A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Travel & Friends & Probably Mandarin Learning Arc (🇨🇳 🇰🇷) 🇯🇵 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇵🇱

I’ve done at least two full playthroughs of each and countless theories and fanfics on Tumblr/AO3, and recently saw somebody making a summary of the first half of the first game that was 3 hours long, so there are reasons to believe I would persist;
I do not intend to xddd

I feel like my hooking setup more and more should just be a phone with a physical button shortcut to open Google Translate, I’m just reading from too many weird different sources, but I’m still a bit too lazy to do that :thinking:

I did have to assist myself to understand all of the characters with the method specified above, but let’s try the English->German/Japanese part!

Hmpf, ich werde es Mami sagen!!
ゴロゴロ、お母さんに言いつけてやるね!

Mami! Was würdest du tun, wenn dein Sohn geschlagen würde? Ich würde ihn schlagen!
母さん、息子が殴られたどうする?自分に殴るつもりだ。

July 7th, 2026


We’re in Heaven’s Feel after all, it was meant to happen sooner or later xddd

And I’ve already been saying that Today’s Menu For The Emiya Family is a ripoff, Shirou doesn’t even cook, he makes everyone else cook for him ^^

Also, the new trailer for 魔法使いの夜 by Ufotable has been announced and it’s coming later this year, which is interesting considering the fact it’s been announced like 15 years ago, but it seems Nasuverse is back into the spotlight again!

Now waiting for the Tsukihime: the other side of the red garden to finally be confirmed and hope that it’ll take less than 15 years from the announcement date ^^

And for those that don’t know, there was a point in time where PS Vita felt like a home for the Danganronpa series, Persona 4 Golden and Gravity Rush, and it feels nice reliving it how it was intended, or not, because Danganronpa V3 was in development for so long that Vita slowly started dying and the V3 version has really compressed audio compared to the console/PC editions ^^

I played it originally on a PC, then a little (also trying in Japanese) on a Switch, and now we’re back to the small form factor ^^


Chinese corner


A REAL TORTUGA (omg) xddd

Out of all of the 12 days of Chinese lessons so far, this one somehow tired me the most, to the point where as soon as I turned on Danganronpa over the break in the classes I was like “yess, finally something easy”, and visual novels didn’t use to be treated by me like that ^^

After the classes, I just laid down on a sofa for a while and wasn’t able to stand up for a while, with different tones and sentences running through my head

That said though, I still think the classes were really fun! I just need to reserve a little more mental energy for them than I expected ^^


Life

So at Seestraße in Wedding, a new döner place opened up exactly today!

If this is something that looks like an hour long line for you, that’s because it is! I didn’t queue up in it though, I only saw it twice today and the line was just as long both times ^^

They also had a really loud speaker outside that was playing German-ish rap that was calling all of the districts in Berlin where either the Goltz Kebap was, or where the author of the song could recall being, with a strong preference for the district of Neukölln xdd
And look at those flowers! They were from corporate sponsors, and the second time I saw the place, there were a few times as many flowers as here ^^

On the other side of the road of Seestraße, another restaurant is opening, Chen’s Beef Noodle House, which pretty closely mirrors the state of Berlin restaurants: it’s either döner or Asian, no inbetweens, I like it that way xddd

But yeah, a low energy, rainy day ^^
Of course I got wet ^^

BEST FLAG BTW (NOT LEARNING THE LANGUAGE THO) xdddd

And the final Heartstopper came out and it’s all over bookstores! I didn’t read the previous volumes despite being by Alice Oseman, so I allowed myself to spoil myself and go directly to pages 2000 and beyond, and awww C:

high five buddy C:

see you tomorrow ^^

Here’s the answer key in English :cat_with_wry_smile: :

1 Dad cat beats baby cat for wrecking house plant.

2 “Hmph, I’m going to tell mom!”

3 “Mom, what would you do if somebody beat your son?”

4 "I’d beat his son! "

Note: we do not condone violence. :crying_cat:

OOOOH i completely got this one wrong ^^

even with google translate, even looking at the characters i was like “yeah, there’s nothing off with my interpretation”, but now that i see this, i’m a little embarrassed that i thought the one i wrote above could be correct xddd

thanks, nice pop quiz C:

July 8th, 2026

Man, going through Bunpro wasn’t any fun today xddd

especially since i’ve been slowly accumulating leeches once i didnt allow to pass myself grammars on seasoned if i didn’t get them right the first time, and i think i might have to loosen the rules of passing grammars again :sob:

the good news is that this is almost the very end of the app, so now that I have N4 items to go for today and tomorrow, I know all of those grammar points pretty well already, so that should be easier

Same with the new words on WaniKani, I won’t forget 君の名は so there’s probably no way I’ll get this one wrong C:


Nice that there’s still new lessons and that they lower the overall difficulty of the platform, but that’s padding the remaining reviews :sob:

Also, ooh, the explanation of the name today was pretty good C:


Chinese corner

Quick update today: we finally got around to sentences that don’t have any latin characters anymore!

