A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Study Log 🇯🇵 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇵🇱

February 24th, 2025

  • 138 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 48 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo
  • 2h of Japanese lessons

Today at the Japanese classes we’ve talked about Valentine’s Day and the White Day in Japan, well, I haven’t sent any chocolates, so not expecting anything back xddd
But it’s funny how we compared the celebration to a day in Finland which is supposed to be a day for telling friends you appreciate that this is the case, and on that note I definitely vibe with the Finnish interpretation more ^^

Also, really good review session on WaniKani today, I had a 97% accuracy when I was going through the block! But both over the classes and then trying to do reviews afterwards, I realized that the direction of understanding what you read is tempting and amazing to consume native level content, but searching for words with just Anki decks and WaniKani that go in this direction doesn’t help you to just find a word in your head on the fly: we’ve had an open conversation today of being at an electronics store and asking for a シンプルな携帯電話 and I was trying to come up with features that I would be able to ask for, and the only ones that came to my mind was 近代的なデザイン, cool, what does even a “modern design” for a phone mean??? xddd

Im so good at this entire Japanese thingy I swear xdd

I’ll probably have to get to KaniWani eventually xdd

Also, today is a day when every single type of fatigue caught up with me, and let me tell you, I definitely prefer to take five minutes longer to cycle to work than just not being able to tell apart which words are German and which words are Japanese, fun thing xdd

Nerd stuff: Finished The AM Archives, the spin-off drama podcast of The Bright Sessions, pretty cool; I prefer the main series though xd
And I’m playing Lost Records in German with English audio overlay, me trying to focus on one thing and not starting 20 things at the same time, difficulty level, impossible xddd

8 Likes

February 25th, 2025

  • 122 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 51 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

Day 200 on Duolingo!


Also, day 86 of the post-JLPT daily grind I’ve started in the same formula, but the numbers that aren’t so round don’t sell off that easily xdd

Tomorrow I wanted to 見渡す over the words that start with the 見 kanji, because I just find it fascinating in how many different ways I can be wrong about their meanings xdd

I burned a lot of them already, but there is a lot of liberty that the Japanese dictionary is giving itself on the words starting with the 見 kanji xdd
Today I didn’t know what 見返す was in a review, so I hope that if I write it here, it’ll make it easier for me to stick ^^


In 24 hours, I should be level 28 on WaniKani!

I looked at tomorrow’s Bunpro and I was like, aaaAAAA xddd


This will be my most demanding day yet, and knowing that some grammars simply don’t stick, means that tomorrow will be a bit tougher than usual ^^

But yeah, I’m still not over the last weekend and my brain doesn’t want to allocate a lot of energy into Japanese study again, I’m sure some motivation could help and I want to get to the Apothecagry Diaries once again, but I’d probably need to have a day without AI bullshit at work to deal with to have the mental energy to go back to them again, maybe this weekend ^^

In the meantime, I’ll check some of your study logs, maybe I’ll find something inspiring there~

5 Likes

Well would you look at that C:

February 26th, 2025

  • 125 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 57 reviews on Bunpro (!!!)
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

I think the baseline difficulty level of reviews is increasing, because I’ll also have a few burns (maybe) this Saturday and my amount of reviews will spike over 200 on WaniKani, not necessarily ready for it yet, but the uplifting news is that it’s not Saturday xdd

I’m starting to struggle on the words that have, eee, many strokes inside of them xdd

My eyes just go the opposite way and go like, “there’s too much reading”, and don’t read the ultimate, seduction, to weave or organization, but I’m happy to report I remembered them now when I’m writing this post, so, wuuu C:

I don’t know if people take Bunpro levels seriously here, because they stand for a different thing, but I’m on a brisk of level 40, that sounds pretty badass, I don’t know how does it translate to knowing Japanese though xdd

Life: finished the first tape of Lost Records: Bloom and Rage (ENG dub/GER subs) and I have A LOT of thoughts about the game, why not overshare then xddd

Bloom and Rage tape 1 non-spoiler thoughts

It’s such a weird narrative, I enjoy the worldbuilding really much, characters a liiiittle less, but that also is a bit of the point of the game, but the decisions that this game asks you to make, make me sometimes go like “huh?”. I have a feeling that this game is trying to push me to empathize with girls, but it doesn’t do the same that much in return, the empathizing bit is made on their rules and Swann, the protagonist, often is made to just adapt herself to the girls or not be friends with them, to which I’m being pretty reluctant against.

