Wonderful read! I will go into this further at a later time.

Here it is, level 二十七 complete. I am a little embarrassed and sad about how long I neglected this level. HOWEVER. I think in a while, it will start to feel like my other purple levels. I can see how much I struggled to stick with the program, but it’s somewhat comforting that I kept clearing the levels despite how long it took. I will keep going!

See you on level 29.

[sundrop]

Sike, it’s not level 29, I’m back 12 hours later.

WHY?

I’m sick in bed with a terrible illness and have been trapped here with my laptop for days. I’m very bored and would like to take this moment of stillness (and excessive coughing) to reflect on my journey so far.

A question for fellow forum-users, if you see this: what ways/places to you like to be involved on the WK forums? Since deleting social media, I think it might feel kind of nice to be more involved here. I’m hoping to get involved in the Read Every Day Challenge for Spring (it’s quite late to start the winter challenge). Have you participated in those before?

And now, time for some reflections. I’ll make a cute separate post.

[sundrop]

冬2025年反省
1月・2月

The state of things

• Wanikani got way off track. I let 1000+ reviews build up and finally got them to a manageable place. I have finally caught up, and today I did my first set of lessons in forever.
• Anki also fell off, but I finally started adding 20 new cards each weekday. It’s been about 2 weeks so I feel better about my progress. I’m down to 371 new cards left in my deck.
• I have been much more sporadic with podcasts and shows. I downloaded a couple podcasts and they occasionally auto-play as I’m driving. I’m not being super intentional about one a day, but I am listening to them, so I’m not mad. I watched a little of a show or two but haven’t had much time to be super immersed.
• I have not been reading articles. But I’m not mad becuase
• I have been reading a novel. I can hardly believe it but I’m 47% done and very much enjoying it!
• I have regular speaking and listening practice at work + with weekly/bi-weekly tutoring sessions. I have not cracked open Kanzen N2 grammar yet, but it’s on my desk.

Overall, this did not go according to plan, but I’m relieved to finally have Anki and Wanikani back in check.

Where I’d like focus

• For this next month, I want to maintain my pace with Wanikani and Anki. I’d like to get through the last of my Anki deck so I can start adding more cards from elsewhere.
• I want to push through the second half of this novel. When I’m done, I’d like to post a little review/reflection, and add it to my ‘read’ shelf at last.
• I’d like to choose one show and watch through it. Let’s do that now. I have 9.5 episodes left of 君に届け. I’ll try to watch through the show this month.
• I want to crack open my N2 grammar book. I think I’ll start slow and aim to do one section this week.

That’s it, 5 things for March: Wanikani, Anki, Novel, Show, Grammar.

Check in later!

[soggyboy]

@sundrop

A question for fellow forum-users, if you see this: what ways/places to you like to be involved on the WK forums? Since deleting social media, I think it might feel kind of nice to be more involved here. I’m hoping to get involved in the Read Every Day Challenge for Spring (it’s quite late to start the winter challenge). Have you participated in those before?

The Read Every Day challenge is one of the coziest corners of the forum imo! That’s a great place to start if you want to be involved. I love reading everyone’s updates every day and cheering people on

[mitrac]

congrats on your novel progress!

@sundrop

I’m sick in bed with a terrible illness and have been trapped here with my laptop for days. I’m very bored and would like to take this moment of stillness (and excessive coughing) to reflect on my journey so far.

I feel you on that. WK is a great boost for me on illness days when my head will play along. The community is so friendly!

@sundrop

A question for fellow forum-users, if you see this: what ways/places to you like to be involved on the WK forums? Since deleting social media, I think it might feel kind of nice to be more involved here. I’m hoping to get involved in the Read Every Day Challenge for Spring (it’s quite late to start the winter challenge). Have you participated in those before?

I’ve done those and they are awesome! I don’t anymore because it’s not currently how my brain enjoys the forum, but the very first one I did, the Spring 2023 challenge - I totally credit that with giving me a huge jump forward in my Japanese, helping me meet other folks here, and establishing a Japanese reading habit that remains to this day. Similarly, I did the Listen every day challenge once and felt like I got a lot out of it.

Other things on the forums - well, you’re doing the study log… I also enjoy following and commenting on other people’s study logs (haha, like this), lots of activity around book clubs (joining book clubs, leading book clubs, making up informal book clubs to lead, nominating books to book clubs), participating in taiyousea’s equinox readathons (next one coming up imminently!), participating in themed threads like the classical music thread, the travel logs are so cool, and occasionally looking at new posts I’m not following. I have to admit, at some point, when I was following so much that it takes a while to see all updates, I don’t actually look through the general feed or new posts. I only do that occasionally. In the beginning, it was a fun way to find new stuff, but I’m a bit maxed out atm so I don’t even try to keep up with what’s new. But it means sometimes I’ll totally miss someone’s log that I interact with a lot. So I review it occasionally, but I ruthlessly mute anything that turns into a dumpster fire (mercifully very rare here).

[RebBlue]

@sundrop

A question for fellow forum-users, if you see this: what ways/places to you like to be involved on the WK forums?

Thirding the read-every-day challenge. I also like joining other challenges and book clubs and reading through the study logs.

[sundrop]

Ooo okay I’m excited to check it out! I can’t wait to go for it in the spring :). I’m really hoping it will help me feel inspired and develop a nice reading habit

[sundrop]

I am definitely a lurker, but I haven’t been able to be consistently involved. You guys r making me excited for the read-every-day challenge!