I don’t imagine they’ll disappear that quickly and that we’ll still be returning to the latin characters often, but I am pleased to inform I know how to read most of the sentences with the right tones without the latin characters!

But the words for “quarter past” or “half past” are giving me issues because they look deceiving and I’m having troubles internalizing them ^^

The table for the hours was probably the hardest part of the lesson today:


…especially since I learned Korean and Chinese words in such a short succession and they meddle in my head with one another ^^

And we have homework for tomorrow that I have not done and I probably will not do, seeing how it’s 2:30am right now :sob:


things are moving smoothly though ^^


Life

Another German sprachcafe today!

And the penultimate one before the summer break, so the organizer wanted to give us a fun activity for us to connect to one another, and we planted our own plants… in German C:

I actually did forget to ask what the plants that we were growing were, but I’ll try to remember to water the plants even when we’re taking the summer break ^^

And as today was a bit more hands-on experience, some people tried their best on some more DIY today and look at the cute things they did C:

I really like my library, and another shoutout to Alice Oseman! I wonder how did they adapt her to German ^^

Also went to our queer book club today and a big topic today: stealing books, when is it ethical, how to do it, how not to get caught xddd
LOOK AT THAT PIECE OF BREVIARY ITS JUST INSANE ENGLISH

So now quick to sleep and see you tomorrow! C:

July 9th, 2026

Aaaand I’m joining @maurice620 with having finished Bunpro!


Still, barely only level 93 and there will be reviews for months to come, but there’s no more grammar points to study from the app, so let me rest up on the laurels and keep on extending the 584 day streak ^^

The new N4 grammar items I learned today had a different person reading the example sentences than usual, I imagine each time Bunpro has a content drop, they try to contact a different person to dub the sentences, I wonder if my brain will start connecting cues of how a sentence is being spoken by which speaker to what grammar it is xddd

But yeah, Chinese unfortunately has started to affect my “Japanese” studies xddd

I was so disappointed I didn’t remember either the meaning or the reading :sob:

Also, oh damn, what a fun word ^^


Chinese corner

I’m falling behind and I’ll probably continue to do so for a while!
Part of it is not doing the homework because I don’t have enough spoons in a day to afford to learn languages for this much, part of it is because Japanese is getting in the way and messing up my study xddd

I could pause Japanese study to at least finish this course, but it’s Only 6 Days Left, so maybe I can afford to catch up afterwards ^^

But yeah, very festive chapter, 祝你生日快乐! A lot of useful words about meeting up with friends, and I haven’t gotten to them in Anki yet, and I’m not doing Anki for now, because after the classes I no longer have the capacity xdd

Korean also fell victim for now, I need to progressively return to things being on track:

  1. be consistent with Chinese homework
  2. get back to Chinese Anki
  3. get back to Korean
  4. get back to reading Japanese things

but that’s probably a thing for in two weeks. For now, I have to concentrate on sentences like 我送他一个生日蛋糕 and be able to read them ^^


Life

My lesbian friends took me over to a drag show once again, so of course I felt like saying hi ^^

(yes, I am happy sober xddd)

The four queens that have performed today have been pretty good at their songs and I appreciated the variety that each queen brought to the table ^^

This summer they’re performing every Thursday, but in addition to performing every Thursday, each time there is a show, they pick a few people from the audience to perform and do some drag together, and me and my friend did get invited to the stage today ^^

It was my very first time performing drag, though without the proper makeup or costumes, so it was mostly just moving and entertaining the crowd, but I was trying to prop her and she was trying to prop me and as for the first time, my theater kid persona that’s been dormant ever since poetry slam last year finally got reawakened again! And it was fun to do it with a friend too ^^

We didn’t end up getting any tips (boo), but we did get a free drink for doing the dances, and we got some coke and lemonade and the option to take a picture with one of the drag queens after the show, so hey, my first performance sensual dancing and lipsyncing for 100 people has been really fun ^^

It’s a fun jumping off point to performance arts, I wonder how I would do as a ballroom dancer or something to this extent ^^

rip chinese homework (i did it at least today xddd)

Yeah, I remember watching Tom Scott’s video about it!

Anyway, I’ve finally cought up with this thread and am very glad you are having a nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaice time! trunky_rolling

Best of luck with your studies and other cativities! love2

July 10th, 2026

This might be the single lowest JPDBv2 score I’ve ever seen for a word, and was very confused to see it as well :eyes:


hiragana-only words are weird in the world of level 120 on WaniKani

I’m doing day 6 at a much better pace than day 5, and this story block ad a plot twist happen which was a bit unexpected, even funnier considering that I am supposed to be like AimersNumberOneFan and I don’t remember what was happening in Heaven’s Feel, or maybe it simply didn’t get adapted, but there’s a mysterious visitor at the Emiya’s household right now ^^

Lessons on Bunpro are over, but I just guru’d the “peek” kanji, so now we’re looking into things ^^


Chinese corner

A big part of me lagging behind was numbers, counting, dates, and seeing people be so fluent at them, but today when I was muting the microphone I was trying to do some counting by myself reading different numbers in the textbook and it became a bit better.