I don’t think I’d be a great Japanese society member, because I don’t like doing things that don’t agree with my moral compass, and there are a few cutscenes where you see that Swann might be curious about a thing, but then she’s just as happy not doing a thing. Fine, I’m not going to do a thing then! What are those broken hearts around the screen? Why are you booing me? I’m right xddd

But the vibes are immaculate, the music, the backgrounds, the sound design, I liked it really, really much and would recommend the game…

Bloom and Rage tape 1 spoiler thoughts

…but like, there is a huuge difference between Chloe in Life is Strange just stumbling through life and trying to do everything for her friend, and Autumn, Kat and Nora, whose respect you need to gain by telling them specific things, and each time it’s completely different things, sometimes even opposite to one another, to different people. Going early in the tape I was convinced that Kat would be my favorite friend, but then the game started getting pretty woozy and I was like, “okay, Autumn it is then”, and then she refused to open up to me, so I was like “fine, Nora is cool too”, and Nora played it straight with me: either you do stuff my way, or we’re not friends. I ended up returning to Kat by the end of the tape and there’s a really cool plot twist at the very very end of the tape, but like, Swann, aaa!!!

Looking at the decision screen at the end of the game and the connections I’ve built with other people I felt… embarrassed? That despite me trying different approaches and going over what would feel comfortable with me, I still wasn’t able to strongly connect with either one of those, and I think I’m not the only one to blame for this one xddd

Either way, looking forward to Tape 2, will be great!

7 Likes

February 27th, 2025

  • 140 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 49 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

I did the reviews in time, just was wondering what to put here since I finished reviews xdd
I had a very tiring day today and barely made it through and a lot of external factors came in to ruin my mood, but I managed to do the reviews just fine, so it wasn’t all that bad xdd

My biggest boss of today is を切っ掛け, as I had no idea that this was the correct answer in this one at all xdd


But again, the rule of exclusion, if I forgot about it today and made a big deal out of it, I’ll remember about it tomorrow, so それを切っ掛け、大丈夫です。^^

Life: pizza at work today, tons of document writing and energy levels completely depleted, tomorrow I’m doing me some REST and I hope that a part of this rest will involve Japanese language ^^

Also, in terms of language study, watched this video on Gamescom in German and became nostalgic for the last year’s event.

only 6 months to go to have it again… C:

See you tomorrow, hopefully, with a more Japanese study log ^^

7 Likes

February 28th, 2025

  • 127 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 49 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

I finally got what was the feeling I’ve had yesterday!
I got ill! C: xddd
Not even snowboarding brought me down, or maybe my body was postponing the receptors of “falling ill” until it was feeling safe to do so, well, that’s me today xddd

Doing reviews with a runny nose and teary eyes is really fun, because you sometimes have a higher priority than knowing what’s the reading for 健忘症, or maybe I’m just having amnesia after the lessons yesterday xdd

The review session took a bit longer today than usual and I went through three tissues over that time, but I did it, and I’ll give myself a small pat pat for it xdd

Tomorrow:

  • my WaniKani will have 203 reviews (scaryyy)
  • my Bunpro will have 57 reviews (oh no xdd)
  • I will finish the Quarter 1 textbook’s grammar

Wondering if I should just follow the N3/N4 path after this textbook, or just to take Quartet 2 as a grammar source ^^

I don’t know if any of you saw the Quartet 1 textbook, I definitely didn’t, but it looks something like this:


There is a review of it on the Tofugu page:

It currently is only 3300 yen on Japanese Amazon, but I already have plenty of textbooks to go through, so I don’t need extra ones right now xdd
We’re doing みんなの日本語中級1 in the Japanese classes right now, it’s a little outdated, but I like how creative some of the sentences are ^^
Bunpro doesn’t have a grammar set for this textbook, which is sad, because I’d really want to blast through it, but alas xd

In terms of life, aside from being ill right now, my local Rewe has onigiris in them:


I had them for breakfast today ^^
They do not have that many calories and definitely do not work as a standalone breakfast just by themselves, but it’s cool that they exist

I’m kinda curious about the Japan Style bowl:


If I don’t 熱で亡くなる until tomorrow, I might get a Mehrkornbrötchen and treat myself to a sandwich or two with that bowl ^^

For now however, I’m evacuating myself to my bed to fight for survival, or whatever excuse the guys would use these days xddd

5 Likes

yyyyyyo :wave: xdd

March 1st, 2025

  • 203 reviews on WaniKani (83 burns!!!)
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 57 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo
  • Misc: 9 episodes of 薬屋のひとりごと JPN dub/ENG sub, finished first season and it was so good omg xdd
  • Misc: 1 episode of YUYUの日本語Podcast, I can’t second-screen Japanese when I’m on a bike and also am trying to listen to it, but I caught up a decent few phrases on the work that people want to do vs that they don’t want to do xddd

It’s March, 遂に!
March tends to be the worst month for me in terms of things just coming and crashing down, in the past I thought it was because of Vitamin D deficiency, but now I’m supplementing it and it still feels not so great xdd

I’m yet again learning the hard way that the reason why I’m not learning Japanese as fast as I could is not because I travel so much and am exhausted afterwards, it’s because I consider Japanese immersion to be an exhausting operation and my brain when attempting to limit exhausting things is taking this in consideration.

Whether it is a cognitive bias or not remains is indecisive, because the process of getting myself into flow indeed is exhausting, but when you’re already in it, it becomes a bit easier. There is this 5-Minute rule that tries to get you to start anything saying “it’s only for five minutes, I can end then”, and after five minutes, you’re supposed to be in the flow state, but for me, the getting into flow takes something like 20-ish minutes, and sometimes I just zone out and 15 minutes in go like “oh? I was supposed to be paying attention? sorry, i spaced out” xddd

I don’t know how to trick my brain into doing this, but also, I don’t know if I’m currently in the state where I want to trick my brain into anything, I should work together with it, rather than against it xddd

Ehhh, should I just pester a coach or ChatGPT to help me out break this down? I have a feeling each time I get a call with a coach, I meme myself into even more troubles than I used to have previously in an attempt to resolve that one issue xddd

But yeah, I made my way on a bike to a Japanese store today, Neo Tokyo, and bought a February volume of the Animage magazine I will be reading when… I don’t know, I hope I will xdd

Today’s review session was 1h10m long, really went for a long time because I had a ton of items on both WaniKani and Bunpro, but I managed to burn a grand total of 83 items, woo!

Also, 薬屋のひとりごと


Wanted to show off today’s new Apothecary nails btw xddd
Could’ve gone for pale red though ^^

I have such a weird relationship with this series because I love the universe and Maomao is the absolute best, but anytime a mystery is on the screen, I go like “i dont caaaare”, and then a deus ex machina comes off regardless and everyone is like “OMG MAOMAO UR SO COOL” and I’m like “OMG MAOMAO UR SO COOL” and then Jinshi goes like “OMG MAOMAO UR SO COOL” and then Maomao goes like “frick off Jinshi in particular” and then I go like “frick off Jinshi in particular” and that’s the wholesome action I love xddd

I don’t know, I’m not very romantic, so if I were to pick off any aspect of the series I wish there were less of, it’s the romance with Jinshi, because the Kakegurui part of The Apothecary Diaries I really adore xddd

I’ll try watching season 2 somewhere in the future, I’ve heard it’s a bit more like the LN and less like manga, but I haven’t read the third LN yet, so it’s hard for me to say whether the somber tone will be more for me, or whether it’ll deter me off, whatever has less romance with Jinshi xddddd

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You can try creating “atmosphere patterns” to set up a consistent ‘study mode context’ to trick your brain into focusing.

Example setup

I always play the same soft lo-fi medieval music when doing my JPDB reviews and adjust the room lighting to a specific brightness. Now when unmotivated I open a muted twitch stream about a game I do not care on the right and have jpdb / music on the left (the music is very low, way lower than the SRS sounds).

And I start to review slowly, after a few minutes of reviews I usually close the stream because it’s exasperating me and go full review mode until done !

The idea is to train your brain to go into autopilot “oh yeah we’re doing the thing I know how to do the thing”.