I tend to do a little better in reading 拼音/汉字 tasks, because the system of Chinese syllables is pretty similar to Japanese and so are the kanji ^^

But that being said, the speed at which we’re moving makes it really hard to remember the vocabulary as we go, and it’s a little spotty which words I remember and what don’t, like our teacher tried to check if we remembered something from the past lessons and casually sneaked in “übrigens” into our current-chapter quiz and I did remember it being 对了!

Also, today was the first time that we as the group tried this exercise without the teacher’s input and… we did really well? It seems people are starting to internalize the tones together with words ^^

And 巧克力 is slowly growing to be one of my favorite words in Chinese ^^

We’re halfway through the A1.2 module and in a way, I’m glad there’s no classes tomorrow because I need to slow down a bit and catch up on things, but also I’m very much enjoying the classes and people that we have in the group and the way that our teacher props us up ^^


Life

Ikea trip today!

Same friends as yesterday, same friends as the day before yesterday C:

I’m pretty happy about us slowly getting to a tightly knit pack, and we’re meeting tomorrow too, so woo ^^
One of the friends is really teasing me by telling me that she enjoys talking to me because she doesn’t need to put on as much filter and think her words through before speaking to me which IM SO HAPPY ABOUT (no filter in this study log allowed xdddd)

Also, decorate your own lamp challenge C:

Of course we ended up getting the cultural exchange of the Ikea Bistro and some tasty vegan meatball sets :sob: :folded_hands:

And after Ikea, I got invited to play with their cats and to watch The Amazing Digital Circus together, which…

…it’s insane xddd
We binged the whole series in a single day and the episodes evolve so wildly compared to the early episodes and I can see why it’s become a cult classic and so many people love it xddd


The ending was said to be controversial, but I found it to be very intentionally structured this way and I enjoyed the bravery of the author of the series to tell that story, and the three of us were sitting around the bed and going like “AHH GOOD SHIT” xdd

They brought me back to the main train station and i took it back home from there
ahhh, having friends, what a concept C:

See you tomorrow!

July 11th, 2026


…I’m just assuming by the kanji alone that 虚脱感 (despondency) means “blackout level fatigue” xddd
I don’t think I ever saw this word in English, so learning something new :eyes:

Only one block of day 6 left, then opening up day 7!

Also, oh, how sweet of a grammar, to do something for another C:


WAIT NOT LIKE THIS-

this seems like it would be a perfect place to slot this grammar, but noo, of course it has to be a different one xdd


N1 grammar exercises on Bunpro are weird :sob:


Slice of life slash urban fantasy

So actually Nasuverse’s Fate/Stay Night is one of my favorite aesthetics just, period. I love the evening skies, cities, bridges, asphalt roads you can walk on, public buildings, things that make up a city - and I’ve realized that it’s not just confined to Japanese stories :eyes:

As I’ve said a while back, this 1000xRESIST game and walking through the protests of Hong Kong in the game made me seriously consider learning Chinese in the first place, and I absolutely adore Until Then, a different story set in the Philippines, that just talks about people living their lives in an environment that isn’t that far away from the one created by Fate/Stay Night ^^

Today though I’ve touched upon a Steam game that’s called Z.A.T.O // I Love the World and Everything In It and a few epiphanies I had playing this game were:

  • The author of this story is Belarussian, the game is set in USSR in 1986 and it’s very nostalgic to post-soviet states
  • …including Poland, because the woman behind the game is living in Poland right now
  • It’s also very intimate and does touch on that slice of life slash urban fantasy itch ^^
  • …also, that I read significantly faster in English than any other language and I’ll be upset about my reading speeds in other languages forever xdd

And I don’t know, I have been consuming almost exclusively western-sphere-of-influence and japanese games for a while, I’m genuinely feeling as if i am enjoying games more if I don’t know their environments and their backgrounds but i know the emotions and i learn the world through the association of the environments with specific emotions, so if anyone has any recommendations of urban fantasy slash slice of life stories, please shoot away!


Life

Queer picnic! Our Wednesday book club organized a get-together in a park today, and I was signed as one of the co-organizers ^^

Treptower Park is gigantic and today was a very picnicy day, especially compared to the recent rain xdd

And as it usually happens with those picnics, people ended up bringing way more food than ended up being eaten ^^

The main organizer predicted “at least 10 people” to show up, I shot for 18-ish, we ended up having almost 30 xddd

And it’s great having the ability to talk to people and we’ve definitely had some fun in the sun, including water gun gender wars, but man, I really started feeling the need for some me-time after the Chinese classes, so as soon as I left the picnic, I put in the headphones and didn’t take them out for the next few hours xddd

It’s been really fun though C:
I’m really happy we’ve made it into a success though and had a nice time ^^

See you tomorrow!