5 Likes

March 2nd, 2025

  • 107 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 54 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo
  • Misc: reading one feature interview in Animage
  • Misc: watching one episode of 薬屋のひとりごと第2期 JPN dub/ENG sub

Yeah, Bunpro is picking up, I’m having 65 reviews tomorrow, ouch xddd

ANYWAY aNYWAY
I finally dug into Animage issue Feb 2025 and read the whole interview for 薬屋のひとりごと第2期, was surprised how few times I got walled reading it and either the old knowledge from the lv60 grind, or the kanjis I’m doing right now, I didn’t have many places where my reading speed was below my talking speed in Japanese, reading it felt pretty fast and I was like C:

Here’s an example of the text that was in there


There were a few places where I asked myself “wait, so there’s 猫猫 (マオマオ) AND 毛毛 (マオマオ) ???”
And yep, it took me until watching the first episode of the second season, this time JPN dub, JPN subs, to understand what 猫猫と毛毛 meant xddd

Reading this interview reminded me of reading TV magazines of the past where actors were being asked questions “so, out of all of the roles you’ve played, which was your favorite plushie you’ve had on the set”, meaning I got absolutely nothing new from this interview, but it was wholesome xdd

As for the actual episode, watching this show for the first time with Japanese subs was, eee, harder than I expected, but I made it a point not to pause and I understood a lot from the context, so I can’t say I wasted time, but it’s probably a bit away from my comfort zone - listening is definitely harder than reading for me right now. Even when I was able to read the subs pretty quickly, understanding what they meant before the next round of subs rolled in wasn’t a great effort, but hey, turning into a Kusuriya no Hitorigoto stan is slowly taking place ^^

Life: friend invited me to go to a pub quiz with her British friends, and we ended up in the fifth place out of like 30 groups, I learned that Switzerland doesn’t have a navy and that the longest cruise ship was like 340 meters long xddd

Ehh, work tomorrow :sob:
But at least I can’t say I haven’t advanced my Japanese this weekend, was a good attempt, hope I spark this engine a few more times in the future xdd

8 Likes

Guuuuuten Eveningen, it’s ya girl シャオマオ65 back at it again, ready for more Cool Kusuriya No Hitorigoto Fun Facts???

March 3rd, 2025

  • 150 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 65 reviews on Bunpro (ugghhh…)
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo
  • 2h of Japanese lessons

well then I have some bad news for you, no Apothecary Facts today, but they’re not going away, I’m Still A Stan, I promise xdddd

Bunpro today was really, really difficult, between all the 却って and 従って, 掛け, よれば, よると, よって, I spent some time cramming some of the grammars afterwards, because they just keep getting harder and harder, even when I only do three lessons a day xdd

Also, my defeated ass after the study session after midnight today xddd

Now that I’ve picked a N3 set though, I did a lot of those grammars before JLPT, so the new lessons seem much easier by comparison, but I need to just sit down and drill those grammars in my head somehow ^^

Also, did the remaining Level 28 lessons today ^^
The reviews took me just over an hour today, might take a similar amount of time tomorrow.

Today at the Japanese classes I had the first chance to use the 未だに grammar in the context that 発表のテーマは未だに考えなかった, and that felt reaally cool :sunglasses:

We spoke about the cave paintings in Venezuela, fun topic ^^

Still, good progress on Japanese today!

I joined a Discord server for Mario Kart Translation Project today because I’ve played some Mario Kart in the past and I’d like to polish my skills with translating, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned anywhere on this forum ever before, but I’m Polish, decided to take a shot translating some copies from English into Polish and created a large glossary document as I was getting through one of the files.

Some of the notes I’ve taken in the glossary so far involve things such as:

Since I’m ADHD-adjacent, I’m sure I’ll become burnt out by tomorrow, but if I practice my translating workshop a bit, maybe I could try to take it one step further and try to translate things from Japanese to English…? Who knows, I just don’t have that many ideas as for what to localize yet ^^

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czy mówisz po polsku?!?!
ショック
It just makes me admire you more! :star_struck: OMG すごい
That admiration might hold out even when I discover the truth that you are really old (like me) man who merely uses photos of manga color-palette-inspired beautiful manicures of another person. :laughing:

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czy mówisz po polsku?!?!

Mając przed sobą osobę z Ameryki która gdziekolwiek poza Amerykę przyjechała, osoba ta każdą rozmowę zacznie od “jestem z Bostonu” albo “Cali giiiirl”, coś w tym stylu. Wśród polskiej społeczności expatów jest trochę taki stereotyp, że osoba z Polski zacznie rozmowę od wyciągnięcia języka który rozmówca jest w stanie zrozumieć i postara się udawać, że jest “stąd”, że jest “lokalna” i była tu już od jakiegoś czasu xdd

Przejawia się to bardzo solidnie w Niemczech na przykład, gdzie Turecka, Syryjska czy Ukraińska kultura jest dosłownie wszędzie, a Polacy, mimo, że ich populacja tutaj jest na całkiem podobnym poziomie, nie mają żadnych budek z pierogami, nie mają napisów po polsku w popularnych miejscach, nie formułują za dużo społeczności wyłącznie polskojęzycznych, to takie, hm, dość interesujące uczucie.

Podejrzewam, że na pewno jest związane z faktem, że po upadku komunizmu, Polacy są bardzo zawstydzeni swoim krajem i gdy Francuzi na widok napisu “Made in France” dostają bzika i są skłonni wydać trzy razy tyle za rzecz, Polacy na widok “Made in Poland” będą mieli “a po co to komu? Kto by chciał z tego skorzystać? Przecież amerykańskie/niemieckie/francuskie lepsze”, i będziemy się z tego leczyć przez następne dziesięć pokoleń.

Czasami patrzę na polską filmografię z lat 80., patrzę na plakaty komunistyczne, na muzykę z czasów PRLu i mimo tego, że wiem, jak okropnym agresorem Związek Radziecki był, jak bardzo Polacy byli stłamszeni w tym czasie, i że to wszystko była propaganda i tak…
…czasami mam wrażenie, że Solidarność i rok 1989 sprawiły, że Polacy włożyli głowę w piasek i zaczęli się wstydzić swojej kultury tak bardzo, że dowolna próba uformowania soft power przez Polskę przynajmniej przez następne 50 lat będzie wyzwaniem z kategorii autopromocji bardziej niż z perspektywy faktycznej kontrybucji do puli pomysłów na świecie.

Ich würde gerne viele Geschichten über Polen erzählen, aber das Problem ist, dass ich mich von der polnischen Kunstszene völlig abgekoppelt fühle. Ein Teil davon ist freiwillig. Zum Teil liegt es einfach daran, dass ich mich für die europäische Kultur interessiere und nicht nur für die polnische Kultur an sich. Ich möchte von hier sein: und mit hier meine ich Deutschland, Österreich, die Niederlande, Belgien, Irland, ich bin von hier.

another person. :laughing:

Yeah, the disconnect is real
There was a great video by an autistic poet a while back, Savannah Brown, that was titled SO MANY SMALL LIVES FIT INSIDE THE BIG ONE

and the struggle is real. Treat it literal, as in the Severance Apple TV+ series, or metaphorical: I’ve lived a life in Poland, and then a life in Ireland. Now I’m living a life in Germany. I’ve lived a life before I studied Japanese, and then the early days of my Japanese study. And then I lived a life where I put Japanese to the side. And now I’m living a life of doing my nails after The Apothecary Diaries. Isn’t it wild?

when I discover the truth that you are really old (like me) man

damn… need to hide my Andrew Tate stash, i can’t allow for it to be seen!
wait, what do old men watch? Frank Sinatra music videos? is that a thing???

March 4th, 2025

  • 108 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 62 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo
  • Misc: tried watching one ep of Silo on Apple TV+ with Japanese subs, was interesting xdd

Remember when in the past I’ve talked about Cunk on Life with Japanese subs?
We back onto this experiment again xdd

I don’t know what the reason for this specifically is, but it feels to me like subtitles in Japanese make series significantly… more barebones? Like “Yeah, I get it, that’s gotta be tough”, and Japanese subs will go like “わかった。大変だ。”

Come on, you’re robbing us of the context in the sentence, I like the nuance of things xdd
But still, interesting experience of trying to watch a series with Japanese subs and paying attention to both Japanese and English.

Also, me:


now it’s more like 30 minutes a day, but sigh xddd

And the localization project is still ongoing, I’m down to exactly one file left, but that file is the longest one, so it might take a while tomorrow if I end up doing it. The glossary has been pretty helpful today, used it in a few places

Example of a few notes I’ve taken today:


If I keep it up tomorrow, I’ll do the first pass of the translation by tomorrow and then try to do some proofreading to see how good it looks in context and whether the copies are consistent and snappy enough.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an ability to insert the copies into the game, so I’m just aiming to create a glossary, properly label it and leave it for a Mario Kart 62 Translation Project in 2087 if anyone eventually gets around to it

Fun day either way, will see how Japanese study comes tomorrow ^^

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I dunno what old men do… My SO is “young at heart” :grin::blush:

more chit chat

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It’s interesting to me to hear a “young European exPat” perspective; because I’m over here talking with old (age 50-80) exPats, which is different (although now they are more able to easily keep up with the news “back home”)
…Tutaj w Chicago polska kultura jest bardzo silna. Mam wielu przyjaciół, którzy są Polakami lub Polakami-Amerykanami. Musiałem użyć Tłumacza Google do Twojego posta, ponieważ mój polski jest najgorszym z moich języków. Dawno temu zdecydowałem, że jest trudniejszy niż język romański (np. włoski, francuski, hiszpański), gdy zobaczyłem, że różni się między podmiotami, dopełnieniami bliższymi i dalszymi. Język polski rozwalił mi mózg.
…Spędziłem ponad miesiąc na samym alfabecie (którego teraz nie mogę sobie dobrze przypomnieć). Kilku bardzo dobrych przyjaciół powróciło do swojego życia w Polsce, niedaleko Torunia. (Kopernik, kochanie!) Jest bardzo wielu naprawdę wspaniałych Polaków. W ciągu ostatnich 15 lat poczułem ulgę, widząc, że Polacy w końcu mogą wrócić do Polski.

I’ve actually seen in about the same timeframe a similar return to China among my Chinese exPat friends…

Unfortunately, these are matters of 生死に関わる問題

Wow! You’re making amazing progress with your Pokemon project!! :muscle:

2 Likes
Chicago, Polish Language Rant

Słyszałam o Chicago, mam znajomą, która mieszka w okolicy, więc czasami przelatują mi historie. Estetyka Chicago jest śmieszna, bo przypomina mi czasy Polski z lat 70. i 80., jakby nic się od tego czasu nie zmieniło xdd

A druga śmieszna rzecz, trochę się uśmiałam, jak zobaczyłam, że Google Translate tłumaczy wszystkie zdania używając gramatycznej płci męskiej, więc brzmiałaś jak mężczyzna pisząc to :stuck_out_tongue:

Dokładnie tego starałam się unikać robiąc tłumaczenia do Mario Karta, ale w niektórych przypadkach trudno jest pozbyć się informacji gramatycznej na temat płci z tłumaczenia, no cóż ^^

Polecam DeepL jako tłumacz, tłumaczy kontekst, nie tylko słowa, i działa bardzo dobrze zarówno z polskim, niemieckim jak i japońskim!

Guess who’s back (back back back… its an echo thing), back again (again again again… it’s also an echo thing) xddd

March 5th, 2025

  • 134 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 62 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

WELL GUESS WHAT ADHD BRAIN

YOU DID IT

My first unpaid unrepresented anywhere translation gig of 2025 finished, now I’m switching over to my first unpaid unrepresented quality assurance gig of 2025, will try to lean on the AI algorithms slightly to check consistency, capitalization, punctuation, typos, etc. etc, might finish doing it tomorrow as well ^^

Either way, there are a few other Mario Kart games in the translation project that need some love in terms of localization and I might give them some eyes in the future, but that’s it for now.

Here’s the link to the first draft of the localization ^^

Japanese: tfw you forget how to write how to turn 立つ into a -masu form and keep rubbing your head being like “たてます? たたます? たついます?”


Listen, nobody’s perfect xddd

Also, tfw 週刊ファミ通 won’t have an issue on Xenoblade X, feels bad.


I wonder if I should just get the current issue of Nintendo Dream to at least have something, but I wanted to pack a few things into a cart before pulling the trigger and buying things from Japan. Maybe 葬送のフリーレン第5巻 in Japanese to join the book club?

We’re so close away from the release that I just can’t wait for the game to eventually leak and for people to start writing spoilers for all the new added bonus content so that I could bust out a Google Sheet and keep writing all the big numbers in there xdd

Also, my mom is coming to Berlin on Friday, so this weekend might not be the most productive in terms of Japanese, but you know, tiny steps.

For now though, eee, “that’s about it. see ya.” xdd

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Re. Language Rant:

Oh, crap!
You’ve discovered that I’m really a creepy old man. :roll_eyes:

Bwahahaha :laughing: :joy: :rofl:

1 Like

March 6th, 2025

  • 137 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 51 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

I got caught off-guard by this sentence in the middle of my study today xddd

It’s such a weird feeling to feel that even when you have this 90%+ accuracy and you can tell things away on the spot, change the context you’re in and it suddenly feels much different

I think it might be the time to start mixing up some things into the study, the current routine works great; I loaded an Amazon cart and have it sent over to my place xddd

How much am I going to use of it? I don’t know, but I loaded:

  • 銀の匙第1巻, I was indifferent about the anime when I was watching it, but if I have a chance of participating in a book club, I could be interested in joining???
  • 葬送のフリーレン第5巻, still stan Frieren and am interested in joining the book club midway through xddd
  • 電撃Nintendo 2025年4月号, Xenoblade X feature, awful posters xddd
  • NintendoDREAM 2025年4月号, if we’re stuck on a different planet, make it count, even more Xenoblade X ^^
  • 週刊ファミ通 2024年4月18日号, the Paranormasight issue, I love Paranormasight!
  • コミック百合姫 2025年3月号, because I’m still team yuri and really want to see this genre pick up against yaoi, I just wish the stories were a little bit more, hmm, lifelike? I hope that if we support yuri enough, I’ll find myself represented in those stories more often xddd

They should arrive by next Friday.

So, Paranormasight, its sO GOOD IM TELLING YOU

if there was a book club to read it, I’d probably join it without hesitation to give it a shot in Japanese, though there are some really hard puzzles that require understanding every word in a sentence to get it right xdd

But not to spoil too much, it’s such a fresh take, it feels like the person writing this story was given absolute story freedom on a lower budget and they were like “all right, freedom is freedom”, and implemented so many impressive and unexpected sequences benefitting from the visual novel genre that made me just go like, “wait, can you do this? is this legal???”

The soundtrack is first class, the characters are first class, the story is, eeee, incredibly fun to witness is the correct word xdd
Would recommend Paranormasight definitely ^^

And in terms of life today, I don’t know, it’s still the middle of the week, so I shouldn’t be making decisions around my life on a Thursday or anything, but lately I definitely feel like I’m ready for the life to start happening! Please, life, it’s time! Start happening already! I might have to give myself a push in any sort of a direction not to grow too stagnant irl ^^

And watched Mickey 17 today in a cinema, it was 冒険でしょうでしょう definitely xdd

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March 7th, 2025

  • 128 reviews on WaniKani
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 54 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo
  • Misc: One chapter of ネネコさん動物の写真館

Really happy to have inspired Shannon with Paranormasight, but I have to be careful hyping up things because there’s like a 1000 things I’m really hyped about and most people don’t have enough hours in the day to get hyped about most of those things, so keep it for the important ones :sweat_smile: xdd

Paranormasight is GREAT though and I’m glad it went unspoiled in the general public consciousness so nobody is prepared for anything, not even for the very first story arc of the game C: <3

So today, Super Mario Odyssey stories, I was eating my breakfast and pondering what could I do to attempt to start my life after the yesterday’s rant, and then I found a website of the Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum Berlin… it’s not exactly in the city center, far from that though xdddd

I ended up cycling 55.5km today, including a Vaessen TTRPG session I’ve had with friends, but that’s a different story xdd
I wonder how to replenish the calories tomorrow without just stuffing myself full with chocolate, but oh well xddddd

Either wayyyy~
They had an exhibition by a guy called Thomas Schriefers that was doing really cool collages of things, and because he also is a weaboo, a lot of his works were integrated Japanese themes in there, so that’s Japanese Pavilon 2020-2025 by him, there’s a ton of cool detail in it

Including the German text speaking about the constructions, capacity and the likes of it, I like buildings, so that took a little time from me ^^

EDIT: Link to the announcement post

Apparently the exhibition is hosted because of Expo 2025 that’s about to start in Osaka, and I’m pretty curious about what they’re going to be talked about in there, sooo, we’ll see.

Then, that center has a Japanese library, so I just sat in there, kicked in and read the first chapter of ネネコさん動物の写真館


thought it was pretty sweet, but I needed to force myself back into the story to understand what was going on, because it was using a ton of casual expressions, I’m still glad I made it ^^

On that note, there’s a new streaming service with Japanese movies called JFF Theater that’s endorsed by the Japanese government and apparently is free of charge, they advertised it, because it was launched in German recently, so it could be fun to look into, but I haven’t dug into it yet.

They also had a couple of offers of culture exchanges for young people to Japan (do I still count as young???), so I looked around and it seemed pretty fun, I might give them a proper visit somewhere in April when they’re actually holding an event, even though it’s really far away from my place xddd

Also, weird rant, but I’m still not used to being B2 in German and I reassure myself asking people like “it’s okay, you can revert to English if you won’t be able to find a word, just start in German at least”, and then you also finish in German because you never couldn’t find your way around a sentence just in German. I’M SO NOT USED TO IT IN GERMAN
JAPANESE WHEN

Also, LOOK, SPRING IS HERE

:DDDDD

My mom is coming tomorrow, we’ll do some 花見 with crocuses and all ^^

Anyway, won’t be Japaneseing this much for the next couple of days, but today I almost had a feeling that I was living my life already, b-but i-it definitely isn’t the real life yet, is it?
Just kidding, had a ton of fun today, so really enjoyed myself ^^

See you tomorrow everyone!

10 Likes

March 8th, 2025

  • 131 reviews on WaniKani
  • 22 lessons on WaniKani
  • 55 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

…I somehow completely forgot I was due to get promoted to level 29 today xddd
That explains the extra lessons today, but yeah, only the radicals ^^

LEVEL 29 WOOOO


…also, what’s that on the expected review forecast on the right… oh no, that doesn’t look right, RUUUN xdddd

I might spend a looong time reviewing today, but we’ve been through this, I just have to give my mom something to do over the 90 minutes I’m gone xddd

So, today, it’s funny how a lot of circles in Germany call it “Frauenkampftag” - Day of Women’s Struggle, and not just the International Women’s Day, but it’s fitting, I suppose ^^

Got two roses today, one for me, and one for my mom, I picked her up from the main station, she liked it and we’ve had a nice dinner after oversharing all of our day to day struggles xdddd

I’m in the middle of getting my mom hooked on Severance today, we’re two episodes in and might watch another episode before sleep, so I snarked through my nose when this radical came in today xddd

The crab-alligator reviews are mysterious and important :blush: xdddd

Have a nice day and, hopefully, see you on the other side of a 270+ wall tomorrow xddd

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Congrats on level 29!
おめでとう

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March 9th, 2025

  • 272 reviews on WaniKani (111 burns! Let’s go C:)
  • 15 lessons on WaniKani
  • 49 reviews on Bunpro
  • 3 lessons on Bunpro
  • 1 lesson on Duolingo

I’m just wondering if the burns every once in a while is now a perpetual state of being, or is it just for now, because let me tell you, that’s one heeeeck of a review session when I sit down to get to them xdd

I hope that with the lower accuracy I keep getting later, there will be ever less items to burn and no longer 50-minute walls of 272 reviews in a single sitting xddd

Kinda sad that I made a few basic mistakes today, like:


but with the accuracy rate of 94%, I’m pretty proud regardless, and 表, I’ll 仕返し you next time xddd

In terms of Bunpro, they have a few lesson items where meanings for the grammars are similar, but the spellings are the same, so today’s lesson on Bunpro was… oddly… simple? It felt as if I knew all of those grammars before I even attempted them :thinking:

Probably won’t stay for long, but making progress with the N3 set, I’m at 165/219 there ^^

But yes, here’s the 花見 with my mom!



It was the third day of spring here, and before long, it’s supposed to be -1 Celsius next week again, so let’s celebrate it while it lasts xddd

I’m about to show my mom the season finale of Severance and she already has some crazy conspiracy theories, it’s so much fun to sit on the receiving side of those theories and going like “mmmmm nah, cold, that’s not what’s happening” xddd

And work tomorrow again, oh well ^^
See you with the Japanese reviews tomorrow!

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